“Keep it as steady as you can.”
Bas climbed to his knees on the seat, facing the back, and braced his arm against the flat area behind the seat, the one where the window slanted toward the trunk. Luckily, it gave him a stable place to position for the shot. He only hoped Bas was a good marksman, because he was only going to have one chance to take out the SUV.
Watching in the rearview, he could see the SUV’s speed increasing, the distance between the two vehicles dwindling by the second. Bas needed to wait until they were close enough, make sure that he didn’t miss.
“Gage, watch out!”
He jerked the steering wheel sharply to the left, swerving around the car that had slammed on its brakes in front of him, barely missing their rear bumper. Heartbeat racing, he breathed out slowly, focusing on the black SUV. They’d changed lanes, increasing their speed to keep up with Gage. Outrunning them definitely flew out the window when he spotted the passenger leaning out the window, a gun clenched in his hand.
“Bas, you can’t wait any longer. Take the shot!”
A series of pop, pop, pop filled the interior of the car, before Bas flopped around on the back seat, facing the front. He grinned, though it looked more like a grimace.
“That ought to do it.”
“Did you hit them?” Suzanna tried swiveling around in her seat, but the seatbelt hampered her movement, and Gage’s frown and muttered “stop” forced her to face forward again. Gage watched the rearview, grinning as the SUV slowly limped toward the side of the interstate, the front two tires flattened.
“Nice shooting, Tex.”
“What? Did you think I couldn’t make the shot?”
“Never doubted you for a minute.”
Gage could feel the unevenness of the car’s movements, knew the multiple hits they’d taken had caused some damage. Which meant they probably weren’t going to make it back to Shiloh Springs without help.
“What’s wrong?” Suzanna’s soft hand reached over, touching his forearm.
“I think we took one hit too many. Going to have to pull off, and take a look at the rear end. I don’t think she’s going to make it all the way back to Shiloh Springs.”
“I was afraid of that. I could feel how hard the hits were sitting back here. You find a place to pull over, hopefully a gas station with a mechanics bay, so I can take a look. In the meantime, while you’re doing that, I’m going to call the BigHouse, see about getting somebody to drive up here and pick us up.”
“Good idea.”
Gage managed to keep the car moving forward, though it was a struggle, and he had to wrestle with the steering to keep her straight and between the lines. Finally after a couple of miles he saw an exit coming up and took it, spotting a gas station sign to the right. He pulled up in front of the one bay where retread tires and oil changes were done, and turned off the engine.
Bas was out of the car practically before he’d put it in park, walking around to the back. Gage got out a little slower, and met him. Squatting down, they examined the cracked bumper, which showed evidence of the hard hits. The right side was smashed in, the right fender not only crumpled but twisted.
“You’re not going much farther. Think you might have a crackled axle.” Bas lay on his back and scooched underneath, by the right rear tired. “Some fluid leaking out too, probably brakes fluid. Definitely not safe to drive without having it looked it.” Climbing from beneath the car, he dusted off his hands on the front of his jeans.
“I was afraid of that. Who’d you talk with at the Big House?”
“Douglas. We’re too far out to have Frank’s Garage tow it. You’re probably going to want to have your insurance handle that anyway.”
An older man sauntered over, his grease-covered shirt boasting the name Sparks above the pocket. Tough and weatherbeaten, he looked like somebody who’d been around the block more than a time or two, and Gage was willing to bet there wasn’t a whole lot the guy didn’t know about cars.
“Can I help you folks?”
“Had a bit of an accident a few miles back. I’m going to have to put in a call to my insurance, but if you’d like to take a lookat it, maybe give my your impression of what the major problem might be, just so they don’t try and rip me off?”
“Sure, I can take a look.”
Sparks lay on his back, and began crawling underneath the car’s rear panel, and Gage and Bas moved back a couple of steps. Suzanna was still seated in the passenger seat. Gage hoped she wasn’t took shaken up from what just happened, but if she was he couldn’t blame her. She’d been through a lot the past couple of days. Finding him, asking him to look into proving her innocence, almost being kidnapped and nearly killed, and now it looked like somebody was taking another crack and getting her out of the picture. They really needed to figure out who wanted her eliminated and why, before their next attempt finished the job.
“Shiloh and Ridge were both at the Big House when I called. They’ve already left, heading this way. I need to call and tell them exactly where we’re at, so they can pick us up.”
“You do that. I’m going to check on Suzanna, make sure she’s okay.”
Bas studied him intently, taking his time before responding. “I don’t think you’re giving her enough credit. On the outside, she might seem like a pampered princess, but beneath that exterior she’s got a backbone of steel. I think the whole elite, rich girl persona is exactly that. A façade, a role she dons to keep people from seeing the real woman. I could be wrong, but she’s a lot stronger than people give her credit for.”
