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“Well, I’m not a CIA agent. And, no offense, but you’re no Navy SEAL. I didn’t expect to go on the run today.”
He chuckled dryly. “It’s okay. Miss Patty probably has a bank machine in the lobby.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“We’ll find a trucker with a Venmo account. Or a heart of gold. Come on.”
She straightened her scarf and lifted her chin. “Lead the way.”
7
Leilah flasheda smile at Billie as she followed Ryan from the trucker’s cab. “Thanks again. Are you sure I can’t transfer you some cash? At least for the gas?”
The woman’s wide grin spread even further, swallowing her eyes. “Are you kidding me? When I get back to Alabama and tell my Henry that I gavetheLeilah Khan a lift, he’s not gonna believe me. Leilah Khan, in my rig. Who would’ve thought it?” She shook her head in wonder.
“Could Leilah sign something for your husband?” Ryan leaned in to ask.
Billie’s eyes reemerged, wide and blue. “Would you do that?” she asked Leilah.
“Happy to.”
The truck driver muttered to herself while she flipped through the papers in her glove box. Leilah rifled through her purse. “Oh, I have my access pass from last weekend’s twenty-four-hour race. How’s that sound?”
Billie clapped her hands. “It sounds like I’m gonna have the happiest man in Calhoun County at my house.”
Leilah smiled and used the truck’s side panel as a writing desk to jot a short message followed by her signature, written with great flourish. “Here you go.”
“Thank you, honey. God bless you both.”
Ryan shut the cab door and gave it a slap. Billie honked her horn as she turned out of the parking lot and back into the flow of traffic. They stood and watched the eighteen-wheeler grow small in the distance.
He nudged her shoulder with his. “I was worried when there wasn’t a bank machine at the diner, but I guess you don’t need emergency cash when you’retheLeilah Khan.”
She felt her cheeks warming. Encounters with fans rarely made her feel self-conscious, but with Ryan looking on, Billie’s fawning had embarrassed her.
She changed the subject and scanned the strip mall lot. “Where even are we, counselor?”
They’d traveled south with Billie for nearly ninety miles. Further than strictly necessary, but Leilah had to admit that with each mile they put between them and the crash site, the tightness in her chest eased a bit more.
“We’re on the outskirts of Harrisonburg. I figure it’ll be easier for us to disappear into the crowd in a college town.”
He saidthem,but she knew he meant it would be easier forherto blend in. She stood out in Shenandoah Falls and all the tiny surrounding towns. But odds were, her skin tone and hijab wouldn’t merit a second look in Harrisonburg. Unless, she supposed, the onlooker happened to be a racing fan.
“Makes sense. So now what?”
He jerked his chin toward the chain hotel attached to a sports bar-themed restaurant that anchored the far end of the shopping center’s lot. “Let’s check into the hotel and make some calls.”
“You want to spend the night here?”
“No. But I do want to get off the street. Somewhere private. A hotel room fits that bill, don’t you think?”
She eyed him closely. “Do you really think those guys followed us here somehow?”
He hesitated, then lifted his palms and said, “I don’t know. Probably not. But I also don’t think they were working alone. The guy who seemed to be in charge told the others to call it in when they found the car unoccupied. We don’t know who they called or how many more of them there could be.”
Her pulse ticked up. “Well, when you put it like that ….”
“Right. We don’t need to be paranoid, but we should be careful. So, the hotel?”
