The girl did have skills. Jamie searched her memory. Did she even look to see if Stephanie had followed her from her office?
I don’t know.
Cursing her foolishness, Jamie shifted her car into reverse and pulled from her parking spot. He couldn’t see her in the car from across the street. Maybe the Taurus caught his attention for some other reason. If she moved the car and his attention stayed locked on her, she’d know.
She could sit tight. Dare him to come over. But she didn’t want contact with Declan before she was ready. She might accidentally kill him. Even if she didn’t, he might mention her to Stephanie, and she’d lose any chance of winning her daughter’s loyalty.
Jamie rolled through the parking lot towards the exit.
Declan sprinted toward his silver Jeep Cherokee.
Dammit.
She hit the gas, pulling in front of another vehicle on her way to the exit.
She didn’t get far. Ten feet later she braked, oncoming traffic delaying her escape from the parking lot. Straining forward for a better view, she saw a string of cars approaching.
Crap.
Maybe Declan staring in her direction was a coincidence.
Jamie stretched to see over traffic, scanning Declan’s lot until she spotted the silver Jeep wheeling toward the exit.
Not good. I have to get out ahead of him.
Jamie pulled into traffic, holding her breath, expecting to be hit. The world outside exploded with the sounds of wailing horns and screeching tires, but nothing bumped her stupid rental.
Whew.
She blasted toward the intersection, glancing in the rearview to see the Jeep enter traffic and follow.
All signs pointed to a pursuit.
Damn.
The traffic light turned yellow and she stomped on the gas, whipping around the slowing car in front of her to blast through.
Ha!
The rearview didn’t want to party with her. In it, she saw the Jeep speed through the intersection behind her. Someone, no doubt a car in crossing traffic, hit their horn. The Jeep made it through. Someone pulled out of another parking lot in front of him and he had to slow, but Jamie had no doubts now.
He’s chasing me.
She drove faster, a ripple of what felt like nerves running through her body. Fast driving wasn’t her thing. There were too many variables, other drivers she couldn’t control. She was more of a planner.
She was a killer, not a getaway driver.
She did practice her driving skills occasionally. In her business, the possibility of ending up in a car chase hovered around every corner. She’d once rented the movie Baby Driver for ideas, but she’d stopped paying attention halfway through.
I should have finished that damn movie.
With Declan after her, she found her mind blank. She couldn’t imagine how this ended. How do car chases end? You can’t catch a car with a car. You have to run them off the road or hope the police joins the chase, sets up roadblocks...
Hm.
Roadblocks never end well for criminals. If the police caught wind of the chase, Declan might get a ticket. She’d be the one on her way back to prison.
She needed to find a way to option B.
Escape.
How do drivers escape?
Okay, let’s think about that.
First, she had to keep the police from noticing. Step one, get away from other drivers, all of whom ride armed with phones, all a few digits away from the police.
A truck loaded with potted trees pulled out in front of Jamie and she hit her brakes, losing precious seconds. Declan closed in. She pulled around the landscaping truck and hit the gas to blow through another intersection, but the light had been green and remained so for Declan.
She headed east, farther into the heart of Florida where she hoped the traffic would ease.
Lose the people. Lose the variables.
She looked at her gas gauge. She’d put off filling up.
Stupid.
She’d run out of gas before Declan did and then he’d have her. She couldn’t outrun him. She didn’t have a gun with her.
Still, maybe murder could be her move? Stop somewhere remote and let him approach. She had something he didn’t.
She was willing to kill.
Was he? Probably not. Not until it was too late. If what her daughter said was true, he was too nice to kill her in cold blood.
Idiot.
A glaring problem with her murder plan flashed forward like a supernova.
Declan probably did have a gun.
Didn’t every male in Florida have a gun?
Especially a man who’d run operations in South America with her daughter?
She slapped the steering wheel, furious.
Her lack of preparedness meant she’d have to do something desperate.
But what?
She spotted a roadside farmers’ market that felt familiar.
Why do I know that place?
That’s it. She’d holed up in a house here once. A deep lake cabin with a wide pier...
An idea flashed through her mind.
No. I can’t do that.
She tried to ignore the idea, but it wouldn’t go away. It banged on the inside of her brain. It screamed.
“Fine!” She screamed back at it.
Jamie jerked the wheel right to head down a rural road to nowhere. In the rearview she saw the Jeep follow. She felt heat behind her cheeks, as if her hate for the pursuing man might shoot from her eyes like lasers to destroy him.
No such luck.
She pressed the pedal until the car hit ninety-five. She felt the vehicle shudder and thanked the powers that be that the off-brand rental outfit from which she’d stolen it hadn’t put a speed governor on the piece of crap she needed to survive.
She spotted a mailbox shaped like a manatee and knew she was close. Slowing, she whipped down a partially hidden dirt road, low vegetation whipping the sides of the car as she picked up
