Rico wasn’t about to bite on the worm being dangled in front of him. “So you guys got anything to share?” he asked. “Sounds like you may know some things to make this easier.”
The look on Tobar’s face wasn’t giving much away.
Prophet hadn’t opened his mouth in a while and sat in the Amriany’s car as if there was a gun stuck into his ribs.
Cole could only assume the other European hunters were in the car as well, but they weren’t talking either.
Finally, Nadya said, “We have friends who watch the Nymar in your country. They are the ones who pointed us toward Texas. We were ready to close in on a group in Austin, but the Nymar all left that place to go somewhere else before our plane could land.”
“Where did they go?”
“We don’t know. Since you seem to have more current information, we came here. If this place turns out to be empty or a trap, then we’ll know who had something to do with it.”
When Cole met Prophet’s eye, he got the distinct impression that the bounty hunter wasn’t as willing a passenger as he might have been letting on. Either that or Walter was going along with the Amriany without tipping off the Skinners for some other reason. Neither of those possibilities sat very well with him.
“Who are these friends of yours?” Rico asked. Upon seeing the glares coming from every Amriany in sight, he added, “For all you know, they could be the ones that are misinformed. Hell, they could be the ones tipping off the bloodsuckers.”
“They are friends,” Tobar said. “We trust them much more than we can trust you.”
“Look here, asshole. You can call them whatever you want. Hell, you can call me your papa, but that don’t mean I screwed your—”
“He gets it,” Cole said before Rico sparked something that would involve way too much gunfire crossing in front of him. “We’re not doing ourselves any favors by having a convention out here in the street where we can be spotted by any Nymar out for a smoke break. They do take smoke breaks, right?”
“He’s got a point,” Rico grudgingly admitted. “If those Austin bloodsuckers got access to the Internet, we may know who tipped them off.”
“Who?” Tobar asked. “Is it someone we can look up now?”
“Probably,” Rico told him. “But you can look it up the same time Cole has a look at whatever computer setup they got in there or wherever they moved to since then.”
“They’re about a mile from here on Oneida Street,” Prophet said.
Rico’s face turned even uglier than usual. “How long were you gonna wait before telling us that little tidbit?”
“That was our doing,” she said. “After we caught him trying to follow us out of Philadelphia, we brought him along with us and convinced him it would be easier to work with us. As for meeting you here, we thought it might serve us better to work out our differences before attacking the Nymar.”
“That actually makes sense to me,” Cole said. “How screwed up is that?”
Although Rico seemed ready to bust someone’s head open, he nodded and grudgingly sighed.
The Amriany were happy with the development and got back to their car. Prophet watched through his window, seeming genuinely shaken as he was driven away.
“What?” Rico grunted as he turned his deathly glare in Cole’s direction. “You feel sorry for poor little Walter?”
“Hell no! Son of a bitch is riding with the Gypsies now, right?”
Rico slapped the car into Drive and pulled away with a lurch.
Bracing his feet against the floor and making sure his seat belt was fastened, Cole did his best to appear relaxed as Rico followed the other car. “Besides,” he added, “what did Prophet ever do for us, right? Saved me and Paige in Wisconsin. Oh, and he did lay the groundwork for our arrangement with the nymphs. Guess that’s something.”
“Free strip club buffets don’t make up for switchin’ sides,” Rico snapped. “He didn’t switch sides.”
“Yeah? We’ll just have to wait and see about that.”
Chapter Thirty-One
They drove east through the industrial district. It was a part of town defined by abandoned cars, flat buildings made of cement and metal siding, open fields of dying grass, and businesses that might or might not have been empty shells. The brighter part of the city could be sensed more than felt. Its glow smeared the stars overhead, but its voice was too distant to be heard.
Cole took advantage of the short travel time to dial Paige’s cell. Just when it started to ring, he spotted a familiar face on the side of the road. As they drove closer, the figure waved its arms to flag him down. Cole hung up the phone, stuffed it into his pocket, and swatted Rico’s arm. “Pull over!”
“Huh? Why?”
“Just do it. Look!”
As Cole pointed to the side of the road, Rico spotted the figure. “I’ll be damned!” he said as he hit the brakes and steered toward the shoulder. “That you, Bloodhound?”
“What the hell are you doing out here?” Cole asked.
“Just got in town and I thought I’d try to catch up to you,” Paige replied. “Mind if I get in?”
As Cole’s phone rang, he reached back to unlock the door directly behind him. “Go ahead.”
“Is that your phone ringing?” she asked while climbing in.
“Yeah.”
“Give it to me. I’m expecting a call.”
“What?”
“I lost my phone and knew you’d be here, so I gave them your number.”
When Paige shot her right arm over Cole’s shoulder and impatiently snapped her fingers, he gave her the chirping phone before it was taken from him by force. She tapped the screen a few times, muttered to herself, then slumped back against the overly worn seat cushions. “Too late,” she huffed. “They hung up. I’ll just wait for them to call back.”
“So how’d you get back in town?” Rico asked.
“Same way you did, only I had to get a cab to get this far.”
Before they could get into any more explanation than that, the brake lights on the Amriany car lit up. Cole’s phone chirped again, so Paige took it from her pocket and answered it. After a few quick sentences and an even quicker explanation as to why Cole hadn’t answered, she hung up and pointed to a white building surrounded by chain-link fence. There was no sign to be found, but the place was too utilitarian to be a residence. The stark cement walls without the first attempt at decoration reminded Cole of a large storage unit or an even larger garage.
“That’s the place,” she said.
The other car killed its lights and rolled to a stop in a lot adjacent to the white building at the corner of Fiftieth and Oneida Street behind a small cluster of tractor-trailer trucks. All four doors of the car opened, allowing Prophet and the Amriany to file out and disperse into the shadows. The bounty hunter and Drina stayed close to the darkened trucks as they hurried to the corner.
Rico parked farther up along Fiftieth, which meant a somewhat longer walk to the white building. A small Nymar presence could be felt within Cole’s scars as well as throughout his entire body, but he knew that meant nothing where Shadow Spore were concerned. His muscles tensed and a jab shot through his heart like a phantom pain caused by the body compensating for a vital piece that had been cut away. He did his best to forget about it.
By the time the Skinners had gotten out and circled around the car, Prophet and Drina were close enough to speak without shouting.
