Hunting Medusa: The Medusa Trilogy, Book 1 (31 page)

He could see the other man in the rearview mirror, holding his own key and paper from the rental agency and seemingly looking around for his car.

Something didn’t feel right, though.

“Go, Kallan,” Andrea said from behind him, and he could hear her shifting to get the pack off.

He put the car in gear and his foot on the gas. And in the flash of headlights from someone else’s rental car, the man turned just enough that he could see his cousin Theo.

“Son of a bitch.” He pressed harder on the pedal and guided the car out of the parking lot, watching in the rearview mirror as Theo ran to his own car. “Put on your seatbelt,
meli
,” he said. And pushed the car up to the speed limit on the ramp to the highway. Higher.

In the rearview mirror, he saw distant headlights coming up quickly, so he went faster. There was a cluster of cars ahead. If he could get to them, blend in, then get the hell off the highway and into the city for a while, he could lose his cousin.

He wove in and out of the traffic once he caught up to the other cars, but one set of headlights in his rearview mirror kept coming in a hurry. Kallan sped up, not sure if he should wish for a traffic officer to pull them over or not. The speeding car drew nearer still. He kept their rental car ahead of his cousin for several miles, weaving in and out of the light evening traffic far faster than he normally would have. Theo kept up easily, then started closing the distance. Now only four cars between them.

Kallan started watching the exit signs as they flew past, his rapid heartbeat thumping in his ears.

Now three cars between them.

He was too aware of Andrea in the backseat, trusting him to protect her. His pulse quickened still more.

Now only two.

His cousin cut into the right lane, and silhouetted in the headlights from cars behind Theo, Kallan saw the shape of a gun coming out of the driver’s window. Kallan pressed harder on the accelerator, but there were more cars ahead, and he wasn’t sure he could get through them without slowing down. If he slowed down, Theo was going to catch them.

Something hit the car roof, and Andrea made a startled sound in the backseat at the same time his breath snagged in his chest. “Is he shooting at us? He is. Dammit.”

“Stay down,
agaph
. Please.” He watched the flash of another shot brighten for a moment in his rearview mirror before something dinged the side of the car.

Apparently shooting was necessary to slow the traffic, because now the second car back slowed down, and Theo zipped into the space. Only one car between them now.

Kallan hung in the passing lane, waiting until the last possible second, then veered across the right lane—his rear bumper far too close to the front bumper of a tractor trailer—and onto the exit ramp as the truck driver blared his horn, the sound almost loud enough to drown out his thudding heart.

Too late for Theo to follow them. He breathed a little sigh of relief and randomly chose a direction at the bottom of the ramp.

“We did lose him finally, right? Who is it?” Andrea asked after they’d driven around in the city for nearly half an hour. “I was trying not to distract you in case he managed to keep up.”

“Theodore. He’s a west coaster. He’s out of his usual territory.” Kallan had to wonder why. And when had Theo developed the ability to cloak his presence? And how many other cousins could do it too?

“If he’s here, then he’s not alone.” His Medusa was smart. Only one of the reasons he loved her.

“A fair guess.” His gut told him Ari had called in some extra help. Which meant that whoever tracked them to Scotland knew when they returned. Probably Phillip. He was a serious computer hacking genius. Obviously, they knew when he left his house with the tracker in the phone and probably one in the car too, so they could find him no matter what. And with Theo in Philadelphia instead of Reno, he would have brought his brother Sebastyen and their cousin Kosmo with him from the other end of the country to bolster the Philly crew. Which meant Stavros was still in Maine. Waiting for them.

He swallowed. His Medusa was in a lot of danger, and he hadn’t done enough to keep her safe.

“I think I’m going to want to pick up a gun when we get to Maine,” Andrea said from the backseat.

Kallan laughed, a tiny bit of tension escaping with the sound. “I think that might be a good idea,
agaph
. But I think we may need the big guns, and those will take a little too much time to track down.”

“We’re still heading to New York, right?”

He considered that. It would be a gamble now, with his cousins so close, plus all of the rest who were normally in New York. The question was would they expect him to try something else and focus their attention elsewhere now, or would they figure he’d stick to his plan?

His family knew him well enough to know he always had a plan, and most often his plans were direct, rather than roundabout.

“No, I think we’re going into Harrisburg instead.” They wouldn’t have figured he’d detour so far off plan.

He hoped.

His Medusa’s life depended on it.

Chapter Thirteen

Andi woke with a start, then winced when the sudden movement pulled a muscle in her neck painfully. She’d clambered into the front seat while they were still in Philly last night, and Kallan refused to let her drive—his foot heavy on the accelerator when he steered the car onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Now, though, he’d stopped the car, which had wakened her.

She looked around them and found not much of anything.

He smiled a little when he met her gaze. “It’s time to rent another car.” He pulled out his new cell phone.

She nodded and shifted in her seat. He’d driven well beyond Harrisburg. Around Harrisburg, actually, for the remainder of the night. She craned her neck to see the road sign ahead.

They weren’t too far from the capital now. It just
looked
like they were in the middle of nowhere.

She sat back, twisting and stretching as much as she could in her seat. Sleeping sitting up in a moving car left a lot to be desired.

But it beat being dead.

She curled her fingers into fists. It looked as if Kallan’s great-uncle had called in the troops. Just for her. How lovely. But not the sort of lovely that made one feel all tingly and happy.

Kallan must be exhausted. Dark smudges marked the skin beneath his green eyes, and she wanted to drag her fingers through his mussed hair to try to make it neater. Or just to touch him.

