Chapter Four

Shepherd stood just inside the restaurant

and watched as Brogan and Thad went to the ATM just down the hall.

The plan was for them to withdraw the maximum amount allowable on

his two credit cards and two debit cards. That would give him more

than enough to get through until he could contact someone to help

him reclaim his life without his father’s interference.

The two men made quite a sight with the

straw cowboy hats they’d bought in the gift shop pulled down low.

They kept their heads tilted down so the overhead security cameras

could not recognize them. Thad stepped up in front of the machine

and rubbed his thumb over the camera set at the top of the

machine.

Shepherd had to laugh as he then licked the

rest of the pat of butter off his digit.

Thad then slid the first card into the

reader and went through the withdrawal steps. Once he finished with

that one, he handed the money, receipt, and card to Brogan and

repeated the steps with the other three cards. Brogan made the

money and cards disappear before someone walking by could realize

what they were doing.

As soon as he had the last bundle tucked

away, the two men turned and walked toward him. As they approached,

Brogan looked at him with a smile and a wink. He then waved

Shepherd to head out in front of them.

Shepherd had a twenty-dollar bill in his

pocket and while Brogan headed out to warm up his truck, Shepherd

would buy sodas and snacks to get them through the next leg of

their trip. He would then join Brogan and they would hightail it to

Florida while Thad headed north and west home.

As he accepted the bag from the clerk,

something had him looking at the front door of the shop. Two men in

black suits and glasses had just pushed through the door and were

looking around. It was the two men who had dragged him from his

father’s house just after midnight.

How had they tracked them so quickly?

Turning quickly so they could not see his

face, Shepherd headed toward the door that led out the back of the

building to the tractor trailer parking lot. He prayed they did not

see him as he hunched his shoulders and tried not to look like

himself from behind.

As he approached the door, a new worry

welled up. What if Brogan had left without him?

After all, the man had his cash, his cards,

and his four-digit pass code. He now had access to tens of

thousands of dollars on each credit cards, and a helluva lot more

than that in his bank accounts.

Pushing through the door, he hurried into

the parking lot, trying not to jostle the drinks too much. He had

to stop and wait as two trucks pulled out and passed in front of

him. He waved at Thad in the second truck, who blasted his horn

twice in response. Shepherd grinned and waved in response even as

his stomach churned with fear.

Moving forward, he gave a big sigh when he

saw Brogan standing in front of his truck. Then he took a good look

at the truck in the daylight and chuckled. The truck was painted

purple. The same shade of reddish-purple of Shepherd’s cowboy

boots. If that was not a sign they were meant for one another, he

didn’t know what would be.

Unless Brogan’s brother had chosen the paint

color.

Fast-walking toward him, he waved back at

the building. “They’re here. They walked in just as I finished

paying for the snacks.”

“Then it’s a good thing we’re leaving,”

Brogan said as he led the way to the passenger’s door.

Shepherd remembered how to climb up the side

of the truck and was in the passenger’s seat in just a few seconds.

As soon as he sat down, Brogan slammed the door and rounded the

front of the truck to his own seat. In less than two minutes, they

were pulling out of the truck stop and onto the access road to the

interstate.

Brogan was shifting through the gears to get

up to cruising speed when Shepherd asked the one question that had

been eating at him since seeing the two men in black.

“How did they find us so quickly?”

****

Brogan frowned as they crossed into South

Carolina. He spent a lot of his off time watching spy movies and

something nibbled at his brain. “Do you think you father might have

a tracker on you? That could be how they followed you.”

Shepherd blinked before nodding slowly.

“Shit. I should have thought of that.”

Brogan watched out of the corner of his eyes

as Shepherd worked his boots off.

“I just bought these. I didn’t think he had

time to put a tracker in them, but I should have known better.

Especially with the latest shit he’s pulled.”

“He put trackers in your shoes?”

It made sense, but until now, Brogan did not

think a senator would be so cunning. Maybe it wasn’t him but the

men who worked for him.

“Yeah. His security team felt it was the

best place to put a tracker and the last place a bad guy would

look. Do you have a knife?”

Brogan shifted in his seat and pulled out

the large pocketknife he always carried with him. Handing it over,

he watched as Shepherd pried the rubber sole off the heel of his

right boot.

“And there it is,” he said, reaching in and

pulling out a small disk. He repeated the action on the left boot

and found a second one. “They must have been really worried. They

usually only put one in a pair of shoes.”

Brogan looked around and then hit the button

to roll down the passenger’s window. “Toss them out the window.

They’ll float away and those men in black will be trolling the

swamp for you. And since this swamp goes on for about twenty miles,

they’ll be kept busy for quite a while.”

He smiled as Shepherd giggled as he tossed

the two metal disks out of the window. The man then unbuckled his

seatbelt and stood.

“What are you doing?” Brogan asked as he

slipped out of his seat.

“I need to check my bag. If they did both

boots, they might also have something in my bag.”

“Well, sit down and be safe,” Brogan ordered

as he forced himself not to turn and check on the man in his

private space.

“Aye, aye, captain.” Shepherd leaned forward

and saluted him.

Brogan chuckled but kept driving. A moment

later, he heard Shepherd cursing up a storm.

“What’s up?”

“Do you have a shirt I can wear? And maybe a

pair of sweats?”

“In the drawer under the bed,” Brogan

answered.

It was a few minutes before Shepherd

returned to the front seat wearing Brogan’s favorite t-shirt and a

pair of athletic shorts. They were so big on him he looked like a

little boy wearing his father’s clothes.

Since the window was still open, he tossed

the bag out and waved as it flew over the guardrail and into the

water below. “Bye bye, suckers.”

Reaching into the back, he brought up the

two bags they had acquired at the truck stop. Then he sat back,

fastened his safety belt, and rolled up the window.

“Thanks for the loan. There was a tracker in

the bag, and I thought I felt one sewn into the pocket of my jeans,

and in the collar of one of the shirts they allowed me to bring.

Safest to just toss everything and start over new. I even threw out

my wallet because it might have been bugged as well.”

“Sounds like we’ll be going shopping as soon

as we drop this load,” Brogan commented.

Shepherd froze. “I’m sorry. Once I get some

clothes, I’ll give these back and you can leave, if you want.”

Brogan did not answer but was having a hard

time considering letting this pretty little man go off on his own.

Especially with the senator’s men following him, whether or not

they had trackers on him.

“We’ll see. In the meantime, how about a

game of twenty questions? We have about four more hours to go, and

I’d like to know more about Shepherd Stone, the man.”

Shepherd looked thoughtful as he pulled the

sodas out and put them in the cupholders on the center console. He

then took out the snacks and tucked them into the side pocket on

his door.

Only then did he look at Brogan with a grin.

“That sounds like fun. I’ll even be nice and let you ask the first

question.”