Charlie owned a body shop. He did a little bit of business for some of the car boosters in the area, which is how I got to know him. He wasn’t connected to Kovalev, so I didn’t have to worry about him ratting on me the first chance he got. If they came to him, I didn’t expect he would keep my secrets, but at least he wouldn’t actively screw me over. Not after what I did for him. I didn’t have any other choice, though. We needed to get out of town and to do that we needed a new ride.

I glanced over at Claire. She was staring out the window. I couldn’t get a read on how she was feeling. On the one hand, she seemed almost excited, giddy. By all rights, she should be freaking out. I had to be cautious. There might be something building inside her that she wasn’t even aware of. I had seen it, back in the SEALs. Guys who thought they were serious operators, tough, unfazed by anything. For a while, they would hold it together. They would treat everything lightly, proudly displaying how they could ‘handle it.’ And then the crack would come.

It was almost inevitable. Only a psychopath could go through the stuff we did and not be rattled. I knew I was. And I had training, had been in and out of deadly peril for years. Claire was either repressing things and was on the way to a major fracture, or the life she had been living was even worse than I had imagined.

I pulled my car through the gate in the twelve-foot steel fence that surrounded Charlie’s Auto. Charlie and his partner couldn’t agree on a name, so they decided to just name it after one of them and flipped for it. The lot was big and about half-filled with cars in various states of repair. The shop was a legit business, but Charlie still did under the table work. He was good at what he did, and it was foolish to turn away the kind of money he made working for criminals.

A guy in blue coveralls that were liberally stained with grease waved me to an empty bay. I pulled in and hopped out, leaving the keys in the ignition. Charlie appeared out of his office and walked quickly toward me, a broad smile on his face.

The smile disappeared as soon as he looked at the car.

“Damn, Jason. What did you get into?”

“Oh, nothing too serious. A slight difference of opinion.” I didn’t want to tell him any more than he needed to know. It was important for him, too. If it got out that he had helped me, he needed to have deniability. “I need a new ride. You have anything running I could trade this thing for?”

Charlie’s eyes widened.

“Trade? You want to give me your ride? You must be in some serious…No. I don’t want to know,” he said, holding up his hands palms out.

“Yea, I just need something clean to get out of town for a few days. Something nondescript.”

Charlie turned in a half-circle, sweeping his eyes across the lot.

“I got you.” He smiled. “Come over here.”

I reached back into the car and grabbed my duffel bag and motioned to Claire to follow. If all went well, we would be out of here in a few minutes.

When Claire got out of the car, I saw Charlie’s eyes measure her, peering under the spare clothes I had given her. I didn’t blame him; she was gorgeous even in an over-sized t-shirt and jeans. But I was still more than a little upset with him undressing her right in front of me.

“Shall we go see the car?” I asked, prodding him along.

“Yea, of course,” said Charlie, smiling at Claire as if I wasn’t standing here.

A few minutes later, Claire and I pulled out of Charlie’s Auto in a silver, ten-year old Honda Accord. Perfectly nondescript. Even if Kovalev were to find out what I was driving, there were a thousand of these things on the road. It would be impossible to find out which one was me. I told Charlie to say that one of his tow truck drivers had spotted the car abandoned on the side of the road and brought it in. He seemed annoyed at the notion of a cover story. In reality, it may be an unnecessary risk. Cover stories have to be simple and unfalsifiable. The tow truck driver would be a loose end, unless Charlie asked him to lie, but then that would just open up more potential problems.

Oh, well. If Charlie tells someone he helped me, we still have a long head start and an untraceable car. I finally felt good as we drove away.

But when I looked over at Claire, that good feeling started to dissipate. She wore a worried frown. We drove in silence while I tried to figure out what was wrong with her, and then it hit me. Just because I had forgotten about her father didn’t mean she had.

I didn’t want to reassure her. I didn’t want to lie to her. It was heartening that Kovalev’s men hadn’t found him yet, but that didn’t mean that he was safe. And I had no idea how we were going to find him. No use bringing it up.

“Hey, do you want to get some new clothes?”

She looked over at me, seemingly stunned by the break in the quiet.

“Oh, yea.” She plucked at the t-shirt and smiled. “That would be great.”

I nodded to her and took the next left. Claire still wasn’t talking, but she didn’t frown as much. When we rolled into the Target parking lot, I was surprised to hear her let out a chuckle.

“Target? Really?”

“What? What’s the problem?”

“Well, I mean, is that really the best we can do?” She nodded toward the duffel bag. “Can’t we go somewhere a little more…upscale?”

I couldn’t quite tell if she was kidding, so I turned toward her and started to explain.

“Claire, we are trying to keep a low profile. Kovalev has people everywhere, believe me, I know. I mean, if we go into a boutique and start buying things cash, even in Vegas that is going to raise eyebrows. Let’s just get you something that fits, and…what? Why are you laughing?”

“Oh my god, Jason. Come on. I was kidding.” She kept on laughing.

Eventually, I joined in. I hadn’t realized how tense I had been all day until the laugh released it. I turned off the car and we walked into the store.

Claire quickly got annoyed with my hovering, so I left her alone to search through the racks for some new things to wear. I wandered through the aisles. I walked past sporting goods and children’s toys. It was one of those huge Targets that have a grocery store in them as well. I grabbed some boxes of energy bars and a few cases of water. We might be heading into the desert and I thought we should be prepared.

As I walked around the store, something was bothering me. That many guys waiting at Claire’s dad. It didn’t make sense. From what Claire said, he was a gambler and owed Kovalev money. I mean, they were waiting for us, in part at least. But that wasn’t it. If all Kovalev needed was to get us back, they should have just shot us both. What did he need with Claire? She was beautiful, of course, but I had seen dozens of beautiful girls pass through his hands. What made her special?

When they first found us, they tried to run us off the road, spraying bullets. If they didn’t want to kill us, why take such a risk? It was almost like they only needed Claire alive after they found out that her father was gone. But why? I knew Kovalev. He would take a financial loss just to send a message. He wouldn’t keep a hostage just to secure a bit of money. There must be something else going on. The problem was, I couldn’t figure out what it could be.

“Hey, Jason.” Claire’s voice broke into my contemplation from behind me. “Can you come help me with something?”

“Um, sure.”

“In the dressing room?”