Her throat had gone dry. “Collin—” Her cell phone rang, making them both start. She recognized the ringtone, but it seemed to take him a moment to realize that it was her phone pealing and not his own. He laid the weapon across his thigh and dug out her phone. He took one look at the screen before his gaze shot up to hers, and he smiled.
“It’s Jon calling for you,” he said, sounding both incredulous and pleased.
Her heart jumped. “Maybe we should find out what he wants,” she said before she realized that Collin wanted Jon to hear the gunshot that killed her.
“Maybe we should,” he said. As Collin answered the call, she considered grabbing the gun lying on his thigh.
The sound of Jon’s voice stopped her as Collin put the phone on Speaker and handed it to her.
“Jon?”
He repeated what he’d said only moments before, but neither she nor Collin seemed to have understood his words. “You need to get out of the car,” Jon said with urgency. “The drugs aren’t in the car. They’re in another vehicle going to a different border crossing. The car you’re driving has a bomb in it. I’m not sure what triggers it. Don’t answer your phone in case—”
“Bullshit!” Collin said loudly. Gripping the phone, she started to open her door, but he grabbed her arm. “You aren’t going anywhere. He’s making this up.”
“We don’t have time to argue.” Jon’s voice was calm but determined. “I overheard Gerald on the phone outside the house before I got away. You and Kate are the diversion, so the real load can pass through another crossing without as much attention.”
“Why would he lie?” Kate demanded of Collin as she tried to pull free of his hold on her. “Isn’t this exactly what you’d expect them to do? Double-cross you? Get rid of us both?”
* * *
COLLIN SAW KATE glance behind before reaching for her door handle again. His first thought was that Gerald had sent someone to take care of him. Not that he was buying into anything Jon Harper was trying to sell him.
To his surprise, he saw the carpenter’s old pickup barreling down the road toward them. How had the man found them again? He swore.
Kate had reached for her door handle, but he was faster. He grabbed her arm in a steel grip as he threw the SUV into gear and took off down the road. He could outrun that old pickup. Because he wasn’t letting Jon get his hands on Kate. Not again. He’d kill her before he’d let that happen.
He let go of her arm, fairly sure she wasn’t stupid enough to leap out at this speed. The gun that had been on his lap fell to the floorboard. He saw Kate try to reach for it as it fell. He shoved her back.
“There’s a bomb in this car,” she cried. “You heard what he said.”
He shook his head. “That’s crazy. It makes no sense.” He hated that she had him doubting himself. Gerald was a first-class asshole, but why would he kill the two of them? What would be the point when Collin had promised he would get rid of Kate? Unless Gerald didn’t believe that he would. That he could.
Swearing, he tried to concentrate on the narrow, snow-packed road that ran through the rolling foothills. He had no idea where he was going—just that he had to put some distance between them and the pickup. “Jon’s lying! He’s just trying to get you out of this vehicle. Does he think I’m stupid?”
“What if he’s telling the truth? Don’t you wonder why Gerald was so insistent that you call before you crossed the border? And why he’s so upset now? He said it was about a shift change. Did that ever make sense to you? Collin, Gerald’s the one you can’t trust.”
* * *
KATE TRIED TO reason with Collin but knew she was wasting her breath. He had his jaw set. She could tell that he’d rather see the two of them blown to kingdom come than do anything Jon said.
Glancing back, she couldn’t see the pickup behind them because of the light snow the SUV’s tires were kicking up. Collin had the SUV floored, determined to lose Jon. “Collin, stop!” she cried. “Let this end here.”
“Not on your life,” he spat. “No way am I going to let him take you.”
At this speed, she knew it was dangerous, but he’d left her no choice. She grabbed for the steering wheel. What did she have to lose if there was a bomb in this car set to go off with just a phone call?
“What the hell?” he cried as he tried to hold her off and keep up his speed. The SUV began to fishtail on the snow-packed road as she kept fighting him and jerking at the steering wheel. He was forced to slow down to stay on the road.
She unsnapped her seat belt and attacked him, jerking the wheel so hard that for a moment, she thought the SUV might roll. If there was a bomb in it...
Collin backhanded her, knocking her into her seat. The blow stunned her, and for a moment she couldn’t see anything but white as snow began to wash over the windshield. She realized that when he’d swung at her, he’d lost control of the vehicle. He was fighting to get the SUV back on the road and failing.
As they went off the road, the front end of the SUV plowed through the deep snow, burrowing in deeper. A wave of white rushed up over the windshield, seeming to bury them as the SUV came to an abrupt stop.
Kate felt dazed from the blow and the jarring stop, her movements slow and uncoordinated. Get out of the car, her brain was screaming. Get out! Over the pounding of her heart, she heard the tick tick tick of the engine as it began to cool and Collin’s heavy breathing. He’d apparently banged his head against the side window. She realized that the airbags hadn’t inflated.
As her brain seemed to catch up, she grabbed the door handle again. She had to get out, had to get away. She pulled the handle and pushed the door, but the snow was so high that it didn’t want to open. She was trying again, pushing as hard as she could, feeling the snow slowly begin to move away, when Collin picked up the gun from the floorboard and pointed it at her.
“If there is a bomb, then we are going to die together,” he said, deadly quiet, and he aimed it at her head.
She threw her body against the door. It fell open, and she fell out into the soft, fresh snow, the door slamming behind her. She heard a pop, and the side window shattered, the glass falling over her like tiny ice cubes. Hurriedly she crawled through the snow toward the back of the SUV. She heard Collin swearing as he tried to get out of the vehicle, the snow blocking him in. She heard her side door open. He was coming after her and when he found her—
His swearing was drowned out by the roar of Jon’s pickup engine. He came to a stop where the SUV had left the road, a light snow cloud settling around the truck.
“Kate, get away from the SUV,” Jon yelled just a second before, to her horror, she heard Collin firing the gun. Pop, pop, pop.