Chapter Forty-Four
Forty-Four
Sam turned in her seat to look back. “Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
“Was he alone?”
“I think so. I only saw one person in the front seat.”
“Miguel, listen, we just passed McBride on the highway in his friend’s truck.” She glanced around. “Where the hell are we?”
“Tell him we’re on Route 12.” Leanne watched the rearview mirror, waiting for the truck to disappear over a rise in the highway. When it did, she hit the brakes. “And tell him we’re now southbound.”
Leanne pulled a U-turn, slinging them around, as Sam braced her hand on the dashboard.
“Slow down! He’ll see you,” Sam said.
“No, he won’t.”
Leanne sped over the rise. Meachum’s truck was miles ahead, a distant pair of red taillights.
“Don’t let him notice you,” Sam said.
“I won’t.”
Sam went back and forth with Miguel and his team, but Leanne wasn’t listening. She was trying to figure out what McBride’s plan was.
Sam got off the phone. “He must have made one of the undercover agents in the bar and realized it was a setup.”
“I think it was me.”
Sam frowned at her. “Why? You were perfect.”
“I should have resisted more. Made him talk me into it.” She pounded her fist on the wheel. “Damn, I blew it.”
“Not yet.”
The F-150 made a sharp right turn, and Leanne fought the urge to tap the brakes. She maintained her speed as she watched the truck stop at a gate.
“Where’s he going?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know.”
Sam texted on her phone, and Leanne watched, not slowing, as the truck rolled through the gate. Leanne kept going, watching in the rearview mirror until the black pickup disappeared out of sight.
“Hold on,” Leanne muttered.
She pulled another U-turn, hoping McBride hadn’t noticed he was being followed.
“I’m looking at a map, but where are we? Nothing’s labeled,” Sam said.
“We’re at the back of a nature preserve.” Leanne neared the turnoff and slowed. “It used to be a cattle ranch, but now it’s public land. Forty-two hundred acres. This is the northernmost access road.”
“How do you know all that?”
“I just do.”
Leanne made a sharp turn and pulled up to the gate, which had a sign posted: Authorized Vehicles Only. No padlock, but there was a keypad mounted on a metal pole with a solar panel.
“Perfect,” Sam said. “Any chance you know the code, too?”
Leanne threw it in reverse and looked over her shoulder.
“What are you doing?”
“Hold on.”
“Leanne, what the—holy crap!”
She punched the gas and burst through the gate, sending it flying off its hinges with a loud pop!
“Are you crazy?”
She slowed and took a moment to get her bearings. It was a narrow dirt road, and there weren’t any lights or buildings visible at all, just flat scrub brush.
“Tell Miguel to hurry, okay? I think I know what he’s doing.”
Sam sent a message on her phone. “They’re on their way,” she said. “About ten minutes out.”
“They need to come faster.”
“What—”
“This property abuts Highway 67. From there it’s a straight shot to the Presidio border crossing.”
Sam gaped at her. “You really think he’d—”
“If he thinks he’s about to be arrested by the FBI? Hell, yes.”
Sam got on her phone as Leanne scanned the surrounding area.
No hint of headlights anywhere, and she tried to remember the topography of the place.
The east side sloped down to a dried-up creek bed, and there was a low-water bridge somewhere out here.
But Leanne hadn’t been here since the fall, when she’d helped a game warden with a poaching bust.
Leanne stopped and pulled up a map on her phone. She stared down at it, heart pounding, as she tried to put herself in McBride’s head.
He had to be desperate to try this. Which meant he’d figured out just how much trouble he was in.
Leanne switched off the headlights, then turned on just the yellow running lights. It was barely enough to see by, but she’d have to go with it.
She veered off the dirt road, and they bounced over the uneven terrain.
“Leanne, you’re scaring me.”
“Relax, we’re okay,” she said, trying to project confidence she didn’t feel. This meticulously planned operation was falling apart, all because of her.
Leanne’s palms felt slick on the steering wheel. This was a bad situation, and rapidly getting worse. McBride was armed and dangerous. And he knew that if he didn’t escape now, his life was about to becoming a living hell.
The truck pitched forward as they hit a dip, and Sam braced her hand on the dash again.
“Sorry.” Leanne looked at her. “Better hold on.”
Leanne drove as fast as she could without being able to see more than ten feet past the hood.
“Miguel’s texting for an update,” Sam said. “They’re five minutes out.”
“Tell him we’re cutting across the park, hoping to intercept him before he reaches the western access gate. Hold on!”
