Long Road Home(31)

The lieutenant let out a string of expletives that singed Manuel’s ears. “Get the hell out of here. Get on I-10 and don’t look back. I don’t want to get so much as a hint of you coming back to Houston.”

“We need a ride,” Manuel pointed out, trying not to piss the lieutenant off further.

“And I want my stuff back,” Jules said in a steely voice. “All of it.”

“Ask Williams to give you a ride to impound. As for your stuff, sign for it at the desk,” Barnes said with a grunt.

Manuel and Jules left the lieutenant’s office to see Williams leaning against the wall. “Come on. I haven’t got all day.”

They followed him out to his cruiser and slid into the back. “I think I’ve had enough of back seats for a while,” Jules muttered.

“Let’s just hope the Bondmobile is drivable.”

“You mean it’s not indestructible?”

“Cut the sarcasm.”

“Here you are,” Williams announced, roaring into the impound lot. “Check with McKilheny over there. He’ll get the keys for you.”

No sooner had Manuel and Jules stepped out of the car than Williams peeled away.

“I can feel the love,” Jules drawled.

“Let’s get going.”

A few minutes later, the two of them stood and surveyed the damage done to the Beamer. The back end was pretty much toast, but it should get them where they were going.

Jules slid into the passenger seat and waited as Manny got in on the driver’s side. She was wound as tight as a rubber band at full stretch. All her instincts screamed that something was wrong. And not just the fact someone had tried to make road pizza out of them.

She leaned her head back as Manny drove out of the lot.

“You okay?” Manny asked, glancing over at her.

“Yeah. Just thinking.”

“About?”

She remained silent for a long time. If she confided her suspicions, he’d think she was nuts. She wasn’t sure she wasn’t nuts. But nothing was adding up.

“Jules? Care to share?”

“Pull over somewhere,” she said with a sigh. “This might take a while.”

He pulled into a shopping center parking lot and stopped the engine. “What’s bugging you? Besides the fact your former colleagues are trying to kill us.”

“That’s just it. They weren’t from the NFR.”

“Say that again?”

“You heard me.”

“I see, and how did you discern they weren’t NFR? Maybe they don’t like driving Hummers?”

“Cut the sarcasm, Manny. I know what I’m talking about.”

“Well, you see, Jules, my question isn’t whether or not they’re the NFR. My question is how they seem to know where we are no matter where we go. I find the coincidences to be staggering.”

Her shoulder began aching in earnest, and she flexed it, rubbing her back in an attempt to ease the burning. Her memory nagged at her. She knew there was something important she was missing, but she couldn’t put the pieces together.

He was staring expectantly at her, waiting for her to expound on her statement. “It’s simply not something the NFR would do.”

No way could she explain that Northstar would’ve backed off now that she’d agreed to do his bidding. Which left the troubling question of just who was trying to kill her.

“I see. Well, if it’s not the NFR, then who the hell is it? Have more than one group pissed off at you, Jules? Maybe it has something to do with the people you’ve assassinated over the years.”

If he had lashed out and struck her full in the face, she wouldn’t have felt worse. She sucked in her breath and felt the blood drain from her face. “That’s low, Manny.” She opened the car door and got out. She needed the air, and she’d be damned if she spent another minute in the car.

Manny bolted around the car before she could stalk away. He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at him. “How do they know where we are?”

Was it possible for him to think any lower of her? “Do you honestly think I’m leading them to us?” she asked in disbelief.

His eyes glittered in anger. “I don’t know what to think. You just said it wasn’t the NFR. Yet whoever it is has the uncanny knack of finding us. They’re one step ahead of us no matter where we go.”

She jerked away from him. “Get in the car and leave, Manny. I don’t need you. I can take care of myself. Everything I’ve done is to keep my family—you—safe.”

“Goddamn it, I’m not going anywhere. I just want you to tell me the truth.”

“The truth? I have no idea what the truth is. All I know is that this isn’t the work of the NFR. Doesn’t fit their M.O.”

Manuel stared at Jules and bit his tongue to hold back his retort. That wasn’t all that didn’t fit their M.O., but he wasn’t about to get into the details of her forced recruitment again. “So who is it, then?”

She shrugged and began rubbing her shoulder again. “I don’t know.”

“Is there something wrong with your shoulder?”

She looked up in surprise. “No, why do you ask?”

He didn’t reply. “We’ve got to figure out how to get to D.C. without attracting any more attention. So far we’ve managed to make enough noise to wake the dead. I swear it’s like they have a tracking device on us, but I’ve checked the car.”