Raize tensed. “What?”

“He called her, told her the lie about his mother, but he’s been talking about her.”

God.

What was I doing?

Had I just signed her death warrant? Because Raize would not let it stand, especially now with his sister in the mix.

“And he’s pissed, thinking I’ve been lying to him?”

“Well. Yeah.”

Raize cursed under his breath, then sighed. “We’ll deal with this later. Go with them.”

“Where are we going?”

“There’s a safehouse I know in Colorado.”

“Why Colorado? That’s like, a twelve-hour drive.”

He scanned over me, his mouth growing tight, but then he sighed. “Because I want to be as far away from this border as I can be, and somewhere that’s nowhere close to the East Coast or Texas.”

“Well. Then. That makes sense.”

He grinned, his eyes softening before he patted me on the ass. “Get going. Sleep if you can, alright?”

I gave a small grin back. “You too.”

He ran a hand over his jaw. “If my sister doesn’t freak out that her arm might touch mine, I’ll try to get a nap in.”

He leaned down, giving me another soft kiss, before we parted.

SOME GUY

That girl…

A man stared at her. She was pretty. She looked like she knew the guy she was with, and he leaned down to give her a kiss. She smiled at him.

But then she turned and he saw her whole face.

He rocked back, stunned, but yeah.

He stared at the missing girl’s poster pinned to the board in front of him. It was her.

Well, golly gee, his aunt’s bee in a bonnet.

He pulled out his phone and dialed the number, hoping there was some sort of reward.

56

Raize

Verónica either slept or sobbed.

We stopped to fill up with gas, but she remained inside the car. Abram tried to get her out. She wouldn’t go, kept saying in Spanish that she didn’t need to go to the bathroom. We left her alone, and when she realized Abram was going to spot me, let me try to sleep, she scooted as close to him as possible. A bag was wedged between her and myself.

At that point, I started wondering why I got her out, and then Ash’s face flashed in my mind right away. She did more than this for her sister, and she hadn’t even seen her sister once Brooke was pulled out. Then again, there was no newsflash there. Ash was ten times the person I was.

Abram caught my look and said under his breath, “Mantén el calmo mi compadre.”

I grunted. “Si, si. Solo estoy cansado.”

Verónica settled after that, and I caught her sneaking a look at me a couple times.

I did what Abram told me to do. I calmed down, and what I said was true. I was tired enough where I was able to ignore my sister’s constant tension and get some sleep. I needed it from the drive to Nogales, then to Guaymas, and we’d been on the run since.

When I woke, it was an hour later.

Verónica was passed out, her head resting against Abram’s shoulder, and I took care when I stretched my legs. I studied her a bit, seeing traces of my sister in her face.

“I don’t want to alarm you, but we’re following a car.”

“What?” I straightened.

There were two vehicles between us and Ash’s truck. A small green compact and another truck, one that looked beat up. Two males were inside, both wearing cowboy hats.

Abram was speaking softly, and indicated ahead. “The green compact. It was behind us for a while, then when I fell behind, it went around. It’s following your girl.”

I took out my phone.

“I thought it was just local authorities looking for her.”

He grunted. “Thinking it’s not so local anymore. She’s pretty. She still sticks out.”

I knew what he meant, but I was dialing Ash’s number.

“Did you get some sleep?”

“A bit, but listen. Put me on speaker.”

I heard a button get pressed. Her voice sounded louder, “You’re on.”

“Who’s driving?”

“Me.” Cavers.

I frowned, looking at the back of their truck. “Where’s Gus?”

Ash started laughing. “We brought him in. He’s half on Jake’s lap and mostly on mine.”

“You’re by the door?”

She was quiet.

Jake came on, more serious. “What’s going on, boss?”

“You’re being followed.”

“I thought we were,” Cavers added. “They came up on us thirty minutes ago, but haven’t been moving anywhere. Just looks like a single guy. Can’t tell if he’s talking to someone else or not.”

“What do you want us to do?”

Verónica was stirring, and I prepared myself for her horror at realizing I was beside her. She didn’t do that this time, only blinking her eyes at me, bags under her eyes and her eyes took in the phone in my hand.

I asked Abram, “What are you thinking?”

“I can’t see that being one of Marco’s. It’d be a whole team or he’d go ahead, call it in and then a slew of vehicles would swarm in.”

“They’re behind our vehicle, not yours.” That was from Jake.

Ash said, “I was on that hill.”

That’s what I was thinking, too. “Fall behind us. Let’s see what that car does.”

“And if he keeps going?” Jake.

“We take the next exit and haul ass. Stick to county roads.”

“Got it.”

“Leave the line open, just in case.”

“Will do. I’m falling back now.”

We hit the passing lane.

The green kept on them.

As we passed, the truck fell in behind us and then went ahead of us.

The green car, it stayed.

“They’re sticking to us.”

I said to Abram, “I want to drive.”

“What? I got skills.”

“Now.”

He growled, but then nodded to Verónica. “Move over, V.”

She didn’t say anything, but then I opened the back window and crawled out.

Abram and I had done this before, a long time ago so he knew the procedure.

Opening his window, he moved over as much as possible, but still held the wheel.

I poised on the edge of the truck, grabbed under the door and then flipped around and back inside. My feet went first and went down immediately, touching the ground as I grabbed the wheel from Abram.

The truck had started to slow, so I hit the accelerator.

After that, I went back to the passing lane and hit the brakes.

I wanted to see who was in that green car.

“Raize!” Ash was yelling from the phone. “You’re fucking insane!”

I smothered a chuckle. That’d really piss her off.

Abram chuckled. “Your blonde’s still loca. I like that.”

I flipped him my middle finger, and I was shocked to hear my sister let out a small giggle. Looking over, she had her head pressed into Abram’s arm. She was holding the phone up as he had his gun pulled out, laying on his lap.