* * *
“Why did you destroy my garage door?” Jessie asked.
I looked up into the rearview mirror, taking my eyes off of I-64 for a moment. It was the first thing any of us had said in thirty minutes. Her stare caught me off guard. I started to speak then closed my mouth and said nothing.
“Jack,” she said.
“Surprise,” Bear said. “He did it for the surprise factor.”
“Yeah, well, it worked,” she said. “I sure as hell was surprised. Just like he’s going to be when I mail the bill to him.”
Bear laughed and shook his head. “Not you, Jess. If those feds had been outside your house, the crash would have surprised them. That moment of distraction would have been the difference between us living and dying.” He rolled his window down a crack. Wind rushed through the car, the cold air stinging upon impact. “Yeah, we’re in this big car, but those guys are trained. One of us would have been hit.”
I looked up at the mirror again. A look of knowing washed across Jessie’s face. Her eyes teared up. I could tell that the full gravity of the situation had finally hit her and it likely crushed against her chest.
“That was them,” she said. “Parked on the side of the street.” She looked into the mirror.
I nodded. “Sorry, Jess. We’re going to get you someplace safe.”
“Safe? How do you know they’re not following you now? How—” she pressed her hands into her face and rubbed to the side. “How did they know about me? That was them. The call. Right? How did they know you were at my house?”
“The same reason they knew the car was there.” I pulled over on the road’s shoulder and stopped the car. Got out and opened her door. “Look at me, Jess. We think…they had a way to track the car. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“No, no it doesn’t make sense. They might know the car, but they called for you. Called for you on my phone.” By this time she was half out of the car and slamming her fists into my chest.
“There are files on me,” I said. “You know what I do and who I am. Well, they do too. They have to know. It’s their job to know. When they saw where the car went all they had to do was cross check that against anyone in my file and they found you. That’s all. It’ll stop there. I promise.”
She looked at me with tears in her eyes and shook her head. Her arms lifted over her shoulders and then fell onto me, wrapping around my neck and squeezing tight. A mixture of her tears and hot breath washed over the side of my face. A knot formed in my stomach. I fought back feelings that I hadn’t allowed myself to feel in a long time.
I held her tight, running a hand through her hair until she stopped shaking. I let go, turned and got back in the car. The back door slammed and I checked the rear-view mirror to make sure she had gotten back in. She had.
“I’m calling Abbot.” I pulled out my cell phone, dialed the number and put the Tahoe in gear. The empty road behind me was a green light to jump back on the interstate. I pressed the gas and got the speed up to sixty. Abbot answered as I merged back into the travel lanes.
“Hello?”
“It’s Jack.”
He said nothing at first. I heard the sound of his fingers or an object banging on a hard surface. I pictured him sitting in his home office, behind his dark cherry wood antique desk. “What happened up there, Jack? You didn’t kill Delaney, did you?”
“What do you think?” I didn’t kill him, but I couldn’t help thinking that, in some way, I was responsible for his death. If I’d have just kept my damn mouth shut in Baghdad, none of this would be happening. I looked up into the rear-view mirror and caught Jessie’s eye. She smiled, and I looked away.
“I don’t think you did, but, well, that’s what’s being reported on—”
“I know,” I interrupted. “I saw the report. It’s BS, Abbot. We were ambushed. Delaney was hit in the back of the head. Bear took a slug to the shoulder. I tracked them down through the woods, but they had a car parked at the edge. They took off, and then returned to wait for us outside the parking lot. Managed to get by and fled on the interstate.” I paused, thought about whether or not I should tell him about Jessie. I didn’t. “The report came on TV. Then someone called for me, not on my number, and next thing I know these two spooks showed up outside at—” I avoided mentioning any names. “Outside the place we stopped to patch Bear up.”
There was a pause on the other end. I assumed he was filtering the brief conversation, trying to decide what to believe, who to believe, me or the news. I turned my head and looked at Bear, then shifted my eyes to the rear-view mirror to check on Jess. She sat just out of view, resting against the door. I returned my attention to the road. The stretch of interstate heading east toward Richmond, Virginia was empty.
“OK, Jack,” Abbot said. “Come to North Carolina. I need you close.”
“I’m not returning to Lejeune. If you think that then you can kiss my—”
“Don’t come to the base, Jack, for Christ’s sake. You think I’m an idiot?” He paused. Was he looking for an answer? Before I could respond, he continued. “Pick a place, but don’t tell me where. Some place close enough to Jacksonville that you can be there in a few hours, but far enough away you won’t be spotted accidentally.” It sounded like he shifted the phone in his hands and changed ears, the phone rubbing against his face with a sound like static as he did so. “Definitely stay far enough away that you won’t be made for a Marine.”
“You’ve seen my hair, Abbot. Nobody is going to mistake me for a Marine.” I laughed.
He didn’t. “This is no time for jokes, son. You two are in serious trouble.”
I said nothing. My eyes focused as far out as they could, settling someplace between the road, the mountains and the black darkness of the night sky.
“Some place quiet, Jack. I’m serious.” He cleared his throat. “And don’t go making a commotion when you get there. Call me in the morning, Jack. First thing.”
The line went dead. I dropped the phone in the center console. He wanted us to go someplace quiet. Plenty of places in North Carolina fit that description. He had a point. I’d want to be close enough that I could return to base if necessary. And definitely far enough away that nobody would recognize my face. He didn’t say what I knew he was thinking. Stay out of trouble. Whatever you do, stay out of trouble. Don’t give the police, or anyone else for that matter, a reason to pick us up. That would be a death sentence wrapped up like a Christmas present under the tree. And the sticker affixed to the wrapping paper would read Jack Noble.
Bear broke the silence a few minutes later. “What’d he say?”
“He said we’re in serious trouble.”
Jessie leaned forward. “I could have told you that.”
Bear started laughing, wincing between outbursts. Jessie joined in, and I did too.
The laughing trailed off. Jessie spoke up. “You think they’ll put some kind of broadcast out about my car?”
I looked at Bear who was already shaking his head at me. “They just might.”
”