Page 99 of The Cowboy and the Stray

I looked at the vase of sunflowers, now wilted, and thought about all the times I’d run. Running had been my only survival skill.

Calder smiled, real and soft, for the first time all morning. “You’ll be safe,” he said, like it was already decided. “I promise.”

I wanted to believe him, so I did.

45. CALDER

We left before sunrise. It was already hot, the air rising off the hood of the truck in a shimmer, but inside the house it was even thicker, packed with the tension of people who’d slept maybe three hours, most of it in our clothes. I’d said we’d leave at five. At four-thirty, everyone was ready, lined up at the door with bags and hardware and the same dead stare.

Ash rode shotgun, flipping a butterfly knife open and closed while humming a song nobody knew. Reid and Gray took the back seat, pressed together so tight their shoulders almost merged. I was driving. Tess squeezed in the middle, wedged between Ash’s sharp elbows and my right arm, both feet up on the transmission hump. She didn’t complain, not even when Ash’s knife got too close for comfort.

Buck and Jace piled into the truck bed with what looked like half of the barn’s tools and weapons. Buck had brought his favorite shovel, which told me he expected more cleanup than conversation. Jace kept his eyes on the horizon, never blinking.

Midge came out with a thermos and a basket. She handed it to Tess, but the look was for me. “Don’t let the idiots get you killed,” she said. “And if Ash gets mouthy, just roll down the window and shove her out.”

Ash cackled. “You’ll never get rid of me, Matriarch.”

Midge grunted, then walked over to her car. I’d convinced her to join Eli, Sloane, and Noah. I’d tried to convince Tess to go with her, but that had gone over like a lead balloon. I watched her drive off until her taillights vanished.

I turned the key. “Everyone ready?”

Ash grinned. “Born ready, boss.”

Reid rolled his eyes. “Just drive.”

I drove.

First stop was the scrapyard. It was still closed when we got there, but the owner was already out by the gate, smoking the first of what would be a dozen morning cigarettes and fighting off the swarm of gnats that came with the nearby low river. He waved us in, gave Tess a once-over, then nodded at me.

“Got your thing,” he said. Joe handed it to me in a sandwich bag. “It’s blinking. That good?”

“I think so,” I said.

Tess watched it, maybe waiting for the damn thing to explode. I put it in the console, thanked Joe, and passed him a fifty. He took it with a grunt.

Back on the road, Gray said, “What if he knows it’s a trap?”

Ash snorted. “Then we improvise and murder him anyway.”

Reid mumbled, “She’s not wrong.”

The drive to the hunting cabin took an hour and one near-miss with a deer bounding across the road. Tess never let go of my hand the whole way.

The roads got narrower and dustier, until the only sign of life was the grasshoppers smashing into the windshield. I kept the speed steady, a little faster than the speed limit. He needed to think she was scared.

I dropped them all off at the cabin with the tracker so if the thing had the ability Ito track speed, lance would think Tess had driven right up to this place.

I took the truck half a mile from the cabin and hiked back, boots crunching over limestone. The heat came up from the ground like a second sun. Sweat stuck to every part of me.

The cabin was exactly what I remembered. Built before the war, maybe before the first war, by someone who thought four walls and a tin roof was all you needed. It sagged a little, but the door still locked, and the windows had metal shutters that could drop in a second. They’d already done a sweep. Now, Ash took the inside, Gray the perimeter, Reid watched the approach from the ridge. I unpacked the food and water, set up a folding table, and handed Tess a bottle.

She cracked it, drained half in one go, then sat on the porch and stared at the woods. I joined her, but she didn’t say anything for a long time. Just watched the bugs swarm around the door.

“You okay?” I asked.

She nodded, but her jaw was set. “Just don’t want to screw this up.”

“We won’t.”