Tags:
thriller,
Contemporary,
Contemporary Romance,
Military,
romantic suspense,
Entangled,
seal,
hornet,
Select,
tonya burrows,
Broken Honor,
lora leigh,
Maya Banks
was poking around under the hood of a pickup. “Hey!”
“Hi, there. Need gas?” he asked with only a hint of a Spanish accent.
“No.” Quinn studied the guy. He was about fifty and had a friendly, white smile that contrasted sharply with his leatherlike brown skin. The patch on his grease-stained overalls said his name was Antonio. “I need to know what’s down that road.”
Antonio’s gaze followed the jerk of his chin to the road the Explorer had turned onto, then his eyes tracked away again. Big red flag.
“We don’t want your kind around here,” Antonio said.
Quinn sucked in a breath and fought for patience. “What kind is that?”
“The kinda people that go out to the airfield.”
“An airfield? Who owns it?” All he got was a shake of the head in response. Whoever owned that field had the locals scared. “The Ford that just came by? You ever see it around here before?”
“Nope. And I don’t want any part of this. I just go about my business and steer clear.”
Yeah, that’s what Quinn figured. He wasn’t going to get any intel from this guy. He’d have to go in blind. “Is the road all open like this?” he asked instead, motioning to the desert around them. He could still see the Explorer bumping along, kicking up a cloud of dust in the distance.
“Oh, yeah. You can see for miles around here.”
Which meant they’d see his car coming if he tried to get close to the airfield. Fuck.
Antonio let the hood of his truck fall shut. Considering, Quinn eyed the rust bucket on four wheels. “That thing run?”
“Good enough.”
“I’ll give you two hundred bucks if you drive me out there.”
“Nope.”
Christ, he was wasting too much time, felt each passing second as it slipped away and the Explorer got farther and farther from view. But continuing on in his rental was suicide. “Five hundred then.”
“Uh-uh. I’m not going anywhere near there.” Antonio headed for the garage. “No amount of money is worth getting killed for.”
True, but this wasn’t about money for him, and he was done fucking around. He grabbed his bag out of the backseat, left a couple hundred dollars and the rental’s keys on the dash, and made a run for the truck.
And, look at that, good old Tony had even left the keys in the ignition. Quinn wouldn’t have to revisit his days of misspent youth to hot-wire the thing after all. He fired up the engine and it sounded like a bear with a sore throat, but when he stepped on the gas, the truck shot forward with surprising speed. A quick glance in the rearview mirror showed Antonio cursing him out in the middle of the dust cloud his hasty exit had stirred up.
“Sorry, pal. Should’ve accepted the money.” He raised his phone to his ear again. “Still there, H?”
“Did you just commit grand theft auto?” Harvard asked, voice dripping disbelief.
“Nah. This truck’s not worth that much. Good power under the hood, though.”
“Holy shit.”
Quinn ignored him. “You still have her on satellite?”
“Uh…yeah. Yeah. I see the airfield, too, but if she gets on a plane, I’ll lose her. I don’t have a huge network at my disposal like the government does.”
Of course it couldn’t be that easy. “What about the way you tracked Gabe’s phone in Colombia—can you do that with mine?”
“Yes, but—”
“Good. I hope that program of yours has a global reach, because if they put Mara on a plane, I’m going to be on it with her. I’ll need you to lock on my signal and find us. Send the team.”
“Oh, man. Quinn—”
“Does it have a global reach or not?”
“Yeah, of course. As long as your phone has battery power, I’ll be able to track you.”
“Then I’m getting on that plane one way or another.” Quinn stared out the dusty windshield at the winding road in front of him. Adrenaline spilled into his blood, making him twitchy. “And, Harvard, you better make damn sure the team’s right on my ass, got it?”
Chapter
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley