“There’s a camp up here I spent several summers at in my teens. I drove on these roads. I will direct you where we should go.”
She calls out turns with confidence, guiding us into tighter, darker roads. With each turn, we are out of their sight for a brief moment. But as I come out of the last turn, they are suddenly right on our tail.
“How the hell did they catch up?” I ask, staring at the speedometer.
Loud pops go off. “What is that?” Savvy asks.
“Get down!” I yell as the pain slices into my side. I’ve been hit.
Whatever happens, I can’t pass out and leave her out here with them.
“Okay, take the next left and then a left immediately after that. Then turn all the lights off and let them pass.”
“Sounds risky,” I say as I manage to get a little distance from them.
We round a corner.
“Left right there!” She’s slouching in her seat to see, but it isn’t keeping her safe if they start shooting again.
I turn left hard.
“And again!”
I turn left again, turn off the lights, and put it into park. The roar of their engine goes by.
“Nice trick,” I say.
She grins. “We used to play a hide-and-seek game up here back in the day.”
“Reckless. But I’m glad you did.”
I take a deep breath to fight the pain. “Okay, so we need to figure this out. Bob found you again.”
“It wasn’t my phone.”
“Nope. It’s something else.” I stare at her. The only things she has with her now are the clothes on her back. “It has to be in your clothes.”
“Don’t even ask me to toss my clothes out the window.”
I glance in the rearview mirror. “Bob is going to find us again. There must be a tag of some kind in your clothes. He’d put it in something you wear all the time. Your shoes? Jacket?”
She pulls her jacket off one arm. “It has to be this jacket. I had left it at the office and just grabbed it the other day.”
“You went to the office?”
“Don’t worry, I made sure Bob wasn’t there first. I needed to grab the cash I had there.” Once her jacket is off, she feels around the edges of it. “I found something. Dammit! I can’t see, but I think the seam was ripped and sewn again.”
“You’re going to have to rip it.”
She sighs. Then I hear the fabric rip. “Yes, here it is.”
“Hand it to me.”
I toss the tag into a bush. Savvy directs me back to the main road while I keep checking the rearview mirror. There’s no car behind us, but I hear the engine of onegetting closer. Hopefully, they spend time looking for us on those roads while we get away.
“Okay, I need you to take my phone and call Durango.” I manage to pull it out of my pocket and hand it to her.
“Why is it wet?” she asks.
