I was sitting in the mouth of the cave, soaking up the sun and chewing on a strip of beef jerky from my food supplies, when my phone buzzed with a text alert. I grabbed it.

That license plate you sent me the other day? Liam had written. Traffic cam picked it up on the freeway heading toward Las Vegas. Looks like our gambit worked.

A smile stretched across my face. I wasn’t home free yet, but man, that was good news to hear.

Thanks to you, I typed back. Let’s draw them farther away. Maybe a “slip” in the Miami area sometime tomorrow?

I can do that. I love thinking about those assholes running in circles.

Me too. I thanked him again and set down the phone, stretching out my legs.

A sense of immense satisfaction filled me. Grace had left a few hours ago, but I could still hear her cries of ecstasy—the ecstasy I’d brought her to. I’d tricked and evaded my pursuers. I had a plan in place to start a real life here. What could possibly go wrong?

Whatever you do, never ask that.

The rasp of careful footsteps reached my ears. I tensed. Edging back into the shelter of the cave, I scanned the landscape below. It took a moment for my gaze to catch on the movement.

A guy in a ranger uniform was just emerging from the redwood forest. He had a handheld radio at his ear. His voice carried faintly to me.

“Yeah, I got a report of someone possibly camping out by the cliffs. Figured I should take a look. No, I think I’ll be good. Just keep an eye on things at your end, all right?”

My pulse kicked up a notch. If the ranger had just been making his rounds, I’d have taken my stuff deeper into the cave and waited him out. But he was specifically out here to search for illegal campers.

Who would have reported me? I’d been incredibly careful not to be seen overnight. And there was nothing wrong with just hanging around by the cliff during the day while the park was officially open.

Of course, sometimes people got overzealous with the reporting. I hadn’t seen anyone nearby when Grace had arrived, but maybe someone had strolled by at just the wrong time and overheard something. I hadn’t been quite as careful about that.

I hefted my bags, slinging them both over one shoulder. Bracing my other hand against the cave wall, I peered out again. The ranger was scoping out the landscape all around, but he was definitely heading toward the cliff. There wasn’t enough shelter between him and me for me to slink away.

Well, I could do the same thing with him that Liam had with the Alpha Project people. Distract him with a false trail, draw him in the wrong direction.

About a quarter mile farther along the cliff, the rock face sloped down into a stretch of uneven ground heaped with boulders and smaller rocks. I focused on one of those.

A prickle of energy flowed through me. With a shove of my attention, a stone about the size of my head tumbled down the pile.

The ranger’s head jerked around. He picked up his pace, his hand going to the baton he carried. “Hey!” he called out. “Is someone over there?”

He passed the cave entrance without a glance in my direction. I gave another rock a mental push for good measure. As it clattered down the shallower slope, the ranger sped up to a jog. “Hello?” he said.

The second he’d vanished out of view around the side of the slope, I hopped down from the ledge outside the cave. Hustling as fast as I could while still setting down my feet quietly, I ran for the redwoods.

More scree rattled behind me as the ranger must have been climbing through the scattered rocks. Good, that would cover up any sounds I was making. My breath sharp in my throat, I ducked into the shadows of the forest. When I’d put a few trees behind me, I slowed down to a brisk walk.

Okay. One problem avoided. What to do now? Trying to find another hideout in the park didn’t seem like the wisest idea.

Well, I could assume at least some of the Alpha Project people had left the city. I had other IDs and credit accounts I could draw on. I could find another hotel somewhere on the fringes and hang out there for a while. No visits from Grace this time, but our interlude today should hold me over for a while, as much as I’d want to see her.

Before she’d headed home, we’d come up with a much more subtle way for her to let me know how she was doing from here on. Once a day, she’d make a post on her Facebook page that included the keyword we’d decided on. It wouldn’t tip anyone else off, but I’d know it meant there was nothing to worry about.

How long would we have to wait before we saw each other face to face again? I turned that question over in my head as I headed toward the parking lot where I’d left my new rental car.

A week of distance didn’t seem long enough, but much longer than that would be hard to take. Maybe we could come up with some ways for her to test whether anyone was still following her around before we arranged a real meet-up.

The lot was half full when I got there, various people having headed out for a quick nature walk in the late afternoon after they’d finished work. My gaze skimmed over the other vehicles, but nothing jumped out at me as reason for concern.

