They rounded a corner, and Ava gasped when a woman stepped in front of them.
“Jesus.” Razor jumped. “What in the hell are you doing here?” he asked Alegria.
“Doc.”
Razor nodded. “We’re being tracked. I spotted a drone and an SUV.”
“We’re the drone,” she told him.
“Where are we going?” he asked when she led them in a direction different than he would’ve gone in.
“Short cut,” she answered.
A few minutes later, they exited the caves at one of the beach’s public parking areas. Onyx was waiting in an SUV while Monk sat nearby on the four-wheeler.
Razor hurried Ava into the vehicle and climbed in beside her while Alegria got in the front passenger seat. Monk was already on his way back up the beach, to the house.
Onyx looked at Razor in the rear-view mirror. “I guess you know we have company.”
“How in the hell did they find us?” Before Onyx answered, Razor figured it out. “Jesus Christ, the suitcase,” he muttered. Fuck.
He’d told her, on their way back from the airport in San Luis Obispo, that he’d do a sweep of her belongings when they returned to the house in Cambria, but he hadn’t ever done it. It was an amateur mistake, one that now put her life in more danger than before.
“Where’s the plane?” Razor asked when Onyx went south on the highway. “Florence?”
“Affirmative.”
“I need her phone,” Alegria said from the front seat.
“It’s at the house.”
“No, it isn’t.” Ava pulled the phone Razor gave her in Cambria out of a pocket in her shorts and put it in the woman’s outstretched hand.
“Yours too,” she said to Razor.
Razor handed his over and watched as she dismantled both of them.
“Anything?” he asked.
“Negative.”
“Good. Anybody behind us?”
“Not yet,” Onyx answered.
“Turn left at the next light. In a quarter mile, take Highway 39 on the right. Immediately after, make a left and then another quick right. You’ll see a warehouse. Pull behind it.”
They waited a few minutes, parked where Razor had led them, but no other vehicles passed the warehouse.
“Go out here,” Razor said, pointing to another exit. “When you hit the two-mile marker, pull off on the left side of the road.”
When they did, Razor opened the door. “Come on,” he said to Ava.
“Sir?” asked Onyx.
“Proceed according to the original plan. Fly from Florence to Eugene and wait to hear from me.”
“Roger that.”