“We'll sit for a half an hour then go down and grab something to eat. Then we should get some sleep while we can.” He took the gun out of the waistband of his pants and set it on the dresser.
“You don't snore, do you?” Sleeping in the same bed as Dracht didn't bother her. He'd earned a level of trust over the course of the week.
He smiled devilishly. “Probably not any louder than you do.”
***
“This is going to get ugly in a hurry if they somehow saw us take this van.” Rhett heard the helicopter at the same time she did. He changed lanes and stayed right at the speed limit.
Evelyn didn't think she could be anymore stressed or tense. “What do you think they'll do? They won't shoot at us, will they?”
He glanced across the minivan like he could feel the fear resonating in her voice.
“Not to kill, just to disable. Remember, they want information more than anything else.” He took a right and sped up, following behind three other vehicles toward a red light.
“But what if they miss?”
“They're not trained to miss.”
“What about you?” Evelyn thought she knew the answer before she asked. Rhett, if it came down to it, no matter who he worked for or with, was expendable.
“Don't worry about me. Let's see if they follow.” He went left at the light, ducking his head to glance out the windshield.
As far as Evelyn could tell, the helicopter was circling back in the area they'd just left. She wrenched around in her seat, glimpsing it in the air. “I see it. It's shiny black--”
“Solid black? Or like with lines separating the paint?” he asked.
“No, no lines. Just solid black.”
“That's them instead of the local authority. We're going to have to find another place to launch. They got lucky that time, but they don't have the manpower to cover every dock in the country.”
Evelyn saw the helicopter swoop away from the direction of the hotel—and toward them. It panned out of view and she twisted the other way, peering between the seats out the back window.
“It's coming...”
“They don't know this is us. Not yet. If we get all erratic, drive crazy, then we'll draw them right to us.” He put another block between them and the hotel.
“Rhett, where in the world are we going to go? They'll know we're somewhere close by. What if the person who owns this van reports it stolen?” She sat back straight in her seat when the helicopter didn't seem to be zoning in on them, only widening the circle it made in the sky.
“Then they'll try and find it just to check and see if we were the ones who stole it.” He hooked a right and another left, always steering away from the direction of the hotel. “As to what we're going to do, we're going to find someone to take us to Ithsmia.”
She saw him looking for something specific on the sides of the road while he drove, hawkish and intent as he'd ever been. Evelyn's heart rate had only just started to settle down after the close call with the SUVs and the semi.
Without warning, he cut across a lane of traffic and pulled into the parking lot of a florist shop. Steering into a space, he left the engine idling and made eye contact with her.
“Stay here. Lock the doors and honk if anyone even looks like they're trouble. I'll only be a minute.”
“But Rhett, I--”
“I'll only be a minute,” he assured her. Like he found her irresistible right then, he leaned over and planted a hard kiss on her mouth.
Then he opened the door and got out.
Evelyn touched her lips where the warmth and tickle of whiskers remained. She locked the doors like he told her and kept a sharp eye out around them. Between the tops of two buildings, she could see the helicopter still circling over the spot Rhett had caused a diversion. As long as it didn't come this way again.
Rhett emerged out the front doors of the shop a few minutes later. Trailing him was a tall young man, impossibly thin, with wire rimmed glasses and a serious expression. Rhett came to the car and opened the door, turning the engine off but leaving the keys in the ignition.
“Let's go,” he said, grabbing the bags next.
Evelyn didn't ask or argue. She got out and followed Rhett and the young man over to the delivery van. White, with a painted on spray of flowers and the florist name on the side, it was roomy enough to fit her and Rhett.
The employee opened up the back doors and gestured them inside, sliding a surreptitious look at Evelyn, then beyond her to the street.
Rhett must have used the same witness protection story he'd used on the last guy.
“Thanks for helping us out,” Evelyn said in fluent Greek.
“Anything I can do to help.” Sober and studious, he nodded.
Evelyn and Rhett tucked themselves between black cone shapes that held bouquets and arrangements upright and a half wall behind the front seat with holes dotting the front for single flower displays.
“Remember, if you come to a check point, just act normal. If they insist on searching, let them,” Rhett told the employee.
The young man nodded and closed the back doors, dousing them into temporary gloom.
“Do you trust him not to call and turn us in?” Evelyn asked, drawing her knees up to her chest.
“I gave him a pretty hefty incentive to do as I asked.” Rhett couldn't make as small of a package as she could, so he stretched his legs out and rested the bags on his thighs.
Evelyn eyed him past her shoulder as the employee got in and started the van. She could smell remnants of flowers all around them.
“And you used the witness protection story?” she asked, whispering so the driver couldn't hear her.
“Mhm. He bought it hook, line and sinker. Seems like a good kid. Didn't see any video cameras in there, either.”
“Maybe, finally, we'll get a break.”
“It's about damn time.”
***
Alexandra stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Skin pink from a hot shower, black hair sticking to her shoulders and back, she thought she looked ridiculously wholesome and more like a college student than a woman on the run. Her teeth shined when she pulled her lips back to check them; Dracht had gone down to get food from the restaurant and she'd used the toothbrush packed in her bag to give them a judicious scrubbing after they ate.
