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Jenna thought for a beat as they drove past. “I’ll ask the mayor if we can have a charity donation box placed out front. Winter is a big strain on the shelters.” She glanced at him. “Will you be making a donation this year?”
“Don’t you mean, willwebe making a donation?” Kane frowned at her. “Those papers we signed combined our assets. What’s mine is yours, including the income from the overseas companies and investments.”
Swallowing hard, Jenna nodded. “Yeah, I know but it worries me… I mean, all that money between us. It’s growing at a phenomenal rate. What if anyone finds out?”
“No one is going to find out. It’s well hidden and taxes are paid.” Kane chuckled. “It was set up for me by someone in Treasury. Part of my deal to come here, Jenna, and then there’s the offshore bank accounts. We can afford to make generous donations to the needy.”
A cold chill slithered down Jenna’s back. “What if you’re called back into service or something happens to you, or I have to disappear? How do we access our funds without being caught?”
“Getting the money will never be a problem, we’re just numbers and codes, not names.” Kane hit the on-ramp to the highway and blended into the traffic. “We’re married now. If anything happens to either of us, we’ll bale together. Even in WITSEC, we’ll still be able to access our cash. Now stop worrying.” He squeezed her hand. “We’re coming up to the coordinates Kalo sent us.” He pulled onto the shoulder and glanced at Jenna. “Maybe you should scoot over this side to get out. There’s a convoy heading this way.”
Eighteen-wheelers dashed past in a seemingly endless train, and the wind as they passed by rocked the Beast. Jenna scrambled over the center console and crawled across Kane’s seat to the open door. Crawling across bucket seats was more difficult than she’d imagined. “I’m glad there’s such a wide gap between the steering wheel and the seat. I almost got stuck.” She held out her hand and Kane pulled her out and swung her to her feet. The bitter cold slammed into her and she caught her breath. “Thanks. It’s freezing. How far away is this darn phone?”
“The phone is just along here.” Kane was using his phone to pinpoint the direction but he hadn’t moved.
Jenna moved to his side. “What’s up?”
“From here I can plainly see the gully for at least one hundred yards and there’s no lumps that would indicate a body.” Kane turned, scanning the lowlands. “Unless she made it two hundred yards across the pasture and into the wheatgrass, she’s not here. If you’re planning on asking search and rescue to look for Billy Stevens, give them the phone coordinates just in case there’s a body in the wheatgrass, but I don’t see any crows and I’ve seen them picking at frozen carcasses, so they’re not particular.” He waved a hand toward Blackwater. “The phone is close by. If you prefer to walk in the gully out of the wind, I’ll search on top.”
As the wind lashed at her cheeks, tossing strands of hair across her eyes, Jenna fought to zip up her puffy coat and then pulled the hood over her woolen cap. “Thanks.” She took his hand and he lowered her into the gully.
The frozen grass and puddles of moisture crunched under Jenna’s boots as she moved along, avoiding the bottles and cans people had tossed from their vehicles. Kicking at the trail of garbage, she found an assortment of candy wrappers and squashed takeout containers, then a small clutch purse peeked out from under a burger wrapper. “I have something.”
Bending down, she cleared the debris from around the purse and taking her phone from her pocket took a few photographs of the purse and its position from the highway. Picking it up in thumb and forefinger, she flipped it open. Inside was Maisy Green’s driver’s license. Before Jenna had the chance to tell Kane, the traffic noise grew louder, as if two powerful vehicles were racing along the highway. She cringed as the horns from eighteen-wheelers blasted and air brakes locked, bouncing the trucks’ wheels as they fought to control tons of machinery. Engines roared and tires squealed in protest as they laid rubber across the blacktop. Jenna’s heart leapt. Out of control, they were heading straight for Kane.
THIRTEEN
The deafening impact of metal on metal got Kane’s attention, and with survival mode on full alert, he turned as a red pickup with metal strips trailing behind it spun end-over-end straight past him along the middle of the highway. A black pickup was spinning on its roof across the blacktop and two out-of-control trucks, a tanker and an eighteen-wheeler, headed straight for him. He ran toward them but at a forty-five-degree angle. The breeze from them lifted his coat as they bounced by, brakes locked and screeching. Duke was beside him and must have been barking, but all Kane could hear was the screaming of metal across the blacktop. Instinctively, he dove to the ground, one arm around Duke, and rolled them into the gully. Metal rained down on them and a spinning wheel flew over his head. The noise was deafening, car alarms sounded and a truck horn blasted in one continuous wail.
The smell of burning rubber surrounded Kane as he stood, coughing from the thick black smoke.Jenna.
He scrambled from the gully and gasped at the devastation before him. It resembled a war zone. He cupped both hands around his mouth. “Jenna.”
Nothing ahead of him moved. No signs of life. “Jenna.”
Grabbing his phone, he ran down the highway, searching the gully. “Rio, multiple-vehicle collision on the highway, ten miles from town, near Bedrock Flats, send everything.”
He disconnected and stared in horror at the tanker on its side across the gully, with smoke pouring from the engine. A little in front of the truck, the back end of the black pickup was visible. It sat nose down, its wheels still spinning. In the middle of the highway beside the crumpled red pickup lay the body of a man, arms stretched with blood pooling around his head. Kane called Jenna’s name again and, hearing nothing but the horns, headed to the injured man and bent to check his pulse. Dead.
As he straightened, people traveling in the vehicles behind the wreck were running to assist. He turned and waved his hands. “Go back, the truck might blow. Get back!”
Covering his face with a mask, he peered through the billowing black smoke looking in all directions, searching desperately for Jenna. He stared at the tanker and choked back the horror. Was she under the burning truck or trapped beneath the pickup. “Jenna, where are you?”
Running, he skirted the wreckage of the eighteen-wheeler. The driver was alive. “Can you walk?”
“Yeah, I’m okay.” The man was holding a tissue to a cut on his head.
Kane helped him from the cab. “Get back a hundred yards or so. Tell everyone to keep back. Help is on its way.”
The second driver wasn’t so lucky and had been thrown from the cab. He skirted around the billowing smoke and checked him. Dead. When Duke barked and dived into the gully, Kane followed, running along the highway toward the upturned black pickup. He raised his voice. “Jenna.”
“Here.” A hand waved in the air on the other side of the pickup. “I’m here, Dave.”
Heart racing, he followed Duke and slid into the gully beside her. Relief flooded over him and he pulled her to him. She was soaked in blood but appeared to be lucid. “Thank you, Jesus.” He stared at her. “Where are you hurt?”
“I’m okay.” Jenna held blood-soaked hands away from him and her mouth turned down. “I was trying to keep the driver alive, but he went through the windshield and pierced his jugular. He bled out in seconds.” She leaned into him. “I was so scared. Last time I looked, you were right where they came off the road not moments ago. I called out to you.”
Kane rubbed her back. “I was calling you too but, with the horns blasting, I didn’t hear you.”
