Peter started laughing. “Is this what happens when a thousand bolts of electricity zip through a person?”
“You two knob heads,” Dinah said slowly, as if speaking to someone struggling to understand, “how many hunts and kills have you two ding-dong-alongs got between you? And I don’t mean drink-down-your-dinner-too-fast kills, Magelore.”
Diego laughed. “Oh, shit, who has been touching my butt exactly? Please, God, tell me she’s as good as the Phoenix.”
Dinah burst out laughing and I just kept my eyes on the road even though I wasn’t driving. Neither Peter nor Cowboy could argue with Dinah, and they knew it. Carlos didn’t even try. He’d worked with people like me in the dark underbelly of the world. People like his boss, Rio.
But like a lot of guys with too much testosterone and not enough thought process, the two younger guys believed they could do better than a trained professional. Fuck, they were going to cause me no end of grief.
A little niggling of something at the back of my neck told me it was time to split the group up. Instinct was a bitch and a blessing all in one.
I turned to Carlos. “How far have we gone from your place?”
He looked at the dash of the vehicle. “About a hundred miles. Being safe with the posted speed limit, not drawing attention to us.”
While it wasn’t quite as far as I’d hoped we’d get, it would have to do.
“Pull over here.” I pointed at a wide spot on the side of the highway. Peter did as I asked. I got out of the truck and Ruby followed, taking a sniff around the scrubby grasses on the side of the road.
“Carlos,” I said as I grabbed two bags from the back of the truck and dragged them out, slinging them onto my back. My muscle strength and stamina weren’t up to where I wanted them, but I’d get there. Ruby tucked in close to me. I pulled a leather strap out of one of the bags and made a quick collar and leash. She didn’t need it, but appearances counted when it came to humans reporting you for stupid shit.
“Yes?” He didn’t get out of the truck.
“You ready to play hide and seek?” I looked him in the eye. “Lead them as far to the west and north as you can. When they’re on the wrong track and you’re sure of it, hide both of you, then double back.”
“This here is where we’re splitting up?” Cowboy got out of the car, his blue eyes full of confusion. “We’re not even in a town.”
I glanced at him. “Those two are going to draw the eyes of the facility as far away as they can and everyone after us will expect a town stop if they figure out we’ve split up.” I adjusted the bags in time to see a flash of hurt in his eyes. He thought I was leaving him behind.
“What about me?”
“Oh, you’re special, sunshine,” Peter said, and I realized from his tone he was more than a little jealous. “You get to go with the boss.”
Cowboy took one of the bags from me, relief in his every move.
“I just don’t want to wake up with you on top of me one night,” I said to Peter. “You know, because then I’d have to kill you.”
That made him laugh and the minor tension broke. I looked at Carlos. “You got it?”
“I got it. We’ll meet you at the address in New York you gave me in three days.”
I nodded. “I’ll see what I can drum up between now and then.”
Cowboy hefted his bag. “I’m glad I’m not going with him. No offense, Carlos. You seem cool enough.”
Dinah sighed. “Oh good, because I really want to see what’s in your pants.”
Cowboy flushed. “I can listen, I can learn, I can help.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, he’s got a hard-on for you. Take him and let him help,” Peter yelled as he pulled away. “We’ll draw them off, Phoenix, but don’t you fucking forget to thank me in your speech at the end of all this. To the magnificent Magelore, Peter, for his noble sacrifice!” The last word was drawn out as he and Carlos sped onto the highway, leaving me there with Cowboy.
Diego grunted. “Heard his nickname for you. If they call you Phoenix, you must be a good killer.”
“Did you not see her back there?” Dinah snapped. “She is the Phoenix. Not like the Phoenix, not trained by the Phoenix. The one and only.”
Diego sucked in a breath. “Jesus. Tell me you’re joking.”
“She’s not Jesus, she’s Phoenix. Unplug your ears,” Dinah snapped.
Standing on the highway was a good way to get noticed, especially with a dog, three massive army bags slung over our backs, and two sentient guns shouting your name. “Come on, this way.” I headed straight for the light smattering of trees off the side of the interstate. Through the bush we went, doing our best not to create an obvious path.
“You’ll train me?” Cowboy asked.
“Not in the sack!” Dinah squealed and then laughed.
“Why not in the sack?” Diego asked. “I’d take her training me in the sack. Probably rough, but I like a good spanking now and again.”
Christ kill me now and leave me for dead, Dinah had a friend to help torment me again. Though I’ll admit this to no one, my lips might have twitched. Dinah sounded all but gleeful as the two of them went back and forth with all the positions I could show the young abnormal.
“Reverse cowboy, that will be his favorite!” Dinah hollered and Diego burst out laughing, the length of the gun shaking against my back.
Ruby trotted ahead of us, the makeshift leash dragging along through the bush as she sniffed her way along, her tail wagging here and there.
“She’s happy,” Cowboy said as if he could ignore the raunchy comments from the two guns. “I’m glad you brought her along.”
I glanced at him, noting that he stared straight ahead, his
