From Darkness (Hearts & Arrows Book 3)(75)

“No,” she said on a small laugh, “I guess I didn’t really believe that.”

“Smart cookie. Listen, I’m right around the corner. I can be there in just a couple of minutes. I’ve got something.”

“What?” The excitement in her voice fluffed his ego, and he smiled.

“I called in a favor. I have Rhodes’s new name and Social, and I have a good idea where he’s going.”

“Oh my God. Where?”

“Washington.”

She paused before saying with more relief than even he felt, “Thank you, Jon.”

“Don’t mention it.” He cleared his throat. “I’ll be there in a few. Just sit tight.”

“All right.”



Josie wiped her sweaty palms on her thighs as she paced, more nervous waiting for him than before she called him. She hadn’t really expected Jon to keep going and certainly hadn’t thought he would find any leads. But that was why she needed him after all.

She tried to balance her relief and gratitude and giddiness with her intent to be angry, repeating her mantra in her mind, He hurt you. He left you. He chose her.

He knocked, and she jogged to the door, hesitating, her hand hovering over the knob for a moment before pulling it open.

Jon leaned against the doorframe on his forearm with twinkling eyes and a crooked smile, looking proud of himself. She felt something inside her shift, a flutter in her chest when she looked at him. It was the remnant of what she’d buried so far down in her heart, she hadn’t truly believed it was still alive.

Hope.

She felt herself smile back at the smug bastard.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

She rolled her eyes to cover for the fact that she’d been standing there like an idiot. “Come in, smart-ass.”

He made his way in, and she smelled the leather of his jacket as he walked by.

“Is that any way to treat your knight in shining armor?” he asked.

“No horse, no knight,” she said, glad his back was to her, as her cheeks were on fire.

He just had to be charming. It was like it was genetic, completely beyond his control.

He dug into his back pocket and handed her a slip of paper with a name, address, Social, and driver’s license number on it.

Josie’s mouth hung open, feeling like she held the map to El Dorado in her hands, humbled and disbelieving. “I can’t believe it. You actually did it,” she whispered. Her eyes met Jon’s. “You must have been owed one hell of a favor.”

“Jimmy and I have been friends a long time,” he said seriously. Then, he smiled. “And yes, he owed me one hell of a favor.”

She sat down heavily on the couch, her mind racing as she stared at the scrap of paper. “Washington. He’s definitely trying to get as far away as possible. Why not just jump the border?”

“His picture is posted at every border crossing into Canada. I called in a favor on that one, too. Anyway, it’s cheaper and faster for him to get US papers than to try to get Canadian papers and a passport. He’s driving, and he’s driving to Washington to take over this man’s identity. Right now, he’s somewhere between here and there.”

Josie opened her laptop and pulled up an interactive map, inputting the cities until the direct driving route was outlined in blue. “As smart as Rhodes has been, I don’t believe he’d take the fast and straight route, which means it’ll take him twice as long to get to where he’s going. Do you think we can catch him on the road?”

“I think it’s possible.” Jon sat down next to her, and their thighs touched as he leaned in to look at her computer screen.

Goosebumps trailed up her arms and shoulders to the hairs on the back of her neck, and she took a breath that was filled with him.

He hurt you. He left you. He smells good.

Wait, what?

She cleared her throat.

“He would stay off the interstate, but he’d be as direct as possible. Something like this.” She pointed at the screen to a scenic route. “I think he’d be cautious and stay off the road when there wasn’t a lot of traffic. Assuming he stopped every night, at about five hundred miles per day at a slower pace…that would put him about…here.” She pointed to a small town in South Dakota.

Jon nodded. “If we leave now, we could take the highway to gain on him. Once we hit around here”—he pointed to a spot in Montana—“he can only take the highway. There’s no other way to get into Spokane, not without taking about a four-hour detour. I think he’d risk a few hundred miles on the interstate to save the time. We should be able to catch up with him at that point.”

“But what about this route?” She pointed to an alternate route that ran through North Dakota. “Or this one,” she said as her heart sank.

There were too many variables.

“This is too risky, Jon. There’s no way to know where he is, what route he’d take, not with any certainty. We’re never going to find him.”

“I don’t know, Jo. I think he would go through Montana; that’s where he’s from. He’s familiar with it, and I think he’d take a route he knows over one he doesn’t. The real question though is, just how are we going to find him?” He stared at the screen for a moment. “He’s got to use cash, which means he’ll only be able to stay at motels. The number of possible places on either route is limited.”