Page 50 of Operation: Unify

“I’m not sure. I turned on the map on my phone and decided to take a few detours. At one point, I turned off my lights so he wouldn’t see where I went.” Randy shrugged. “Every time I turned, my map app would reroute me, so I was never far away from where I needed to be.”

“It’s always a good idea to stay close to the plan.” He took a deep breath. “You ready to get back on the road?”

He nodded with a grin. “Thanks, man.” He reached over the counter and gripped the clerk’s hand.

The attendant waved. “No problem. Safe travels.”

Connor headed back outside, still aware that Cal could be anywhere. If he had map software on his phone, then he could find his way back to the highway. Now might be a good time to change the route, since they were all together again.

He headed for his truck and Randy followed. The moment he opened his door, he noticed that Lacy looked really tired. After the adrenaline rush of being shot off the road, she was probably ready for sleep. He opened his map software and looked for the nearest hotel.

“Unfortunately, if we decide to stay the night somewhere, or what’s left of the night, we have to drive about twenty miles out of our way. We’d be forced to take the highway back to Cheyenne, then west to Wayside.”

“Looks like they could both use a comfortable bed. As long as Cal doesn’t catch back up with us, I’m fine with whichever way you want to go,” Randy answered.

The only risk was that he’d wanted to avoid Cheyenne. Chances were good that if Viceroy was anywhere, that’s where he’d choose to be. That was where he had multiple comfortable places to hide. That was where he’d kept Scarlet when she’d been his personal attendant. Going through Cheyenne held more risk.

He waited for the Lord to give him direction. When he didn’t feel fear override his desire to rest, he told Randy to head for Colorado, and he went to his own car. Before getting into his truck, he called into the insurance company and left a message about Lacy’s vehicle and where it was. He knew he’d forget to call in the morning if he waited.

Back on the road, he watched for anything out of the ordinary. While the dark was a great time to hide for some things, being the only vehicles on the road made them easy to spot. With only a few hours left until they would enter Wyoming, they pulled into the parking lot to check in for the rest of the night.

At least there were no vehicles in the lot that looked like they belonged to Cal. Maybe he’d actually get a couple hours of shut eye. He gently shook Lacy awake and she startled. After blinking a few times, she seemed to realize what was going on and asked no questions. Lacy shook Melinda slightly and this time, Melinda woke.

Bone-tired, they all headed inside. Connor’s phone buzzed and he groaned, knowing whatever was on it, would be bad news.

Something thwackedLacy in the head, jolting her awake. The room was strange, and she couldn’t remember entering it or how she got there. Fear prickled over her skin. Melinda thrashed around next to her.

“Help, get me out of here,” she muttered in her sleep as she tried to untangle herself from the blankets.

Lacy took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. She was safe, at least for now. They were in a hotel roomsomewhere in Colorado. Hopefully, they were close to the border, within a few hours of home.

Lacy helped untangle Melinda and that immediately calmed her. She fell back to sleep with a deep sigh and made no more noise.

“I wonder how long it’s been since she had a good night’s sleep?” Connor’s voice rumbled from a few feet away.

Lacy turned around to find him watching her. Randy was facing the other direction on the other side of the bed with Connor. They clearly weren’t comfortable with the arrangement, but it was the only suitable one if they wanted to only pay for one room and be as safe as possible.

“I’m not sure. When are we heading back on the road?” She glanced at her watch and found it was already nine in the morning.

“In about an hour. We didn’t roll in here until about three, and I wanted to give everyone plenty of time to sleep. As long as Cal didn’t drive by here, he shouldn’t have any idea where we went. My hope is he turned around and drove home.”

Randy stirred and rolled onto his back. “Morning. I was planning on calling my old man before we leave and ask him if he could call Cal and see if he answers. He used that trick on me, so it seems only fair that I use it on him. He seems to think everyone is too stupid to figure out what’s going on so he might tell my dad where he is.”

“As long as you don’t tell your dad where you are. He seems more than willing to help Cal find you.” Lacy crossed her arms and stifled a yawn.

“Yeah, I hadn’t planned to let him know where I am, and I removed the app that tracks me yesterday morning.”

Lacy unzipped her travel bag and dug through what was in there. She’d lugged her bag along this whole time and most ofher clothes had gone unused. At least today she could take a shower safely and put on something fresh for the arrival home.

“I’m going to make use of the shower while all of you are still waking up.” She lifted the one clean pair of clothes she had out of the bag and headed for the bathroom.

She wasn’t a nervous sort of person but knowing someone had broken into the house where she was staying, kidnapped her friend, and wrote on the mirror in the room where she was showering, made her distrust the standard safety measures in the bathroom.

After locking the door, she rolled up a towel and shoved it in the crack under the door. No one was going to fish a wire through there to open the locked knob from the other side. She turned on the water and waited until it was so hot steam rolled from the shower toward the vent fan.

She caught her reflection in the mirror. The bags under her eyes gave her the most pause. How could Connor be attracted to someone who was clearly aging? She didn’t like the wrinkles forming by her eyes and how her hair seemed to be changing as she aged. She wasn’t old, but she certainly wasn’t young anymore either.

Closing her eyes, she climbed into the shower and listened for any sounds outside the bathroom. She hoped once she was home, all the worry and stress would fall off her shoulders. When the police had caught Tod, she’d been sure there was nothing else she needed to worry about.

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