Page 16 of The Vigilante's Lover
I nod, and she slips the shoes on. Then we’re out on the porch.
We double-time it across the dark yard and into a field. I force us to stay low as I scan the area with my night-vision eye. Nothing moves but I do not trust my limited senses.
The warning beeps from the security device in the house could have meant anything. Someone close. Someone there. Or someone just watching. It was an old model. Klaus should have updated it. Unless he couldn’t.
I pull Mia along as fast as I dare. The unstable dirt shifts beneath my feet and forces me to slow more than I would like.
Mia stumbles several times and falls to her knees once, but I pull her back up and move her along. Her breath comes in rasps through the gag by the time we reach the tree line on the far side of the field. The car sits a short distance down a dirt road, and a quick tap on my watch unlocks the doors. I push her into the rear seat and secure her with the extra length of rope through metal hooks along the seat back.
Only once we are both inside the car do I reach around and pull off the gag. Mia coughs and works her jaw.
“You didn’t have to gag me,” she says with a trace of indignation. “I would have been quiet.”
“Of course you would,” I say.
I maneuver the car down the dirt road, relying on the night vision to guide me. When we turn onto the paved road, I increase in speed and drive without headlights for several miles. The way is quiet and we pass no cars. Satisfied we are safely away, I toss the monocle onto the passenger seat, hit the lights, and drive more reasonably.
“So where are we going?” Mia asks. Her voice is less timid now. She must be dropping the victim act.
It’s a good question, but I ignore it. I am beginning to doubt Klaus saw any of my letters, or only the first one at best. Everything I gleanedfrom the responses was wrong. This girl didn’t understand the code and bungled the job. I can’t shake the nagging feeling that Klaus is in serious trouble.
Sam and Colette got no word from him. He has become a ghost, off the grid and hiding. My meager resources at hand may do me no good in tracking him down. I need more power at my fingertips.
And for that I will need the Vigilantes. A trip into the lion’s den. Where is the closest silo?
I tap my watch and bark a command. A faint translucent map of the area appears on the windshield display.
“Identify closest silo to current position.” The map zooms out and a circle appears fifty miles away, spinning lazily. Too close. I need more distance between myself and the compromised safe house.
“Next result.” The map zooms out farther, a second circle appearing to the west in Missouri. Perfect.
“We’re going to St. Louis,” I tell Mia.
“What’s in St. Louis? Klaus?”
I let a chuckle slip out. “Only if I’m lucky.”
“What’s a silo?”
“A place to store grain.” Two can play dumb. “You’re a country girl, you know that.”
“But that’s not the kind of silo you’re looking for, is it?” she says. “Because I could show you one, if that’s what you want.”
“I want the truth, Mia. Who are you working for? Where is Klaus?”
Her voice rises a notch in anger. “I don’t work for anyone. You’re too numb skulled to realize I have nothing to do with this.”
I glance at her in the rearview mirror. Her hair is scattered across the seat. Her chest is heaving, provocative in the slashed white gown and red rope.
“Who taught you knots?” I ask.
She hesitates, then says, “My parents.”
“Names?” She gives me two. I put the car on assisted drive and pull out the Identipad. Both her parents come up. Deceased, but like Mia they have no records. Three members of a family, all wiped.
There is a lot more to this girl than meets the eye. The Vigilantes are protecting her identity from one of their own.
I turn around in the seat and stare at her. She shrinks into the leather under my gaze. My eyes shift to her legs, now tightly pressed together. Her pale skin glows in the dim light, the scraps of her nightgown doing little to hide her.
