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courage. She might need them, but she was not going to allow them to make her feel like a little woman. Even if she was.
    Taking a side hall, she found the ladies room and stepped into a stall. With the lid closed, she had a comfortable seat to work out the knots in her neck and shoulders and the kink in her back. It had been a long time since she’d ridden the Sportster. Longer still since she’d felt like she was making the biggest mistake of her life. Between the mileage and the memories, there had only been regret and the long dark pavement running under her tires to keep her company. It left her empty, drained.
    It was time to get it over with. She stood up and reached for the latch and the bathroom door groaned on its hinges. Without thinking, she pulled her hand back and waited. There was no reason to think she was a target this soon. Ryan wouldn’t even be awake yet, so he wouldn’t have heard her humiliating goodbye. Hackers, for whoever was after the Genesis crew, wouldn’t have grabbed the transmission yet, much less located her here in the middle of the Mohave Desert.
    Knowing it and feeling it were two different animals. She hesitated with her hand over the latch for only a moment before leaning back. Instinct told her to pick up her feet, but she knew it was too late. It would only draw attention to her now. Instead, she braced against the toilet, leaning forward.
    When small feet, decked out in cheap high heels clicked by, she let out a relieved breath and let her face sag into her hands. This needed to end. Tom’s contacts should be there by now. Mel needed to find them, needed to get somewhere secure so she could deal with the heartbreak of leaving her family behind.
    Pushing off the seat, she threw open the door to go look for her contacts. Movement, seen out of the corner of her eye, caused her to flinch back. A hand, as big as a dinner plate, grabbed her jacket and slammed her face first against the wall.
    Without thinking, Mel kicked back. Her heavy riding boot connected with bone. The hand loosened on her jacket, just enough to allow her to twist around and under from the arm holding her. Grabbing the wrist of the man on her way around, she twisted and pushed, forcing his body to turn away from her and bend forward.
    Twice her size and nearly as tall – even bent over – there was no way she was going to willingly let him get the upper hand again. Planting a foot on the stall, she pushed him off balance and ran him forward, slamming his head into the rear wall.
    About as stunned as a grizzly bear after having a pebble thrown at it, the man lifted one leg, twisting around, and kicked her in the gut. The impact of her body against a stall door forced the door open and she fell through, landing unceremoniously in the lap of a screaming woman.
    She had only a second to realize he was one of the raggedy men she’d seen at the bar before he charged in. Pushing herself back, pinning the wailing, bucking woman even harder to the toilet, Mel kicked out, connecting with the man’s knee cap.
    The grizzly didn’t scream as his knee snapped loose, but he went down hard, growling. Eyes pinched more in anger than pain; he looked ready to lunge again. Mel knew that if he got his hands on her, she was done for.
    Her boot caught him square in the face. Blood fountained from his shattered nose. As he turned away, she launched herself at him, shoving him around and landing on his back when he hit the floor. Wrapping both arms around his beefy neck, she pulled back until he was bent double. Keeping pressure on his carotids, she wondered how long it would take the big man to succumb to unconsciousness.
    She didn’t get a chance to find out. The cold click of a hammer being thrown back and the hard steel of a barrel digging into her forehead was all the encouragement she needed. Dropping the big man’s throat, Mel put her hands in the air. “If you’re gonna shoot me, you’ll have to shoot her, too.”
    With