Page 140 of Frisco

As soon as my bike was parked, I turned off the engine and hopped off, running ahead so I could hear better. “Kali?”

I couldn’t hear.

The other guys’ bikes were taking too long to shut off, so I sprinted farther but I pressed that phone as close to my ear as I could get, plugging my other ear. After a few more seconds, all the engines cut out behind me, and I was able to figure out what I was hearing from her end.

“…a game? I Spy?”

That was Kali, her voice sounded coming from a distance. I could hear movement on her end, static. They were driving. She’d turned her phone on, though. That was good, so good.

Hearing gravel from behind, I lifted my head. The guys had come over, all quiet so I hit it on speaker and held it out. As soon as I did, Stripes was on his phone. He’d be calling the computer guys, trying to locate her phone. We would need to ride, but while she was on the phone, we had a line open. The computer guys would move on somehow keeping her on the line, but also letting us ride. Until then, we were waiting and listening.

And I felt like pissing myself because Kali was alive and she was thinking. She was planning.

That was my woman. I was damn proud of her.

Shelly was saying something, but I couldn’t make out her words.

Kali, “What town did we just leave? Was that Kingman?”

More from Shelly. Her words were jumbled, but her tone was sharp. Tired. She was going to lose it on Kali if she kept pushing.

Stripes came back. “They got her phone, and they got Shelly’s car. There’s an iPad in the back that they were able to trace so if we lose Kali’s line, don’t matter. We still got her.”

“We need to ride, but I can’t hang up.”

“Yeah. They’re working on that too.” He held up a finger, moving back and listening to his phone again.

“...should’ve grabbed coffee. Can we stop in the next town?”

Shelly snapped back at her.

“I know. I want to get there ahead of them too, but I need some caffeine. I’m going to wipe out before we stop them. Did you want me to help drive?”

‘Ahead of them?’ ‘Stop them?’ And she’s offering to drive, so Shelly got inventive with how she got Kali to leave with her. And Kali being Kali, started getting other thoughts and turned her phone on. Whatever the lie was, it must’ve been believable to get her to turn her phone off in the beginning.

But Shelly never took the phone. That would’ve really alarmed Kali, which meant Shelly was operating in a cooperative phase, meaning she was coercing Kali to be cooperative. I didn’t want to find out what Shelly would do if Kali stopped being cooperative.

“We gotta go.”

Stripes was coming back. “Give that to me.” He took my phone and began working on it. At the same time, he was speaking into his own phone, “Got it. Now what?” Then he went to work.

Boise motioned for me to step aside.

We did. Machete and Roadie came with us.

“We’re not going to get there in time, so if they just left Kingman, that means Shelly is doing back roads, but she’s still trying to keep to as straight a shot as possible. We have the Flagstaff charter. We can loop them in, ask them to intercept until we get there.”

I was already nodding because I was thinking the same thing. “Let’s do it. Make the call. Roanoke’s a good guy. He’ll try to help if he can. His whole charter is good.”

Boise was on it, stepping toward his bike with his phone out.

Roadie and Machete moved in, but I was looking at Machete’s bike.

I asked him, “How’s she doing?”

Both turned to where I was watching where Claudia was sitting.

She remained on the back of his bike, and she was just watching us right back. No look. No defiance. No attitude. She didn’t look like she was sulking, sad, or had any pep to her. After she reunited with Machete, I hadn’t given her much thought, but when he said he wanted to bring her, I hadn’t cared. I only replied, “Just as long as she doesn’t slow us down.”

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