“What?”
“The passcode.”
“Or we could switch places and I’ll drive us out of here.” Bullets pinged off the outside of the Aeon’s exterior and Cam once more thanked God for bulletproof glass. The silhouettes of the two thugs filled the garage door behind them as they let loose their arsenal. So much for returning the Aeon unblemished. Cam exhaled slow then grabbed his device from his pocket and plugged it into the ignition column of the Aeon. He switched it on then grabbed Everly’s arm to tug her down beside him. The car might be bullet-proof but that didn’t mean all the flying shrapnel didn’t freak him out a bit. “This’ll just take a second.”
The goons moved closer, one with his weapon aimed in the side windows of the vehicle, the other aiming for the tires.
“Fuck.” Everly said, glancing out her side as the thug jiggled the locked door handle. “Anytime now would be awesome, Geek Squad.”
“Don’t call me that,” Cam gritted out as he watched the passcode slowly click into place.
“Open the fucking doors now, assholes, or you’ll regret it,” thug number two yelled.
The distant wail of sirens filled the air and Cam’s already tense shoulders inched a tad higher. One of the neighbors had to have called the cops. Loki was going to have Cam’s nuts in a vice over this shit. First the Aeon got damaged and now their safe house was compromised.
One goddamned passcode number to go.
“Get ready,” he said to Everly.
“For what?” she snarled. “They’ve got us fucking trapped in here like a couple of rats.”
His device beeped and Cam reached past her to push the Start button. The Aeon’s engine revved to life and he shoved Everly behind the wheel. “Go!”
“Where?”
He darted a look to the back wall of the garage then back to her.
“Jesus!” She gripped the wheel in a white-knuckled grip. “You can’t be serious.”
“You got a better idea?” Cam asked. “Either we bust out of here or they’ll kill us.”
The thugs began slamming the butts of their guns on the windows and the whole vehicle shook.
“Floor it, goddammit, or we’re both dead!” Cam yelled, hating the way she flinched but needing to break her out of the shock she was obviously in. “Do it! Now!”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she murmured over and over as she slid the transmission into Drive then jammed the accelerator pedal to the floor. The Aeon lurched forward then careened through the back of the garage. The thugs leapt away from the sides of the vehicle, covering their heads as shattered wood flew through the air. Everly veered out into the alleyway in a screech of tires and burning rubber, hurtling at breakneck speed for the open end of the pothole-riddled road. “I can’t believe I just did that.”
Cam peered over the back of his seat to see the two thugs running for their Humvee. “Keep going, they’ll be right on our tail soon.”
“Where am I headed?”
“Away,” Cam sat back and prayed the huge vehicle wouldn’t fit down the narrow alleyway. The Aeon was much slimmer and barely made it. “Just get us away from here.”
They swerved out onto the main thoroughfare then drove for what seemed like hours, but couldn’t have been that long. The sun had finally risen above the horizon by the time they’d exited Fredericksburg and were back amongst the cornfields again.
“Pull off on the next access road,” Cam said, still checking periodically over his shoulder to see if the Humvee was gaining on them. Luckily, it seemed his prayers had paid off and they hadn’t followed. That didn’t mean they were safe yet though, not with a damned tracker on the Aeon.
Everly did as he asked and they ended up in the middle of tall stalks of yellowing corn. Not the most impressive hideout ever, but perfect for what he needed. Cam got out to search the area behind their seats. Hopefully there’d be some kind of emergency kit they could use.
“What are we doing here?” Everly asked, standing beside the vehicle. “Anything I can help with?”
“Yeah,” Cam said, handing her a flashlight. “There’s a tracker on the car. I’m sure of it. Help me find it. We won’t be able to lose those thugs until we do.”
“Right.” She took off for the front of the Aeon while he searched the back using the flashlight app on his cell phone. Unfortunately, that was about the only thing the device was good for at that point since he had no bars of service out here in the middle of fuck all.
“I think I found it,” Everly called a few minutes later.
Cam trudged up to where she was crouched near the corner of the front bumper. He peered underneath and spotted the small black rectangle with a tiny flashing red light. Yep. Damned tracker all right. How he’d missed that the first time he’d looked at the gas station, Cam wasn’t sure. He’d searched every inch of the underbody. Meaning Everly was either very lucky, or she’d known exactly where it was the whole time. He yanked the tracker off the vehicle, then straightened to meet her gaze.