Chapter 6 #2
Rubin explained, “I was trying to relax and rest, but the reality is, we really can’t.
We’ll eat fast, and then we’ll leave. We’ll pick up some fresh muffins and a few sandwiches they’ve made, and we’ll grab coffees to-go,” he told her.
“There’s also a bunch of candy up there, if you see anything else you want. ”
She contemplated the array for a moment. “Since I’m full, this is a good time to ask,” she muttered, “because I really couldn’t care less right now.”
He went to pay the bill and added several candy bars and a few other items. Maybe gum, pepperoni sticks, that sort of thing. She realized he was just stocking up in case they didn’t have a chance to grab much food after this.
With that in mind, she reached for several chocolate bars and placed them on the counter, along with some granola bars and power bars. He nodded and paid for that too. She carried her hoard in the hoodie pouch, as she walked back to the car with him.
“Keep your eyes straight,” he whispered.
“Why?” she asked, keeping her eyes ahead.
“A car is coming up on the side, and we don’t know whether it has anything to do with us or not, but he’s assessing you very, very closely.”
“That’s not what a girl in my position wants to hear,” she muttered.
“No, it sure isn’t,” he agreed, “but let’s get in the car, and we’ll see what he does.”
She quickly scrambled into the back, half expecting him to say, “We’re going.”
When he literally did say that, she was still startled. He grabbed her hand and now dragged her out the other side of the car. “Keep your head down. They’re making a move. On the surface it looks as if they’re getting coffee, but they’re keeping an eye on us.”
“Okay,” she muttered. “And what are we doing?”
“We’ll at least make a look as if we’re sitting here in the car,” he shared, with half a smile, “but the reality is, we’ll be taking that vehicle.” He pointed to one off to the side of them, but it was out of the line of sight for the suspicious people.
Hayden was already in the driver’s seat, and they quickly made the switch, staying low to the ground so that nobody could see what they were doing. And before she had a chance to process what was happening, they were already heading down the road again.
“That was pretty smooth,” she murmured.
“Yeah, and that’s why we have Trent sticking close, and the rest of our team not far away,” Rubin explained. “You can never have enough backup when the shit starts to fly.”
“I was hoping that we wouldn’t hit the shit-flying stage,” she mumbled in a poor attempt at humor.
Hayden laughed. “She’s got jokes. I like it.”
“I’m glad you do, but do you realize we left a ton of food back there in the car?” she murmured, trying to not check behind to see if they were being followed. “Not a whole lot is funny right now because it doesn’t seem as if we can do a whole lot right now. Those people are already on our heels.”
“We’re doing everything we can to evade them,” Rubin noted.
“But they’ll be on to us very quickly,” Hayden clarified, “which is why I’m looking up a new route. Hold tight when we start taking a couple rough corners.”
Sure enough, without any further warning, first came a sharp right, a sharp left, and then a couple more rights.
Tricia asked, “Do you have any idea where you’re going, or are we just trying to shake them loose and come up behind them?”
“Coming up behind them is not a bad idea,” he acknowledged, with a chuckle. “Sounds as if you watch detective shows.”
“Ha. It’s what I would do if I were out here alone.
” Hearing that, Rubin smirked as she went on.
“I don’t want anybody tracking me or coming up behind me.
It’s always the coming up behind me that scares the crap out of me.
When things go boo in the night,” she muttered, “it’s not exactly a sensation I want to remember. ”
The vehicle settled into what seemed to be a reasonable straight stretch and then took another series of turns.
She watched as they passed through villages and small towns, realizing that they were taking some back route.
She had no idea where they were going and, for the most part, didn’t care, as long as it was away from the men who appeared to have been following them.
And yet she had thought they were moving forward to something a whole lot safer.
When she got tired again and needed another bathroom break, they pulled up to the nearest gas station where they fueled up again, always topping off the tank, literally a reflex for them, just always making sure that, if they could, they did.
Same as emptying bladders. Everybody went to the bathroom, and, next thing she knew, they were all back out and ready to go again, this time without having purchased anything from the tiny shop.
“I guess it’s a big expectation to find good coffee around here, huh?”
The men just shrugged, and she realized that, for them, it wasn’t even on their radar.
