Knox knew that someone was on his trail, but he wasn’t sure who. Hayes would have most likely taken a direct route. Was it one of Carr’s friends? The chick with the fast tongue? The Secret Service agent? But how could they have possibly followed him here? He kept gazing in the rearview mirror as he drove to the bus station. It wasn’t due to be open for another day, but Knox was done waiting. He didn’t like the sensation of people creeping up behind him. He would tear up this whole town and find somebody who could tell him something.

He banged on the door of the bus station long and loud enough till a middle-aged man looking very put off came into view. Knox plastered his creds against the glass. When the man saw them he paled and quickly unlocked the door.

“Can I help you?” he said in a trembling voice.

“You better hope to hell you can.”

Twenty minutes later he had his answer and was rushing back out to his truck.

The man had recognized Carr. He’d been traveling with another man, younger. They’d taken a bus heading even farther southwest. The man had gotten hold of the driver at home. He’d remembered where he’d dropped the pair. Basically in the middle of nowhere, but it was a start.

Knox floored it.

He was coming to realize that maybe the only way he was going to survive this was to find John Carr.

Chapter 48

CHAPTER 48

KNOX WAS MOTORING DOWN the road trying to fathom how somebody had been able to follow him up here. Not even Macklin Hayes with all his support had been able to accomplish it. It was like they knew exactly where—

He nearly swerved off the road. He cut the wheel hard and turned off into a dark path. He put the truck in park, threw off his seat belt and went over the interior of the cab meticulously. He found nothing. But his examination of the truck’s exterior was far more productive. He held up the small tracking device with the magnetized side. It had been placed inside one of the rear wheel wells. As he held the tracker, a smile crept across his face.

Annabelle was driving and Caleb was staring at the tiny screen.

“How we doing?” she asked.

“He’s up there about a mile ahead, going straight.” They had a vertical slab of mountain on one side of them and on the other a drop of nearly a half mile with not a guardrail in sight. “Seems like Oliver took a bus.”

“Judging from the way Knox ran out of the bus station, I’d say that was a pretty safe bet.”

He glanced over at her. “What about Reuben?”

“I talked to him. He’s back there somewhere,” she said. “He’ll eventually catch up to us the next time Knox stops.”