Page 41 of Final Exit

She peeked out again, then jerked back. “They’re heading straight toward us. Did they see us?”

“I don’t think so.” A cold feeling settled in his gut. Had the agents tracked him here? He reached down to his leg brace and felt inside the top.

“What are you doing? Does your leg hurt?”

“Pretty much all the time,” he muttered. “I’m fine,” he said, in answer to her worried look. “But I came prepared to turn you over to one of my teams today, after I proved you were wrong about there being some kind of conspiracy to kill Enforcers. There’s a GPS tracker in the top of the brace. Before I left the house in Boulder, I gave Faegan the frequency and told him I’d put the tracker on you once I found you. Then I was supposed to call him so he could send a team to pick you up.”

She nodded matter-of-factly. “So whoever this Faegan is, he’s tracking you without you calling him first. I think we know who’s leading the conspiracy now.”

He stared at her. “Aren’t you mad at me?”

“Because you were doing your job and planned on turning me over? You didn’t know me when you planned that. But you know me now. At least, you know me well enough not to turn me over now, right? At least, not while we’re still figuring out what’s going on?”

“Of course.”

“Then why would I be mad? What’s the plan? Please tell me you have a plan because, honestly, I’m too tired to think one up at the moment.”

He yanked her to him and planted a quick, hard kiss against her lips. When he pulled back she blinked at him, looking stunned.

“What was that for?” she asked.

“Hell if I know. I couldn’t resist.”

The grin that spread across her lips reached all the way to her eyes. “Told you I’m good.”

He laughed, then sobered. “Focus. Okay, give me a second.”

He pulled the lining open on the leg brace and pulled out the tiny disc he’d put there earlier. There was a second disc, a backup, farther down. But he hadn’t activated it, so he didn’t bother digging it out.

“I doubt those two agents are the only ones after us.” He tossed the disc under the SUV. “Come on.”

He led her in between the cars to the second row of vehicles, then paused near a bumper. Behind them was another open aisle for cars to drive down. It was tempting to race across the empty space to the next row of cars, but they couldn’t risk it just yet. They couldn’t outrun a bullet, so not being seen was their best defense.

This time Bailey took a turn bending down to look under the car they were behind. She looked right, then left, then straightened. The worry lines on her brow told him things had just gone from bad to worse.

“Two more agents,” she whispered, “coming from the other direction.”

Kade carefully raised up just enough to see for himself. One of the new agents was Porter. Soon the two pairs of agents would meet up in the middle, with only the length of two cars separating them from where Bailey and Kade were hiding.

Bailey pointed across the open space. She wanted them to run for it.

Kade shook his head. Too dangerous.

She frowned and pointed again. He followed the direction where she was pointing and realized they were closer to the Mustang than he’d realized. But it was still too far away, two aisles over plus a good distance down the line of cars. He’d never make it before an agent saw him. His damn leg would slow him down too much.

He pulled his keys out of his pocket, careful not to let them hit each other and make any noise. Then he held them out to her and motioned toward the Mustang.

She pointed at him and motioned for him to come with her.

He shook his headnoand indicated his leg.

She pushed the keys back toward him, refusing to take them. Then she crossed her arms. The message was clear. She wasn’t going anywhere without him.

He gave her his best frown.

Her shrug told him she was unimpressed.

He shook his head again then peeked over the top of the car to locate the agents. All four had met in the middle of the aisle a few cars down and appeared to be discussing what to do next. Had he been wrong about the tracker? Maybe Faegan wasn’t in on this after all. Maybe it was all Porter all along and he was the one with ties to someone higher up.

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