Nowhere to Hide by Sigmund Brouwer Read Free Book Online

woman. “Should be with you in less than a minute. Just need to get this gentlemen his car.”

CHAPTER 12
    In less than ten minutes, they were heading down the road.
    â€œHave to make a call,” Evans said. “To the front desk and make sure they send someone to untie Mundie. If he were to vomit for some reason, he’d suffocate.”
    As Evans made the call, King kept watching for swarms of police vehicles. He couldn’t get Mundie’s threat out of his mind. “Because if you don’t untie me, every law-enforcement officer in the state is going to be looking for you within the hour.”
    After Evans finished the call, King let a few seconds of almost silent wind noise go by before speaking.
    â€œMy first question,” King said, “is why Mundie picked me up, pretending you had sent him.”
    â€œYou knew he was pretending?” Evans said.
    â€œMundie didn’t give us the code phrase,” Blake said. “You told us anyone who was part of the team would give us the code phrase. Mundie didn’t.”
    â€œYeah,” MJ said, “so King snuck up behind him with a belt to use as a choke chain.”
    â€œChoke chain” brought bad memories to King. Dead Man’s Switchmemories. It reminded him of someone who had used a real choke chain on him, intending to take King to…
    King forced away the thought, feeling a tightness in his chest return. He didn’t want to deal with a panic attack here in the car.
    â€œKing?” Evans said, pulling King into the present.
    â€œAt my house, Mundie called me William, not King,” King said. “That didn’t seem right. Then he agreed with me that you like your coffee with two creams and two sugars. You hate it that way. All you drink is black.”
    â€œThat’s right,” Evans said. “The blacker the better.”
    â€œSir, is that a racist remark?” MJ asked. “I mean, what if I said the whiter the better? Wouldn’t you be offended?”
    King did a mental face-palm.
    Then MJ said with triumph. “Wow. How about this awkward silence? One black or white joke is all it takes?”
    â€œMJ,” King said. “Really?”
    They were best friends, but there were times when MJ could drive King nuts.
    â€œKinger,” MJ said. “You must be losing a step, thinking I really meant what I said.”
    â€œDid not buy it,” King said. A second later, King snorted. “Okay, I did. But it worked only because you’re such a dork, it was an easy sell.”
    â€œDang,” Blake said. “I bought it too.”
    â€œNot me,” Evans said. Then he laughed. “Okay, yeah, me too.”
    â€œKnew it,” MJ said. “Absolutely knew it.”
    King gave it a few more beats and then asked, “So now that the comedy is out of the way, what’s going on? What about what Mundie said in the hotel room?”
    â€œAbout me conning you?” Evans answered. “I think it comes down to whether you believe me or him. He’s saying what a rogue agent would say if I were the one tracking him down. And I’m saying what a rogue agent would say if he were the one tracking me down.”
    â€œWe made our choice back in the hotel room,” King said. “And I’m not second-guessing it. What I meant was what he said about every law-enforcement officer in the state coming after us.”
    â€œFor starters,” Evans answered, “we’ve probably used up our buffer of time. Not a bad move, trying to get him to think Volvo and that it’s just the three of you on the run. So his next move is monitoring his credit card. And that will get him to the first car-rental place right away. He might even have agents moving in on it now.”
    Evans paused. “But here’s why you don’t have to worry. Mundie can’t move openly on us. He’s the rogue agent. All he has is his four guys. Or more—and