Page 334 of Romeo

That tightened something in my stomach.

He took another turn that made no sense. The white pickup continued straight. The sedan disappeared at another intersection.

The dark SUV followed us.

I turned forward again and watched Jasper’s face. “Is that SUV following us?”

His jaw shifted slightly before he answered. “Looks that way.”

Fear arrived slowly instead of all at once, because the idea didn’t fit anywhere. We were in Louisiana. We had left before sunrise. Nobody except Gator knew where we were going, and I couldn’t think of one reason a stranger would care.

“Why would somebody be following us?”

“I don’t know.”

His answer came quickly enough that I believed it.

My first thought went to the people we had left sleeping in New Orleans. “Is it somebody Granny sent?”

“Don’t think so.”

“How can you tell?”

Jasper checked the mirror once more before making another turn. “Montclair’s people wouldn’t hang that far back after they knew I spotted them. They’d pull alongside just to piss me off.”

That sounded believable too.

“What about the Bourbon Kings?”

“No reason for Wade to send somebody. He knows where we’re headed.”

The SUV remained behind us.

My hand had tightened around Jasper’s without my realizing it. He turned his palm beneath mine and closed his fingers more securely, but his attention stayed on the road.

“Need you to trust me for a little while, Ma Belle,” he said.

“I do.”

That was the easiest answer I had given all morning.

He didn’t speed away or do anything dramatic. He simply changed direction again, guiding us onto increasingly smaller roads while watching the mirrors. I had no idea where we were anymore. After several turns, even the road signs stopped helping because none of the town names meant anything to me.

Eventually, the SUV disappeared.

Jasper kept driving.

I waited for him to relax.

He didn’t.

After several more miles, he pulled the burner phone from his pocket and called Gator while keeping one hand on the wheel. His cousin answered loudly enough that I heard the joke about us already missing him.

Jasper didn’t laugh. “You got anybody checkin’ on us?”

The silence on the other end came fast.

“What you mean?”