She gave in to part of the urge, setting one hand on his knee as he finished his phone call.

He smiled over at her, though strain bracketed his mouth. “Good morning.”

“Why don’t you let me drive?”

He looked as if he wanted to argue, but he shifted his gaze to the field beside the road. “After we get the new car. We should get some breakfast. Check the laptop for a tracking device too.”

She shut her eyes. That hadn’t occurred to her last night when they were destroying his old phone and abandoning his car.

“I should have thought of that earlier. I’d hate to have to ditch it, but if we have to, I will.” He covered her hand with one of his. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before this morning. They may know exactly where we are right now. Or when we boot up the system, depending on what they’re using.” His other hand slid up the side of his face to his rumpled hair. “Okay, this is our current plan. Get the new car, find somewhere to eat, then head north.” His bright gaze swung back to hers. “And we’ll find somewhere to spend at least the next night. I’m beat.”

She leaned over to kiss him lightly. “If you weren’t such a guy, you would have let me take a turn driving last night.”

A ghost of a smile touched his lips at her teasing, as she’d hoped. “You like that about me.”

“Most of the time.” She squeezed his knee. “How long are we going to drive before we stop?”

“Depends on what I find in the laptop.” He pushed his door open and climbed out slowly, then stretched.

Andi watched him root through the backpack for his computer before he returned to his seat. He pulled a multi-tool gadget with a tiny screwdriver from his pocket and undid all the screws holding the laptop case together. He held out the screws, and she opened her hand for them.

Then he carefully lifted the bottom off.

She leaned closer to look. She didn’t see anything that looked like the device in his cell phone. Nothing blinking that it was sending out a signal.

His mouth turned down. “So when we boot up then.” He sighed, sliding one hand over his eyes.

“If it’s a tracking program, we can disable it.”

“If we had a computer expert. I can do what I need to, Andrea, but I’m not a computer geek.”

She didn’t like the defeat in his eyes. “I know one.”

He lifted one eyebrow, a little of the disappointment leaving his face.

“Give me the phone.” It was early, but this was life or death. She traded the screws for the cell. She punched in Thalia’s number and held her breath.

Four rings. Five. Finally a click. “Hello?” It sounded as if her cousin had just rolled over in bed and snagged her phone.

Andi shut her eyes, relief welling in her middle. “It’s me.”

“Andi? Where are you?”

“Never mind. I have a problem you can help me with, though.” She explained quickly, offering only details pertinent to the laptop issue.

Thalia was silent for a long time. “If booting up the system triggers the tracking, you won’t have much time to disable the program. Unless you can scramble the signal.”

“How can we do that?” Her heart pounded in her ears, much too loudly. She shot Kallan a quick smile when he set his hand on her thigh, squeezing lightly.

“Let me think for a minute. I’m still not awake.” Thalia yawned, and there was rustling from her end of the line.

Andi dropped her head back against the headrest.

“We?” Thalia asked after a minute.

Andi laughed. “The laptop, T.”

Her cousin hummed, clearly dissatisfied with that response. “How close to an airport are you?” she said finally.

“Not very far, actually.” Andi sat straighter in her seat.

“Get there and call me back. I’ll be awake, I promise.”

“Okay.” She clicked the off button. “We need to be at the airport.”

“Lucky for us, we were heading there.” He handed her the laptop and restarted the car. “We’ll do this first and then get the car, I think.”

She nodded, her mind racing. If Thalia could fix this, they would still be able to access things they might need, like email. She hoped Aunt Lydia had finally spoken to Celosia.

Her stomach rumbled, interrupting her pondering.

“And breakfast immediately after we get the car,” Kallan said with a grin.

She didn’t even protest his teasing. There was too much to worry about now.

Kallan watched with his heart in his throat when Andrea booted up the laptop while they sat in the middle of the airport, his new cell phone tucked against her ear. Her fingers skipped over the keys at her cousin’s instruction, her forehead creased with worry.

He kept an eye on the surrounding crowd, but he didn’t spot anyone who looked familiar, or feel any other Harvesters nearby. Not that that meant anything, since Theo could evidently cloak his presence.

Frowning, he turned his attention back to Andrea, who was looking at a screen full of gobbledegook.

“Okay, I see it,” she said into the phone. “It does have…yes, it says on the tenth. What does that… Oh. Okay. I see that, too… Yes.”

He watched her type in a command after a second, his gaze flitting away to keep an eye on the people around them. They needed to get out of here. His gut knotted with tension.

“Okay, it’s gone.” She shot him a thumbs-up and a quick smile. Then she frowned. “Wait, I see it again.”

He groaned softly.

“Okay. Tell me what the other one looks like.” She scrolled through the lines of code on the screen. “Got it.” She waited for instructions, then typed in something that looked like a two-year-old’s attempt at writing words. “It’s gone. They’re both gone… Okay, rebooting.” She shut the system down, then waited before restarting it.

Kallan felt like he could puke, if only he’d eaten something since supper last night.

When Andrea executed the steps her cousin described, her shoulders sagged with relief. “It’s gone. Thank you so much, T.”

His breath rushed out, and he unclenched his fists.
Thank Goddess.

Andrea said her goodbyes to her cousin as she packed the laptop into the backpack. When she held out the phone, she looked wiped out. Still paler than usual—she had dark smudges under her eyes from lack of sleep. He guessed he had them too. “Let’s get the hell out of here, Harvester.”

He nodded his agreement and steered her to the rental counter downstairs where he signed the waiting agreement and took the key from a slow-moving young man who looked as if he needed a caffeine injection.