Chapter 42

“Where are we going?” I inquired of Keanu after six more hours of driving. We’d turned onto a dirt road several miles before. I assumed he was navigating on back roads to keep a low profile. Even though it appeared he knew where he was going, I wondered what his ultimate plan was.

His jaw muscle tightened a little with my question. Stress and exhaustion marked his expression as he answered. “I don’t know…yet.”

An image of the cave popped into my mind. Sedona. Somehow I knew we had to go there. “We should go home…my home.”

“No.” His answer was swift and final. “That’s the first place they’ll look for us.”

Annoyance writhed inside me with his response. “My people can protect us.” I voiced with a cold tone. “They know the land better than any agent.”

Sighing, he nodded in agreement but added. “I know Cassia, but these men…they’re unlike any you’ve ever known. They have…ways of breaking people. Of making them talk. Your people would only get hurt if we involved them.”

Exhaling and bumping the back of my head against the headrest, I was frustrated and irritated.

Where were we going to go then? I realized then that he had no real plan; we were just drifting along a lonely highway, avoiding the inevitable. I knew he was just trying to get us as far away from the Majestic 12 as he could but we desperately needed a destination.

What was I going to do, have this baby in the backseat and we’d just keep driving? Live in the car?

And what was going to happen if—when—I told Keanu that this baby might be Agent Meyers’? Was he going to leave us by the side of the road?

Keanu was an awesome guy but I was pretty sure that a blow like that was going to send him running in the opposite direction whether he loved me or not.

Staring up at the blue fabric ceiling of the sedan, I decided I needed a diversion from my thoughts. Leaning over, I switched on the radio. A familiar medley immediately filled the car and soothed me.

Humming along to the tune, I looked out at the world drifting passed my window. The snow had disappeared several hours before. I could tell we were moving into warmer climates the further east we drove but I had no idea what state we were in now.

The sun was setting behind us, filling the sky with shades of orange and coral. I really wanted to sleep in a bed tonight. I wanted a fluffy pillow under my head and mattress cradling me while I slept. With Keanu’s determination to keep driving, I didn’t know if he would even consider the idea.

Oddly enough, like he’d been reading my mind, he suggested it first.

“We should find a room for the night.” His voice was thick with fatigue.

Nodding enthusiastically, I smiled as I thought of indulging in a hot bath and a good night’s rest.

“Cassia, I really think you should do something with your hair.” He glanced over at me with an apologetic expression.

“My hair? What do you mean?” I wasn’t sure if I should be offended or not. Did I look that rough?

“Considering how recognizable you are with long black hair, maybe we should…cut it.” He looked as crushed about it as I felt. Then he added quietly. “And color it.”

His suggestion made perfect sense. Seeing my face plastered on the national news, labeled a fugitive, I knew that Keanu was right. Altering my appearance was logical, but I didn’t know if I even cared anymore.

Sure, I could change my hair, but hiding my growing belly, however, was not going to be as easy. She had grown dramatically over the last week or so. By my calculations, I was finishing my fifth month soon.

I wished I could give her the attention she deserved.

Instead of being trapped in a car with little food or water, we should have been eating healthy or going to doctor visits and listening to her little heartbeat. The poor little creature inside me was just an unwilling passenger being dragged along in a nightmare.

Her mother should be an upstanding citizen, not a fugitive and freak of nature. Well, in all fairness, the fugitive part wasn’t my fault.

Then it dawned on me.

What are they telling the world that I did?

I hadn’t stayed in the fast food joint long enough to hear what the Majestic 12 had said to turn the world on me. Did they make up a lie? Was I ‘an escaped convict’? At large? Shoot to kill?

Coincidentally, I was just about to find out.