Page 40 of Shane
Despite the devious but charming prisoner at his side, Shane was totally grinning now. His eyes were focused on Everlee, and so was that handsome, mega-watt smile. She could almost feel the warmth radiating out of him. How great was that? This big, gruff guy knew poetry. The night just kept getting better and better.
“I never would’ve guessed we’d like the same poet,” she told him coyly.
“Here, Agent Yeager. Let me take that for you while you drive,” Ms. Smart offered as she stepped alongside the Lexus and reached for the takeout bag.
“No, thanks. I’ve got it.” Everlee didn’t want Smart touching their food. The woman wasn’t who Everlee expected, but she also was not who she seemed.
Everlee turned to Shane instead. “Want to do the dirty deed this time?”
“Sure.” He stepped up to the driver’s door of the Lexus, still smiling. The power of that smile destroyed the brooding moodiness he usually led with. Laugh lines radiated out from those midnight blue eyes like rays of golden sunshine over an indigo ocean. All because they both liked Robert Frost? Or maybe he just enjoyed breaking into cars.
The smile faded as quickly as it came. “You don’t want to steal this car, Ev. Uh-uh. It’s gotOn-Star. We take it and the police will be able to track us.” He stuck his chin at the next one over, a crappy-looking 1980s Dodge Challenger parked crooked across two parking stalls. The car’s once-shiny black paint was scuffed to a flat, dingy black. The wheel wells were pitted and lined with rust. The wheels weren’t much better, the tires were bald, and the windows were streaked with dust and speckled with bird shit. It might’ve been a hot car in its time, but it had obviously been driven hard, put away dirty, and neglected. “That one’ll be easier to get away with.”
“Go for it then,” Everlee urged. “Don’t forget your gloves. I bought that extra-large pair just for you.”
Shane grunted as if he didn’t need to be reminded. Well, too bad. That was her job. It took him less than five minutes to open the driver’s door, less to hot-wire the sad, old relic. This time he took the wheel, and their take-out order rode in the back seat between Everlee and Ms. Smart. They didn’t talk much, not with Everlee sitting with her pistol on her thigh.
“Head into Dallas,” she told him.
“Copy that,” Shane said as he eased the Challenger out of the parking lot and onto the quiet street.
A real car thief would have swapped plates, but in Everlee’s mind, the Challenger was an honest borrow, not grand-theft auto. Pulling up the map app on her cell phone, she gave Shane directions to another quiet neighborhood just east of Dallas. It took him half an hour to drive to the empty church parking lot. Everlee had already called an Uber driver and written a four-word note on a napkin from the take-out order. She left it on the Challenger’s dash. All it said was: Thanks for the ride!
The night was dark and quiet by then. Not much traffic on the streets. They walked a block north to meet the Uber driver. From Dallas, they hop-scotched between Uber drivers and cabbies, until the final driver took them out of town to the middle of Nowhere Cattle Country. Like before, Everlee paid the final fare in cash, told the driver goodbye, and stood in the middle of the dusty road, watching his taillights grow smaller and farther away.
“What’s going on now?” Tuesday Smart asked Shane.
Once again, they were standing side by side, Smart almost snuggled under his arm while he leaned down to answer. “Basic SERE tactics, ma’am.” He ticked the four components of SERE training off his fingers. “Survival. Evasion. Resistance. Escape.”
Of course, she offered up one of those weak feminine laughs that sounded sincere and breathy at the same time. “Evasion? Really, Shane? How could anyone find us? I don’t even know where we are.”
“Agent Hayes,” Everlee corrected her sharply. “I’m Agent Yeager and he’s Agent Hayes, not Shane. You need to address us accordingly, Ms. Smart. We are not your buddies, and this isn’t a party.” She left off Shane’s junior agent title. Smart didn’t need to know any more than she already did.
“Good,” was all Shane replied.
He might not trust Smart, but Everlee had seen the spark of attraction between them. Smart might be a pleasure to look at, and that was most likely how she’d been able to seduce and kill two men for their insurance money. But Everlee didn’t trust Smart at all, and she needed Shane’s head in the game, damn it.
Rocking back on her heels, Everlee was on high alert, ready in case Smart tried anything and Shane missed the cues. Smart hadn’t tried anything yet, not after Everlee mentioned the safe house. If anything, Smart was too damned compliant, and that rang every last one of Everlee’s ADHD’s overpowering warning bells, whistles, and buzzers. A true black widow knew how to act innocent, when to deceive, but also when to strike. They were intelligent, psychotic women who plied stupid men with the sugar and honey of their bodies, until they’d finally seduced them into their sticky, deadly webs. Once trapped, this kind of woman paralyzed her prey with her poisonous bite, then sucked his assets dry.
Everlee refused to let that happen again.
After the last cab drive, which had cost her a small fortune, they’d ended up so far west of DFW there were no big city lights visible in any direction. But she knew where they were. Safe. Finally. The night air was cool and full of the sweet perfumes of wild flowers, freshly cut alfalfa, and even some already-been-chewed-and-left-behind hay. Yup, cow shit.
“Here?” was all Shane asked once their ride left them in a cloud of dust and dark.
“Yeah. We’re here, Agent Hayes.” Everlee had her phone in one hand, the take-out bag in her other, and her patience on hold. She thumb dialed a number and said, “Hey, Smoke... Yeah, we made it. Glad Alex gave you a heads-up that we’d be late. Which place is yours, the one without trees or the other… ? Okay, good. I see the green light now. Sure. See you soon.” Ending the call, she turned to Shane and snapped, “Follow me,” as she set off toward the ranch without a single tree in sight.
Obediently, Shane followed. Smart did, too. Why not? Everlee knew how to lead, but she also kept their suspect within sight every step of the way. Not like there was anywhere for Smart to run, but Everlee wasn’t taking chances.
Smoke Montoya stood waiting for them on the doorstep of his home. The black jeans and tight-fitting t-shirt he wore seemed molded to his lean body. Made him almost invisible in the dark, just another shadow beneath the dim green porchlight he’d turned on. Didn’t need to. Less light, less risk. Smoke knew the drill. Civilians needed bright porch lights. Not former SEALs.
Everlee stuck her hand out when she cleared the fancy brick walkway that led from the gravel driveway to his doorstep. “Hey, Smoke, good to see you again,” she whispered. “Sorry to bother you so late, but Alex said come, so we came.”
Without a welcome or a‘go to hell,’he stepped aside, opened his door for his late-night visitors, and ushered them inside with a wave of his hand. After everyone shuffled in, he engaged a deadbolt, then pressed his palm to the glowing panel alongside the doorjamb. The hushed sounds of metal screens sliding and unseen locks clicking into place filled his quiet hacienda-style home.
“Sure hope we don’t wake Jess or your little girl,” Everlee said quietly.
“No worries. Jess is in San Antonio this week. She took Carrie with her.”