It didn’t take them long to get back on the road. Paranoia had him eyeing every car that drifted close to them or followed them at any length. It was frustrating to no end and she felt it rolling off him. They didn’t bother clogging the air with small talk.

His focus was kept on the road, and she tried to look for any cars that followed them that looked suspicious. She didn’t have any idea what it was she was looking for. It made her feel useless even though he had instructed how to reload clips to his pistols. Her fingers had worked the bullets into the clip with an efficiency that she contributed to feeling the pressure from what happened back at the motel.

If she hadn’t insisted they stop, they wouldn’t be in this position. He wouldn’t have been nearly shot. This was her fault. He could have been killed and it would have been all her fault.

They plowed through Albuquerque without bothering to stop. When the traffic started to thin out from the large city, she noticed a town car behind them. Fear made her quake, and she glanced at Scott, wondering if he spotted it too.

He had both hands on the wheel, and he appeared to be gripping it so tightly his knuckles were white. That was all the confirmation she needed. He knew they were there.

He didn’t seem to be making any effort in losing the car tailing them this time. He allowed them to continue to follow without any efforts to shake them.

As they passed through a city called Truth or Consequences, her stomach dropped. She spotted another car. This one lingered further back. “There are two cars,” she observed, her stomach knotting up. Who was following them? How many enemies had she earned while she worked for the CIA?

“CIA is probably one,” he told her lightly, deciding not to pull punches. “The other is probably the people who attacked us before. The agent that attacked you a few days ago—pretty sure she’s Russian.”

“Sasha?” she breathed, wincing as she remembered the terror of being paralyzed and stuck under that woman. She had been trying to be persuasive as she was being seductive, and Jovana hadn’t been interested in any of her methods, especially considering she hadn’t been able to move or resist.

“Probably.” He nodded. He wasn’t going to hide how dire their situation had gotten.

“What do we do? Is there anything I can do?” She still had two of his pistols loaded in holsters at the ready. Though what they would do on the interstate, she didn’t know.

“We will have to lose them somehow.” He didn’t sound like he thought they could achieve a feat of shaking two cars. “I have a plan.” He shot her a look, and she could see desperation in his eyes. “Do you trust me?”

“Do you really need to ask?” She tried not to sound offended, but her arms folded over her chest and she might have glared at him. They had come this far because of him. Surely, he couldn’t doubt her faith in him now, could he?

Relief seemed to flood his features. He relaxed back into the seat despite their situation. “Glad to hear you say that.” He took the first exit, getting off the I-25, and began winding their way through the city of Las Cruces. They were so close to the border.

They lost one of the tails, though she thought that it didn’t seem to make the effort to stay on them like the other car did. Did they realize there was another car following them? Were they working together or not? She didn’t know, but she was relieved to see one less car behind them.

The other didn’t waver from the position they had behind them. If anything, it followed them closely to the point that if they had any doubts that they were being followed before, it was more obvious now.

“One down,” he said to her. “One to go. Time for evasive maneuvers.” He punched the gas and took them outside the city, away from the highways and miles from the interstate. She worried, but she remembered that she trusted him. He hadn’t done her wrong yet.

When Scott veered off the road and started taking them into the desert, she started to worry more. The ride began to get bumpy the further they got away from the road. The spare tire probably didn’t help the ride, nor did the fact that he was driving faster than was probably safe with a spare and off-road. At the first large dune, though, he had them rolling to a stop. “Ever fire a gun before?”

“I have some training,” she admitted, striving to think back at the time she had put in at the gun range. It was very unlikely that it would have prepared her for this situation. “But I doubt that my aim is as good as yours.”

“As long as you don’t shoot me or you, I think that will be fine.” He grabbed his duffle bag and they both got out of the car. He led them over the top of the dune, both of them struggling with their footing and trying their best to rush, but when she spotted the cloud of sand, their pursuers weren’t that far behind and she ducked down. He took time to check a pistol and pointed out the safety for her before offering it to her.

