Page 18 of Laura's Truth
He swore. “Figure out something.” A muscle twitched in his jaw. “I’m not leaving until I trap this traitor.”
She believed him. At least about the not leaving part. “My cash is limited and my credit card and ID have my real name. I assume the same is true for you?”
“Basically. You didn’t come prepared for a field op?”
Another basic error on her part. “I came down as a favor to a friend. I didn’t expect you to be, well, you.”
“Today, I really wish I wasn’t.”
“But you were prepared. What’s wrong with returning to the B&B where you’re staying?”
He slammed his fist into the steering wheel. “You!”
Laura jumped. She’d felt safer when he had a knife to her throat. Doing eighty miles per hour on the interstate wasn’t the best time to push him past his limits.
“You know, Carpenter wasn’t the only one who lost men to that bastard.”
Hackett. Laura tried again to place the name but couldn’t make any connections off the top of her head.
“I was supposed to die in that pathetic excuse for a compound. No one cares that I nearly did. I don’t even care that much.” His fist plowed into the steering wheel again and the car swerved. Laura gripped the seat. “But I am not the bad guy here.”
“Okay,” she said quietly. “I believe you.”
“You don’t, but you will.”
She watched the needle on the speedometer creep towards eighty-five as he barreled away from Charleston. “You didn’t book any room in the Lowcountry as Garner. There’s nothing in my files about any known aliases. Your room downtown should be safe.”
“Not when they’re onto you.”
“So you drop me off. I call in Ross. More people, a smart team, can help you. We can plan a strong takedown.”
“Not until we eliminate how they’re tracking you so easily. This guy is too good. Too close.”
It was hard to believe anyone could be close when he was driving like this. “There are ways to be anonymous in the city.” Any minute she’d think of one of them.
“I have to disagree.”
Her patience snapped. “You’re the expert. What do you propose?”
“When all else fails, like it has today? Fresh air and sunshine.”
She found his smile, clever and sharp, irresistible. This was the wrong time to be attracted to anyone. She was out of practice and in too deep with a man who’d clearly lost his grip on sanity during his long tenure as a non-existent person. Sure, Hackett might be the devil. He might deserve every bit of hell Garner wanted to unleash, but she couldn’t sit back and let it happen like some infatuated Bonnie to his Clyde.
She winced. Now who was being dramatic?
He drove—flew—by one more exit and pulled onto the shoulder. The tires rattled over the rumble strip and the whole car shivered. He stomped the brakes hard and the car slid into the grass. For a moment, she thought he’d dump them right into the ditch.
“Get out. Run into the trees.”
“What?”
“Do it.”
“You won’t get away with this.”
“Just pray it works.”
She’d do no such thing. The man was unstable and she couldn’t let herself remain part of his delusion. Beyond pissed off that what should’ve been a simple recon had become so twisted, she pushed open her car door, misjudged the distance, and landed awkwardly on her ankle. Refusing to show any weakness or reaction to him dumping her—finally—she marched off toward the trees.