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“Are you in need of medical attention?” His brusque question cut off whatever she might have been saying. “How badly did he hurt you?”
She blinked. “Uh…I hadn’t really thought about it yet.”
He grabbed her hands. Already clotting. He lifted her hair to check the bite, the cut beneath her ear. The cut had stopped oozing, but the bite worried him. T-Rex’s crocodile mouth had to be more toxic than most. “You look OK,” he said. “You’re not going to go into shock on me, are you? Do you feel faint? Cold? Do you have the shivers?”
She shook her head.
“Good. Then we’re out of here.” He scooped her into the circle of his arm and hustled her along beside him at a brisk, stumbling trot.
“Aren’t we…shouldn’t we wait for the police?”
“Nope. We are running for our lives. You got a problem with that?”
She pondered that. “Not exactly. But I would like to be consulted.”
“No time for consultations.” He yanked the Wrangler’s door open, tossed her in. He reached into the back and grabbed the bottle of water that had been rolling around back there. “Rinse yourself off.”
She took it gratefully, and poured water into her hands, splashing with it. He grabbed her right sandal and pried it off. Ripped the upper back from the sole and plucked out a flat cluster of wires and circuits.
She blinked. “Oh, my God.”
“Yeah, it’s a tracking device. And yeah, I put it there.” He tossed the thing off into the woods. “You going to give me a hard time about it? Go on. I dare you.”
She bit her lip, her eyes wary. “Um, maybe not right now.”
“That’s smart.” He gave her back what was left of her sandal. She held the flapping, ruined thing in her hands, bewildered.
He slammed her door, and loped to the driver’s side. “We’re sitting ducks,” he said, starting up the engine. “We can’t wait around for the cops with just five 357 Magnum bullets between us and T-Rex. He’s probably planning to ambush us on the road. Or pick us off from up there—” he indicated a rock above them, “—or there.” He pointed at the wall of granite that bounded the lake. “I’ve seen enough dead bodies. I will not let this guy kill you. I have hadenough, you hear me?”
“OK,” she soothed. “I don’t want him to kill me, either. It’s just that…wouldn’t we be safer on the road if we were with the police?”
“We’re not taking the road.” He steered around a washed out, yawning hole in the road, and picked up speed, bumping and jouncing.
She gave him a big-eyed look. “Um, excuse me?”
“Off-road. We’ll cut across Long Prairie and hook up with Burnt Ridge Road, which will take us to Garnier Creek, towards Taggert. Don’t worry. This vehicle can handle it. T-Rex’s Jeep could, too, but hopefully he won’t be expecting us to go that route.”
“If you say so.” Her voice was small. “So we’re hiding, then?”
“Until we know who’s chasing us. Kev was smart. They killed him, and got away with it. They are not to be fucked with, whoever they are.”
“But the police—”
“The police didn’t help the last time. I don’t have any reason to think they would help me now. Get your head down.” He shoved down on her head until she sprawled sideways, and dialed Davy’s cell.
“What the hell?” Davy snarled, without preamble.
“We’re alive. So’s the fuckhead. I don’t want to meet up with him again until I have a lot more firepower. I tossed the beacons.”
“You didwhat?Are you nuts?”
“Tell Liv’s folks she’s OK,” Sean said. “Watch your back. Con, too. Keep Margot and Erin close. These are the guys who killed Kev. They know all about us.” He hung up, and punched up Miles’s number. “It’s Sean,” he said. “Call me back, and enable your scrambler.”
“The scrambler? Jesus, why? What’s going on?”
“Do it.” He hung up, stuck the phone between chin and shoulder as he guided the truck over the rough track. It rang again, in seconds.
“I need help,” he told Miles. “Are you still at the Rock Bottom?”
