She got out of the car, and a second later, Cooper heard the muffled click of her unlocking his door.
She had just set him free. He still had the handcuffs and the leg shackles, but her attention was all on the two men she was approaching, and she was right, Keith wouldn’t be able to intervene to stop him, not right now. If he could reach his griffin, he could break through the chains, and he’d be home free.
And none of it mattered. He couldn’t leave her in danger.
He watched Gretchen warily approach the men from the not-black black car. They looked harmless enough in their brightly colored parkas and thick woolly hats, but the most hardened killer Cooper had ever seen had looked like a sweetly smiling kindergarten teacher. Anyone could look harmless. He had a bad feeling about all of this, and he couldn’t let her face it alone.
7
This was crazy.
Beyond crazy. Welcome to Paranoia Town, population: Gretchen.
It made no sense at all to think that the dark blue-green car she was looking at right now was the black car from the gas station. She knew there was something about the gas station incident that she couldn’t remember, but she really doubted that it involved the black car’s driver telling her about how he’d invented some new kind of chameleon automotive paint.
She wasn’t an expert on cars, but she was pretty sure the make and model of this one was different too.
Smart money said that this was a completely separate car, and the two men standing in front of her—ordinary-looking middle-aged guys in winter gear—were guilty of nothing more than careless driving.
They would have to have been driving pretty damn carelessly to rear-end someone that bad on a road with this little traffic.
Then again, they were probably trying to get home before the storm hit. People had done worse and weirder things when they were in a hurry.
Gretchen felt like she was being torn in two, with all her instincts on one side of the argument and all the logic in the world on the other. Normally, that meant she would go with logic.
Except Cooper’s life was at stake. She couldn’t mess this up.
All the more reason to override her faulty human instincts and go off logic, right?
But she couldn’t. Not now, not with this. Not with him. Everything in her soul revolted against it. It said that this was too important for her to cave in to fear, even if she was calling that fear “logic.” Deep inside her, in a way she didn’t understand, she still trusted her feelings more than she trusted the rules she’d learned about the world.
She still felt, rebelliously, like there was something inside her that was worth listening to.
She didn’t understand any of it. But for the first time in years, she was going to trust herself.
But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to play this as smart as she could.
“Hi,” she said, offering the two men her friendliest smile. If they were innocent, she was going to be the most cheerful person they’d ever rear-ended. Most people would have had steam coming out of their ears right now. “I guess we should trade insurance information. My partner’s going to see if we can get a traffic cop out here to take a report.”
“Oh, I don’t think there’s any need to get the police involved,” one of the men said. He had a weirdly bland face, almost creepily bland, like a bowl of plain vanilla pudding with just a couple dents in it for eyes and a mouth. He looked shapeless somehow. “They probably won’t be able to make it here anyway. We’re in the middle of nowhere, you know, and everyone’s going to be busy prepping for the blizzard.”
“Still. Pretty bad accident. We’re all shaken up, and you guys must be too. Probably best to get an impartial third party involved.”
“She might be right,” the second man said to his friend. His brother? He had the same kind of vague-looking face. He turned back to Gretchen. “Your partner? Like... your life partner?”
His tone was just a little too guileless.
She had the feeling they were closing in on whatever was going to happen. She was hyper-aware of the reassuring weight of her gun at her hip.
She shook her head. “I mean my work partner. I’m a United States Marshal.”
“Oh, gee whiz,” the second man said. “Wow.”
She didn’t buy that kind of aww-shucks act for even a second.
“We’ve never met any Marshals before. And now two at once!”
Her smile felt more forced than ever. “Well, gosh, I guess you never know who you’re going to meet on the highway of life.”
Yeah, jackasses, I can act folksy too. Annoying, isn’t it?
“I know it’s a lot to ask, but could we meet your partner too? I just can’t believe this. Wait until I tell my family.”
“Why don’t we swap info first?” Gretchen suggested. She knew by now that something was off—no matter what color their car really was. She wanted to push this to the breaking point.
She hated to admit it, but the Marshals weren’t that cool. No one would be that excited to just meet some of them.
“We’re sort of... between insurance companies right now.”
“Just your driver’s licenses, then,” she said. “Because—and golly, I sure don’t mean to be rude—your car really did a number to my bumper. Not to mention my partner’s head.”
The two men traded glances.
Something in the air seemed to change. Gretchen felt her muscles clench up.
“Well, now that I think about it,” the first man said slowly, “I guess we do have a kind of insurance.”
Behind her, a car door swung open, and Cooper’s voice broke the tense silence: “Is everybody saying ‘gee whillikers’ and stuff like that, or am I losing my mind?”
Gretchen couldn’t control the relief that washed over her. She even felt her muscles relax—she was still ready to spring into action, but she was no longer locked-up and rigid with tension. He just
