Chapter 38

CHAPTER

THIRTY-EIGHT

As soon as Rafferty got off the phone, Heidi dove into her questions again. "Where are we going?"

He narrowed his eyes. "You ask too many questions. It's not important."

"It must be kind of important if I had to dress up."

He let out a long breath. "Please, stop asking so many questions."

Subtle warning stained his voice.

Heidi started to ask more questions before thinking better of it and clamping her mouth shut.

She didn't want to push him too much. Besides, it wasn't as if once she found out information she'd be able to pass it on to Stephen. Her only hope was that Stephen was somehow tracking her now.

She'd glanced at the road behind her a couple of times and didn't see anyone. She didn't want to be too obvious, however.

Instead, she watched the miles as they blurred past. They were going farther and farther away from the shack. As they did, more signs of life appeared.

She had to work hard to keep the tremble inside her from emerging.

All things considered, Rafferty had to know she'd be a little nervous, but she didn't want him to pick up on too many of her changing emotions. She couldn't raise his suspicions.

She'd made it this far. She couldn't blow it now.

They kept driving. Rafferty had already spoken with various people on the phone. But he was always certain to mumble to the extent she couldn't understand what he said. But he'd said something about meeting someone. Having things in place. Making sure everything was ready.

Something was going down tonight, wasn't it? But what?

And why did Rafferty want her with him now?

A street sign in the distance caught her eye.

Knoxville. They were headed toward Knoxville.

Knoxville . . . that had been one of the cities on the list she'd seen.

And if she remembered correctly, the date listed beside Knoxville was . . . today.

Her heart thumped harder.

"Why are they going to Knoxville?" Stephen watched Rafferty's vehicle turn toward the city.

"Knoxville was on the list," Gage reminded him.

"You're right . . ." Stephen sucked in a breath. "Does that mean that Commander Billings will be there?"

"It makes the most sense."

"I've got to let Larchmont know." Stephen grabbed his phone.

He called Larchmont and told him his theory about where Rafferty was going with Heidi. Larchmont said he'd divert his guys toward that location instead of the shack.

"He's planning something with the commander," Larchmont muttered.

Stephen stared out the window at the buildings as they began popping up more frequently. "Are you thinking an assassination?"

"I think it's a possibility."

His mind continued to race. "But what reasons would Rafferty have to want to kill the commander?"

"Like I told you, the commander was associated with Project Elevate. I'm sure it goes back to that."

So this all tied in with Project Elevate and the commander who gave the go-ahead on the program's secret funding. Dagger had also gotten involved somehow.

Stephen tried to put the pieces together. Maybe Larchmont's theory was correct, and this was some type of assassination attempt.

However, Rafferty had people who did this for him. He didn't need to be there himself.

There was clearly more to this than met the eye.

They needed to be one step ahead of this guy if they had any hope of saving Heidi.

Stephen prayed they didn't arrive too late.