Page 76 of Don't Let Go

Twenty-Six

REMY

Shadowing Stone from Juniper north and east to San Antonio then onward to Austin took little in the way of skill. When Locke announced he was on the move, I’d pulled myself away from the absolute beauty of a sensually wrecked Fallon to check the camera angles.

None of us were her, but she’d shown us enough to be dangerous. The man was in a car and moving out of town at speed. Even if we got the rig started and on the road immediately, it was wildly conspicuous and definitely not made for a high speed pursuit.

Tactically, I was the best to go. I had the best chance of keeping him in sight from a distance. I could also get mics and other cameras in place. McQuade and Fallon were in the shower.

“I’m going,” I told Locke. “I’ll keep comms on standby. But I’d rather not be transmitting if he’s got a jammer or interceptor on board.”

“You should probably wait for them,” he advised, but I shook my head.

“This is the right plan. It might take them a moment to see it, but they will. Catch up when you can, the car’s tracker will help with that too.”

Not waiting for his response, I dropped my go bag in the backseat, and started the engine even as I lowered the ramp. I pulled directly out and the ramp was already closing before I accelerated away from the rig.

We’d moved the truck from a rest area to a shady spot on a dirt road about five miles north of Juniper itself. A full scout of the area had shown little to no traffic, no residents, and a small chance of someone tripping over the vehicle.

The longer we stayed in a public area like the rest stop, the more likely we were to arouse suspicion. Considering the reaction of the sheriff’s deputy? I was right.

McQuade’s actions, as frustrating as they’d been for Patch, had kicked the hornet’s nest and revealed a particularly nasty stinger. As I accelerated toward the highway we’d tracked him to, I kept one eye on the moving dot on my screen.

Not even ten minutes on the road and there was a beep in my ear. I tapped it once. “I will apologize later if this proves to not be the right call. However, you needed a moment to regather yourself…”

Watching her fall apart had been a kind of heady eroticism and I looked forward to seeing it again as much as I did making it happen.

“And,” I continued when she didn’t take advantage of my momentary pause to interject anything. “I wanted to give you that time. Right now, we want to track Stone to wherever he is going. Could it be a distraction to pull us away from Juniper?”

By “us,” I meant McQuade, yes it could be. Another reason for me to take point and let them stay where they were.

“I agree, it absolutely could be. Stone was recognized. That said, Stone also recognized McQuade. He doesn’t know me—not yet. I make my living by not being seen. I can do this for you, for us, and you can work on deep diving everything. Let me gatherthe information my way, while you gather what we need, your way.”

That was as close to asking permission as I was going to get. If it came down to choosing between putting her in harm’s way or removing the obstacles before they could identify her again? It was not a choice.

Her soft sigh told me the battle was won without a single shot being fired. “I hate that you are being very logical about this.”

The huskiness in her voice was a pure delight. I’d always found a kind of epicurean charm in her voice. The pleasure and tranquility I found with her in my ear compared to nothing else I’d experienced.

Now, I could add hedonistically stimulating. My dick had been hard from her very first gasp as McQuade took her apart on that bed, and that was just listening to them. The erection, however, was not going to prevent me from doing my job.

I’d gotten to savor her desire and her release. That taste promised that she was more than worth waiting for.

“I’d apologize, luv, but I did think about this as I was leaving. Juniper is too small and too remote to be a ‘coincidence’ and based on what Reynolds was saying, there’s definitely more going on there than is visible.”

I accelerated onto the highway and flicked a glance to the dot on the map on my phone. It took some talent to hit a moving target accelerating away. Fortunately, Locke noticed him on the move soon enough for me to get into place. It meant letting him pass me, but I tagged his car. After, it was just a matter of closing the distance on Stone kept me in range of the signal. All I needed was to see his car, then I could fall into highway driving.

Americans were very fond of their road trips. More, they were very similar in how they drove. Those who clung to the speed limit would be passed. Those who sped, tended to move in packs.

It offered a kind of coverage with the idea being whoever was in the lead car was more likely to earn the ire of the local or state patrols, while those following could take advantage of the distraction.

While I found it amusing, it wasn’t important beyond it would be a distraction for Stone.

“You’re not wrong,” she said and all at once, she was in analytical mode.

On the one hand, I hated that she had to lose some of the relaxation she’d found with McQuade. On the other, Patch was the best at her job I’d ever seen. There was no one else I wanted covering all the angles for me.

“You told Locke you were worried about a jammer. Were you really or was that just to shut him up?”

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