AllFreeNovel
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“Yeah,” Miles said. “We just loaded up the sound system. Why?”
“Is anybody listening to this conversation?” he demanded.
“Are you doing your paranoid freak-out McCloud routine on me?”
“Cut the shit. Get out of earshot. Have you got the fogeymobile?”
“Uh, yeah,” Miles said. “What’s it to you?”
“I want it,” Sean said.
“Do my ears deceive me? You’re willing to be seen in my vomit-tinted, butt-ugly piece of no-testosterone shit?”
“This is serious. I almost got killed a few minutes ago. I need to disappear.”
“Oh. I get it.” Miles’s tone was ironic. “What better way to disappear than the magical invisible car?”
“Exactly.” Sean negotiated around another gaping washout.
“Didn’t Seth give you a fake ID, like he did for Davy and Con? Can’t you rent a car under your false name? Why do I always have to be the schnook with no wheels?” Miles complained.
Sean gritted his teeth. “The rental places won’t open for three hours, I’m covered with blood, and I’ve got a naked girl in my truck.”
“No shit!” Miles breathed, impressed. “Naked? Really? Is it, you know, her? That girl you’re so nuts about? Jeez. Why’s she naked?”
Trust Miles to grasp the kernel of the situation. His own fault, mentioning a naked girl to a guy who hadn’t gotten laid in ages, if ever.
“No time to explain,” he snapped. “You know the Lonely Valley Motor Lodge, in Taggert? Behind the shopping center? Rent me a room. They get trucker business, so someone will be on duty. Got any cash?”
“I can get some at the all-night convenience store,” Miles’s voice had taken on its habitual long-suffering tone.
“Get me some. Ask for a room in back. Don’t say anything to anyone. Get me disinfectant, bandages, surgical tape. And T-shirts.”
“I’m on it,” Miles said. “See you there.”
Amazing, how the mention of a naked girl made a guy perk right up and hop to attention, any hour of the day or night.
Sean gave the truck more gas. They topped the rise out of the cleft of the valley and up onto the road that skirted the Long Prairie plateau. Dawn lit up the clouds into a fabulous range of pinks on the horizon.
Bye bye, road. “Hang on, babe.” He slewed the Wrangler Rubicon around and headed it into the waving, waist-deep meadow grass.
Liv seizedthe grab handle and braced herself on the dash as they jounced and tipped. Sean’s face was tight with concentration. She hung on as they skirted trees, bushes, sometimes foundering in the grass, scraping over boulders that dotted the rough terrain.
Her arms felt like they were being ripped from their sockets.
Finally, they intersected a road, barely more than two long depressions in the grass. Burnt Ridge Crest. Thank God. The top of the Jeep was up, but the windows were open, blowing cool air over them.
She shivered, her chest and shoulders goose-pimpling. Sean’s eyes swept over her body. She crossed her arms over her bouncing bosom, and almost laughed. Embarrassed about that, after what they’d just been through. Please.
She tried to organize her thoughts. A million frantic questions jostled for space. “So you guys never found any clues? About Kev?”
The dirt road had turned to smoother gravel, and now gave way to asphalt. They were passing farms and houses and mailboxes now.
“Just the clues Kev gave you,” Sean said. “Just the note.”
“What did that note say?” she asked. “I’ve always wondered.”
His face was distant. “One thing at a time. Scoot down. You’re conspicuous even when you’re wearing a shirt, let alone topless.”
