“Get down,” Chandler begged Kylee. He gunned it away from the man, not sure if he was trying to take out their tires or kill them.
Kylee bent over and prayed audibly. Chandler hated that she felt threatened. With no weapons on him but his knife, and not being willing to risk Kylee or an innocent bystander being shot, he could only use the Porsche’s power to get away.
He saw the shooter in his rearview, pocketing the gun and scrambling the other direction, probably realizing he had to get his vehicle.
Crap. Hiding the tracker and trading vehicles would not be effective now. Especially swapping vehicles with Ty. The Porsche was a pretty and too-visible target. The only good news was that the Porsche did zero to sixty in four-point-eight seconds and could go over a hundred and sixty miles per hour.
Chandler’s hands were sweaty as he gripped the steering wheel. He looked over at Kylee. “He ran for his car. You can sit up.”
She did, but she was visibly trembling.
Chandler wrapped his hand around hers and squeezed. “We’ll be okay. I’ll keep you safe.”
“Thank you.” Her dark eyes were fixed on him as if he were her hero.
Chandler said a desperate prayer that he could keep her safe. The thought of something happening to Kylee made his own hands tremble.
ChapterFour
Luckily the 3A was really close to the stadium, so Chandler wasted no time getting on the freeway and weaving around slower traffic.
“Tell me what you overheard,” he requested. A man taking shots out in the open like that meant whoever was after her didn’t care about secrecy and wanted her silenced quick.
Kylee wrung her hands together and kept looking over her shoulder. “I know your Papa thinks my Grandpa Seamons has leaked info about some secret your family protects.”
He nodded. The fewer people who knew about the secret, the better, but they’d all been stumped when over the past four months five different Navy men associated with Admiral Seamons had known about or come after the secret. Papa and Admiral Seamons had served together and were lifelong friends. Papa didn’t want to think one of the select people who had knowledge of the secret outside the Delta family would betray him, but everything linked back to Seamons. And then Kylee had called Papa less than two months ago to say she thought her grandfather was scheduling a meeting with the depraved dictator King Frederick’s right-hand man, General Carl Phillip. General Phillip had been killed a few weeks ago by Chandler’s impressive Navy SEAL brother, Aiden. It seemed everything was escalating regarding the secret and Frederick’s demented plans of world takeover.
Chandler might not make the playoffs if Kylee’s information was critical enough to warrant a hit man following her. That should be the last thing on his mind, but he’d dedicated most of his life to lacrosse.
He focused on the road as he slid around a mini-van, then glanced back at her.
“I don’t think it’s my grandpa. At least I hope he’s not involved. It’s all Mimi.” She shuddered as she said the name.
His brows lifted. He could remember Kylee’s high-strung and very fake-beautiful grandmother from their one summer visit. She’d been cordial to all of them, but his siblings and cousins had all expressed that Admiral Seamons “trophy” wife was not very pleasant to be around if another adult wasn’t within earshot. She’d said snarky comments to everyone, mostly Chandler because of his obvious interest in Kylee.
“Nelson Palmer mentioned a ‘her’ as if a woman was his boss and contact, not the Admiral,” Chandler mused.
“Really?”
He sped around a Lexus F Sport. Luckily no cops ready to slow him down yet, and he didn’t see the man from the street corner, but the guy might be smart enough to stay back and shadow them until he thought he could take them out. The Porsche wouldn’t be hard to tail.
He nodded. “That adds up. So what did you overhear and when?”
“Last night, I dropped by my grandparents’ house to say hello. They were hosting a large party, which they often do. Mimi loves to host.”
He nodded for her to continue.
“The security let me park in the back and I came in through the kitchen entrance. I heard voices coming my way, and one of them was Mimi’s. So I hid in the pantry.”
Chandler’s gaze darted her way again, and he almost rear-ended a Tacoma. “You knew something was off that quick?” He slowed his speed and waited for a gap to get around the small truck.
“No. It’s just instinct to avoid Mimi. I hoped to find Grandpa first and have him and a crowd insulate me from her. That’s the only way I get through the obligatory visits.”
“I remember when you came to visit you didn’t have a great relationship with her, but she vocally told my mom it was just ‘teenage issues’ and would get better.”
“It’s gotten worse. Especially once my parents passed, and I had no one who …” She waved a hand and he wished she’d kept going. “Anyway. I don’t know who the man talking with Mimi was, but he said something about King Frederick himself coming to meet with her.”
Chandler about wrecked the car. Ty would skin him. Wrecking would be worse than the bullet holes already in it and ditching it at a rental car company.