eyed the rearview and immediately spotted the vehicle that had sparked Wainwright’s concern. The gray full-size pickup had slipped in behind them shortly after Sam merged onto the highway headed toward Atlanta and his team’s base of operations three hours and some change to the northwest. The truck hadn’t raised too much concern as it had stayed a few cars back and seemed to be running with the ever-increasing Friday afternoon traffic. He kept his voice low, knowing he couldn’t avoid Amy hearing him but hoping against hope she wouldn’t understand. “You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.” Wainwright’s voice was serious and certain.
Moments like this reinforced the reason Sam liked to travel in pairs and to have someone watching his back during witness transport. There was a reason he liked to have the younger deputy back him up on days like this. Wainwright was competent and quick, with a gift for seeing what Sam couldn’t because his focus had to be out the front windshield. “When you hit the highway, the pickup crossed two lanes of traffic and cut me off to stay with you. I don’t think he realizes I’m back here, so we have the advantage on him there, but he’s definitely latched on to you.”
Sam locked his back teeth and scanned the road signs ahead, looking for an exit that wouldn’t leave him stranded in the middle of nowhere. They were rapidly heading out of town and would soon be in a broad stretch of pecan groves and onion fields, leaving few places to pull off and hide. “Run the plates and get back to me. I’m going to pull off at the next exit. Sign says there’s a shopping mall there. I can make a broad circle in the lot and see if he sticks with me. If he does, there’s a better chance of losing him on a side street than there is on the highway.”
Beside him, Amy stiffened. Sam wished there was a way to have this conversation out of her earshot, a way to keep her ignorant to the danger, but until someone invented silent speech, that was impossible.
His earpiece hummed as Wainwright spoke. “He’ll figure you out the minute you leave the highway. It might make him desperate.”
“I know.” It was a chance Sam had to take. The guy might spook and back off if he thought he’d been tagged, but it might also make him desperate enough to risk an impulsive move. “Back off enough to keep him from being suspicious of you but stay close enough to keep an eye on him.”
“Got it.”
Sam checked his mirrors to make sure he was clear, then slipped from the left lane without signaling, abruptly crossing the right lane and taking the exit at the last second.
The truck followed.
“Someone’s behind us, aren’t they?” Amy had one hand on the grab handle above her head and the other holding tight to the seat beside her. She was even more ashen than she had been before. If Sam weren’t already familiar with Amy and her hard-set determination, he’d think she was about to pass out on him. It was a good thing he’d run up against her stubbornness before. She wasn’t one to knuckle under easily.
But she was also prone to panic attacks, and Sam couldn’t risk one now. From personal experience, he knew they could bring everything to a full stop.
He could skirt the truth to protect her, but in the months he’d known Amy, he’d learned she wasn’t one who would believe an easy story. Edgecombe had always spoken plainly to her when she demanded the truth, and Sam would do no differently. When he’d caught up to her in Virginia the first time he met her, she’d smoked him out immediately and demanded he give her the whole truth about her situation. He had. With both barrels. At the time, she’d deserved to hear how foolish she’d been to run off alone.
This time, the fault was not her own so she deserved none of his righteous anger.
But she still deserved the truth.
“It looks like we’ve picked up a tail, but Wainwright is behind him and our new friend doesn’t seem to know it. We’re fine. We’ll either slip him or we’ll call in local law enforcement to keep him busy and shake him off our scent. We’re fine.” Boy, that had better project more calm than he felt. Adrenaline zipped through his veins. The truth was, the situation could get a lot more complicated. With civilians around and with the driver of the truck being a complete unknown, there were a whole lot of what-ifs that could come to fruition in the next few minutes. More of those scenarios worked against them than for them.
Wainwright’s voice buzzed in his ear. “Just got word on the license plate and you really aren’t going to like it.”
The man had a flare for the dramatic that could make him a little slow with information sometimes, but Sam took the good with the bad. “Probably not.”
“Truck is registered to a student at the community college. He was carjacked about the same time we pulled out of the parking lot and called it in. Guy hit him from behind, so he doesn’t have a description, but local LEOs are still talking to him. Kid’s fine but upset about his truck.”
So their original kidnapper had an accomplice. This operation was more coordinated than he’d suspected. Sam balled his fist and hit the side of the steering wheel.
Amy jumped but remained silent.
He’d have to be careful not to scare her any more than she probably already was, which meant he’d have to be careful what he said to Wainwright. Sam waited as cars turned left on the green light into the large shopping center parking lot. “We showed up at the right time to the college.”
“Looks like. When we descended en masse, he probably made the wise choice to keep himself hidden. Hayes is having our suspect from the college moved into interrogation now, trying to figure out who the partner is.”
In the rearview, the pickup followed Sam into the parking lot, while Wainwright got caught several cars behind him as the light cycled. Sam cruised up the broad center aisle with the pickup still two cars back. At a fork in the drive, Sam hooked a left away from the main lot into a deserted auxiliary lot closer to the road.
The pickup continued straight toward the mall.
Interesting. Far from bringing relief, the truck driver’s odd decision to break away amped Sam’s adrenaline. Their new friend knew something Sam and Wainwright didn’t. “He went his own way.”
“You’re thinking he’s either confident he won’t lose you and he’s trying to throw you off, or he’s got an accomplice who’s finally caught up and who’s got eyes on you so he’s free to move on.”
Sam slowed and eyed the cars on the other side of the parking lot. None seemed familiar. He took a second to glance at Amy, who was watching out the front window, her gaze fixed on nothing. She’d detached from the situation and seemed to be watching from a distance.
It might be for the best. According to her file and Edgecombe’s intel, she’d started having panic attacks when WITSEC faked her death in El Paso. It had been a concern the last time he’d had to pick her up. An attack at the wrong time could compromise everything. He knew all too well the coping mechanism she was using right now. Detach. Watch the world as though the whole thing was a movie. Don’t let emotions creep into the show.
Amy was doing all of that and more. Sam started to ask if she was okay, then thought better of it. The last thing he needed her to do was analyze her feelings before he could get her to a safe place to feel them.
“I’m in.” Wainwright’s voice cut through his thoughts. “I’m going to come around behind you
