Page 30 of Final Exit

“If I weren’t driving it wouldn’t matter,” he snapped.

“Really. Suddenly you’re impervious to bullets? Is there a big red S under your shirt and a cape that I don’t know about?”

His glare should have made her hair catch fire.

“Simmons,” a voice said through the phone.

“I’m calling on behalf of your boss, Special Agent Kade Quinn.” Bailey noted the surprise on his face. He probably wondered how she knew his name. She doubted he’d be thrilled to discover that an Equalizer had given it to her. “If you’re still in pursuit of Hawke, you need to abort the mission.”

Silence.

“Simmons,” she tried again. “Did you hear me? Abort the mission. Do not pursue Hawke any further. Give me an update on his status.”

Again, silence.

“Simmons.” She frowned at Kade. “Why isn’t he saying anything?”

“He thinks my phone’s been compromised, which it has.”

She held it out toward him. “Since I’ve already broken your precious rule about not calling your lead during a mission, tell him it’s okay to talk to me.”

He swiped the phone away from her, took it off speaker mode and held it to his left ear where she couldn’t grab it, all in the span of a few seconds. She was left holding her hand up in the air, minus the phone.

She dropped her hand to her lap. Pathetic. She might as well turn in her Enforcer card and become a librarian.

“It’s Quinn.” He said something else too low for Bailey to catch.

“Put it back on speaker,” she told him.

The infuriating man ignored her. With him driving, there wasn’t much she could do about it right now. Next time, she’d lock him in the trunk whileshedrove.

“He did what?” Kade asked.

The sharpness of his tone had Bailey straining to hear what Simmons was saying, but she could only hear Kade’s side of the conversation.

He fired off a rapid volley of questions then rattled off an address that meant nothing to her. A few seconds later, he shoved the phone in its holder, looking disgusted as he mumbled something beneath his breath.

“Kade? What did he say about Hawke?”

He peered at one of the street signs as they passed it, then the next one, as if he was looking for something.

Bailey watched with alarm as the speedometer crept steadily to the right. If they got pulled over for speeding, she’d have to hide the gun. And then she’d lose her leverage to get Kade to take her to Hawke.

“Maybe we should pull over,” she suggested. “You can tell me what Simmons said and we can come up with a strategy to—”

He punched the gas and yanked the steering wheel hard left. Bailey fell against the door, the pistol bobbling dangerously in her hands. She sucked in a sharp breath, just managing to steady the gun before he made another sharp turn, slamming her against the seat this time.

She glared at him, yanking on the shoulder harness to loosen it where it had tightened against her neck. She cursed several branches of his family tree, but the effort was wasted. He wasn’t paying her any attention.

Then she noticed the scenery rushing past her window.

Rolling hills and thick stands of trees lined the wide road. The houses were few and far between, with lush landscaping and long, winding driveways.

She knew this road.

But Kade shouldn’t.

“Why are we here?” She tried to keep her voice calm, flat, so he wouldn’t sense her concern.