“We would have to drive straight back toward them. We’d have a shoot-out before we ever reached the scene of Troy’s accident.” Rob swallowed. “Do you know how much firepower these cartels have? I’m not bringing that to bear on those EMTs and patrolmen. There would be a slaughter.”
“Your phone. I’ll call the Border Patrol. You can let them know what to expect, and they can come prepared. Surely you guys can match them weapon for weapon?”
“You can try, but we usually can’t get service out here, Libby. Texts, maybe. Phone calls? Not so much.”
She pounced on his phone and tapped it. Held it to the window and tapped it. “But you used your phone back at the accident site.”
“To call 911.”
“Can I text?”
“Not the Border Patrol.”
“How about the individual agents?”
“I don’t want them walking into an ambush.” He clenched his teeth. This was his mess. He wasn’t going to put another agent’s life at risk.
Libby stashed his useless phone in the cup holder and caught his arm. “Where are we going, Rob? We can’t go back to Luna and Zeke. We’re not bringing that to rain down on them, either.”
“I agree. We need to get out of this on our own.” His foot eased off the accelerator.
“What are you doing? It’s time to speed up, not slow down.”
“I can’t take the next turn at this speed. We’ll flip.”
“Next turn?”
As he cranked the wheel to the left across the oncoming lane of traffic, the tires squealed and Libby’s body fell against his arm. “Sorry. You okay?”
“I’m not okay, Rob. Where are we going? They’re tracking us via Troy’s GPS. We don’t have a chance.”
“We can do this, Libby. You just have to trust me. Can you do that?”
“I’ve done that from the minute you picked me up in the desert—or at least from the minute I dropped my knife.”
“We’re ditching the truck.”
“Wait—did I just say I trusted you?” She pressed the heel of her hand against her forehead. “Are you out of your mind? Once we ditch this truck, they won’t be able to track us anymore but we’ll be on foot. In the desert. In the middle of the night.”
“C’mon. You’ve been there, done that.” Rob leaned over the steering wheel. He wanted to ditch the truck but not crash it into a saguaro cactus. “Besides, as you pointed out, they can’t track us without the truck.”
“Why would they want to? They’ll just find a couple of corpses.”
“We still have a head start. They kept their distance because they had the GPS.” He aimed the truck off the access road and toward a gully in the sand. “At the bottom of this dip, we abandon the truck and get out.”
“Could we maybe search for the GPS on the truck first, remove it and get back in the vehicle...where it’s safe?”
“This truck is not safe. It’s a big target, although I’m glad it’s black, and we don’t have enough time to look for the GPS. Can’t do it in the dark, and can’t put the lights on.” He halted the truck and cut the engine. “It’s go time.”
“It’s go crazy time.” She hung on to her seat belt strap as if daring him to pull her out of the truck. “I thought I was the one with holes in my mind.”
Rob reached into the back seat and grabbed his backpack. “I didn’t leave home without my bag of tricks because I didn’t know what we’d find when we picked up your phone. Who knew we’d need it to...?”
“Survive, right? This is do or die?”
He hauled the backpack into the center console and kissed Libby’s mouth. “It is. Let’s get moving.”
This time he was glad she didn’t wait for him to get her door. She scrambled out of the truck and eased it closed.
Reaching into his backpack, he said, “I brought a weapon for you. It’s the one you had at my house when I left you alone with Teresa. Can you handle it?”
“Point and shoot. I’d rather have it than not.” She patted the front pocket of her jeans. “I have my knife, too.”
He grabbed her hand. “Follow in my steps. Even though I have a flashlight in my bag, I don’t want to use it out here. We shouldn’t use the lights from our phones, either.”
“Won’t they be able to follow our footsteps in the sand?” She glanced down at her own feet creating divots in the sand.
“Maybe they will, but it won’t be easier than following a GPS... And I have a plan.”
“That’s good to hear. What is it? We must be close to the border.”
“We are. That’s why we’re here. I know this terrain better than they do.”
She huffed behind him. “There are snakes and tarantulas and other...things out here, aren’t there? I got a look at a few of them after the accident.”
“The most dangerous animal out here right now is the one coming for us, and you’d better believe nothing’s going to stop him.” Rob cranked his head over his shoulder. “If they’ve realized we’ve gone off-road, they know we’re on to them.”
“And they don’t have to get out of their vehicle. They’ll reach us faster now. Where are we headed? We can’t hide out in the middle of the desert all night. I tried it.”
“We’re not going to be in the middle of the desert. We’re going right there.” He pointed to a ridge and some scrubby desert bushes.
“That doesn’t look very promising to me.” She leaned her head on his shoulder, her breath coming out in short spurts.
“You’re not supposed to be able to see it, and neither are they.” He adjusted his backpack. “It’s a tunnel, Libby, a tunnel that runs beneath the border.”
“A tunnel? The tunnel where my mother was murdered?” Libby spun around in the sand, falling to her knees. “I can’t do it, Rob. I can’t go in there.”
Chapter Nineteen
The sand and grit dug into her palms as she tried to push up to her feet.
