Page 37 of Starved Until Sunset

“We have to look first,” Cody said, then, maybe with a touch of meanness in his tone, added, “I know you want to look.”

“We don’t have to.”

“Yeah, we do. Come on. Just don’t touch anything, for God’s sake. I don’t want to spend the night in jail. Again.”

Demetrius’s stomach had compressed to what felt like the size of a pea as he followed Cody the rest of the way across the road and up to the truck.

“Hey, Spiffy,” Cody called. “Pete?”

There was no answer. The only sounds were the rumbling of the truck engines and the weird click of the light bar rotation.

“I’ll check the other side.”

Cody grabbed his arm as he turned toward the front of the truck. “We stay together. Right the fuck beside each other. Okay? I don’t want us to leave each other’s sight.”

“Yeah, good idea. Okay.”

“I don’t want to touch the handles or anything, but we need to look in the window.” Cody waved a hand at his backside. “Support my ass as I get up on the step.”

“How about you support my ass since I’m about twenty pounds lighter—you know, because of your height and all your muscles and stuff.”

“And stuff?”

Demetrius shrugged slightly. “Your cock is bigger, too.”

That earned him a scoff. “Fine. But lean back against my hands so your face isn’t right there in the window and vulnerable.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Demetrius’s stomach trembled, a real feat considering it had shrunk so much. He licked his dry lips and looked up at the clear sky, then around at the shadows in and between the trees. Nothing moved. Cody steadied him with a hand on his elbow, his fingers strong and familiar.

“You let me know if you need to get down fast.”

“Don’t worry, I will.”

“Okay, step up.”

Demetrius placed his foot on the step, careful to avoid the puddle. With Cody supporting his arm and butt—a bit stimulating, even given the circumstances—he rose up and peered in the window.

The dashboard lights and throwback from the light bar illuminated the blood pooled in the imprint of countless asses that had sat in the driver’s seat over the years. The thick, coppery smell of it hit him, and he turned his face away to draw in a breath of fresher air.

“What is it?” Cody asked.

“Blood in the driver’s seat. A lot of it.”

“Shit. Any sign of Pete?”

Demetrius forced his gaze away from the gory driver’s seat and looked at the empty passenger side of the cab. “No. His seat is empty.”

A small, very quiet sound made him tense. Cody must have felt it in his muscles because he started to pull him back down, saying, “That’s it, get down. We’re calling Lucia.”

“Wait.”

Demetrius was surprised when Cody actually listened and stopped trying to get him down on the road again. He leaned a little closer to the door, ignoring Cody’s low growl as he said his name in that familiar warning tone. Instead, Demetrius leaned in just a bit more and turned his head slightly, listening hard.

There it was. A soft voice, almost breathless, saying something familiar. He shifted a bit to the right, toward the back of the truck, and in the reflected throw of the yellow lights, saw someone tucked tight into the darkness of the passenger seat footwell.

It was Shrieky Pete. His knees were pulled up tight to his chest, arms wrapped around his shins. He stared wide-eyed at Demetrius with no sign of recognition. His mouth barely moved, but now that Demetrius could see him, he was able to recognize Pete repeatedly whispered the Lord’s Prayer.