“No one has come out yet,” Erin replied.
“They won’t be much longer,” Hawk said.
Vargas crept closer to the rest of us. “Wecan’t continue to sit here.”
“We wait to see who comes out the back,”Corson replied.
“And if they have split up and pin us inbetween them?” I asked.
“They’ve already pinned us if that’s thecase.”
“What if we went around to the back of thebuilding and out the other side of it? We’d have to leave thetruck, but it sounds like we may have already been forced toabandon it.” As soon as I said this, my fingers curled with thecompulsion to wrap them around the angel I’d left on the dashboardof the truck.
No such thing as a goodluck charm.
Maybe not, but I wanted it back.
“We won’t have enough time to get by the doorbefore they come out,” Corson said.
“We could get in one of these trucks and waitfor them to come by,” Hawk suggested.
Corson’s head tipped back as he studied thedoors above our heads. “Do it. You two, get in that one,” hepointed to Hawk and Erin before pointing at the blue truck to ourleft. “You get in that one,” he said to Vargas and pointed to thered one on our right. Finally, he turned to me. “You, come withme.”
The three of them rose and cautiously pulledopen the doors of the trucks. Hawk waited for Erin to climb inbefore following behind her. Vargas didn’t bother with the door,but climbed up the side of the wheel well and in through the openpassenger window. I followed Corson around the front of the redtruck and over to a black one. Rising up, Corson slid his handunder the handle and cautiously pulled open the passenger side doorbefore stepping aside and waving his hand for me to enter.
I scrambled inside. He climbed in behind meand noiselessly closed the door. “Stay down.”
He gestured for me to sit back so he couldmove in front of me on the bench seat to the driver’s side. Lyingdown, he tilted his head so he could watch the driver’s sidemirror. I pushed my back against the seat and turned so I’d be ableto see out the passenger mirror.
From my angle in the mirror, I saw more ofthe other trucks in the alley than anything else. I couldn’t seethe door into the garage bay, but I could see enough of the alleythat I would spot the demons when they were twenty feet away fromthe truck.
My heart pounded against my ribs, and sweattrickled down my forehead and temple. I steadied the tremor in myhand when I held my gun against my chest. I felt like I’d turnedinto a piece of stone as all of my muscles froze, and I barelybreathed while time seemed to stretch on endlessly.
The interior of the truck reeked of mildewand something feral, probably mice or some other wild creature thathad made this truck its home. Cracks lined the seat beneath me andsprings jabbed me in my back and ass. Tufts of yellow cushion pokedthrough the pieces of vinyl seating, which had been chewed offcompletely in some places. Light from the front of the buildingdimly illuminated the dashboard.
Something squeaked beneath the truck, causingCorson’s head to snap around and adrenaline to rush through me.When another squeal sounded, Corson relaxed and my shoulders saggedat the realization it was some animal making its way through thenight. I lifted my head a little over the top of the dashboard, butI saw no shadows or movement on the brightly lit pavement in frontof me.
Corson grasped my arm and jerked me down. Hepointed at his ear before laying further down in his seat oncemore. My attention returned to the mirror as the first boot andpant leg stepped into view. I tensed and gritted my teethtogether.
Another leg materialized and then a third andfourth, only two demons. I glanced at Corson, reading the truth inhis eyes. The other one, and Iknewit was Handsome, was at the front of the building, waiting forus.
The demons didn’t speak as they moved past myline of vision in the mirror, but stone crunched beneath theirboots when they stopped beside the truck. I could almost feel themthrough the metal separating us, standing there, searching thenight.
My lungs burned, but I refused to so much asbreathe while I waited to see what they would do.
Then I heard the stone crunch again as theirsteps continued on. I didn’t kid myself into believing they wouldleave or think we’d somehow managed to escape them. No, they wouldbe coming back and there was only one place for them to look whenthey did.
CHAPTER 23
Kobal
I stepped out of the truck to survey thewreckage blocking the middle of the road. Four vehicles had tumbledacross the roadway and crashed into each other between the rockwall and the guardrail lining the other side of the road.
“They would have come this way,” I said as Istepped away from the driver’s side door. “Pearl’s is five milesstraight ahead.”
“They may have doubled back,” Bale suggested,but I heard the tone of disbelief in her voice.
“This was recent,” I said.
