Page 129 of Coff

I sit up, and the cold hits me. I don’t know how long ago Logan had left the seat, but I miss his warmth now. My entire body shivers. “I’m up.”

“Let’s go,” Logan says as he takes my hand and leads me out of the van.

Birds chirp as we make our way around the house to the dirt path he’d mentioned earlier. We walk fast, and I’m thankful as I begin to warm up. The sky is slowly lighting up as the sun rises.

Once we’re a distance from the house, Ozzie stops and turns to us. “When I put the battery back and tried to turn on my phone, I discovered it was dead, so I wasn’t able to send Harding a message. Logan, is your phone working?”

He puts in his battery and then turns it on. A moment later, he frowns. “It has ten percent left.” He types out a message to Harding explaining our situation.

“Harding said there was a town northeast of where we were staying. We’ve been going north, and I think we need to head a little more east now,” Ozzie says. “Looks like the sun is rising there, which confirms our direction.”

I glance over, and the sky is brighter where he pointed, but the sun is still too low to see.

“Agreed,” Logan says.

Brian nods, and Ozzie turns and begins walking again.

CHAPTER30

Logan

A small townis visible about a mile ahead in a valley. Based on the terrain, I don’t have high hopes that I’ll get a cell signal for my phone. But maybe we can find a landline if that’s the case.

“Is this typical for your assignments?” Delaney asks as we walk along a dirt path leading us down and out of the trees.

“Do you mean all this walking or the running for our lives part?” I grin.

“Both.”

I glance at her, and she’s watching me, concern etched in her eyes. I take her hand. “Usually, we don’t end up walking as much because we have cars.” Then I squeeze her hand. “And if we do the assignment right, we usually aren’t running for our lives.”

We make our way down a switch back into the valley.

“Have you ever been shot?” she asks. “I mean, besides my dad shooting you.”

Ozzie glances back with an arched brow.

“The warehouse shootout in California,” I remind him.

He gives a knowing nod and turns back.

Then I turn my attention back to Delaney. “To answer your question, yes.” I don’t think going into any of these details will benefit us right now, so I rack my brain to come up with a new topic.

Brian, who is leading us, stops and turns around. “Any chance you have a signal?” he asks me.

I check, and I’m shocked, but I do. “I do. I’m calling Harding.”

Everyone sits while I make the call. She confirms what I suspected. The town we are headed to is remote, and it will be several hours before anyone can get here to pick us up.

“Well, we don’t need to rush then,” Brian says in response to my news.

“The men chasing us are likely still out there. If they are familiar with this area, it’s logical that they would think we are walking this way,” Ozzie says.

“Or they can just track our phones again,” Delaney says. “Why aren’t you guys worried about that?”

“They don’t need to track our phones to figure out where we are going. There’s nothing else around here but this town,” Ozzie says.

He’s right. I take in the area. The edge of town is visible in the distance, but there are almost no trees there. Certainly, no forest to hide in.

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