She didn’t know how they managed to keep going without any sustenance.
They were so focused on doing what they needed to do, so guarded that—as much as she appreciated their efforts on her behalf—it was freaking eerie to just be around them all the time.
When she sat back again with a heavy sigh, Hayden asked, “What’s that sigh for?”
She winced. “Sorry. I have no reason to complain, do I?”
“Not exactly what you expected today would be, right?”
“Right. … I was looking forward to a couple days just staying in my apartment—not doing anything and having this shit all over with.”
Hayden snorted and chuckled.
“Instead, now it appears we’re trying to evade the people following us.
Just knowing they are still after me is unnerving.
” The men glanced at her, and she winced.
She knew that look they were giving her, as if she were a na?ve little thing who they needed to protect. “Look. They found us the first time …”
Rubin stared at her for a moment and nodded.
“Meaning there must be a reason how and why, and, therefore, they would probably make good on finding us a second time. We checked for trackers on you and in our car. Trent has already checked his vehicle too. Still, the bad guys obviously have something going on to find us, and that was one of the questions that we’ve had discussions on. ”
“And disagreed on—lots of times,” Hayden pointed out.
She asked, “Did you check Rick’s phone? They might be tracking Double Chin’s phone.”
“We did, and we did bring it with us,” Rubin confirmed, pulling it from his pocket, and throwing it onto the seat beside him.
“Then maybe you should consider just tossing it,” she suggested, “just to ensure that they don’t have something in there, some tech something you guys don’t know about.”
Rubin glanced over at Hayden, who glanced back, and then shrugged. “She’s got a point.” He opened the window, and, when they went around a corner with a small ravine and a lake, he tossed it as far as he could. “There,” Rubin said. “Feel better now?”
“Yes,” she replied, as she watched it disappear.
“I do.” She took a moment to collect her thoughts.
“Just because we have tech doesn’t mean they don’t have tech too, and just because we always assume that we have the best of everything doesn’t mean we do,” she shared.
“So, just one more thing that makes me feel better, and I appreciate it.”
He smiled. “Anything that makes you feel better in these circumstances, I am all for.”
“And he means that,” Hayden confirmed, with a wink.
“Shut it,” Rubin snapped to Hayden and then turned back to her. “You don’t need to apologize for being unnerved by everything going on around you,” he explained. “Crap will always be happening. We just try to minimize the crap actually hitting us.”
She burst out laughing at that. “That’s a good way to look at it. Thanks for that.” She gave him a smile. “Anyway, are we getting somewhere today and stopping for the night or will we just keep running?”
“Probably just keep driving down the road,” Hayden said cheerfully.
She rolled her eyes and muttered, “You got jokes.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “And you’re starting to relax again and to loosen up.”
“It’s probably a mistake,” she muttered, “because those assholes could be anywhere. Yet I am starting to feel better. Maybe it’s just the fact that they haven’t found us yet, and it’s starting to feel a little bit more like maybe they won’t.”
“It was good thinking on your part though,” Rubin pointed out, “whether they have tech like we have or not is a consideration for sure. And, if it isn’t giving us anything, no point in keeping it. We planned to take Rick’s burner phone back and hack it.”
“I took out the SIM card,” Oakley admitted. “So, that’ll be as much as we need anyway. And she could be right. They got a hold of her schedule somehow and got onto a private college’s campus and grabbed her and two others.”
She clarified, “It may be a private university, but not much security is there. I was coming back from a concert on campus, and I came around a corner and boom, there they were.”
Oakley groaned. “So somehow, on that private university campus, they managed to get in anyway.”
“Honestly,” Rubin noted, “if their security is lax, it wouldn’t take a whole lot to get into a dorm building or a student hall, much less on the campus itself.”
“He’s right,” Tricia confirmed. “As I mentioned already, it’s a university, not exactly Fort Knox.”
Hayden gave them a look. “It wasn’t exactly Fort Knox in terms of security because not exactly roomfuls of gold need to be worried about.”
“Very true,” Rubin agreed, with a smile. “Except that, in some cases, a lot of people would say their daughters are everything and worth way more than gold.”
“And I love that sentimentality,” Tricia muttered. “Honestly, it sounds good to me, even though it may not represent my personal situation.”