Page 34 of The Scenic Route
After a perfunctory check for traffic, she cranked the steering wheel to the left. The tires spun in the gravel for a moment before finding traction and shooting the car forward. The narrow dirt road stretched before them, empty of any traffic that Felicity could see. Noting the mileage on the odometer, she pressed down on the accelerator.
Five and a half miles flew by before she slowed to a more reasonable speed. “Since we didn’t pass them, I’m assuming they turned the other way?”
Bennett gave an affirmative grunt.
“What are the next intersections coming up?” Her mind was working, trying to develop a plan without knowing where Dino was heading. So far, the bare bones of her plan were to find the pickup and then follow it until Clint stopped. At that point, she’d tackle Dino.
“A couple county roads and Highway Nine.”
“Highway Nine.” That was where they were headed, she knew in her gut.
“Probably,” he said, sounding confident, like his gut was telling him the same thing as hers. He gestured to the left. “They came out here.”
“Unless they haven’t gotten here yet.”
Bennett made a sour face. “Wish I’d gotten a tracker on that pickup.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?” She couldn’t count the number of times during the endless days of searching that she had wished she’d secretly microchipped her mom. No matter how many times she’d chased after a skip, trying to find a single soul hiding among the billions of people in the world often felt impossible. After her mom used their house as collateral for her bail, Felicity had felt like a bomb was ticking, counting down the seconds until her and her sisters’ lives exploded. “What do you think? Continue or wait a few minutes to see if they’re still on the compound road?”
“Continue.”
Felicity relaxed a little as she pressed harder on the gas pedal. She would’ve considered stopping if Bennett had suggested it, but her leg was already bouncing. She much preferred chasing to lying in wait. Despite her impatience, she forced herself to stay within five miles of the speed limit.
That was why it was extra annoying when red and blue lights lit up her rearview mirror.
Nine
“Where did they evencomefrom?” Felicity grudgingly pulled to the side of the road until her right tires rolled over a few clumps of weeds. For a moment, she hoped that the squad car would speed right past her on its way to a different call, but instead it pulled in behind her.
Bennett made a displeased sound. Felicity had never felt such strong agreement with a grunt before.
She unlocked her phone and passed it to him. “Text Callum. See if he can make a call to get us out of this quickly. All these mountain people seem to know one another.”
As she watched a sheriff’s deputy approach in her side mirror, she felt Bennett take her phone. Time ticked away in her mind, and as the distance between them and her skip grew by the second, so did her annoyance with the delay. She rolled down her window, but even the crisp and clean mountain air wasn’t enough to soothe her.
“Afternoon,” drawled the deputy, whose name tag read B.LITCHFIELD. Felicity instantly disliked him. He had a classically handsome face and a body that looked like he spent a lot of time in a gym, but his smirk and condescending tone ruined the whole picture.
Gritting her molars, she forced a smile that probably looked more like a baring of teeth. “Good afternoon, Deputy.”
“Know why I stopped you today?”
Not this nonsense.Felicity resisted the urge to roll her eyes.Sure, let me confess to all my traffic-law-violating sins.“No.”
“Hmm,” the deputy hummed, studying her and then Bennett, who must’ve finished texting Callum, since her phone was nowhere in sight.
Bennett looked back with his best deadpan expression.
“License, registration, and proof of insurance, please.” The deputy looked at Bennett again. “Let’s see your ID too.”
Bennett didn’t move, his gaze still locked on the deputy.
“He’s not the driver, so he’s not required to show you ID,” Felicity said with the same toothy smile as she held out her documents. “Why’d you pull me over?”
Litchfield studied her license intently. “Langston, huh? What are you doing so far from home?”
“Vacationing.” It was getting harder to hold her smile. “Why did you stop me?”
He brought her license even closer to his eyes. “This a fake? You illegal?”
