Chapter 12 #3
“Zee, there’s a great chance they know exactly where we’re headed. We can change the plan.” He pointed to the parking lot exit. “Put this town behind us. Get some distance. Lay it all out for the cops when we’re clear.”
She was so close she could taste it. A name . . . one tiny little name. “I have to.”
“No, you don’t.”
“You don’t get it, Gid.”
“I do. I lost Aaron too. So did your parents. What about them?”
“They’ll understand.”
He fisted his hands on his hips. “They lost both their children when Aaron died.”
Mackenzie jerked. “What?”
“When he died, you might as well have too.”
She recoiled from the lack of emotion, the flat hopelessness in his tone. Anger flashed like a lit match. “Does that make you feel better? Judging me for how I’ve handled myself since my brother’s murder?”
“No, but it’s true. You stopped living your own life after the murder, and you rechanneled everything into revenge. It twisted and changed you. You don’t allow yourself to receive love or give it. You’re just living to destroy Bullseye, and that’s not really living, is it?”
“No one else can do it, Gideon. If they could, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Wouldn’t you? Kind of your identity now, isn’t it? Crusader? The only one who can get justice. Never mind the law enforcement departments who are designed for this. Only you, right?”
“I’m the best shot. And I’m almost to the finish line.”
“What if you fail? Or you don’t even get the chance to confront him? Are you going to spend the rest of whatever life you’ve been given hating yourself because you couldn’t do it?”
She hadn’t allowed herself to consider the stretch of road beyond her destination. “I don’t know.”
“What if it costs you everything to succeed? Your life. That’s worth the price? For you . . . and your parents?”
Tears burned. At that moment, she despised Gideon, could hardly keep herself from lashing out at him with balled fists. “You don’t get to talk about my family, my choices, anything.”
“I don’t recognize you anymore, Zee.” He paused and added softly, “Do you?”
The comment took the breath from her.
“The Mackenzie I knew was a giggler, a crier, a dancer. When was the last time you did any of those things?”
“You’ve made your thoughts clear, Gideon. Just drop me at the edge of town, okay?”
Her reflection in the window glass as she stared at the Jeep was unrecognizable. She didn’t know the hard-eyed, gaunt face that looked back at her. She did not know herself. She only knew the ache of an empty space inside that threatened to gobble everything, her personality, her heart, her soul.
Was that the price for punishing her brother’s killer? To lose herself too?
And was she willing to pay it?
After an endless pause, he shook his head. “I’m going to call my brother. He—”
She grabbed his arm as a truck appeared on the road. Not Jerry and Al, she didn’t think, but not loaded down like the evacuees either.
Trouble or not, she couldn’t tell, but they hustled into the Jeep, and pulled out onto the road before weaving themselves into the line of traffic.
Two lanes allowed them to pass a station wagon and a four-door sedan. Mackenzie strained to get a look at the driver behind them in the truck.
“Do you recognize them?” Gideon asked.
“No. I can’t make out who’s behind the wheel.”
Gideon edged around a camper full of people. The driver shouted something at him about being patient, but he kept on, providing a gap between them and their pursuer. He repeated the maneuver until they had several cars as a buffer.
Mackenzie stared in the side mirror. It was possible they’d lost the pursuer, but with the slow speed of traffic they wouldn’t be able to outdistance them easily. Another plan was needed.
“There.” Mackenzie pointed to a lot filled with forklifts and backhoes. Gideon turned off and skirted the nearest piece of large machinery. Mackenzie grabbed her binoculars and held her breath. A couple minutes later and the ruse worked. The truck continued on, oblivious to their hiding spot.
As it passed, she brought the driver into focus through the lenses and caught a flash of long dark hair, a delicate profile. It was the woman from the stables, scanning back and forth in search of the Jeep.
“It’s Cordelia,” she said in surprise. “Kevin said she urged him to find us. I wasn’t sure he was telling us the truth.”
Gideon rubbed his chin. “She could be in Bullseye’s pocket just as much as Kevin.
More. Or he’s threatened her too, in some way.
We don’t know anything about her except that she was angry at the intrusion to her stables.
With Bullseye’s killers and Kevin out to get us, seems pointless for her to add herself to the mix, though. ”
Unless she has ulterior motives. Mackenzie considered the anonymous phone call she’d gotten as they hid from the helicopter. “Trust me.”
“Friend or enemy?” Exactly the question they had about everyone in town. Kevin had turned out to be acting for Bullseye, and Rodriquez indicated some of the police could be too.
“Some locals might seem cordial, but no one’s our friend in this town,” Gideon said, brows knit. He turned to her, and she could see his thoughts as clearly as if they were ink on a page.
“Clerk said the airstrip’s still open. I’m going,” she said.
The rest was unspoken. But you don’t have to. Leave me, she pleaded silently. Deep inside, she was terrified he actually would depart. At what moment had she come to rely on him? To trust him?
Without a word, he put the Jeep in gear and rolled out into the stream of traffic where they would stay until they reached the turnoff to the airstrip. After everything, he was still choosing to stay by her side.
She twisted her hair into a neater ponytail and shoved it under her cap. Cordelia. Kevin. Jerry. Al. The redheaded guy at the Jeep. Cops. So many people might be caught in Bullseye’s web.
When Bullseye fell, so would they.
In between sips of the coffee she was trying to make last, she began to tap notes into her phone.
Gideon’s mouth tightened, but he didn’t say a word.
Every last fact she could gather would be uploaded, and eventually one of two things would happen.
She’d produce the podcast that would expose Bullseye to the world.
Or she’d die and the file would be delivered to the police.
The cops would have to start from scratch, using her information as a diving-off point to secure their own, which would take time.
Her way, he’d be exposed immediately, his mask ripped off, his operations sent skittering off track. Lives saved, perhaps.
The taste would be sweet, satisfying, and worth every risk.
To you, Mackenzie. But what about Gideon?
She watched him drive, the concentration evident in his tense shoulders, the pursing of his lips. If he paid for her choices? What then? More guilt to add, like the pile she already felt because she hadn’t recognized what her brother was doing?
But it would be more than guilt if Gideon was lost.
She wondered suddenly how Aaron’s girlfriend, Leah, had felt about his murder. Mackenzie hadn’t enough to go on to find her, no contact info or even a last name. Did Leah wonder what happened to Aaron? Or had she decided he’d ghosted her?
Gideon drove on, his mouth in a grim line.
She wouldn’t let Gideon get hurt—but with the enemies piling up, how could she protect him?
Cordelia’s dark hair and flashing eyes popped into her mind.
It was strange that a woman would insert herself into a deadly cross fire, unless Bullseye had a hold over her too.
Her heart squeezed until the pulse pounded in her throat. It was too much. Enemies everywhere. No one to trust.
Gideon stared grimly at the road.
No one but the person who was facing death because of her.