Page 76 of Lost

She stared at him with big, beautiful, haunted blue eyes. “They ate kids. Younger than you. I know. I saw it all. And now I’m going to see it again.” She shook her head and wiped angrily at a single tear.

He held her gaze and very distinctly but quietly told her, “Not if I can help it you won’t.”

Surprise flashed in her eyes, then Stark interrupted.

“Okay, this is Lone Star Road. Time for you to do your job.”

“I already did myjob.I prophesized. This is not about my job. It’s about Neferet punishing me. But whatever. I’m a big girl. Tell Lieutenant Dickless to slow down so that I can check out these fields. The one I’m looking for is big. I remember a grove of pecan trees across the street. Oh, and there are trees lining the field, though a lot of the road side of it is open, so we should be able to see into most of the field.”

“Which side of the road is the field on?” Stark asked.

Aphrodite thought about it, then said, “It’s on our left.” They’d only driven about a mile down the windy road when Aphrodite pointed. “That’s it! I recognize that clump of trees.”

Kevin breathed a tiny sigh of relief. The field was still a couple of miles away from the ridge where the Resistance was hiding. That was one small good thing in a giant pile of bad.

Aphrodite was looking out the window to her right. “And there’s the pecan grove. Okay, keep going just a little. There should be a… yep, there’s the gate. Turn in there.”

Dallas guided the Hummer through an open gate and into a big, newly cut hayfield. And, sure enough, parked just inside the gate was the flatbed part of a semitruck’s trailer, filled with enormous round bales.

“Stop!” Stark snapped. “Make sure the convoy blocks the gate so they can’t get out that way.” He started to open his door before the Hummer had come to a complete stop, commanding, “Dallas, get those soldiers off the convoy and have them circle the flatbed. Lieutenant Heffer, stay in this vehicle with Aphrodite. Your job—youronlyjob is to make sure she’s not accidentally eaten tonight. Can you do that?”

“Yes, sir!”

Without another look, Stark and Dallas got out of the Hummer. Kevin could hear Dallas calling commands down the convoy. Stark had taken out his bow and kept a nocked arrow aimed at the round bales. “He can’t miss. Did you know that?” Aphrodite’s voice cut through the stillness in the half-empty vehicle.

“General Stark?”

“Yeah, Bow Boy.”

“Uh-huh, I knew. The whole army knows. He’s a legend.”

“In his own mind,” Aphrodite said. “They say he killed his mentor.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Yep. It’s why he’s all broody. Most women find it attractive. I find it tedious. But he’s not my type anyway.”

Kevin couldn’t help himself. “What is your type?”

“Someone with less broodiness and more heart. And muscles. I like muscles. Fill ’er up, Kev. I’m finally starting to catch that buzz.”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

“Honestly?”

“Yes. I like honesty.”

“Okay, I’ll be honest. It doesn’t matter whether I drink or not. It won’t change what’s going to happen, and it won’t make me forget that I’m going to have to watch it happeningagain.And since we’re being honest—nobody gives one good shit about whether I’m wasted or not except me, and if I have to watch kids being eaten by monsters, I prefer to be wasted.”

“That’s a good point.” Kevin refilled her glass. “But I care whether you’re wasted or not.”

She met his gaze. “Why?”

“Are we still being honest?”

“How ’bout this—as long as we’re alone let’s be honest. Deal?”

“Deal,” Kevin said, and his heart gave a weird little flutter beat when her gaze didn’t leave his, and for the first time she looked exactly likehisAphrodite. The one who had kissed him in Zo’s world and had told him to find her in his world.