****

  Levi sensed Mae’s internal struggle as she worked through what he’d said. The desire to be honest with him about her following him had to be there. Being honest with her had come easily. He didn’t see a reason to hide what he was doing. If yelling it from the rooftops helped him find the answer, he would have done that as well.

  But something wasn’t right.

  He could sense it.

  The sound of a car door slamming had him shifting his gaze. A gentleman wearing polarized sunglasses climbed from the driver’s side of the blue sedan. The suit jacket was too hot for the August weather.

  His stride lengthened. As his jacket fluttered in the wind, Levi made out a gun in a holster on the man’s side.

  The man was smooth and swift. As soon as he noticed Levi’s gaze, he increased his pace and pulled the piece from the holster and aimed. Levi turned, grabbed Mae’s weapon, pulled back the slide and fired. Suit Jacket Man fell to the ground and didn’t get up.

  Park visitors ran toward the sound. Mae sat stunned. He wasn’t sure if they should run or wait for authorities.

  When she spoke, her voice held horror. “What did you do?”

  He felt a moment of panic. “He had a gun. Didn’t you see it?”

  She grabbed his forearm and tried to tug him to a standing position. “We have to go.”

  “We do?”

  “Yes! We have to go now! You drive!”

  He limped after her to his rusted truck. Her car seemed better suited for a vehicle chase, but he didn’t argue with her logic.

  Police cars with flashing lights passed them as they exited the park. He kept his speed below the limit as if they were out for a Sunday drive.

  “Do you want to tell me what is going on?”

  Mae took her phone from her pocket. She looked at it and frowned. Then she removed the battery, rolled down the window, and threw it as far as she could.

  When she leaned back against the seat, he was still looking at her.

  “I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “But—”

  “Just drive, okay? If you have a safe place to go to, then do it.” She paused. “Stop the car!”

  He slammed on the brakes. She got out, walked to the back tire, put her hand under the wheel well, threw something in the weeds, and climbed back in.

  “Give me your phone.”

  Levi complied.

  She threw it into the tall grass. “Now, let’s get out of here.”

  For now, he held his questions, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to ask her soon. She’d thrown their phones out and pulled something from under his truck. Presumably something she had put it there, but now she thought someone else could make use of it.

  Oh, something was going on and he was going to find out what it was and soon.

  Chapter Six

  Mae bit her bottom lip. At first, she thought the agent in the car was there to support her. That had to be who it was, why would she be followed otherwise?

  On the way to the park, she’d called in for support with her operation. She hadn’t told them her plan to be the damsel in distress. But they could have figured it out. Assuming they had shown up to help with the plan fit perfectly.

  She shot a quick glance in the side mirror then bit her lip harder. Maybe the officer was faking the entire thing. Blood packs, falling down as if hit, all the things one would see in a movie scene.

  Sure, it could have happened.

  That was her hope anyway. He’d come along to make her look even more like the damsel she needed to portray. If not then she had just witnessed a man get shot.

  She’d seen someone killed.

  That was not cool.

  Levi didn’t seem to be in a hurry. He was driving as smoothly as one could in a rusted out hunk of junk. And he’d just shot someone. Why wasn’t he more freaked out?

  “Maybe we should go to your safe house?”

  “My what?”

  Why was he playing coy? He’d told her everything else. “You know, your safe house.”

  “I don’t have a safe house.”

  “Sure you do.”

  “Look lady, I was a regular soldier, not special forces, not in an unnamed group, regular. I volunteered. Served my time. Got injured. And now I’m out doing menial work just to survive. I do not have, nor have I ever needed, a safe house.”

  This wasn’t good.

  No safe house. She should have figured. He was right. He had been a regular soldier in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  She fisted her hands in her lap and drew in a deep breath. “I guess we’ll just have to get a hotel or something. Do you have money?”

  “You mean like cash money?”

  “Of course like cash money!” What was wrong with this guy? Was he stupid! They were on the lam! The law was coming after them. They’d killed a man in broad daylight. Of course, he had a gun aimed at her, but did that really matter?

  The government had things on Levi. They were investigating him. Maybe they had plans to take him down by framing him for murder.

  She wouldn’t put it past some of the people she worked for.

  He was talking. She tried to listen.

  “Do I look like someone who carries a bunch of cash?”

  He didn’t.

  This was getting worse by the minute.

  She massaged her temples. “So no safe house, no money, what about credit cards with fake identities, or fake papers, or a go bag? Surely you have a go bag.”

  “Who do you think I am exactly? James Bond?”

  If she’d been alone, she would have screamed. They needed a place to lay low until she could think. She’d given that waitress most of her cash. So, she wasn’t going to be much help.

  She needed to contact the office and see if the agent who’d try to shoot her was a fake and if so, how she should play this scenario. Or if he wasn’t an agent and he was just trying to kill them, then what should she do?

  “What about a friend? Do you have a friend who could hide us for a few days until we can sort this out?”

