Page 25 of Lamb

“Wise choice.” I shrugged, crushing the decayed leaf beneath my shoe, crumbs scattering in the dust storms skating over the hot earth.

“Wise enough that you won’t tell her?”

I smiled.

“Of course, you’ll still tell her,” Jax whimpered, rubbing his head into his tattooed arms. “I’m never talking to you again; all I do is get in trouble.”

I shook my head, pulling my phone out of my back pocket.

Notification: No new motion detected.

“Talk about pot calling the kettle black,” Jax grumbled, turning his head just enough for a brown eye to scowl between the frizzy mass of dark hair.

“I thought you weren’t talking to me.” I clicked my phone shut.

“I’m not,” Jax said, beady eye following my hand as it slid into my pocket, depositing my phone. “But while I’m still not talking to you, do you want to tell me who’s got you all hot and bothered?”

“No.”

“Oh, come on.” Jax flung himself back into his seat, his suspension creaking with the motion. “We’ve been sat here for an hour—”

“Twenty minutes,” I corrected.

“—forages, waiting for this guy we don’t even know will turn up,” Jax continued, anyway. “I’m bored.”

“He’ll come,” I said, looking into the distant horizon, heat rippling off the tarmac, trees swaying in the mirage. The breeze blew, and I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a tumbleweed rolling across the long, empty stretch of road.

“How d’you know?”

“I don’t.” I shrugged. “But I’ve never once had a no-show.”

“I’m not surprised,” Jax grumbled. “Everyone would jump at the chance to cash in one of your ‘favors.’”

I assumed he was speaking from experience, seeing how Jax had ended up on the wrong side of my favors more than anybody else had. He’d been a gullible kid when he’d come into the fold; always desperate to prove me wrong, eager to win just one bet against me. Even all these years later, he was still falling into the same old traps.

“What information’s so secret that we’ve been dragged out to the middle of Nowhere-Ville, anyway?”

“Nowhere-Ville?” My eyebrows knitted together as I looked about the empty gas station.

“Yep,” Jax popped. “Right between Nowhere Town and Nowhere City.”

I rolled my eyes at last. It had only been a matter of time.

“And you know what? I hate Nowhere-Ville,” Jax huffed. “We’re like sitting ducks out here. No cover. No alternative exits. Getting a smooth run out of here if something goes wrong will be next to impossible.”

“That’s why I brought you.” I caught his eye. “It’s your job to get us out of here alive.”

“Did you miss the bit where I saidimpossible?” He exaggerated the last word with his lips. “Do you want me to spell it out for you?”

“I don’t know,” I retorted. “Can you?”

Jax opened his mouth, words sitting on the tip of his tongue.

In the distance, a car engine rumbled.

Jax and I turned toward it, buzzing with anticipation and caution.

Soon enough, an old beat-up wagon cruised, clunked, and clattered its way up the open road before screeching to a stop next to our bikes.

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