Nobody was there.
“Where did he go?” She sent Jarek a quick glance. “He was behind that tree, but now he’s gone.”
“That’s it. We’re leaving.” Jarek swept the computer under his arm and headed for the front door. “We’ll make a run for the car.”
She didn’t want to leave; she wanted to grab this guy and force him to talk! She knew she hadn’t imagined the gunman. Had he come to surveil the area? And if so, how had he known the location of their rental house?
After one last look around the backyard, she darted across the room to join Jarek. He waited near the door. When she joined him, he peeked out. After a long second, he pushed the door open and headed outside.
While Jarek headed for the rental car, she turned to cover their six, sweeping her weapon from one side of the house to another. Seeing nothing was frustrating. She walked backward, then turned at the last minute to duck into the vehicle.
They were backing out of the driveway when she saw the man racing toward them from the far side of the yard. His weapon was up and pointed at them. She lowered her window, hoping to return fire, but Jarek cranked the wheel and hit the gas. They sped down the street before the gunman could get a shot off.
“Did you get a good look at him?” Jarek demanded.
“No.” She twisted in her seat to look behind them, making sure he wasn’t following. “He must have had second thoughts about firing at us in broad daylight.”
“Small blessings,” Jarek muttered. “The real question is how he located us at the rental house.”
“I don’t like it either.” She was about to suggest they might have been followed from the café shooting, when she remembered her conversation with Ray Bond. Without taking the time to think it through, she dug her phone from her pocket and tossed it out onto the side of the road. They were going fast enough that she could hear the device shatter under the impact.
“Why did you do that?” Jarek frowned, then understanding dawned. “You believe the narcotics officers are involved?”
“That would explain a few things, don’t you agree?” She stared out her window, feeling sick. She didn’t know Ray or Jeff very well. Other than Ray as a flirt. Jeff had never expressed interest, and maybe that meant he was hiding something. The two cops had helped her arrest Terance Warren, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t worked out a deal with Pablo Hernandez. After all, she was the one who’d provided irrefutable evidence of his crimes. They couldn’t very well ignore her.
But they could conspire to get rid of her.
“I don’t know about that,” Jarek protested.
“We can’t afford to make a mistake.” She shifted in her seat to face him. “We need to ditch the rental car and get rid of your phone too.”
Jarek let out a frustrated sigh, but then slowly nodded. “Fine.”
She held out her hand. When he dropped his phone into her palm, she tossed that out of the car window too. Then she raised the window and began looking for an area to leave the car.
Things were going from bad to worse, and she was very much afraid they wouldn’t get better anytime soon.
Jarek had only gotten a glimpse of the gunman in his rearview mirror as he peeled away from the rental property. His impression was a male with tan skin, possible Hispanic, of average height and wearing black.
Not enough to issue a BOLO.
He didn’t want to believe the narcotics officers were involved, yet there was no denying the timing was suspicious. He wove through the city toward the riverfront. There were some public parking places there that would help hide the rental.
“Maybe you should drop me off someplace,” Di said, breaking the silence. “This is escalating out of control. There’s no reason for you to keep risking your life to get to the bottom of this.”
“I risk my life every day for people I don’t know.” He tried not to snap at her, but it wasn’t easy. He was still eating the humble pie from prying into her background earlier, so he managed to hold on to his temper. “We must be getting close to uncovering the truth. It’s better we stick together.”
She sighed loudly but dropped the argument. He pulled into the parking lot and killed the engine. “We’ll have to go on foot from here.” A wry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You could have waited to smash our phones to smithereens until after we used a rideshare app to get another rental.”
“I don’t mind walking.” She eyed him curiously. “This is nothing. We hiked dozens of miles back in Afghanistan.”
“True.” He wasn’t really complaining. His goal was to lighten things up. That she hadn’t snapped back was a good sign. He missed the easy camaraderie they’d shared. Too late to wish now that he hadn’t dug into her background. Glancing toward the riverfront, he spotted a small boat rental sign. “Maybe we try an alternate method of transportation.”
She followed his gaze and grinned. “I like that plan.”
“Let’s take the laptop and our duffel bags, just in case.” He tucked the device into the duffel, then slung it over his shoulder. She did the same. He caught her hand. When she turned to arch a brow, he shrugged. “Two people out on a date looking to take a boat ride.”
“Yeah. Sure.” Her voice sounded a bit uncertain, but she continued holding his hand as they made their way down to the waterfront. He might have wished the hand-holding was for real but decided to be grateful for the warmth of her palm against his. Bringing duffel bags was a little unusual, but they could pretend to have swimming gear.
