Page 171 of Blue Moon

“Was there any sexual assault?” Dan asked.

Michelle stayed silent for a long moment, then finally shook her head. “He’s an asshole, but he’s not that kinda asshole.”

Thank fuck for that. “What state of mind was Luna in when she left?”

“Pissed off. Man wanted a queen, and he got a queen. When he tried to make her take a bath in goat milk, she made him get in instead.”

Emmy choked out a laugh, then turned to Ryder and raised an eyebrow. The final call was his.

“Luna already made the decision. If Hebert lives, he can face justice in court.”

49

LUNA

“Are you sure this is right?” I asked Kacie.

“GPS says it is.”

“Then why is there a gate across the road?”

This should have been easy. It turned out we were in Utah, which I didn’t know much about, but Mom said it was full of mountains and Mormons. There were plenty of trees too. Huge branches met overhead, leaving us in a gloomy tunnel as we inched along what the map called a road and I called a nightmare. Man, this sucked. Where was the blacktop? There was just mud and gravel. GPS said the nearest town was Panguitch, and theoretically, all I had to do was steer there without hitting anything and then convince someone to lend us a phone. So far, we’d been trundling along for over an hour, probably closer to two, and I’d mostly managed the first part. I mean, I hadn’t hit anything big, just a few rocks and one tiny tree. But now the road got smaller and smaller and narrower and narrower until it stopped altogether. A shabby wooden sign told us we’d reached the Green Gulch Silver Mine.

“This isn’t on the map,” Kacie said. “I swear this isn’t on the map. There’s no gate. The road goes around that hill and carries on.”

“You think we should try going in?”

Kacie leaned forward in her seat. “The little sign underneath the big one says ‘No entry, trespassers will be shot.’”

Boy, that was comforting.

“If there’s someone around to shoot at us, then maybe they’ll have a phone?”

“Ha-ha, very funny.” Kacie’s eyes widened. “Wait, you are joking, aren’t you?”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Yes, go back the way we came because the GPS is fritzed and this is sure as hell the wrong direction.”

“How? How can we go back? I never learned to reverse properly. Like, I only went in a straight line.”

Well, straight-ish.

“Uh…” Kacie twisted in her seat to look behind us. Rocky was quite happy, panting as he checked out the scenery. Occasionally, he yipped when he saw a squirrel. This was all one big adventure to him. “I don’t think reversing is that hard. If you back up into that bush, we could turn around and go forward to the last intersection.”

“Intersection? It wasn’t an intersection. It was, like, undergrowth with a gap in it. And what if I scratch the car?”

“You scratched it already.”

“What if I scratch it more?”

“I don’t think it’ll matter. If we don’t send an ambulance for Mark, he’ll die, and if he lives, he’ll forgive you. You’re his queen.” Kacie giggled.

“Don’t. Just don’t. And I didn’t even get a crown.”

“Oh, he has a crown; he just didn’t give it to you yet.”

Sheesh. “Hopefully, the doctors will put him on the right meds when he gets to the hospital. All that Mark Antony stuff… He’s cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.”

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