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“Yeah, but I didn’t ask for any of this stuff for Christmas.” Tyler grabbed the box that held the game system and started tearing it open.
“What did you ask for?” the lady asked.
“Just a mommy,” he told her.
* * *
It was the third motel they had checked, all of them located in the same little cluster. Kara was so impatient she thought her head would explode. Selene was driving her little car slowly through the motel parking lot when Kara saw it—a car with Illinois plates. Selene saw it at the same moment and sent a startled glance at Kara.
“They’re here. That has to be them. They’re here, we’ve found them,” Kara whispered. “God, Selene, you’re uncanny with that pendulum trick of yours. I can’t even believe it.”
“Yeah. The question is, now that we’ve found them, what do we do about it?”
Kara sighed. “I just have to make sure Tyler’s okay. After that... we’ll figure something out.”
“We don’t even know which room. And this place is huge,” Selene said.
“Pendulum again?”
“I’m not that good. Besides, by the time I get a yes or no answer to every room number in this place, it’ll be midnight.”
“Then what do we do? How do we find out which room they’re in?”
Selene shrugged. “I’m gonna go talk to the desk clerk. You stay here. If Tyler sees you he’ll give you away.” She opened the glove compartment and took out a notepad and pen. “Jot down the plate number of the car. Just in case they get away from us again.”
“Okay. But if you figure out where they are, don’t go near the room without me.”
“You think we should call Jimmy first?” Selene asked.
Kara thought on it a moment. But God, he was going through so much. “Let’s make sure it’s really them first. I don’t want to get his hopes up only to have them crushed again.”
“You really love him, don’t you?”
“Yeah. I really do.” She wished the feeling was mutual. Sighing, she gave her head a shake. “Park this thing and let’s get on with it.”
Selene nodded, pulled the car into the first available parking space, then got out and hurried into the motel office.
Kara stayed in the car, her gaze skimming the motel rooms’ doors, their windows. She strained her vision until her eyes watered. But there was no sign of Tyler.
Then a pizza delivery car pulled up in front of the row of rooms and a teenager got out with a pizza box and a paper bag. He went to a door and knocked, and Kara watched because it was the only movement she’d seen.
A man opened the door. He looked up and down the sidewalk before his gaze settled on the delivery boy. Kara rolled her window down.
The man took the pizza and the other bag the kid carried, handing them off to someone inside the room, then he dug out some money.
“Allright!Pizza’s here!” someone cried.
It was a child’s voice.
It wasTyler’svoice.
Kara waited until the door was closed, the pizza car gone, before she got out of the car. She glanced toward the office, but there was no sign of Selene yet. As an afterthought she dug a tube of lipstick from her purse and wrote on the side-view mirror, “RM. 15.” Then she put the lipstick away and started toward the room.
* * *
Jim got out of the pickup and headed for the Brand house. Before he’d gone two steps, Wade and Caleb were flanking him. He paused, because he got the distinct feeling they were holding him up, even though neither man was touching him. And it was an odd feeling.
He didn’t have close friends, other than Colby. Didn’t have family. Now all of the sudden he had an entire herd of people who, by all appearances, would be willing to give him a kidney. It was surreal.
