Page 20 of Steers and Stowaways
“That’s it!” Chip’s voice filled the cab in a jovial challenge. “Hand over your duffel bag, Brat. If there’s any proof of your guilt, that’s where you’re hiding it.”
She gave him a withering look. “Really, Chip? You think I’d make it that easy for y’all?”
He spread his hands, sounding like he was trying not to laugh. “How about you just hand it over, and prove me wrong?”
Without warning, she flung the duffel bag at him, catching him full in the face.
“Ow!” He glared at her as it fell on his lap, but he quickly recovered. He eagerly unzipped it and rummaged through it.
“Aw, she’s got a trashy romance novel.”
“It’s not trashy!” She yanked her slender frame around to throw a punch across the console. It connected solidly with his upper arm. “Gone With the Windis a classic! They made it into a movie and everything.”
She sounded so offended that Tucker suspected some of her ire was genuine. Apparently, his partner in crime liked to read.Check.She was also fond of the classics.Check.
“There’s shampoo and soap, too,” Chip drawled in a wicked voice. His words were accompanied by a loud sniffing sound. “Gotta smell good while you’re committing crimes.”
“Give me that!” Sounding thoroughly incensed, Mallory made a swipe at her bag, but he held it out of reach.
Tucker watched their wrestling match through the rear-view mirror, noting how little attention Cruz was paying to either of them. He remained hunkered against hisside of the cab, keeping his eyes glued to his cell phone. Not only was he completely tuning out the drama taking place nearby, there was something inexplicably gleeful in his overall demeanor.
“So help me,” Mallory snarled in a voice Tucker had never heard before, “I’m gonna make you regret coming on this road trip.”
Chip laughed in her face. “I’ve never seen anyone get so worked up over a bar of soap.”
“It’s because guys stink!” She lunged farther over the seat and finally succeeded in snatching back her duffel bag, but only because Chip wasn’t playing tough with her. “The last thing I need is for y’all to get your nasty guy stench on my clean girl soap.”
“Whoa!” Chip held up his hands in surrender. “I take showers.” His voice grew cunning. “Every. Single. Week.”
While he laughed at his own joke, she made the appropriate gagging noises.
Tucker sent a silent high five to Mallory as she settled huffily down in the passenger seat. What she’d just finished pulling off was some rather fine interrogating. Her humorous altercation with Chip had emphasized his harmlessness, while underscoring the fact that Cruz was the one they should be watching. She’d done it on purpose, too. On top of being annoyingly beautiful, she was undeniably clever.
While she and Chip continued to trade insults, Tucker kept a closer eye on Cruz. As the miles flew by, he withdrew further and further into himself on his side of the seat.
Another thirty minutes clicked past before a crack of thunder alerted Tucker to the fact that they were heading into a storm.
“Oh, for the love of Mike,” he muttered. He wasn’tcatching any breaks on this trip. Pushing his Stetson back, he peered through the windshield, not liking the look of the dark clouds rolling across the highway up ahead. He’d been careful to check the weather forecast along their route before he’d started driving. Whatever was festering up there hadn’t been in the forecast. He was sure of it.
The next crack of thunder was much louder than the first one—loud enough to make the herd of steers behind them bellow out a collective protest.
A wind shear caught the trailer he was pulling broadside, making it fishtail pretty hard. He slowed his speed and righted the steering wheel. Despite his efforts, the cattle bellowed louder from inside the trailer. Fortunately, there was almost no traffic on the road, probably because they were passing through the middle of nowhere. The other reason was that folks were likely taking shelter.
As he steered his way through another fishtail, his ears picked up on the distant rumble of a helicopter.Finally!He didn’t crane his neck for a glimpse, not wanting to alert the occupants of the truck that they were no longer alone on the highway.
“Check this out,” Chip announced excitedly.
“Check what out?” Tucker darted a quick glance in the rear-view mirror and found him waving his cell phone in the air.
“My stepdad just sent me a screenshot of what we’re driving into, and it’s not good!”
Tucker mentally catalogued the fact that Dexter Silva wasn’t Chip’s biological father. He wondered how he’d missed that during his research into the Silvas’ background. He’d take another look at his file on them as soon as they stopped for the night. The discovery felt significant. It made him wonder what else he might havemissed.
“We should keep going.” Cruz’s voice was brusque. It was the first time since they’d gotten back on the road that he’d made any attempt to join the conversation. “Dodging raindrops is for sissies.”
He’d barely gotten the words out of his mouth before a storm siren started blaring.
“I’m gonna have to disagree with you, bro.” Chip nervously pressed his nose against the window to peer outside. “Looks like sharknado weather out there.”
