right? I’ll be the search party for that.”
“But I—”
“Don’t worry,” she said, “I’ll get us some cute stuff. What, you don’t think I know style when I see it?” She pointed to her blue mane.
I’m not worried about style, I didn’t say, I’m worried you’re finding all kinds of excuses for seducing Michael behind my back. “Whoa…” I was dizzy with the cascade of unexpected thoughts in my head.
“I know, I know. Good luck finding anything in this little country town, I know.” She held up her phone. “I’ve got all kinds of fun toys to help me.”
“Great,” I said. “Gas-station clothes. Awesome.”
“Aw, chin up. After bathing you’ll feel properly sorted.” She punched me in the arm playfully. “Promise.”
Owwww! So much emotional pain! I wanted to die in the avalanche of it.
Michael felt exactly like a kid in over his head. He had poked the dog with the stick one too many times, and now the fence had broken and he was on the run, eager fangs giving chase and closing in. It was too much. He felt very heavy. Exhausted and worthless. He was waiting for some strong hand to rescue him—though his only experiences with strength had been commingled with unspeakable abuse.
Stanley had been…unkind.
He had enough faith to wrestle the doubt that kept throwing little pebbles at his resolve, pecking away at the belief that he had what it took to make it through this latest wrinkle, this latest setback, this absolutely insane upping of the ante.
“How could she?” he choked out, the tears coming. He was glad to be alone, he decided. This is right. It fit, though it made no sense and he had no idea how he was going to summon the strength to continue on. Though it was right, though it was…justice, he supposed, it still made no sense.
It was surreal. It was like he was watching a copy of himself when it had happened. He stood off, frozen in shock, and watched his body do things.
It had happened in the little park. Airel and Kim were being charmingly immature, roaring about eating rhinoceros or something, and then she tackled her and they wrestled and rolled around on the grass.
How could she?!
Airel and Kim rolled away, leaving it quite literally at his feet: the Bloodstone.
My God! “She’s been carrying it this whole time…” his mind flew backward through all the places they had been, all the things they had done, all the plans they’d made, and all this time, the Bloodstone had its carrier. “Kim…how could you?”
She’s a traitor…
No one had seen him pick it up. He had covered it with his shoe; that’s where the wretched thing belongs, under my feet; and when Ellie took the cash to go get the rooms, he had bent and…and took it.
He cursed his awful father, cursed his memory, cursed the day of his own birth into this insanity. The why filled his head. El…why? Can El be any good at all when His creation is so…so evil? “Why do I have to be the one to carry this burden?”
He felt absolutely alone.
What will it do to me?
Michael felt pulled in two directions as the perpetually unhealing wound in his chest throbbed stronger.
CHAPTER XV
Boise, Idaho, present day
THE WHITE FBI AS-350 helicopter climbed quickly, accelerating to its cruise speed of 130 knots—about 150 miles per hour. At that rate, Reid would cover the roughly 300 miles to the scene of the incident in less than two hours.
Harry sat there, his nose buried in his Kindle eReader.
She wondered what he could be reading that was more interesting than real life. It irritated her. He was probably reading something hideously nerdy. She snatched the gadget out of his hand and glanced at the display. Seniority had its privileges, its prerogatives. On the “ePage,” or whatever you called it, was something by some idiot Frenchman named Beaudelaire; something about The Flowers of Evil or some such rot. She snickered and handed the absurd device and its absurd content back to him with a sneer. He meekly took it without the slightest sign of protest, which made her despise him even more. There are so few killers in the world, she surmised. Most people are just ignorant sheep.
She was drawn back to the present situation, to what really mattered. It was such an incredible career opportunity, she realized. She could ride in on her white stallion and claim to be concerned for Tom Rawlins, to offer to take up the loose threads