He then took out a small rifle from the bag. She didn’t even have a name for it. It came in pieces, and as soon as he had it together, he was steadying it in the sand and taking aim on the approaching car. With the rifle in hand, she saw him seem to center himself. It was like every noise around them quieted as he took aim. This was him in his element and he was deadly.

While this wasn’t her element, she did take a breath and tried to calm the worries in her mind. She spread out on her stomach and watched the car warily as she took aim at it with her borrowed pistol. She doubted that she would be able to hit it seriously, even with it coming straight at them in a straight line.

He didn’t wait or speak. As soon as he seemed to have the shot that pleased him, he took it. The car swerved and slowly rolled to a stop, letting them both know he had hit something. “One down,” he growled softly, and she watched him take aim again. “One to go.”

She watched as the door flew open and the other person in the car flew out of it in a flash. She heard Scott begin to curse under his breath. “Definitely Sasha. Definitely the Russians,” he commented as he stood carefully, still using the dune as cover. “Give me your pistol and use the scope on the rifle to keep an eye on her movement.

If you see her getting close to you or whatever, don’t hesitate to take her out.” He seemed to see her doubt and he got close, getting in her face. “If you let her get to you, she will hurt you and she won’t kill you until she gets everything she wants from you.”

She offered him the pistol he had given her, nodding shakily. She had never killed anyone before, and the idea didn’t appeal to her. She had grown up in a warzone, but the only time she saw death was at someone else’s hands. She worked for the CIA, but she was an analyst and she’d never pointed a gun at another person.

She didn’t hesitate to do as he told her, quickly taking up the rifle and aiming it where they had seen the remaining pursuant had taken cover. There were boulders, a cactus, and a twisted husk of a tree for her to hide behind. She fought to find the woman, spying movement behind a boulder. She tensed her finger at the trigger. “The rock!”

A shot came from behind it, quicker than she could react to retaliate. Sand kicked up to her left and she realized that she was the target. Perhaps Sasha didn’t realize she had the rifle. She kept watch as Scott drifted through the sand to their car. He kept his pistol trained on Sasha as he made his way to her, trying to be as subtle in his movement as he could. Thinking she could help, she fired a shot at the boulder, watching as bits of rock shattered when the bullet struck.

“We just want the girl,” the other woman shouted. There was an edge to her voice, and it was obvious she realized the trouble she was in. “Give her up and you can walk away! We would even be willing to compensate you!” Jovana couldn’t help the hysteria that had her pulling the trigger again. The idea of being given to the Russians frightened her. Scott wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t give her up.

She saw him closing in on the boulder and refrained from squeezing the trigger again. “Sorry,” she hollered for him to keep Sasha distracted from him. “Not interested!” She watched with satisfaction as he managed to catch the other woman by surprise, cracking the butt of the pistol against her head and effectively knocking her out.

She took that as a sign that it was safe. She stood, her grip on the rifle tight as she went to join him. He didn’t wait for her. He immediately went to the car the Russians had come in. He tugged the driver from the car. It was apparent that when he shot the rifle, his aim had been impeccable. The man was dead and no longer a threat by any means.

“Are you going to . . .” She turned to look back at the unconscious Sasha. It would simplify so many things if he just killed her, but as soon as she had the thought, she choked. This woman hadn’t tried to kill her, but she intended to interrogate her through a means that frightened her.

“I don’t like to kill women,” he said as he started to take their things from their car and load it into this one. “She’ll be out for a while and will have the fun of dealing with the elements. That’ll give us enough time to cross the border and get on a plane to Brazil.” He came and took the rifle from her. “We’ve got to get on the move again. We don’t have time to dwell on this. The longer we stall, the less time we have between us and the other car that was following us.”

He paused, eyeing the car they had been in, and leveled his pistol at the tires, shooting all of them out. “Wouldn’t be a good idea to play fair in this game, though.”

She jumped then nodded, unable to argue, and began to help him load their things into the new car. They left the unconscious operative in the sand, and hopefully, out of the game completely.