of the partners would step in and take charge.
Plus this whole deal is boring as hell, trying to sell smuggled chicken meat from China to a bunch of schoolkids. There’s nothing particularly sparkly about that. Just imagine the bone-dry meetings I’ll get to look forward to.
Still, I want it. And if I can get Rob to do the legwork for me, it will be an ideal situation. I’ll sweep back into town, check his work, of course, and take my place in the spotlight.
“Are you sure about those promises?”
“Absolutely. I’m absolutely sure. You can count on me to have everything ready for you when you get back.”
“All right, then. I’ll forward my notes when I’m back in my hotel room. You get to work. Send me updates. I’ll step in as soon as I’m done here.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much. This is going to be great.”
Well, he’s right about that, at least. This is going to be great.
CHAPTER 12
It’s the middle of a workday, so I can’t imagine where I could track down the head of a local soccer league. That position can’t possibly be a full-time job around here. League fees wouldn’t support a salary.
I look up the man’s name online and discover he’s an assistant manager at a big chain grocery store near my hotel, so I leave my old town behind again. Can’t imagine we’ll miss each other much, though I’m sure the place sparkles a little less once I pull away. Hard to tell past the steam cloud.
I race a train along the highway and remember how I fantasized about hitching a ride on one when I was young. All those things on all those trains going to people who never set foot on these shitty oil lands. I wanted to follow the tracks and steal their lives. In the end I did.
If Kayla is anything like me, she blew the hell out of this place and will never look back. But I still can’t tell. Is she strong and sick like me or just broken like half the other girls here? There was no point in pressing my mother on the issue. A bitch is a bitch is a bitch, in her parlance. There aren’t exactly layers to explore.
If I don’t dig up more in the next twenty-four hours, I’ll have to head back to Minneapolis without hero status. I can’t stay too much longer, now that I’m the new rising star in the office.
Needing a distraction from the flat drive, I call Luke on the speakerphone.
“Hey, babe,” he says cheerfully, as if he misses me too much to remember we’re taking a break.
I grin at his welcome and purr out a sexy hello.
“Any news on your niece?”
“Not really, but I saw my parents.”
“Holy shit! Are you kidding me?”
“Nope. They’re both still alive and kicking and begging for money.”
“Are you okay?”
“Sure. They didn’t jump me or anything.”
He huffs in laughter. “I meant emotionally.”
“You know me. I roll with the punches.”
“Yeah, but . . . what was it like?”
Hm. I pause to think what a normal person would say, but the truth is I don’t have to pretend with Luke. He knows I’m not normal. He doesn’t quite know what’s wrong with me, but he understands that I don’t have the same emotions as others.
“It was good to see them,” I finally say.
“Really? That’s great. So things have gotten better?”
“No, it was good to see that they’re the same and I’m better. I’ll come back to Minneapolis and they’ll be stuck right here being miserable.”
He laughs again as if I’m kidding. “Okay, but you’re sure you’re really all right? I always feel a little sick after seeing my mom, and you’ve said yours was pretty mean.”
“She’s still mean as a bear with a bladder infection, but she looks like shit, so all in all it was a good time.”
“But nothing on your niece?”
“I’m not sure. Apparently she was living with my parents when she disappeared. My mom is convinced she took off with a truck driver, and it doesn’t seem to occur to her that taking off with a strange adult doesn’t mean a sixteen-year-old is alive and well. Funny, huh?”
“And there’s still no sign of her?”
“No. I’m running down a few leads. She had some loser boyfriend named Little Dog—Jesus, that name. He took off himself a week later, so either he’s with her or he skipped town because he knows something incriminating.”
“Maybe he’s looking for her.” Luke is a sweet guy with a