subconscious, or something like that. I read an article about it once, in a magazine I found on a bus.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘Don’t.’
‘Don’t what?’
‘Don’t get going,’ she said. ‘Stay here.’
Reacher paused a beat.
He said, ‘Really?’
‘Do you want to?’
‘Does the Pope sleep in the woods?’
‘Then take your shirt off.’
‘Really?’
‘Take it off, Reacher.’
So he did. He hauled the thin stretchy cotton up over his shoulders, and then up over his head, and then he dropped it on the floor.
‘Thank you,’ she said.
And then he waited, like he always did, for her to count his scars.
‘I was wrong,’ she said. ‘You’re not just feral. You’re an actual animal.’
‘We’re all animals,’ he said. ‘That’s what makes things interesting.’
‘How much do you work out?’
‘I don’t,’ he said. ‘It’s genetic.’ Which it was. Puberty had brought him many things unbidden, including height and weight and an extreme mesomorph physique, with a six-pack like a cobbled city street, and a chest like a suit of NFL armour, and biceps like basketballs, and subcutaneous fat like a Kleenex tissue. He had never messed with any of it. No diets. No weights. No gym time. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, was his attitude.
‘Pants now,’ she said.
‘I’m not wearing anything underneath.’
She smiled.
‘Me neither,’ she said.
He undid his button. He dropped his zip. He pushed the canvas over his hips. He stepped out. One step closer to the bed.
He said, ‘Your turn now.’
She sat up.
She smiled.
She took her shirt off.
She was everything he thought she would be, and she was everything he had ever wanted.
They woke very late the next morning, warm, drowsy, deeply satiated, roused from sleep only by the sound of automobile engines in the lot below their window. They yawned, and stretched, and kissed, long and slow and gentle.
Turner said, ‘We wasted Billy Bob’s money. With the two-room thing. My fault entirely. I’m sorry.’
Reacher asked, ‘What changed your mind?’
‘Lust, I suppose. Prison makes you think.’
‘Seriously.’
‘It was your T-shirt. I’ve never seen anything so thin. It was either very expensive or very cheap.’
‘Seriously.’
‘It was on my bucket list since we talked on the phone. I liked your voice. And I saw your photograph.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
‘You mentioned the girl in Berryville. That’s what changed my mind. With the arm. That offended you. And you’ve done nothing but chip away at my problem. You’re ignoring your own, with the Big Dog. Which is just as serious. Therefore you still care for others. Which means you can’t really be feral. I imagine caring for others is the first thing to go. And you still know right from wrong. Which all means you’re OK. Which all means my future self is OK, too. It’s not going to be so bad.’
‘You’re going to be a two-star general, if you want to be.’
‘Only two stars?’
‘More than that is like running for office. No fun at all.’
She didn’t answer. There was still motor noise in the lot. It sounded like multiple vehicles were driving around and around, in a big circle. Maybe three or four of them, one after the other. Up one side of the building, and down the other. An endless loop.
Turner asked, ‘What time is it?’
