Page 97 of Three-Inch Teeth

Cates took a long breath, then said, “He’s gone now, Bobbi. You can relax.”

He observed her body language as she seemed to uncoil in the seat.

“Are you sure?”

“After we cut LOR loose, it’s just you and me. Just like you wanted,” he said. “I doubt we’ll ever see Axel Soledad again.”

“I hope not,” she said as she flopped her head back and sighed.

“But I need you to calm down and step up. Then it’ll all be over.”

She looked at him with a wary expression. But she was willing to listen. Cates didn’t dwell on his once-again-proven ability to persuade individuals to do his bidding, and he almost loved her for it.

“Slide over and drive,” he said gently. “All you’ll need to do is drive to the Pickett house and back up to the front door, just like Soledad did. I’ll tell you when to stop, baby. That’s all there is, and I know you can do it.”

Johnson started to raise her leg over the center console when she stopped and looked into his eyes. “Then it’ll all be over?”

“It’ll all be over,” he said.

“And we can go get my sister?”

“We can go get your sister.”

“And …” she said, tilting her head toward the back of the truck, meaning Lee Ogburn-Russell.

“That, too,” he said. “I promise.”

With that, Johnson wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand and slid behind the steering wheel. The pickup lurched forward and Cates swung around into the tractor seat.

LOR looked back at him expectantly. “We good?” he asked.

“We’re good.”

“Is that prick Soledad gone?”

“Yes, sir,” Cates said. LOR nodded his pleasure.

“Get ready,” Cates said. “This is going to happen fast once we get there.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Game Warden Station

A FEW MINUTES LATER, Joe paced the floor of their house with his cell phone in his hand. “It’s not unusual for Nate not to answer his phone, but still. He won’t pick up,” he said to Marybeth.

“Neither will Liv,” she said. “And she’s really good about picking up. I’m worried that something bad has happened. Do you think you should go over there?”

“Maybe,” Joe said. “But I don’t like the idea of leaving you alone in the house.”

“We should both go,” Marybeth said while kicking off her slippers and stepping into a pair of shoes in the mudroom. He followed her and gathered up his holster from where he looped it on a peg next to parkas and other heavy coats.

“Crap,” Marybeth said as she looked at her phone. “Sheridan tried to call twice in the last ten minutes and I missed her while I was calling Liv.”

Although it was better than it used to be, cell phone service was still notoriously unreliable in the Twelve Sleep Valley, especially away from town. Notices were often delayed, messages sometimes arrived days after they were sent, and individual calls simply didn’t go through. Which was another possible reason why Nate and Liv hadn’t responded, Joe thought.

He buckled on his holster, pulled on his jacket, and clamped his hat on his head. The familiar I am going out actions roused Daisy, who padded into the mudroom from where she’d been curled up in the kitchen. Tube and Bert’s Dog watched Daisy go but apparently had no interest in getting up and around so late in the evening.

That was when there was an insistent knock on their front door.

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