  “I was thinking I would just go to the police station and tell them what happened. It’ll be easy enough for you to vouch for me.”

  She shook her head until her ears started ringing. “No, no, no we can’t do that. They won’t believe us.”

  He drew his brows downward as he flashed his gorgeous face at her. She’d never noticed how handsome he was. His chin and cheekbones were well defined. His skin was tanned from years in the sun, and it almost glowed with a bronze look. He had light blond hair that was thicker on the top than the sides. He should have been a model instead of a soldier.

  “Why wouldn’t they believe me? I’m a decorated veteran of the United States Army.”

  She should tell him. She should tell him that he was under investigation for stealing classified secrets, but it wasn’t in her purview to do so.

  “Look, let’s just lay low for a few days. Then we’ll come forward.”

  “I don’t think this is a good idea—”

  “Look, I’m in trouble, okay? I can’t go to the authorities, not yet. It isn’t safe for me.”

  That shut him up. He no longer talked about going to the police. In fact, for about ten minutes, he didn’t say anything at all.

  Then he blurted, “I might know a place.”

  That was better. Now he was going to take her some place to hide like she’d be asking for all along. If she could get to a phone she’d call in and ask about the dead man at the park. Maybe throwing her phone out the window before using it hadn’t been such a good idea.

  She ran her hand through her hair.

  She was definitely not cut out for this.

  ****

  Levi had never been so confused in his entire life. This woman was crazy. He’d grabbed her gun and shot the guy by instinct. Suit Jacket Man had been pointing a weapon directly at them. Other than Little Miss Crazy, no one else was there to corroborate his version of the story.

  If he went to the police and she flaked out and suddenly forgot about the man’s gun then Levi would be the one in trouble.

  She seemed to have relaxed as soon as he mentioned having a place to go.

  What was it with all those questions she was asking?

  Safe house? Cash? Go bags?

  Something wasn’t right here. She’d been following him at least since the cemetery and if he was betting, probably way before.

  That item that she pulled from his wheel well was probably some kind of tracking device. Whoever had hired her to track him, was most likely tracking her now as well and she was scared.

  He could understand why.

  He didn’t have any of those things she’d mentioned. Nothing in his life would constitute needing such things. What would make her think that? If she’d been following him, why didn’t she know how mundane his life was?

  He put it out of his mind. He did have a friend who had moved off the grid. Hopefully, he would help them. If not, then Levi could try calling Leah again. Which he needed to do anyway. In thirty minutes, she was calling the law. But in the meantime, her husband was a lawyer and he was close friends with people in the Reformed Soldiers group. If needed he could reach out and they would help him. They’ve offered to do so before.

  The paved road turned to gravel and the truck bounced up and down. He tried to miss hitting the potholes, but some were too hard to avoid.

  When they rolled to a stop, Mae jumped from the car, fell to the ground, and practically kissed the grass.

  When she rose, he cocked his brow and shook his head. This lady was one weird chick.

  She placed her hands in her pockets. The black trousers and black jacket with white button up shirt had to be getting hot in the August sun, but she hadn’t removed it. She looked almost like the agent who had taken a shot at them.

  “Question—”

  The sound of a gun cocking made him stop and turn his head.

  “Who are you?”

  “Blake! It’s me, Levi Anderson.”

  The gun lowered to Blake’s side. “Levi!” Blake walked forward and held out his hand.

  They shook, and Levi tried to relax. Two guns pointed at him in one day were going to start the nightmares again.

  “What are you doing here, buddy?”

  Levi pointed toward Mae. “You see this little lady here?”

  “I do.”

  “She’s my new lady, and she is looking for a little off grid experience. I told her that you were the only person I could think of who could provide such an activity.”

  Blake blushed and kicked at the dusty ground. “Ah, shucks. I’m glad you thought of me.” He paused. “So, what all are you looking for? A cabin overnight? A tent? I got the side-by-side I can lend you but the horses are already promised.”

  Levi looked at Mae. “What do you think, honey? The tent and the side-by side?”

  “Sure, my darling.” She nodded, a fake smile plastered across her rosy, red lips.

  Despite her fake smile and her lack of style in dress, she was a pretty lady. She had long blond straight hair which she’d pulled up in a sleek ponytail sometime earlier in the day. She was filled out in all the right places, which only enhanced her attractiveness.

  “All right then. I’ll get the side-by-side ready. You just go to that building over there and pick out the tent you want. I even have a freezer stocked with food so you can pack a cooler. I provide the entire experience.”

  He left them, and Levi led the way to the building.

  “I thought you said he lives off the grid, not that he sells grid excursions!”

  “Well, he does live off the grid. He gave up television and phone. You can only request a package by coming here.”

  She groaned as she opened the freezer and started moving things around. He heard her mumble under her breath on multiple occasions as she worked. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t have a criminal empire in the wings for someone he’d just met.

  She was lucky he even knew Blake. Most of his friends were dead, not close by, or working in an office building.

  He thought he was doing pretty well, all things considered.

