Page 104 of Sheltering You

“Yes, yes.” Jasmine was nodding as if Michael could see her. “I can guess what she wants to say anyway. Tell her that I love her too.”

“I’ll do it. Derrick, take me off speaker, and I’ll give you the details.”

He did, heading toward the window. He eased the curtain aside and peeked out at the growing darkness, lowering his voice. “No luck locating Dariush?”

“No hits on the email at all. The guy’s slipperier than ice.”

“I don’t understand something. Last night, those thugs were trying to manhandle Jasmine and Rabie into the SUV. The thing is, they were both armed. Why didn’t they just use the guns to force them to go?”

“Probably the same reason your crazy stunt worked—shooting at the car. That’s what you did, right?”

“Shot a couple of tires. I tried to hit the gas tank, but I ran out of ammo.”

“Rookie mistake. Always reload after a shootout.”

“Thanks, Rambo.” Derrick deadpanned his voice. “I’ll remember that next time.”

“Not that what you did couldn’t have worked, but did they shoot back?”

“Yeah, but…” Come to think of it, they didn’t try that hard to hit anything. No windows broke. Not that Derrick had looked, but he didn’t think the car had been damaged at all. “They didn’t hit anything.”

“Maybe it would’ve worked, then.” Did Michael sound impressed? “You’ve got good instincts, obviously. I think you missed your calling.”

“You gotta be nuts to want this kind of stress in your life.”

Michael chuckled. “You’re not wrong, bro. To answer your question, I’m guessing they were told that Jasmine and Rabie weren’t to be harmed. They shot at you, but they weren’t going to risk hurting either one of them—that would’ve defeated the purpose, right?”

“True, but the threat of being shot would have gotten them into the car faster. The only reason I had any shot at stopping them was that Jasmine fought so hard.” Derrick could still see the way she thrashed and struggled, digging her heels into the ground. Maybe motivated by fear, but he had to believe at least a little of that came from her hope that, if she held out long enough, Derrick would rescue her.

“Dari probably told them not to use guns,” Michael said. “If they shot at the car, they were probably desperate. You did great.”

“Hardly. I was scared spitless.”

“If you hadn’t been, I’d be worried. I would’ve been scared too.”

That made Derrick feel a little better. “You seem concerned that they’re going to find us.” Derrick was sure to keep his voice low so Jasmine and Rabie wouldn’t hear. “How could they?”

“You guys should be safe.”

“Then why can’t Jazz and Leila talk? What aren’t you telling me?”

“What are you talking about?” Michael sounded more puzzled than annoyed.

Maybe it was the sting of the gunshot wound. Or the lack of sleep. Or the sheer…strangeness of the previous few days, but Derrick didn’t know what to think. “Dari’s men found us. Twice.”

“Yeah. The kid’s backpack⁠—”

“If it was that, then why didn’t they find us sooner? Why not at Gavin’s cabin?”

“There’s no Wi-Fi there.”

“Why not at the hotel before that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he didn’t have anybody he could send.”

“The guys who were at the airport could’ve⁠—”

“I don’t know,” Michael snapped. “I’m not in the guy’s head. It’s weird.”