She had a thing about going to sleep with gunk in her gums.
Leaving the toothbrush to dry on the stained sink top, she toweled the rest of the water off her body and found fresh jeans and a new shirt to pull on. Plain, white, short sleeved. Socks, too, and shoes but those were out by the closet. She'd taken advantage at the chance to fill her belly and wash the day's grime away, but she wondered if she'd be able to actually sleep. It was still the middle of the afternoon, the sun bleeding through the cracks in the curtains, and she wasn't used to napping randomly. She supposed she should be more tired than she felt after staying up to talk to Dracht while he drove them away from the blind clearing in the foothills.
He'd gotten a shower before her, brisk and efficient and never letting his guard down—he'd refused to totally close the door to the bathroom so he could hear if anyone tried to get inside. She couldn't help but admire his dedication and perseverance.
Out in the room, she discovered him standing near the window finishing off a bottle of water. In those moments when she caught him unaware, she studied his profile. Strong jaw, masculine brow, full mouth and a goatee lining his chin. He wore his dark hair loose, foregoing a brush to negligently drag his fingers through for style. To look at him, Dracht reminded her of the Templars from centuries past; big, broad, powerful and tough as steel.
She wouldn't have ever expected to find any as honorable and upstanding as Dracht and his brethren. Her skeptic view was undergoing a metamorphosis the longer she knew them.
He turned right then and caught her staring.
Alex wasn't the type to stammer and blush; she smiled and said, “I thought you'd be asleep b
y now.”
“Not yet. We should both try though while we have the time.” He tossed the water bottle away and snatched his gun off the tiny table. He was fully dressed down to his boots, belt and weapon.
Alexandra put her tennis shoes on first and flopped onto the mattress. It squeaked. “I thought a full belly and a hot shower would make me sleepy.”
Dracht laid back on 'his' side with more care than she had, leaving the gun right by his head on the nightstand. “Maybe if you close your eyes.”
“I'm tryin'.” No she wasn't. She was staring up at the ceiling, trying not to dwell on the fact that she was going home. Going back to Eden. The more she thought about it, the more she didn't want to go.
Wiggling her shoulders into the bed, she arched a hand back behind her head and crossed her ankles over each other. Less than five minutes later, even as she was thinking she wouldn't ever sink into dreams, she succumbed to sleep.
Chapter Eight
After an hour searching the truck stop and surrounding area, after questioning every driver in sight, Dragar gave up and got back into the Landcruiser. His mood wavered between confusion and fury. Confusion that she'd seemed to vanish into thin air, and fury that he'd let her slip out of his grasp. It was his job to protect her, and he couldn't even find her.
How the hell had this happened.
He knew she and Alexandra were adept at self defense, and he'd been right there in the bathroom, close enough to hear any struggle or fight. Either the agents had crept up on them unaware, or she'd done the unthinkable; ditched out because she didn't intend to go back.
Those seemed like the only possible solutions.
A thorough check turned up no one who even remotely resembled government agents, and he'd even questioned some of the truckers, all who said they hadn't seen a thing.
One minute Minna had been there, the next she was gone.
Grinding his molars, he drove back into Athens via every short cut and back street he knew. Parking a half mile away on a knoll, he took the binoculars from his bag and stood in front of the vehicle to bring the stronghold into view. As he suspected, the structure had been seized. Black SUVs sat out front of the gate and more were up near the steps leading to the front doors.
At least he'd had the foresight to have Roman move Christian out of the stronghold and into another, secure location only a few of them knew about. The agents had been left behind with enough food and water to see them through for a week. Dragar, unwilling to risk anymore Templar lives, had dispersed the remaining Knights.
Good thing he'd taken the precaution.
It wasn't often he failed in his missions and it sat ill with him now that he'd lost track of Minna. He should have never let her out of his sight. With contact severed between he and the other two groups, Dragar had no way to meet up with them on the road or catch up at the gate leading to Eden.
Or whatever it was they had to go through to get there.
Cursing under his breath, he got back into the Landcruiser, put the binoculars on the seat beside him, and wheeled away from the site. He couldn't decide if Father Valanzano's phone lines would be compromised but he suspected so. Nothing was ever that secure if people had the right connections. He also didn't want anyone listening in to realize he'd lost Minna.
Maybe they'd snatched her right out from under his nose.
But it did her, nor him, any good to confront the people with the SUVs and get himself captured.
Making a decision, he sped along the back roads, avoiding all main intersections and business districts, toward the sanctuary. Dragar took care to make sure he was not followed; once he was within three miles of the stronghold, he switched back, sped through narrow alleys and made hard turns at the last second to lose any possible tail.
He was getting paranoid in his old age.
There was a good chance that if Dracht or Rhett had trouble, they would phone the sanctuary as a last resort. He intended to be there to intercept their call and pass on the information that one of the sisters was missing.
