“Cute,” I muttered. But it would do. I locked the garage door behind me and jammed it closed with a piece of pipe lying on the floor. Just in case Janice the house-sitter wanted to take their car for a spin. The longer we had without anyone noticing the car was missing, the better.
I slid into the driver’s side and hit the button on the visor, opening the garage door. The engine started with no problem and I backed it out. Cowboy slung the three bags into the backseat of the car, and Ruby jumped on top of them, then rested her head on my shoulder from there.
Yeah, she was a good one. I hit the button, closing the garage as we pulled away. I tossed the clothes at Cowboy when he opened the door. “Change.”
He slid into the passenger seat and managed to be quiet for all of three minutes as he wiggled out of his jeans and into the new clean ones. Brand name, no less.
We weren’t out of the suburbs before he blurted out his question.
“How did you know to pick that place?” he asked. “How could you possibly know that was the best place to take a vehicle?”
I kept my eyes on the road, watching for any signs of pursuit as I worked my way back to the interstate and headed north again. I opened my mouth but then promptly snapped it shut on the answer.
“Hang on. We’ve got company.”
15
The massive army trucks were coming up fast behind us on the highway, a row of them that was easily three deep. No flashing lights, but they didn’t need them, not with the rumble of a half-dozen engines and the sheer size of them as they motored along.
“Fuck, what do we do?” Cowboy’s hands gripped at Diego.
I put a hand over his. “First of all, point Diego the other way. If you squeeze the trigger, he’ll have no choice but to shoot me, and at this close range, he won’t miss.”
The tension didn’t leave him, but he did as I said and turned the big gun around. “Sorry.”
“We’re going to pull over,” I said. “They aren’t looking for us.”
“Are you crazy? Of course they’re looking for us!”
I shot him a look that had made men twice his size wet their pants and pulled over to the side of the road. The six army trucks shot by with barely a look at us.
For just a moment, I felt the brush of Eligor against my mind, but it was there and gone in a flash. Even so, the sweat started to roll down my spine. He could turn those trucks around and we’d be right back in deep shit.
But there was no slamming of brakes, no blowing of horns. They were after Peter and Carlos, just like we’d planned. “I hope Peter didn’t pull over for a piss,” I said.
We followed the trucks for a couple hours, and in all that time, Cowboy barely moved a muscle, fear radiating off him. I flicked on the radio, skimming through the channels for a news station. I finally found one, but there was nothing I needed from it. Just the weather, the upcoming events for the weekend, and how the local baseball team was doing in their first games. I left it on in the hope that something useful would come through.
“They were on their honeymoon,” I said. “That’s how I knew.”
Cowboy shot a look at me. “What?”
“The house. There was a sign stabbed into the lawn that said, ‘Honeymoon Happiness.’ So there was a high chance they were on their honeymoon. Most couples have two cars, so I figured they would have driven one to the airport and left the other behind.”
He twisted in his seat. “What are the chances of finding that, though? I mean when you need a vehicle?”
I shrugged. “Not always a honeymoon, but in a suburb like that, there’s always someone who’s away. Different reasons, you just have to look for them. Vacations and death are the two most popular to leave a house empty for an extended period of time.”
The trucks took the next exit that would circle them around to the west, which meant Peter and Carlos were doing what I’d told them to. I frowned. “They found the car very fast. Too fast. Even knowing exactly what they were looking for, there have been no drones, no helicopters. Which means they were already looking for us on the road.”
Cowboy nodded. “Can Carlos hide them if they get too close?”
I squeezed the steering wheel. “Yes, but they’ll know what both of his vehicles look like.” Fuck. They might already be on Anita too.
My guts twisted. She was my ace in this plan, the one reason I could look away from Bear and face these fallen bastards.
The kid gave a low whistle. “Shoot, it’s not like this in Texas. Not at all.”
“Everyone gets along?” I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me. “I have to call bullshit.”
He snorted. “Of course not, but it’s not so outright, you know? It’s more . . .”
“Human,” I said. “Not so vicious.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I guess so. We fight about stuff, but we wouldn’t throw each other under the bus.”
That did draw a laugh from me. “Yeah, and how do you think you got caught this far into the purge?”
“I had been out in the mountains for most of the spring and winter, staying on the range like I said,” he said thoughtfully, “working the cattle, keeping them safe from wolves. I can do it without shooting anything so everyone is happy.” He looked at his lap. “I came back into town, went to my cousin’s place where I stay in between cattle drives, showered, went out for drinks, then came back home and fell asleep. That’s been my routine since this all started.”
“With your clothes on?” I gave a pointed look at his torn-up jeans on the floor at his feet and the cowboy boots that had
