When they got to her car, Adam tripped to a stop, his eyes narrowing. “What’s this car?”
“It’s my new ride.” She knocked on the hood with her knuckles. “My new, old ride.”
“Where’s your other car?” He twisted his head around as if expecting to see it in the lot.
“I kind of did an exchange.” She threw open the door to the back seat. “What does it matter?”
“I was kind of attached to that other car.”
“Yeah, since you drove it more than I did.” She grabbed the strap of his backpack and had a fleeting urge to take it and run off with it. If he had the flash drive in his pack, she could turn it over to Clay.
Adam wrenched the backpack out of her grasp and tossed it onto the seat. Then he slammed the door.
Oh, yeah, he had something in that backpack he didn’t want her to see.
She noted the twenty minutes left on the meter—just enough time for her proposition.
With Adam in the passenger seat next to her, she rested her hands on top of the steering wheel. “I have a deal I want to make with you.”
“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.” He slumped in his seat. “What do you want?”
“I will go down to Mexico with you to search for Dad and El Gringo Viejo...but you need to give up that flash drive you stole from Jimmy.” She crossed one finger over the other to form an X and held it in front of Adam’s face. “Don’t even try to tell me you don’t have it. That’s why Jimmy and his guys came after you. They know you have that flash drive—and now Las Moscas knows you have it. Give it to them, and you can start a new life with Dad, if you want. If he’s who you say he is, he’ll protect you.”
After several seconds of quiet, April stole a look at Adam’s sharp profile. He had his eyes closed and his hands in his lap.
Then he cranked his head to the side and his lips twisted into his boyish grin. “Sure, April. I’ll give up the flash drive.”
THE RED DOT on Clay’s phone had stopped moving at the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. His heart flip-flopped in his chest. If she’d gone there to take a flight somewhere, he’d never find her.
His foot pressed down on the accelerator of Meg’s car. April’s cousin had gladly given up her vehicle to him when she found out April had disappeared...again. Meg even did some sleuthing in April’s bedroom and reported to Clay that her cousin had taken her suitcase that had been parked in the corner since she got back from Albuquerque.
Where the hell could she be going? Was she foolish enough to fly to Mexico and search for her father? At least that would get her out of the clutches of Las Moscas—on this side of the border, anyway. He knew they had operations on the other side of the border, as well.
As he drove north on the 10, he kept one eye on his phone. When the red dot started moving, he pounded his fists on the steering wheel. “Yes!”
As he barreled toward Phoenix, he watched April’s location move from the airport to Tempe, near the university. The pounding urgency in his head didn’t stop until that red dot did. With any luck she’d stay put.
He had the tracking device on her car, not in her purse, which would’ve been a much riskier proposition. If she parked her car and walked, he’d have to stake out the vehicle.
He was about thirty-five minutes out as long as April didn’t move. Did she really think he’d allow her to disappear from his life again?
After a while, he sped through the traffic into the city and took the turnoff for Tempe. He turned up the sound on his phone so he could follow the directions to April’s car. They led him to Mill Avenue, an area bustling with restaurants and shops.
As he cruised down the street, he had to hope that he saw her before she saw him. Of course, Meg’s silver compact was a lot less conspicuous than his white truck with the back windshield shot out.
The GPS directed him to make a right turn and he practically ran into April’s car parked in the last spot at the curb. He crawled forward, looking for his own parking space. He made a U-turn and parked across and down the street from her car.
He drummed his thumbs on the steering wheel as he watched the pedestrians zigzag back and forth across the street. Should he get out and look for her in the many restaurants and coffeehouses or sit here and wait for her to return to her car?
She wouldn’t be leaving her car in a place like this if she were taking off for somewhere else. She definitely planned to come back to the car—if she could.
What if this were the real meeting associated with that anonymous note? What if she were in danger right now?
The thought had him clutching at the door handle as a spike of adrenaline shot through him. He could at least try a little reconnaissance. He didn’t want to put her in even more danger if her...associate? captor? tormentor?...saw him charging up to save the day.
He dragged his gun from under the passenger seat and shoved it into the holster beneath his loose-fitting shirt. The O.K. Corral was farther south in Tombstone, but if he had to engage in a shoot-out to save April, he’d be ready.
He slipped from the car and looked both ways before jogging across the street. From the sidewalk, he hunched forward and cupped his hand above his eyes to peer into the car.
His gaze tripped over a sweatshirt bunched up on the back seat and he said, “Damn it.”
He recognized that sweatshirt as Adam’s.
She’d rushed up here to pick up her brother at the airport and was probably buying