***
In the dark, cool interior of the florist's van, Evelyn dripped sweat like they were sitting in an oven instead of a car. For twenty minutes, the employee drove them along the route Rhett had specified. So far, they hadn't been stopped. The sound of the helicopter faded not long after leaving the area of the hotel and every time she leaned forward to peek out the front windshield, she saw nothing alarming or startling.
No black SUVs, no blockades, no armed men.
She judged their position to be right around the interstate again, a few miles down from the last place they tried to cross. Once they got past there, some of her tension would ease. Not all, but some. The close call shook her up more than she wanted to admit.
Beside her, Rhett was a solid wall of silence and concentration. A gun rested across his thigh. He'd systematically checked all the other weapons with determination she was becoming used to.
Evelyn marveled over his preparations, the way he carefully arranged other items she couldn't see inside the black bag.
“You have money on you, right?” he asked, too quiet to be heard by the driver.
“Yes. What I had on me and what you gave me earlier.” About four thousand dollars all together, she estimated. Rhett hadn't taken the time to count it out. He'd simply sliced the bills down the middle and handed her half.
“Remember, if anything happens, I'll distract and you get the hell away from here.”
She frowned. “I'm not going anywhere--”
“Evelyn,” he said, a warning in his voice. “You take a gun, an extra clip, and get away. There's enough money to get you into a car, or a hotel room. Something.”
“I think it's better if we stay together--” He cut her argument off with nothing more than a hard stare.
Evelyn refused to wither under it. She stared back, inwardly loathing this part of the process. Who was she kidding? She didn't like any of it.
“Sir?” the driver said from the front seat.
“Yeah?” Rhett answered without looking away from her.
“They're stopping the cars up here.”
“How far?” Rhett snapped a look forward, shifting his attention.
“About a quarter mile up.”
“What else do you see?” Rhett got into the bag and withdrew three more guns. Two he laid right on her lap. “The safetys are on.”
“Uh...looks like a random checkpoint? They're pulling over some cars, not others.”
“Any black SUVs or other out of the ordinary looking vehicles?” Rhett asked, leaning forward to get a glimpse out the front window.
“What are those tank like cars called? Hummers? Two of those and a few unmarked sedans, by the look of it. Undercover something or others, I bet.”
Evelyn, steeling herself, picked up one and tucked it into the front waistband of her jeans. The other she palmed, accustoming herself to the feel of the grip again. A bead of sweat slithered over the edge of her lip and across the seam of her mouth.
“Just act normal, like it's an every day delivery. If they ask to look in the van, stall them as long as you can. If they find us, pretend you had no idea we were in here and tell them you were driving where ever on personal business, not for the florist's shop,” Rhett added. “If they make you open the back doors, dive out of the way immediately after you do.”
“Why not say I'm going to pick up some flowers we're out of?” the driver asked.
“Because they'll check your story, and if you can't back it up, they'll bust you. This way, you're just a victim instead of an accomplice.”
The driver grew silent when he heard that.
“How much farther now?” Rhett didn't let the silence linger long.
“About eight more cars and we'll be there.”
Evelyn pressed her spine against the side of the van, licking the salty bead of sweat off her skin. She longed for the peace of the Kineta hotel room. For a little while, she'd been able to believe all would b
e right with the world.
“Okay, there's a guy in dark shades walking back to each car, asking the drivers something through the window,” the driver reported.
“Thanks. Don't say anything more now. If they see your mouth moving with no passenger, and no phone, they'll get suspicious faster. Leave the window down so I can hear what they say.” Rhett gathered himself into a crouched position that didn't expose him to anyone's view.
Evelyn met his eyes and held them. She could read his thoughts as well as if he was speaking aloud: If they take me down, get away. Don't stay behind.
She gave no promises in return, couldn't force herself to agree. He thinned his lips in displeasure.
The van inched forward, tires cracking over debris on the asphalt.
A moment later, a man's voice drifted in, Greek flowing quick and free from his tongue. “Has anyone stopped you to ask for a ride today?”
“No one,” the driver said in an airy tone. “What's going on?”
“Have you seen these people?” The sound of paper crinkled as it passed from one hand to another.
Evelyn sucked in a silent breath of air. Pictures of them, it had to be.
“No sir, I haven't.” The sound of paper trading hands came again.
Several seconds ticked off an imaginary clock. Evelyn felt the weight of each one like individual anvils, pressing her shoulders down.
“Do you mind if we check the van? Just a cursory inspection and then you can be on your way.”
“Oh, sure. I have to use the key on the keychain—do you want me to pull over up here or just get out now?” the driver asked.
The second Rhett heard the request to search the van he tucked the extra gun in his hand in his waistband and fished out two odd, black cylindrical objects from the bag. He set those down and tugged out a wide, mesh belt of black that he strapped around his waist. More of the cylindrical grenades and several extra clips of ammunition sat in easily accessible pouches.
Panic started to creep through Evelyn's system. A confrontation was coming, no way around it now. Violence, face to face combat, made her nauseous. She glanced at Rhett. The quickness with which he prepared suggested he must have performed hours of training under strict time constraints. Here she could barely move, barely breathe, and he was busy prepping for war.
Daughters of Eve Collection (Books 1, 2 & 3) Page 33