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She began to answer, then paused when her phone rang. She answered the call, and pushed the speaker button, then held it near her chin. She forced some cheer into her voice. “Zane! Do you have news?”

“Sis! I have a little girl!” Zane nearly hollered back. “You’re an aunt!”

“I can’t wait to meet her! Name?”

Brody shook his head. What a woman. Someone was gunning for her, literally, and here she was holding a conversation like all was well in her world. She didn’t want to upset her brother, he knew. Jenna wouldn’t want to bring him into this mess. Brody didn’t know if he agreed on her keeping such a secret, but he did know that Zane Stone’s priority had to be his wife and newborn.

If anything happened to them, Jenna would blame herself forever.

He’d have to keep her safe so she could return to them whole.

She finished her phone call with her brother.

Brody hit the microphone icon on the car map and said the new coordinates Dawson gave him. The map spun and shifted. Within seconds, the adjusted map showed up on the small screen in the center of the dashboard.

“I hope all those roads are plowed,” Jenna commented.

“Me, too.” They’d be using mostly backroads to reach the small-town mechanic where their new ride was waiting for them.

The roads were plowed, but barely. It had obviously been several hours for a couple of the roads. Brody thanked God again for the invention of four-wheel drive, otherwise they would have ended up in a ditch. Several of the roads had provided a challenge just to see where the road ended and the ditch began.

The drive to the swapping location took just under fifteen minutes. Brody’s hands ached from clutching the wheel so hard.

They reached the parking lot where the new SUV waited for them. Brody handed the cops on duty his keys and hopped into the driver’s seat. He started the vehicle and prepared to move out.

One of the officers called out to him. Brody hit the electric switch to roll down his window. “Yeah?”

The officer jogged over to them. “Hey. You’re not out of the woods. I just heard a dispatch. Another car was stolen, barely ten miles from here.”

Something in the man’s voice alerted Brody that there was more to the story. “Tell me all of it.”

“The owner was found outside his house. A single bullet to the forehead.”

Jenna gasped.

Brody’s lips firmed. Execution style. Probably just a poor soul returning home from work, and the killer saw an easy way to get a car and the keys at the same time. He forced himself to consider the practicalities. He couldn’t help that man. But maybe he could still keep Jenna safe. But he needed to know everything to accomplish that.

“What kind of car is he driving?”

The officer told him the make and model of the car. It was a very common small SUV. “It’s a metallic silver.”

Again, one of the most common colors.

A second officer appeared and rattled off the license plate number. Brody added the information to his notes in his phone. “Got it. Although, I suspect he’s already swapped out the plates by now.”

Both cops nodded. “Stay safe. Keep us posted. We’ve alerted the surrounding precincts of your vehicle. If they see you speeding a bit, they’ll give you a pass. For now.”

Brody thanked the men and headed out again. Exhaustion tugged at him, but he couldn’t stop now.

“Change of plans.” He told Jenna. “He has a car and is closer than we thought. I can’t risk stopping now. But I also think he knows we’ll head to Illinois. To your grandmother. I need to think. But we can’t go directly there.”

Nor could they risk a hotel right now. Brody considered all the facts he knew. “I think we have to consider everyone a possible suspect. The killer caught you in your parking lot. And he invaded your home while you were gone and had enough leisure to search carefully.”

She gulped. “You think he knew my schedule.”

She caught on quickly. He approved of her level-headed awareness while in a crisis. “I think it’s a possibility. We need to consider that someone who knows you has supplied information, maybe not even aware of what they were doing.”

Maybe someone talked to her brother. Or someone from her work or church.