The truck lurched down, then back up again as they hit a ravine.
Leanne focused on driving. Sweat slid down her neck.
They bounced along over ruts and ridges as Leanne’s teeth clattered and Sam made little yelps from the passenger seat.
Leanne consulted her phone, and the blue beacon told her they were nearing the western edge of the property.
“Careful!”
Leanne swerved around a giant boulder that would have taken out her truck. “Sorry!”
She hit another rut, and then plowed over a few prickly pears. She swung around and slammed to a stop.
Leanne buzzed the windows down and switched off the running lights.
“Where are we?” Sam asked.
“Blocking the gate. Put your phone away.”
“But—”
“It’s making a glow. Put it away!”
Sam stuffed the phone into her pocket, and they sat still in the quiet hum of the idling truck engine.
“Should I—”
“Shh!” Leanne looked over her shoulder. “You hear that?”
“No.”
“Listen.”
A low rumble neared them, gradually getting louder.
“Where the hell is he? Why don’t I see any lights?”
“Crap!”
“What is it?” Sam asked.
“He’s running dark. I think he knows he was followed.”
The noise got louder and louder, until it was almost a roar. Still no lights.
“We have to get out,” Leanne yelled. “Now! Now! Now!”
They flung the doors open and dove from the pickup. Leanne hit the ground hard and log-rolled into something sharp.
A horn blared, then an earsplitting crash of metal on metal. The deafening screech echoed through her head as she tried to make out the wreckage in the darkness.
An interior light went on as McBride shoved open his door. He swatted away an airbag and stumbled out, cursing. The F-150 had T-boned her pickup.
McBride looked around, dazed, and Leanne could barely see him in the light spilling from the truck cab. He took a few staggering steps, then reached for the holster at his waist.
“FBI! Drop your weapon!” Sam’s voice came from the other side of the wreckage.
Leanne tripped to her feet, then went down on one knee as her ankle turned. “Shit!”
McBride took off running.
Leanne scrambled after him, yanking her gun from the holster as she tore through the brush. She grabbed the mini Maglite from her pocket and switched it on. The narrow beam barely penetrated the darkness, but she followed it, gasping for breath as she plowed through the scrub trees.
“Stop! FBI!”
Another beam lit up the dirt beside her, and she heard Sam rustling through the brush nearby.
Leanne tripped over a cactus and kept going. Something snagged her jacket, and she yanked it free.
The two white beams bobbled unevenly as they stumbled through the bushes. Leanne clutched her flashlight in one hand and her weapon in the other as she tried to navigate. Up ahead, she heard rhythmic panting, like a coyote loping through the woods. They were gaining on him.
A flash of blue caught her eye. Leanne sprinted ahead and made a leaping tackle.
They landed hard together. Her flashlight was knocked loose, but she managed to hang on to her gun. Her shoulder was on fire as she wrestled one-handed with the man beneath her.
“FBI! You’re under arrest!”
Suddenly it was two on one, wrestling in the dark, with Sam’s flashlight beam shining into the grass nearby. Sam managed to flip McBride onto his belly, and Leanne scrambled up and stomped on his wrist. He yowled in pain as she grabbed his loose pistol.
“Cover me,” Sam yelled, yanking out a pair of handcuffs.
Leanne stepped back and aimed her weapon at McBride as he squinted up at her with his face in the dirt.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Sam slapped on the handcuffs. “You’re under arrest.”
“You crazy bitch! Do you know who I am?”
Leanne stared down at the dusty, spitting man. The sleeve of his jacket was torn, and the ear of a prickly pear cactus clung to his back.
Sirens sounded faintly in the distance. Leanne lowered her gun and stepped back, gasping for breath.
She’d just arrested the chief of police.
He rolled onto his side, away from her, cursing and squirming as the sirens drew nearer.
Still panting, Leanne holstered her pistol and stepped back, eyes glued to McBride as the sirens wailed and the diesel engines got closer.
Then lights were everywhere, making everything bright white as SUVs thundered up to the scene.
Agents jumped out, weapons drawn, and rushed over.
Leanne unhooked her badge and lifted it into the air as agents swarmed around her. Over the chaos, Sam made eye contact.
“Leanne!”
She turned around to see Miguel striding toward her, radio in hand.
“You’re bleeding,” he said.
Leanne looked herself over. Something warm trickled down her cheek and she touched her chin.
“You okay?” Miguel beamed a flashlight into her face, and she blinked down at her bloody fingers.
“I have no idea.”