“There’s another reason,” Sara said. “One of those clients is Emily’s father. What if he got custody of her? What would I do then?”
Though unsure what he would have done in similar circumstances, he understood their reasoning.
“Why did you marry Alan? Wasn’t that taking a chance?” he asked, wanting to fill in the holes so he could have the full picture.
“I didn’t set out to meet him, and I certainly didn’t mean to fall in love,” Sara said defensively. “After we started seeing each other, I can’t tell you how many times I almost disappeared. And when he asked me to marry him? Oh, God. I wanted to so bad, but how could I?”
“I’m the one who encouraged her to say yes,” Diana said. “I’m the one who came up with the plan that if something happened, she could leave Emily with him. That way she would be safe.”
“So what triggered you to run again?”
“I have people I talk to,” Diana said. “Friends who think I’m on the run from a bad relationship. They keep their eyes open and let me know if anyone’s asking around about me or Richard or Sara. About three months ago I started getting calls, and knew it wasn’t going to be long before they figured out my new last name and tracked me down. Once they did that, they’d try to use me to get to Sara. So I knew it was time for her to disappear.”
“But
“I wanted to be sure. If they didn’t show up, then perhaps we were in the clear, and if they did, I’d just sneak away. I thought your friend the other night was one of them. Hell, I thought you were, too.” She paused. “Sorry about your friend. That was…a mistake.”
Logan looked at Richard for a second, then back at Diana. He’d already figured Richard was the one who’d attacked Pep.
“Don’t blame him,” she said. “I was the one in charge. It was my mistake.”
Logan glanced out the window. They were in the desert again, the vast brown landscape seeming to go on forever.
There was so much to think about, to process. He’d seen enough of the bad in the world to know that people like Dr. Paskota existed. He just didn’t want to believe it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a choice.
“Now you know why we had to run,” Diana said, breaking the silence. “And why we’ll need to continue running once we have Emily. What other choice do we have?”
Logan couldn’t think of one.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
“Here comes another one,” Pep said, checking the rearview mirror of Dev’s Cherokee.
Barney watched the car go by on their left. “No, not them.”
The two men had left Braden forty-five minutes earlier. Barney had made it clear he was less than keen on the idea of Pep driving. In his opinion, Pep should have stayed at the motel. Barney had said he could do this on his own, but Pep wasn’t about to let that happen.
“Maybe we left too late,” Barney said, worried.
“We didn’t,” Pep said. He’d been the one who talked to Logan right before they hit the road, and knew that Logan was somehow able to track the other car.
When he was given the go signal, the other car apparently had been fifteen minutes behind them. Keeping their speed just below the sixty-five-miles-per-hour limit, Pep figured that the others would probably pass him and Barney somewhere in the next fifteen to twenty minutes.
He’d made sure Barney started checking early in case his calculation was wrong, and so that Barney could get some practice at not being obvious when he looked at the other cars. The old doc was getting better at it, but he still needed to refine his method.
“Act like you’re talking to me,” Pep suggested.
“That’s what I’m doing,” Barney said.
“Then actually do it. Say something.” Pep glanced at the mirror again. A blue minivan was pulling out to go around them. “Try it on this one.”
Barney shifted once more in his seat. “So, um, it’s…pretty…hot outside.” As soon as the van passed, he added, “Not them.” He turned back to the front.
“You know what?” Pep said. “Just keep looking at me even if there aren’t any cars. It’ll seem more natural that way. We can talk about whatever you want.”
“I don’t want to talk about anything. I want to find Harp.”
“Let’s talk about that, then.”
“What’s there to talk about?” Barney said. He looked at Pep, exasperated. “He’s gone. If I hadn’t fallen asleep, maybe none of this would have happened.”
“And how, exactly, would your staying awake have kept him from being taken?”
“I…I…I would have known sooner. Maybe we could have done something.”
“Like what?” Pep checked the mirror. Two more cars were coming.
“I don’t know!”
“Exactly. We’re doing everything we can to-”
“Harp!” Barney shouted.
He started to raise his hand to point, but Pep quickly grabbed it and pushed it back down.
“Which car?” Pep asked.
“The second one. The gray one. See? That’s him in the back on the left. I’d recognize his hair anywhere.”
Pep let the other car pull ahead, then he started to gradually increase the Cherokee’s speed. It was okay if the sedan pulled away a little. He knew which one it was now and would catch up.
“I counted four people inside,” Pep said. “How about you?”
“Yes, four. Two in front, two in back.” Barney leaned forward anxiously. “Hurry up, we’re going to lose them.”
“No, we’re not.” Pep grabbed his phone, put it on speaker, and conferenced in both Logan and Dev. “They just went by us.”
“Did you see my dad?” Logan asked.
“Yeah, he’s in the backseat.”
“Did he look okay?”
“He was sitting up, but staring out the other window. I couldn’t see his face very well,” Barney said.
“Were his eyes at least open?”
“I think so.”
“Okay, where are you guys?”
“About fifty miles west of Braden,” Pep said.
“How about you, Dev?” Logan asked.
“I should hit Braden in about fifteen minutes,” Dev announced. “Making pretty good time so far.”
“We’re about ten minutes behind you,” Logan said. “Stay on them, Pep. Don’t let them out of your sight.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
“Is that it?” Erica asked.
The old man looked out the window at the house they were driving slowly past.
“Mr. Harper, is that it?” she repeated.
“I…I don’t know. I think so. I wasn’t driving so I wasn’t paying attention.”