  Chapter Seven

  The person who had tagged Levi Anderson as a criminal was an idiot.

  Mae held tight to the frame of the side-by-side while Levi drove like a maniac over muddy dirt roads. Water splashed into the vehicle on multiple occasions, splattering her pants and wetting her shoes. He screamed with excitement and kept driving.

  It seemed like thirty minutes passed before they entered a clearing. There was an old wooden outhouse sitting on the property and little else.

  Levi stopped next to the outhouse. “I reckon we should camp here.”

  “Here?” She licked her dry, chapped lips and studied the wooden slats of the tiny building.

  “Yes, here. There’s a creek nearby for water and we have this fine operational facility I’m sure you’ll need in the near future.”

  Fine operational facility? He was calling the outhouse a fine operational facility.

  She was going to strangle him.

  “I’ll get started on the tent if you want to walk to the creek and gather water. I grabbed a few canteens so we could have water at camp.”

  She knew that she looked at him as if he was crazy, but she didn’t know what else to do. This had not been in her job description. She was supposed to follow, observe, and discover what he knew about OPAL. Which was nothing. Max Cooper aka Walter Gram hadn’t told Levi a thing.

  If she packed up and went home, she could call the office and explain and everything would be fine.

  Except for the agent that had been shot.

  Or not shot?

  She wasn’t really sure anymore. And because Mr. I Sell an Experience didn’t have a phone, she hadn’t been able to call and ask anyone either.

  “Do you know how to use the canteen to collect water? We’ll boil it when you get back to camp.”

  “Of course I do!” She grabbed them from his hands and started toward the creek.

  Once in the thick of the trees, she started talking to herself. “Can’t use a canteen! Who can’t use a canteen? I’m an agent for the NSA. The FBI personally tapped me for this job. Use a canteen, indeed!”

  Sweat beaded under the collar of her shirt and began to roll down her sleeves. She stopped, hung the canteens on a branch, and moved the jacket. Sleeves rolled up on the white button up, she grabbed the canteens and the jacket and started out again.

  The sounds of rushing water reached her hearing. The trees opened and she was there right in front of a creek. The water was crystal clear. She squatted down and grabbed a canteen. Hand on the lid, she twisted to open only it was on tight. Using her entire body as leverage she tried to open it again, but it was no use. It was stuck.

  “Stupid, defective, canteen. Figures.”

  She almost threw the thing across the creek, but stopped herself, took a deep breath, and tried again. No way was she going back to camp and telling that know-it-all that she couldn’t open a canteen.

  And if it took every fiber of her being, he wouldn’t know that she had never camped before, either. After this trip was over, he’d think she was Calamity Jane!

  The lid finally opened, and she lowered it into the cool water and filled it. Then she did the second one, this one easier than the first.

  Canteens slung around her body crosswise, she laid her jacket over her arm. Facing away from the creek bank, she stopped and chewed her bottom lip.

  Now she had a new problem. Where in the world had the trail gone?

  ****

  Levi pitched the tent slower than he would have liked. If it hadn’t been a dome, it would have taken him forever. He’d chosen the simplest one on purpose. Not that anything was really simple with his cane and his injury.

  Once finished, he settled on a camping stool he’d grabbed and waited. He knew about how long the creek was from the campsite based a on rudimentary map that Blake had handed him as he was getting in the side-by-side four wheel vehicle.

  “Where is that lady?”

  He rose to his feet and grabbed his cane. He’d been pushed to his limits already. His physical therapist would be proud to see how much he’d accomplished. Even he was proud of himself, which didn’t happen a lot lately.

  He entered the tree line and walked toward the creek. He heard her talking to herself long before he reached the area.

  Stopping in the trees, he placed one hand on his hip and cleared his throat.

  She faced him. “Finally! I thought you would never come.”

  “I’m not sure why I had to.”

  “Well, I-I got turned around and I was always told to stay put if I got lost and someone would come find me. And see, it worked.”

  She was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. If this girl was an agent, it must be an insurance agent or maybe a sales agent. She didn’t know how to do very much.

  “Let’s get back to camp.”

  He turned to leave. The noise she made tromping through the woods was bordering on incompetent. If they were hiding from someone they would have been found for sure.

  “Can you make some more noise?”

  “What?”

  “Do you have to make so much noise?”

  “Well, no, but I thought I was supposed to scare off the critters.”

  He rolled his eyes. “The critters were scared off long ago. Right now, we need to worry about keeping quiet in case a person comes along.”

  “Oh, yeah, right.”

  He could hear her tiptoeing behind him. Every twig, every branch, she stepped on them all before they reached the campsite.

  Next time he would get the water.

  She stopped ten feet before the tent and placed her hands on her hips. “I can’t sleep in that.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Why, what’s wrong with it?”

  “Well, well, for one thing it’s too small. And I can’t share with you, I barely know you.”

  “That’s fine by me. You can sleep outside. I wouldn’t want you to be too cramped.”