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“What now?”
He blew out a low breath. “Now, we regroup. Someone was prepared for us to dig up that grave.” He paused. “That may be one reason someone removed the headstone and went to all the trouble to erase Adam from the records. If you don’t need an exhumation order, you can dig up a plot a lot faster. As we just proved. I’m not saying he’s for sure alive, but if he’s not, the trouble someone is going to in order to make it look like he is ... well, it’s pretty astounding.”
“Are we just playing into this person’s hands?” Lainie asked. “Being his puppets?”
“I’m starting to wonder.”
“Then that means someone has been planning all of this for over eighteen months.” She pressed a hand to her head. “I’m so confused.”
James paced. “I think someone was planning something. Something to do with you. But then somehow, the plan got derailed. Postponed. And it was just recently set back on track.”
“Postponed? Derailed? But...”
“I have an idea.”
“What’s that?”
“I want to take you back to the lake house.”
“For security reasons?”
“Yes. I keep coming back to this whole thing with Adam being some kind of smoke and mirrors thing. Keegan and Dixon are still there, and you’ll have plenty of protection while we focus on finding the person after you.”
She nodded. “I’m okay with that.”
“We can stop and get some of that coffee from your friends’ place. We’ll go right past it.”
“That works for me.”
She followed him out of the morgue to his Jeep, climbed in, and buckled up.
A police cruiser pulled next to them, and James rolled his window down when the officer lowered his. “Cole called. Said you needed an escort.”
“Thanks, guys. We’re going to make a quick stop first, then head to Lake City Lake.”
“We’re right behind you.” He pointed to another cruiser. “They’re going to be right in front of you.”
Ten minutes later, they were winding up the side of the mountain, their coffee in the cupholders, Lainie feeling smug at James’ agreement that it was the best he’d ever tasted.
He looked at her. “Do you—”
Gunfire peppered the air in front of them and the police cruiser went off the road, bounced off a tree, and flipped over the side of the mountain, disappearing from sight. And where was the second cruiser?
“James!”
“Hang on!”
The gun continued to spit bullets and everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
“Lainie! Get down!”
But she was frozen to the seat, her heart in her throat, pulse out of control and lungs locked on the last breath she’d inhaled.
Then a delivery van spun until the front of the vehicle was facing them for a brief second before it, too, went off the side of the road, the driver’s wide-eyed look of terror catching her gaze before it vanished.
The bullets pelted the Jeep and James slammed on the brakes, skidded to the edge of the road, then tipped over the embankment. Lainie’s screams echoed, and from the corner of her eye, as they slid past the delivery van, she noted it had become wedged against a tree, keeping it from tumbling farther down.
The Jeep slammed to a stop, jerking her sideways, the seat belt cutting into her. And for a moment, time hung suspended before sound reached her once more.
