Page 19 of Guarded By Them

That was concerning. “Do you need to see a doctor. What if it’s something more than that? It might be a problem with your kidneys.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “My kidneys are fine.”

“Let me drive,” I insisted. “Sit in the back with Rue. I’m sure she won’t mind if you use her as a footrest.”

Rue smiled. “I won’t mind at all.”

“Fine.” He tossed me the keys. “Knock yourself out.”

The lure of cozying up to Rue for a few hours was clearly stronger than his pride. A pang of envy and regret went through me. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so eager to swap positions. But then I remembered Ryan and everything he’d been through, and the emotions melted away. He was in this position, away from his doctors, partly because of me. I’d done something hoping to help him, to be able to pay for an expensive new prosthesis for him, and instead we’d ended up away from his doctors and on the run. So, no, I didn’t begrudge him getting to sit with Rue.

I climbed behind the wheel and got the car started. There didn’t appear to be anyone or anything suspicious around, no signs of anyone following us, but I made sure I kept my gun at my side, just in case.

“Did you manage to make that call to your contact?” I asked Kodee, who was riding shotgun.

Kodee nodded and scrubbed his hand across his mouth. “Yeah, he can take on the job.”

“I wish we could have stayed at the apartment long enough to do it ourselves.” I didn’t like getting other people involved, especially ones I didn’t know or trust for myself. But Kodee was a good judge of character, and if he said we could trust this person, I guessed we had to roll with it. It wasn’t as though we had any other choice. Rue needed identification if we were going to get her out of the States. Maybe we could stay in the country, but I didn’t think we’d ever feel safe. We’d be constantly watching our backs, expecting either Joe Nettie’s men, or the Capello brothers, to come after us. Making enemies of one mafia gang was bad enough, but we’d somehow managed to piss off two at the same time.

“You know we didn’t have time,” Kodee said. “They’d have caught up with us, for sure.”

I sighed and sat back in the seat, both hands on the wheel, focusing on the road ahead. “Aye, I know.”

From the back seat, a stomach grumbled loudly.

“Someone needs breakfast.” I chuckled.

Rue laughed, embarrassed. “Yeah, that was me. We didn’t really have a proper meal yesterday.”

“You mean chips and candy wasn’t satisfying enough?”

“And we burned off a bit of energy,” she teased.

The other two hadn’t asked about what we’d gotten up to while we’d been in separate rooms, and we hadn’t asked them either. The four of us might be together, but we were still allowed those one-on-one times. I knew Ryan probably needed them more than anyone.

I glanced in the rearview mirror. He was sitting across from Rue, but his leg was elevated across the back seat.

“How are you doing back there?” I asked him.

“Coffee and breakfast sound good,” Ryan said, nodding, though he looked pale. I hoped the food would help him.

We drove for another twenty minutes before signs for a roadside coffee shop appeared on the side of the interstate. The building soon came into view, and I signaled and took the exit.

I felt less concerned that we were being followed than I had been the previous day. If anyone knew our location, they would have tried to take us down by now. Sure, we’d had locks on the motel room doors, but they wouldn’t have held up against a gun with a silencer.

The parking lot was busy, with cars and trucks of all shapes and sizes filling the spaces. I found an empty spot near the restaurant’s front door and pulled in. The place was going to be busy, and I guessed that was a good thing. We’d be able to blend in easier if there were plenty of other people around.

I opened the driver’s door and climbed out. We were still close to the interstate, and the steady flow of traffic created a low hum.

Together, we entered the restaurant and stopped at the sign asking us to wait to be seated. I glanced over at Rue. She seemed nervous. She wasn’t used to being around so many people.

A hostess approached. “Good morning. Is it just the four of you today?”

Even though I’d lived in the States my entire adult life, the perkiness of the people here never failed to surprise me. “Aye, just the four.”

The hostess showed us over to one of the booths, and we slid into our seats. She set menus down in front of us.

“Your server will be over to take your order shortly,” she chirped.

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