Raines scowled at him, but he nodded.
“I know the road better than anyone else. I have family here. I also have an alternative safe house if necessary. In the case, I’ll ditch you and take Mark there. Under no circumstances are you to follow me to an alternative venue. The only people I’ll communicate with are my team. Do you understand?”
The muscle jumped and danced in Si’s jaw but he gritted out, “Understood.”
“Okay then, I wanna get back on the road. It’s making me edgy being here.”
Raines turned to walk away, but then he turned back. Walker wondered if he was going to get slugged, but Si merely said, “You have the makings of a good operative.”
Walker was touched. This could have gone a lot worse.
“Don’t fuck it up.”
The touchy-feely moment was obviously over.
“I aim not to,” Walker said. “Get an earpiece from Rees.”
If Si was going to be an unwanted part of the team, he needed to be in touch with all the members.
Mark waited till they were back on the road before he spoke. “You survived the encounter, I see.”
“Yeah.”
“Is he gonna play ball?”
“We’ll wait and see.”
Mark chuckled and Walker wasn’t sure what that meant, but he had other things on his mind. Several vehicles had followed them out of the truck stop and he focused on them. He tapped his earpiece.
“Any red flags?”
“Not yet,” Rees said. “We are running through them now.”
“Si? Any of these vehicles send up any red flags?”
“Most of them have local plates. The trucks are all local businesses. Nothing making my gut twist yet.”
Walker relaxed a fraction. If trouble was gonna hit them it had a ways to go yet.
Mark sighed and sat back in his seat. “I suppose holding your hand is out of the question?”
Walker sent him a glance in commiseration. “I can’t really focus when you’re touching me.”
“Do I distract you?”
“You know you do,” Walker growled.
“Good. Let me know if there’s anything to worry about.”
Mark sat back and closed his eyes. Like most agents Walker had met, he fell asleep in an instant, a hangover from his military days. Walker envied him his relaxation. With all the tension coiled in his gut, Walker didn’t think he’d sleep until this was all over.
The vehicle ate up the miles. It was boring with Mark asleep, but boring was good. Walker could live with that. He didn’t notice the scenery, too focused on looking out for any potential threat. Mark was silent sleeping apart from the occasional snort which helped keep Walker awake. The first time it happened he nearly jumped out of his skin, but he had begun to wait for it, almost long for it to happen as a sign that he was fine and they were both still alive.
They were on the I-80 approaching Laramie and he had just started to relax a fraction when Rees’s voice crackled into his ear.
“Two possible hostiles approaching from behind you at speed. A white van and a black SUV. Both have out-of-state plates.”
Walker’s hands clenched on the wheel. “Understood. Raines, do you copy?”
“Copy that,” Raines said.
“Okay,” Walker said. “Let’s follow plan A. I’m going to focus on the driving. Rees, if necessary, you engage the hostiles. Raines, you’re my backup.”
Both men okayed their readiness to the plan, and Walker looked at Mark who was still sleeping peacefully. It was a pity to disturb him, but he’d be furious if he wasn’t told. Walker shook Mark’s leg.
“Hey, there,” he said.
Mark blinked and looked at him sleepily. “Trouble?”
“Possible trouble,” Walker said. “Two vehicles approaching from the rear. One white van and a black SUV.”
Mark frowned. “They want to kidnap me?”
He sounded doubtful, and Walker understood why. A hit on an agent was a whole different animal from kidnap. If they intended to kidnap him it wasn’t going to be for a ransom. The agency never paid ransom demands. So it was either torture him for information…or for negotiation…or for sadistic pleasure.
“Why would they want to kidnap me now? I’ve been out of the agency for years. I’m not even high profile. Lukas is the high-profile member of the team.”
“But they can’t get access to him because he’s at the Hague,” Walker pointed out.
“They take me and negotiate my release for him?”
Walker frowned. It was possible but it seemed a stretch. “Why bother killing Bridgeman? If you were gonna kidnap someone, wouldn’t kidnapping a woman be more negotiable than kidnapping a middle-aged therapist?” It was only at Mark’s flinch he realized how tactless that sounded. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Mark said. “You’re right. Rhianna would have been a better hostage.”
“Except you have a history with Lukas.”
“Only in my head,” Mark said, his tone wry.
“I mean a team history,” Walker said. He was not delving into that history unless it was essential. “Maybe they think they can use that?”
“So did Bridgeman. She worked with Lukas too. We need to talk to Mitch. Get everything we can on Rhianna’s death. Was she being targeted? Did she get a warning?”
“Use my phone,” Walker said. He pulled it out, unlocked it, and handed it to Mark. “You get the information.”
“Where are the hostiles?”
Walker looked in the rearview mirror. He could see the Ford some distance behind. No sign of either the SUV or the van. “Rees?”
“I’m behind the SUV and the van,” Rees said curtly. “They’re hanging back. Is Raines with you?”
“Still here,” Raines said.
“Copy that,” Walker said.
He hadn’t been an operative long enough to claim he had a prescient gut or an elbow which always twinged when there was danger, but Mark was right, something about this whole business didn’t make sense. An SUV and a van? They may as well have spray painted ‘we’re the bad guys’ on the sides of the vehicles.
Mark was deep in conversation with Mitch. Well, Mitch was doing the talking and Mark was doing the listening, deep lines between his brows. Whatever Mitch was saying Mark didn’t appear to like it. He looked up and caught Walker’s glance.
“I’ve put you on speaker, Mitch. Tell Walker what you just told me.”
Mitch’s brusque tones filled the vehicle. “Bridgeman received a phone call two days before she was shot. She told her husband it was a crank call.”
Walker pressed his lips together. “The same MO as Mark.”
“Yes. They paid no attention to it. There was one more call on the morning she died. Her husband answered this time. They told him it was a wrong number and hung up. We’re getting the phone records now.”
“Anything else, sir?” Walker asked.
“Not as far as her husband knows. He’s given us permission to look into their financial records. The LEOs are cooperating reluctantly if we keep our interest low-key.”
“What about the Feds?” Mark asked.