“I’m okay, Jodi.” Seeing the terror in her friend’s eyes, Kennedy pleaded, “Please don’t run. I really do need to talk to you.”
Jodi was undecided, her muscles shifting, her eyes darting around.
Reyes looked up and beyond her, and then gave a soft curse. Almost at the same time, his phone buzzed.
“Stay low,” he said to Kennedy, pulled out his phone to glance at the screen, then palmed his gun again. “Jodi, listen to me. We’ve got company.”
“No.” Frantically, she searched the area.
“My brother spotted three people coming up from the same direction you used.”
“Brother?” she snarled, and then in the next breath, “I wasn’t followed! I couldn’t have been.”
Keeping his voice calm and even, he said, “We need to get to my truck. Now.”
A shot sounded, then sounded again and again in a terrible echo that split the quiet of the night. Immediately, footfalls thumped over the ground, shaking bushes and disturbing brambles.
“Assuming you can shoot, you need your gun,” Reyes said. “Now get your ass over here, but stay low.”
Oddly enough, Jodi did just that.
She stationed herself in front of Kennedy.
Well, that was embarrassing. “What should I do?” Kennedy asked. She desperately needed to feel useful.
Without answering, Reyes pressed them both down and used his own body as a shield. Silence descended, and somehow that was almost worse. There were two more shots, each coming from a different direction.
“They’ve fanned out,” Reyes murmured, but he didn’t look or sound worried.
Bully for him. She was worried enough for everyone. For Cade. For Jodi.
And especially for Reyes.
When his phone buzzed again, he withdrew it, used his thumb to unlock the screen and handed it to Kennedy.
Surprised, she quickly read the message aloud. “Retreating. Go now.”
Just like that, he surged to his feet, swiped up the flashlight and said, “Hustle, babe, while we have the chance.” He urged Kennedy forward with a hand around her upper arm.
“Jodi,” she said, resisting just enough to grab for her friend.
Jodi ducked away. “My car—”
“For the love of sanity...” Reyes released Kennedy to snatch hold of Jodi’s sweatshirt and then propelled them both along. “There’s something you have to see, Jodi, so stop fighting. I’m not a threat to you.”
Kennedy quickly took Jodi’s other arm. “I swear it’s true.”
Subsiding, Jodi picked up the pace. “That was your brother who texted?”
“Yeah. He’ll follow us out of here.” Reyes drew the flashlight over and around his four-door Ram truck, likely ensuring no one was near it, and then he killed the light.
“Where’s your brother’s car?”
“Where no one will see it.” He opened the rear door of the cab and hoisted Kennedy up into the narrow back seat with more haste than care, dropping the flashlight into her lap. “Figured you two would want to sit close so you can share that image on your phone.”
“What image?” Jodi hauled herself in and scooted closer to Kennedy, which put her away from Reyes.
“No lights yet, okay?” Competence personified, Reyes got behind the wheel and started the truck in what felt like a single motion. The doors locked. “I’ll tell you when.”
“Okay, Reyes.” Yes, Kennedy was rattled, but he was so calm and efficient about the whole process, she wasn’t nearly as scared as she’d thought she’d be.
“I’m proud of you,” he said suddenly. Leaving off the headlights, he turned a wide circle and easily made his way back to the uneven road.
“Me?” Kennedy asked. “Whatever for?”
“You kept it together,” he said, while being vigilant to their surroundings. “You kept your priorities straight. You even understood your friend when I didn’t. If it hadn’t been for that, I might have...” The truck bumped along. “I didn’t like seeing her restrain you.”
Both women were silent, until Jodi whispered, “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to hurt her. I just... It was a reaction. To a threat, I mean.”
“She knew that, I guess.” Reyes blew out a breath. “I didn’t.”
“You don’t trust me?” Jodi guessed.
“’Bout as much as you trust me, I’d say. Difference is that I trust Kennedy, and if she says you’re okay, I believe her.”
Knowing how confusing this had to be for Jodi, Kennedy patted her forearm. “Where are we going, Reyes?” To Jodi, information was power. She’d feel better with more details.
“Convenience mart or something. A place where there’s plenty of light. Then you and Jodi can...talk.”
“Without you giving me the evil eye?” Jodi asked.
“You’ll get the eye,” he said, “and everything that comes with it, because no matter who you are, no matter how much she trusts you, you’ve got trouble on your tail and I’m not letting it anywhere near Kennedy.”
Jodi gave her the most comically bemused expression. “Who the hell is he?”
A good question. There were many layers to Reyes McKenzie, and Kennedy wanted to uncover each one. “He’s a good man,” she said simply, because that much she knew one hundred percent.
Jodi snorted. “Yeah, like Bigfoot and unicorns, huh?” She crossed her arms and slumped into the corner of the cab. “I think I’ll wait and judge for myself.”
Reyes left the dirt road and flipped on his headlights right before he turned onto pavement and accelerated, leaving the spooky campgrounds and danger behind.
Or so Kennedy thought.
CHAPTER TEN
KENNEDY WAS ABOUT to ask Reyes if she could now use the light from her phone when he gave a low curse.
Glancing in the rearview mirror, he asked, “You two buckled up?”
Kennedy watched Jodi quickly hook her seat belt, then she answered, “Yes. Why?”
“Hang on.” He swerved sharply to the right.
Kennedy knocked into Jodi, with only the seat belt keeping her upright. The blinding glare of high beam headlights flashed into the back window of the truck, causing her heart to jump into her throat.
Reyes jerked the truck into the left lane and hit the brakes. Another truck went barreling past them and then immediately screeched into the middle of the road, stopping sideways.