Chapter Four

Ghost

S canning the cars and crowd as they came and went, I strode toward the SUV I'd rented under an alias an hour ago. Circling it once before dropping to a knee, I quickly checked the underside of the vehicle.

No tracker. No visible explosive device.

Weighing the risks of hacking into the rental database to access the remote start function, I hit the key fob to unlock the doors, then glanced at my watch.

Forty-one seconds since I'd walked away from the brunette.

Another two minutes, and this place would be swarming with emergency response.

Out of time, I got behind the wheel and started the SUV.

No explosion.

Already scanning for my quickest exfil route, the vehicle was in gear and I was pulling out of the parking lot when two police cars, lights flashing, came barreling in.

Taking a turn in the opposite direction from my blonde's house, I was coming around the block when the ambulance passed me.

Six minutes later, after a circuitous route, I was on the street behind the house as the petite blonde stepped out from behind a fence.

Slowing to a stop, I scanned behind us as she opened the passenger door and tossed a small backpack into the footwell before climbing into her seat.

"Electronic devices?" I asked, stepping on the gas.

"I destroyed and left them like you taught me to." She buckled her seat belt, then nervously looked in all directions as I took a turn onto a less populated residential road.

"House?" I floored it.

"All locked up, but I kept a few lights on. The house and car keys are on the kitchen table." She looked behind us. "I heard sirens. Are we being chased?"

Not by the police. "No." I pulled a burner from my pocket, handed it to her, then issued a task to distract her. "Send a text to this number." I rattled off the digits.

Her thumbs flew across the screen. "What do you want me to say?"

"The number eighteen, period. Full shutdown, period. Then hit Send, power it off, and remove the SIM card."

My petite blonde typed for a couple seconds before turning the phone over. "Done." She handed the burner and SIM card back to me.

I pocketed the phone but held on to the SIM. Taking another turn onto a road that'd lead to the highway, I glanced at her. "I'm proud of you, baby girl." Despite the vehicle issue, she'd acted quickly this morning.

Her cheeks flushed, but she didn't comment.

Reading her silence, I pulled onto the highway. As soon as I got to the left lane, I cracked the window and dumped the SIM card. Humid air filled the cabin before I put the window back up and dropped my hand, palm open, onto the center console.

Immediately threading her fingers through mine, she started tracing the veins on my arm with her other hand. "Thank you." Her voice quiet, she leaned over and rested her head against my shoulder.

I squeezed her hand.

Her exhale hit the interior of the SUV, and I waited for it. More questions. Unlike the rest of the women, she was usually full of them.

But instead of asking me about the brunette, where we were going or why, she gave me another piece of her innocence. "I like the wind on my face." She tilted her head up to look at me. "You know that feeling? Rushing air that smells like everything around you, and it pushes your hair back and whistles past your ears?"

I checked the rearview and side mirrors. "I do." No tail.

"I like that sensation. It feels good, like I'm free."

"I'm glad, baby girl." I'd rather have her thinking about the fucking wind and freedom than this morning or how I'd found her.

"Can I open my window?"

I scanned the highway behind and in front of us again. "Go ahead."

Not immediately opening her window, she glanced at me and frowned. "You're worried."

"I don't worry, baby girl." I planned.

"Then why did you come home today?" Giving up on tracing my arm, she fingered a lock of her long hair and twisted it in a telltale sign of anxiety. "You've never done that. Not without texting first."

Normally, I didn't answer questions. Especially not ones that carried any intel or would distress my women. But the blonde was my youngest.

I gave her a partial truth. "It was time for you to relocate." Long before the brunette had shown up at the farmer's market, I'd had the plan in place to relocate all of the women. A week ago, it'd been pending, a contingent action item. Now it was a necessity.

Still looking at me, her frown deepened, but her next statement belied her age and inexperience. "But you are worried, and it was before that lady showed up at the farmer's market. I saw it on your face. You looked different. You had worried eyes."

Diverting, not about to tell her I was preoccupied by our next stop, had been for weeks, I reminded her of her tactical mistake. "Safety protocol number one, baby girl. You were supposed to drive the vehicle I gave you." I glanced at her. "Every time you go out, always have an exfil plan." She knew the protocols. They all did. But only one had been ignoring them.

"A giant Defender isn't a vehicle. It's a land boat. I can barely get up into it, let alone park it anywhere. Besides, I like to walk." She put her window down and turned her face away from me. "The wind is healing."

Not having to ask what she needed to heal from, I didn't comment.

I drove.