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“I think she wants you to look at the pictures, Romeo,” Slash said. “Bet there are some nudies.”
“Like I said, for Reaver. She’s his old lady.” He pocketed the phone and turned away from the bartender.
Just then, Rafe called to his friend, “Hey, Ronan, I think I’ve got them.”
Slash beat Jett and Ronan to Rafe’s table, but only by a hair.
“They’re headingout into the desert.” Rafe showed them a map with a dot moving.
“Son of a bitch. Damn Mojave swallows up shit,” Slash said.
“It’s a bus, Slash,” Tiny said.
“The Marines base out there has lost fucking airplanes in the desert, Tiny. A bus ain’t nothing.”
Rafe pointed at the map. “Looks like he went straight up I-5 and turned onto the highway headed for Victorville.”
“Out that way, there’s not much but the base, unless he’s headed for Arizona,” Slash said. He pointed at two bikers. “You two ready to roll?” They nodded and headed for the door.
Slash turned to Ronan and Jett. “We’ll play chase, rip the shit out of I-5 north along the route he took. If he keeps rolling, we should catch up with him by Ludlow. You two take the back way—head out through Ontario and pick up Twenty-Nine. Drop the hammer and you should get to Yucca Valley before he does. That’ll box him in.”
Rafe turned toward Ronan and Jett with a smile. “I’ll be sitting right here, drinking beer and tracking.” He handed Ronan and Slash each a piece of paper. “Two numbers for my two phones. Call when you see anything, and I’ll keep you updated. As long as her phone is working, he can’t get away completely.”
Ronan felt a knot in his stomach, and he could see from Jett’s clenched jaw he was feeling just as anxious. “Right. We don’t have a big window here, guys. The phone battery could die, or Taylor might find it and smash it. We better move fast. Let’s roll.”
Ronan knew the truth was that any number of things could cut off this feeble lifeline to Tessa and the kids. Even if the phone battery lasted, and the phone stayed hidden, reception could be spotty out there and the connection lost.
He was glad they’d called the police, just in case Taylor eluded them, but the idea of a standoff, of it developing into a full-blown hostage situation, scared him. Taylor might start killing hostages. Tessa didn’t think he’d hurt the kids. He trusted her judgment on that, but even if she was right, he might flip out completely. And short of that, Tessa was at risk. She wasn’t an innocent. In Taylor’s twisted mind, she was a willing part of the conspiracy to control his son’s mind—to turn his son against him or to have him spy on him.
As Ronan got on his bike, his stomach churned. The idea of losing Tessa, or Kayla and having to face Willow and Linc, made him ill. How could he and Jett go on if they lost them?
We won’t let anything fuckin’ happen to Tessa or Kayla. Man up and kick ass.
He looked over at Jett. “We need to be there way ahead of the cops.”
Jett nodded at him grimly. “Then let’s do this bad-ass thing,” he said. They kicked their bikes to life and pulled out onto the highway, headed east, going far too fast for it to be safe and far too slow to suit either of them.
Chapter 14
Without any ideaif Ronan had gotten her call, or if he had any way to use the signal from the phone to track them, Tessa knew she couldn’t just sit around and wait for a rescue. Eventually the police would put up roadblocks, but she had no idea if the bus would even be missed until school was out. By then they might already be beyond a perimeter the police could manage.
She had to hope that her call to Ronan did something. As they rolled on, she tried to think of a way to signal cars they passed, to make a cry for help. With Taylor busy giving the terrified driver directions, she looked around for something she could use to make a sign. But then they turned onto an off ramp—he was taking them off the freeway. She’d never been on this road before and had only a vague idea of the geography, but it was a fairly empty road, and suddenly, there were fewer opportunities to contact anyone, even if she had made a sign.
That the driver was in a panic didn’t help. The small man was shaking violently, and steering seemed to be about all he could manage. Taylor waving his gun at the driver didn’t do a thing to calm him, and Tessa found herself worrying he might crash the bus. As Taylor was the only one not belted in, that could give them a chance, but at what cost?
With the bus on its new course, Taylor paced the aisle, making sure everyone stayed seated, ignoring Jimmy’s plaintive cries. “Dad, please don’t do this. Take us back to school.”
“Jimmy, you’re a disappointment,” he said. After that, the boy sulked in silence.
A few miles out of Lucerne, Taylor ordered the driver to turn left on a secondary road that seemed to lead into the Mojave Desert. The bus wasn’t air conditioned, and it was hot. The students were frightened, and several of them were about to be sick.
“Where are you taking us?” she finally demanded. “These children are getting sick. Surely you don’t have an argument with them.”
Turning on her, he pointed the gun in her face. Looking down the barrel of a weapon was a new and terrifying experience. “If everyone behaves, we’ll stop soon enough.”
“We’re in the desert without water,” she huffed.
He laughed. “You don’t think I’d carry out an operation without a plan, do you? I have water and food arranged. If the authorities play it smart, no one needs to get hurt at all.”
