Page 27 of The Scenic Route
He looked at her for a long moment, but the dark made it impossible to guess what he was thinking. When he finally turned away, he headed toward the closest car without protesting, so Felicity took that as agreement with both of her points. Pulling a penlight from one of her pants pockets, she movedto the second closest car. She winced when she saw puckered dimples where several bullets had struck the front passenger door, and she hoped that all the vehicles in the lot were as unoccupied as they’d looked when she and Bennett had arrived.
Holding her breath, she peeked through the window, only exhaling when she saw it was indeed empty. Moving to the next car, she did the same thing. Bennett was checking the final three on the other side of the lot, so Felicity pocketed her small flashlight and headed back to his SUV. Despite being glad she hadn’t stayed in the car while Bennett went out alone, she felt relieved to be returning to the safety—as dubious as it was—of the familiar SUV.
“Oh nooo,” she breathed as she got close. From this angle, she could see that a bullet had hit the bottom right corner of the windshield and entered the dash. Cobwebbing cracks turned the glass opaque, making the whole right side of the windshield unusable. She took a quick walk around the vehicle, checking for any more hits, and found a bullet hole in the driver’s door and another in the left fender.
A dark shadow loomed behind her, and she jumped and turned, pressing her back against the SUV as she reached into her pocket for something to use as a weapon. Before she could pull out her knife, she recognized the large shape as Bennett.
“The good news is that all four tires are bullet-hole-free and inflated,” she said, figuring it wouldn’t hurt to start with the positive. “Plus the important half of the windshield is still intact, so that’s good.”
From his grunt, he wasn’t that thrilled with her optimism.
“Are you comfortable driving like that?” she asked, noticing that the night sky was fading to a dark gray as the very first light of morning approached. After he shrugged affirmatively, she headed for the passenger door. “We should probably go before any of the other car owners return and call the cops. Unless you want to be stuck here until noon, answering questions?”
He climbed into the driver’s seat with a grimace that she took as a no. Felicity held her breath as he turned on the SUV, hoping that the engine and all the other important functioning parts still worked. It hadn’t looked like anything vital had been hit, but she could’ve easily missed seeing a hole in the early-morning darkness.
When it roared to life without a protest, Felicity exhaled hard with relief before settling back against the passenger seat. “Those were a couple of our friendly neighborhood militia guys, I’m assuming.”
“Yep.”
She made a face. “So one of our murder ladies snitched on us?”
Bennett made a thoughtful sound. “Possibly.”
Although she knew she was being too trusting because she liked the murder club ladies, she couldn’t help herself from grabbing on to the doubt in his tone. “What’s the alternative?”
“We haven’t been that discreet talking about why we’re here.”
“True.” There could’ve easily been eavesdroppers in the coffee shop or at the barbecue place. “I wasn’t careful enough. But I was more concerned with Dino getting tipped off and running than I was getting shot at.”
“The motel owner…”
Felicity made a face. If it weren’t for her, they both could be tucked up safely in their respective motel rooms, still snoozing away. “What about her?”
“She heard it from someone.”
“Yeah.” With a sigh, Felicity let her head flop back against the headrest. “I think we—I—underestimated the efficiency of a small-town gossip machine.”
Bennett made a sound of agreement. “One good thing.”
“What’s that?” she asked, eager to latch on to any positive at this point.
“Dino likely isn’t skipping town.”
Her huff of laughter petered out at the end. “He just sent his buddies after us instead. Way to see the bright side.”
They fell silent for a long minute as air whistled through the hole in the windshield.
“Where to from here?”
“Let’s check on my car, make sure it survived the night.” She braced herself for a mess but hoped it’d been overlooked by any militia guys.
“Then back to Langston?”
“Are you kidding?” she asked, staring at his profile. He turned his head to glance at her with a raised eyebrow. “No meth dealer and his gun-nut friends are going to run me out of town. I’m going to bring Dino in while having a relaxing vacation in the mountains if it kills me.”
And it just might, her mind warned.
“You don’t have to stay,” she said, her conscience warring with that ridiculous part inside her that would be very sad if heleft. “This is my mess. I can deal with it. I’m sure you have PI stuff to do.”
