“Look, Director Boudreaux, once again I’m sorry about what happened this weekend,” she said. “I’ll send what we found in a report as soon as I get back to Obsidian, but I think you already know where you need to tighten up your security.”
“You keep your report. And stay out of my casino.”
And then the call ended.
“Well, he won’t be hiring us again,” she said with a sigh as she set the phone in the center console. She turned to Bobby, placing her back against the door. “You think what Blaze did caused them to leave the casino?”
He nodded. “It’s quick, but then again, they’d have people monitoring your names now, I’m sure. Stands to reason they’re on their way to Savannah as well.”
Bobby’s phone pinged, and she watched as he glanced at it before dropping it back into his lap.
“Everything all right?” she asked.
He smiled over at her. “Just Dane checking in. Blaze filled him in on the plan.”
“What does he think?”
“Dane?” Bobby shrugged, focusing back on the road ahead. “He thinks you’ve got guts. He’s not one to tell people they shouldn’t do what they feel they need to do.”
“And what do you think?” He had said he supported her, but that differed from agreeing with her.
He glanced over at her, his expression softening. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
“That’s not an answer. Do you think I’m being reckless… stupid?”
He shook his head. “Not at all. You have a solid plan and the right people behind you to make it work. Looks to me like you’ve got everything in place.”
“That still doesn’t answer the question.”
He glanced over at her again, reaching out and taking her hand in his, clasping it. “Taking your life back is never a terrible choice. Never stupid. You can’t live your life in fear. Ever. But you also can’t risk it for no reason. I don’t think that’s what you’re doing. You seem to have it all under control. And like I said, between the marshal and my team, you have the people behind you to get it done and come out the other side safely.”
She nodded as she glanced back out the windshield, her heart hammering in her chest. It wasn’t fear making it race, but rather the knowing that the bad guys were coming. As soon as Blaze had hit the button, bringing Julia Moretti back to life, they knew, the Serranos knew, and they were sending their men to take her and get what information they could out of her.
She leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes for a moment, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth. She clasped her hands together, resting them in her lap as she tried to steady her nerves. Now that everything was done, and they were in the SUV heading to Savannah, there wasn’t anything else for her to do but wait. Suddenly, the adrenaline had nowhere to go.
Bobby squeezed her hand once more, drawing her attention to him as she opened her eyes. “You all right?”
She smiled at him, pushing her head back into the seat. “I am, actually.” And it surprised her she meant it. What she had set into motion should scare the hell out of her, but she wasn’t.Not at all. And it was because she was no longer running. No longer looking over her shoulder.
The highway unfurled ahead of them in long, gray stretches, the late afternoon sun lowering behind scattered clouds, throwing thin gold light across the marshland. The trees blurred past her window, mile markers slipping by in steady increments that felt both too slow and too fast at the same time.
She swallowed and turned her attention back to Bobby. “How do you think they’ll do it?” she asked, breaking the silence that had stretched too long between them. “Come for me, that is.”
Bobby didn’t look at her immediately, keeping his eyes on the road, his posture relaxed. One hand rested high on the steering wheel, the other loose but ready near the gearshift. “They’re too far away to do anything before we hit Savannah. So we’re safe for now.”
Her fingers tightened against her thigh. “That wasn’t what I meant.”
He glanced over at her then, brief but assessing. “They’re not hunting you for sport. You knew that, though. They want something.”
She nodded. “Access to my mother.”
He didn’t deny it. “They want leverage against her, and you’re the leverage.”
She stared out the windshield, the word leverage bouncing around in her head.
She hadn’t thought that part all the way through. If this went wrong and they got a hold of her, she would put her mother at risk. Her entire family, for that matter. Anna and the kids as well.
He squeezed her hand once more. “They’ll test the leak first before they do anything. See if it’s real, if it leads somewhere solid. They’ll have to make sure it’s not a trap, but don’t worry,Blaze is damn good at what he does. Even if he’s rather on the young side.”
