Race the Storm

Chapter 15

"Okay," Willa said, nibbling on the end of her pen for a second before reminding herself to stop. A bad incident with spilled ink all over her mouth as a kid should have taught her better a long time ago. "Looking at our route, I think it makes sense to go through some of the Colorado parks next. If they catch up to us there, we have a lot of options to lose them, whether it's mountains or cities."

"Oh yeah? I know Rocky Mountain National park is there, what else?"

"Well, there are parks and monuments and a whole bunch of things. Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes, Canyon of the Ancients...if we wanted to swing up through Utah there's also Canyonlands and Arches National Park." Willa couldn't keep the excitement out of her voice even if she tried–so many of these places she'd always wanted to see, but never really thought she'd have the money or time to do this.

Jax glanced at her, and when he spoke, he sounded almost guilty. "We can't go to all the predictable or most popular ones, or they'll quickly figure out what we're doing." Oh. Yeah, that made sense. Willa looked down at her map again. Well, she would still get to see the state and the mountains, and she was sure there would be some pretty views during the drive. But she must have looked more dejected than she realized, because Jax hurried to add, "iIs there one in particular you wanted to see though? We could try to stop there?"

Willa beamed at Jax, but then quickly tamped her excitement down. "Mesa Verde always sounded really cool," she said, circling it on the map. "But I guess whatever makes sense." She didn't want to be a bother, not when they were running for their lives and everything. Getting bummed out about missing a national park when the actual government was tracking you down seemed silly.

"What's that one like?"

"I'm not an expert but it has really old cliff dwellings and really neat hikes and lots of overlooks," she said, "We could look into it more wherever we stay tonight." She didn't really know what he was interested in, but you couldn't go wrong with cliff dwellings, could you? That was just cool.

"We could go there," he said, those blue eyes of his skipping over to her for a second. "We need to keep up the tourist appearance if that's going to be our cover."

"You might like one of the other places better." There were so many to choose from, after all. "Did you travel much before PysOps?"

Jax frowned. "Not really. We went to the beach sometimes, but we didn't do big family trips. And I went into the military after high school." His fingers tightened on the steering wheel. "PsyOps kept us moving. I've been all over the world."

"But not for fun," Willa popped in, "Of course, this isn't exactly for fun either, but we could enjoy ourselves a tiny little bit." She leaned against the door, fingertip playing with the door lock. "I mean, if you're capable of that. Having a good time."

"I think I could manage to have a good time once in a while," Jax said evenly, "But don't expect me to get overly excited."

"No way," Willa said with a grin. "I'd never even assume you could get just plain excited, never mind overly." His wry look made her laugh.

"You can get excited for the both of us," he teased, his fingers relaxing. His family seemed to be a sore spot, or maybe it was the freedom of his life before PsyOps that made him uncomfortable. It was hard to tell.

Willa flicked the door lock, unlocking it and then locking it back. "I'll try." Glancing over at him, she remembered that she had said she would text Wes. "Which cover name did you want again?"

"Everett McDowell," he said, "I don't hate it."

"High praise," she said, squashing a smile. "And I'm still going to stick with Paige Rogers."