I tossed my bags in the back of the Toyota I’d rented and turned it toward the city. I’d head to the south end this time, to put as much distance between me and the last location Alpha Project had tracked me to as possible.

Maybe they snuck up on me, or maybe I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should. All I knew was one moment I was considering ways to see Grace again, and the next my eye caught on a shape in the rearview mirror.

A dark blue sedan with tinted windows. My stomach flipped over. The car was at least twenty feet behind me on the road, keeping pace. With the sun shining off the darkened windshield, I couldn’t make out even a hint of the figure in the driver’s seat.

Was there the slightest chance this was some other dark blue sedan, the biggest coincidence in the history of the universe? I doubted it, but I wanted to check before I took any more extreme measures.

I turned left earlier than I’d intended too, staying at the same speed. No point in giving away that I’d noticed anything wrong. There was nothing down this road but a row of suburban houses.

The blue sedan turned after me. Well, it could be the driver just happened to live or be visiting someone down here.

I took a right, and another right, heading back toward the highway now. The sedan stayed behind me, never slowing. My hands clenched around the steering wheel.

All right. That answered that question.

I pulled back onto the highway, and the sedan followed suit. I didn’t know where I was going, but the only thing that mattered at the moment was losing the car on my tail. Deeper in the city, vanishing would be easier. More traffic and pedestrians to get between me and my tail. More buildings to hide my route.

The blue sedan trailed behind me all the way through the suburbs. When I got off the highway again, it eased up until it was no more than half a block behind me, but it didn’t press too close. Did they really think I hadn’t realized what they were up to yet?

As we passed into a commercial strip, I made a sudden lane change and whipped around a corner to the right. For a second, I thought my escape might really be that easy. But before I could make another turn out of sight, the blue sedan swerved after me. Shit.

I took a left and another right, weaving closer to downtown. The sedan crept closer with each turn. My heart thumped. They were getting less cautious now. Any moment they might decide to stop simply tailing me and try to stop me in my tracks.

There was only one car between us when I had to stop at a red light. I watched the sedan from my rearview mirror, ready to run the red if one of those doors started to open. A teen crossing the street kicked at a ragged plywood board that had fallen near the curb, and my spirits lifted. A long, heavy nail protruded from the middle of the slab of sealed wood. Perfect.

I split my attention between the board and the sedan behind me. The light switched to green. As I hit the gas, I yanked on the board with my mental energy at the same time.

My car surged forward. The plywood skidded across the road to land right in front of the sedan’s front right tire, a second before it reached the intersection.

There was a thump as the wheel hit the board. The tire immediately began to sag. A smile twitching at my lips, I pressed the gas harder. As the sedan slowed with a crunch of the board and a hiss from the tire, I roared around the next turn, out of their view.

I drove on, whipping back and forth through the streets. When I’d put a couple dozen blocks between me and the last place I’d seen the sedan, I pulled over to the curb and leapt out.

They knew this car now—it was no good to me. Slinging my bags over my shoulder, I hurried down the street.

They must have followed me from the park. How had they even known to look for me there? Unless they’d tracked Grace there somehow...

My chest tightened. That had to be it. And if they’d tracked her there, that meant they hadn’t completely bought her story yesterday. And now they knew for sure she’d lied to them.

Before I’d thought it through, my hand had leapt to my phone. I caught myself. No. I kept that burner family-only for a reason. I could check in on Grace without jeopardizing our entire communication network. The same way I’d first given her an alternative way to contact me.

I ducked into the first convenience store I passed. A small rack of prepaid phones stood next to the counter. I grabbed one, paid the woman behind the counter, and had already cracked open the plastic casing before I’d stepped out of the store.

I tapped in Grace’s new number and a quick message. It’s me. The kitten’s climbing up the curtains again. How are you doing?

Kitten was the keyword we’d agreed on. She’d know it was me.

My fingers tensed around the phone as I waited for her answer. She could be away from the phone—in the shower, taking a nap, with a customer at work and unable to check it yet. There was no reason to worry just because she didn’t respond instantly.

I walked for another ten minutes. The phone stayed silent. I made myself keep going for another ten after that before I gave in and lifted the phone again.

This time I put in a voice call. The phone on the other end rang and rang. Then voice mail picked up with a click.

I hung up. My feet kept walking. I kept staring ahead of me, but I hardly saw the street.

Something had happened to Grace. I felt it with an ache that ran right through the middle of my chest. But I had no way of finding out what.