'Des Moines.' Puzzled, he said, 'I told you where we were going.'
'I remember,' she said around a yawn. 'I'm just groggy. Wow! That was some nap. I don't usually sleep during the daytime. I must not be getting enough sleep at night.' She batted her eyelashes at him. 'I wonder why.'
'I have no idea,' he said, all innocence. He opened the door and climbed out, turning around to hold his hands up for her. She clambered out, and he lifted her to the ground. Looking up at the wide, cerulean-blue sky, he stretched, too, twisting his back to get out the kinks. 'It's a pretty day. Want to have a picnic?'
'A what?' She looked at him as if he were speaking a foreign language.
'A picnic. You know, where you sit on the ground and eat with your hands, and fight wild animals for your food.'
'Sounds like fun. But haven't we already done that?'
He laughed. 'This time we'll do it right—checkered tablecloth, fried chicken, the works.'
'All right, I'm game. Where are we going to have this picnic? Beside the runway?'
'Smart-ass. We'll rent a car and go for a drive.'
Her eyes began to sparkle as she realized he meant it. That was what he loved best about Sunny, her ability to have fun. 'How much time do we have? What time are we leaving?'
'Let's stay for a couple of days. Iowa's a nice place, and my tail could use some time away from that airplane seat.'
He handled his business with the airport, then went to a rental car desk and walked away with the keys to a sport utility.
'You rented a
?' Sunny teased when she saw the green Ford Explorer. 'Why didn't you get something with style, like a red sports car?'
'Because I'm six-three,' he retorted. 'My legs don't fit in sports cars.'
She had bought a small backpack that she carried instead of the bulky carry-on she had been lugging around. She could get her toiletries and a change of clothes into the backpack, and that was enough for the single night they usually spent in a place. That meant her pistol was always with her, fully assembled when they weren't having to go through x-ray scanners, and he didn't protest. He always carried his own pistol with him, too, tucked into his waistband under his loose shirt. She put the backpack on the floorboard and climbed into the passenger seat, and began pushing buttons and turning knobs, every one she could reach.
Chance got behind the wheel. 'I'm afraid to start this thing now. There's no telling what's going to happen.'
'Chicken,' she said. 'What's the worst that could happen?'
'I'm just thankful Explorers don't have ejection seats,' he muttered as he turned the key in the ignition. The engine caught immediately. The radio blared, the windshield wipers flopped back and forth at high speed, and the emergency lights began blinking. Sunny laughed as Chance dived for the radio controls and turned the volume down to an acceptable level. She buckled herself into the seat, smiling a very self-satisfied smile.
He had a map from the rental car company, though he already knew exactly where he was going. He had gotten very specific directions from the clerk at the rental agency, so the clerk would remember where they had gone when Hauer's men asked. He had personally scouted out the location before putting the plan into motion. It was in the country, to cut the risk of collateral damage to innocent civilians. There was cover for his men, who would be in place before he and Sunny arrived. And, most important, Hauer and his men couldn't move in without being observed. Chance had enough men in place that an ant couldn't attend this picnic unless he wanted it there. Best of all, he knew Zane was out there somewhere. Zane didn't usually do fieldwork, but in this instance he was here guarding his brother's back. Chance would rather have Zane looking out for him than an entire army; the man was unbelievable, he was so good.
They stopped at a supermarket deli for their picnic supplies. There was even a red-checkered plastic cloth to go on the ground. They bought fried chicken, potato salad, rolls, coleslaw, an apple pie, and some green stuff Sunny called pistachio salad. He knew he wasn't about to touch it. Then he had to buy a small cooler and ice, and some soft drinks to go in it. By the time he got Sunny out of the supermarket, over an hour had passed and he was almost seventy bucks lighter in the wallet.
'We have apple pie,' he complained. 'Why do we need apples?'
'I'm going to throw them at you,' she said. 'Or better yet, shoot them off your head.'
'If you come near me with an apple, I'll scream,' he warned. 'And pickled beets? Excuse me, but who eats pickled beets?'
She shrugged. 'Someone does, or they wouldn't be on the shelves.'
'Have
ever eaten pickled beets?' he asked suspiciously.
'Once. They were nasty.' She wrinkled her nose at him.
'Then why in hell did you buy them?' he shouted.
'I wanted you to try them.'
He should be used to it by now, he thought, but sometimes she still left him speechless. Muttering to himself, he stowed the groceries—including the pickled beets—in the back of the Explorer.
God, he was going to miss her.
She rolled down the window and let the wind blow through her bright hair. She had a happy smile on her face as she looked at everything they passed. Even service stations seemed to interest her, as did the old lady walking a Chihuahua that was so fat its belly almost kept its feet from touching the ground. Sunny giggled about the fat little dog for five minutes.
If it made her laugh like that, he thought, he would eat the damn pickled beets. But he'd damn sure eat something else afterward, because if he got shot, he didn't want pickled beets to be the last thing he tasted.
The late August afternoon was hot when he pulled off the road. A tree-studded field stretched before them. 'Let's walk to those trees over there,' he said, nodding to a line of trees about a hundred yards away. 'See how they're growing, in a line like that? There might be a little creek there.'
She looked around. 'Shouldn't we ask permission?'
He raised his eyebrows. 'Do you see a house anywhere? Who do we ask?'
