Chapter Twenty-Three
O ne hand holding his cell phone, his eyes darting between the rearview mirror and the road, Talon took a corner going double the speed limit before glancing at his phone again. “Goddamn it.”
My heart in my throat, one hand gripping the handlebar above my window, the other holding on to my seat belt, I forced a response out. “What?”
Talon frowned as he glanced at the side mirror. “No signal.”
Oh God. “But we’re in the middle of downtown.”
He didn’t respond. Straddling the lane marker, he gunned it as he wove between two cars.
Dread threatened to choke me. “How is that possible?” Downtown Miami was not a cell phone dead spot.
Talon tipped his chin at the GPS display on the dashboard. The map, not moving, was static. “No GPS either.”
I swallowed past the brick in my throat. “How is that possible?”
“Signal jammer.” Cutting across two lanes, he took a turn at the last moment.
I dared a glance behind us. “What’s that?”
“Nothin’ legal.”
The same gray van that had been following us ever since it had screeched out of a parking lot across the street from Sawyer’s condo made the same turn. Right after the van, a black Escalade also made the turn. “They’re still there.”
“On it.” He took another last-minute turn. “We’re gonna have a little fun. You ready?”
I didn’t have time to respond.
Talon gunned his Challenger, and the engine roared as he turned down a one-way street going the wrong direction.
A delivery truck slammed on his brakes and veered.
“Watch out!” I screamed.
Horns blared and tires screeched as Talon expertly whipped the car around the truck and gunned it down the breakdown lane, barely avoiding more cars behind the truck. “Nothin’ doin’, nothin’ doin’,” he murmured cutting across two lanes when there was a break in oncoming cars.
My heart slamming into my ribs, I fought for a breath. “That wasn’t nothing,” I accused.
Half his mouth tipped up. “If the stakes ain’t high, you ain’t livin’.” Jumping a curb, he spun the Challenger and braked at the same time. The car slid to a stop on the side of the road, and Talon turned in his seat, looking behind us.
My hand went to my chest. “I think I prefer no stakes.” My life included.
His half smile amped up into a grin. “Lost ’em.” He spun the car around and got back on the surface streets, thankfully going the right direction in the right lane.
I looked in the side mirror. No van, but no SUV either. “The Luna and Associates guy is gone too.”
“Cost of doin’ business.” Talon glanced at his cell phone. “One bar of signal. Let’s see if this works.” He dialed and held the phone to his ear as he glanced in the rearview mirror. “Hey, you home?” he asked whoever answered. “Good, ’cause I’m dragging strays and I need somewhere to land….” He pulled the phone away from his ear. “ Shit .” He spun the wheel hard and did a U- turn as he floored it, tossing the phone onto the center console. “Here we go again, darlin’. Hold on.”
I looked behind us as the gray van came barreling around a corner and then gunned it. To my horror, they gained on us and pulled up almost alongside the Challenger on my side. “Talon…,” I drew out, my voice wavering.
“I see ’em, I see ’em.” Except he didn’t speed up. Talon’s foot came off the pedal.
“What are you doing?” Panicked, I pushed on his thigh that was solid muscle. “Go, go, go!”
His glare fixated out my window, he didn’t budge.
The car slowed marginally, but my panic amped up considerably as they came up level with us. “Talon!”
“Hold on, darlin’,” he answered absently, his eyes narrowing. “Testin’ a theory.”
I dared to look at the van, but the windows were tinted completely out and I couldn’t see a thing.
Then the van did the last thing I expected.
It slowed down and fell in behind us.
“Gotta admit, darlin’…,” Talon glanced in the rearview mirror. “That I was not expectin’.”
Which part? Them not ramming into us like in the movies, or the window not going down and a man with a giant gun firing at us? Both? I didn’t know, and I didn’t ask. It didn’t matter. Bad guys were still after us, which I should’ve thought about before I left Sawyer’s, because not only had Sawyer warned me, his friend André Luna had warned me. Not to mention there was a guard outside Sawyer’s condo around the clock, they still hadn’t found the stolen Escalade, and André had said until they did, I wouldn’t be out of danger.
I cursed myself again for pulling that carjacker’s face mask off. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Talon asked absently, taking another corner too fast and cutting west. “You chasin’ our tail?”
I should’ve been terrified. And I was. But in the cocoon of Sawyer’s friend’s car, with the scent of beach and coconuts surrounding us and the van falling back, it was hard to feel like any of this was real. “They’d really kill me just for pulling off some guy’s ski mask?”
Adjusting the gun he’d taken from his back waistband and shoved between his thighs the second the van had pulled up behind us, Talon spared me a glance. “Darlin’, they’d kill for a lot less.”
I held the Oh Jesus handle, but I leaned my head back. “I didn’t even see him.” Not really.
Talon frowned, turning toward one of the county roads that led us even farther away from Miami proper. “You sure ’bout that?”
No. “Yes.” I glanced behind us. The van was holding steady, and the black Escalade had found us again, because it was behind the van. “Can’t you drive any faster?”
Talon chuckled. “My kinda girl.” He winked then he sobered. “I can, but I’m not aimin’ to outrun them anymore.”
Alarm spread. “You aren’t?”
“Nope,” he said almost cheerfully, checking his rearview mirror. “I got ’em right where I want ’em.”
Oh God. Did I want to know? “Where’s that?”
Speeding down the county road faster than he should, but not as fast as he had been, the night settled around us as Talon Talerco took his eyes off the road.
For one whole heartbeat, he held my gaze. Then he spoke with lethal intent. “Within my sights.”