And for a while they drove in silence.
“Those couples who were attacked in their hotel rooms—the Zetas were looking for the two of us, weren’t they?”
“Yeah.”
The cops had called the incidents “robberies,” but Zach knew better.
“Was anyone hurt?” There was a hint of worry in her voice, as if she’d been wondering about this for the past couple of hours but had been afraid to ask.
“They roughed them up a bit but didn’t kill anyone.” He didn’t tell her that one of the women had been raped. She’d probably take the weight of that on her own slender shoulders.
Why are you shielding her from the truth all of sudden, McBride?
He started to make up some excuse in his mind about not wanting to deal with her when she got emotional, but then gave up. Truth was, he didn’t want to burden her with information that she didn’t need. She’d been traumatized enough already.
“Oh, thank goodness for that! I hate to think of anyone suffering because the Zetas mistook them for us.” She seemed to relax.
“Why don’t you have a boyfriend?” The question must have come out of some other guy’s mouth, because Zach hadn’t planned on asking her anything about her love life.
Her voice took on a tone of artificial calm. “What makes you so sure I don’t have a boyfriend?”
“You’ve never mentioned him.” It seemed logical to Zach.
“Given your situation, if there were some special man in your life, you probably would have tried to call him rather than your boss at the newspaper.”
“You know why.” She looked at her hands. “I lost my fiancé and—”
“That was six years ago, Natalie.Six years.”
What a loss it would be for the male race if she spent her life pining away for a corpse. Then again, he had no idea what it was like to lose a lover. He’d never been in love—not seriously anyway.
“I guess I haven’t met the right man.” Then she turned the question around, her face a carefully composed mask. “Why is there no one inyourlife?”
This was an easy question to answer. “As you’ve seen, my life isn’t exactly the sort of existence a man shares with a woman.”
“Maybe you should do something about that—like quit being a crook.”
He chuckled, but his reply died before it reached his tongue.
When he looked in the rearview mirror again, a military jeep bristling with assault rifles passed a slower-moving pickup and swerved into their lane, gaining ground fast.
The first letter on its license plate was a big, black Z.
Adrenaline punched through him. “Get down!”
Natalie turned to look over her shoulder. “Wha—”
“I said get down, damn it!” Zach forced her head down, hoping the men behind them hadn’t seen that there was a woman in the vehicle. He drew the AK onto his lap, working the bolt with one hand. “There’s a jeep full of Zetas on our tail.”
Steady, McBride. Don’t rabbit. Just because they’re behind you doesn’t mean they know they’re behind you.
He glanced down at the speedometer to make certain he wasn’t speeding, then did his best to drive casually, the jeep now right on their tail. “Reach for the Glock. It’s on the floor near your feet. Hold on to it. If they start shooting—”
With a roar of its engine, the jeep swerved to the left, passing them in a plume of exhaust and heading up the highway.
Zach let out a long, slow breath, adrenaline subsiding. “You can sit up now.”
Slowly, Natalie sat upright, peering over the dashboard with wide eyes, Glock in her hand. “They’re gone?”