44. Shane
44
SHANE
W e were an hour on the road when we met up with Stripes. He was waiting on the side of the road, so we pulled over. All of us. He stood up, heading over to me, but looked at the rest. “Some of the guys stayed back?”
“They had some guys to handle.”
He gave a slow nod, his eyes flicking to Boise. Neither of us got off our bikes. This was a quick meet and we were heading off again.
“I was in contact with our computer guys, and they found ’em. They think she’s sticking to back roads, staying away from any street cameras, which is smart. That’s good for us. They’ve got a head start, but we can go interstate, get past them, and move to intercept. Their last spotting was in Arizona.”
I cursed under my breath because we were so behind. “Let’s get going.”
Stripes dipped his head down, and went back to his bike.
After that, we rode.
We rode fast.
My phone started vibrating not long after, and I grabbed it up, but then immediately pulled over. I hadn’t saved her new number, but that was Kali. I knew it.
As soon as my bike was parked, I turned off the engine and hopped off, running ahead so I could hear better. “Kali?”
I couldn’t hear.
The other guys’ bikes were taking too long to shut off, so I sprinted farther but I pressed that phone as close to my ear as I could get, plugging my other ear. After a few more seconds, all the engines cut out behind me, and I was able to figure out what I was hearing from her end.
“…a game? I Spy?”
That was Kali, her voice sounded coming from a distance. I could hear movement on her end, static. They were driving. She’d turned her phone on, though. That was good, so good.
Hearing gravel from behind, I lifted my head. The guys had come over, all quiet so I hit it on speaker and held it out. As soon as I did, Stripes was on his phone. He’d be calling the computer guys, trying to locate her phone. We would need to ride, but while she was on the phone, we had a line open. The computer guys would move on somehow keeping her on the line, but also letting us ride. Until then, we were waiting and listening.
And I felt like pissing myself because Kali was alive and she was thinking. She was planning.
That was my woman. I was damn proud of her.
Shelly was saying something, but I couldn’t make out her words.
Kali, “What town did we just leave? Was that Kingman?”
More from Shelly. Her words were jumbled, but her tone was sharp. Tired. She was going to lose it on Kali if she kept pushing.
Stripes came back. “They got her phone, and they got Shelly’s car. There’s an iPad in the back that they were able to trace so if we lose Kali’s line, don’t matter. We still got her.”
“We need to ride, but I can’t hang up.”
“Yeah. They’re working on that too.” He held up a finger, moving back and listening to his phone again.
“...should’ve grabbed coffee. Can we stop in the next town?”
Shelly snapped back at her.
“I know. I want to get there ahead of them too, but I need some caffeine. I’m going to wipe out before we stop them. Did you want me to help drive?”
‘Ahead of them?’ ‘Stop them?’ And she’s offering to drive, so Shelly got inventive with how she got Kali to leave with her. And Kali being Kali, started getting other thoughts and turned her phone on. Whatever the lie was, it must’ve been believable to get her to turn her phone off in the beginning.
But Shelly never took the phone. That would’ve really alarmed Kali, which meant Shelly was operating in a cooperative phase, meaning she was coercing Kali to be cooperative. I didn’t want to find out what Shelly would do if Kali stopped being cooperative.
“We gotta go.”
Stripes was coming back. “Give that to me.” He took my phone and began working on it. At the same time, he was speaking into his own phone, “Got it. Now what?” Then he went to work.
Boise motioned for me to step aside.
We did. Machete and Roadie came with us.
“We’re not going to get there in time, so if they just left Kingman, that means Shelly is doing back roads, but she’s still trying to keep to as straight a shot as possible. We have the Flagstaff charter. We can loop them in, ask them to intercept until we get there.”
I was already nodding because I was thinking the same thing. “Let’s do it. Make the call. Roanoke’s a good guy. He’ll try to help if he can. His whole charter is good.”
Boise was on it, stepping toward his bike with his phone out.
Roadie and Machete moved in, but I was looking at Machete’s bike.
I asked him, “How’s she doing?”
Both turned to where I was watching where Claudia was sitting.
She remained on the back of his bike, and she was just watching us right back. No look. No defiance. No attitude. She didn’t look like she was sulking, sad, or had any pep to her. After she reunited with Machete, I hadn’t given her much thought, but when he said he wanted to bring her, I hadn’t cared. I only replied, “Just as long as she doesn’t slow us down.”
“She loves her sister too. I think if we slowed down for her, she’d take a gun to all of us.”
Then that had been just fine with me.
Machete answered now, rubbing a hand over his jaw, “They didn’t touch her, but they took her. Said they killed her sister. That made a mark on her, even if it’s in the head. It’ll always be there.”
Our life, what we do for a living, how we do it–sometimes there would be collateral damage. That happened to his woman. My own was in a fight of her own right now, and after all of this, the whole reason both got pulled in hadn’t happened. But it would, and when it did, that’d be another mark on both of them. They just didn’t know it.
I glanced to Machete and saw his eyes were on me. They were haunted, and I had a thought, wondering if he was thinking the same thing as me.
He was when he said, “We gotta do it a different way.”
My gut clenched. “There isn’t. He told us himself.”
“There has to be. Both of them–”
“I know, but…” I couldn’t finish, because first, I needed to get Kali back. If I didn’t… I couldn’t finish that thought either.
We just had to get her back. Period. There was no other way out of this.
“Okay.” Stripes came back, bringing my phone with him. He handed it over and showed me his screen. “So, the guys have her call linked in and this is for you.” He handed over an ear piece. “Put that in your ear, and you can black out your phone. I put the call to a collective line so if you lose the connection, we’ll still have it from their end.” He waved his phone so I was guessing he meant the computer team. “They’re tracking her and they’re able to guess the route she’ll go, you know, since it’s not such a straight shot if she’s taking back roads.”
Boise came back, putting his phone away. “Looped in Roanoke. He’s on board and he’s putting the call out to his guys.” He said to Stripes, “Since you’re the Tech Contact right now, can you tell the computer guys to loop in Roanoke on their end. They’ll probably be able to intercept before we even get to Arizona.”
I didn’t like it. I didn’t like that another charter would get to Kali first. On that meet, so many things could go wrong. If she didn’t trust them? If Shelly had a gun? But it was better than anything right now.
“Oh.” Stripes’ tone got all our attention, and he was listening to his phone. His gaze went to mine and he didn’t look away, not one time until he lowered the phone. Things were already serious, but I had a fucking feeling things were going to get a whole lot more serious with whatever he was just told. “They hacked Shelly’s phone. They know why she’s doing what she’s doing, and they know where she’s taking Kali.”
I turned to him slowly and squarely. “You gonna fill me in, or are we playing I Don’t Have the Patience to Read Your Fucking Mind?”
He didn’t blink before he said, “They took her daughter. Estrada didn’t send two teams up. He sent three. Shelly’s supposed to deliver Kali to a location or they’re going to kill Katie.”
I was right.
Things just got way worse.
“Let’s go.”
At this rate, there was nothing more I could do so I did what I could do.
Stay alive, Kali.