Page 87 of Burn

Or at least, I thought it was sand. It could just be dirt. Voodoo sent me another glance and I could have sworn there was an apology in his eyes.

Thankfully, he pulled onto the shoulder without any further nudging. The guys spilled out like they needed to secure the area. I just let them. Goblin hopped right out, found a tuft of weeds and cocked his leg.

Lucky bastard.

The doors behind me opened and Voodoo was there. He opened one of the bags and pulled out handwipes and toilet paper.

“Do I want to know why you already had that in a bag?”

His flash of a grin was all amusement. “I think you can figure it out.”

Clearly.

“Also, leaving this side door open and the door up on the passenger side. It will give you some cover from the road. I doubt anyone is coming but…”

“Yeah,” I said, sliding out the side door to meet him. “It would be our luck this is the moment someone showed up.”

“Give me one more minute,” Voodoo said and he did a circuit around the side of the van and then dropped to glance under it before he kicked at the ground with his boots. “Okay. We look good. No snakes or scorpions.”

All of a sudden I didn’t want to pee ever again. I stared at him.

“I’ll keep watch from the back.” Then he was gone. The others were on the far side of the van or in front of it. I set the toilet paper and the wipes just inside the van and pulled the pants and underwear down.

After a swift internal debate, I faced the van and angled my ass away so I could squat and pee. The relief was so profound, I could almost forgetwherewe were. Finished, I used a bit of toilet paper to wipe before I pulled my pants up, then I used a wipe to clean my hands and wrapped the wipe around the toilet paper.

“All good?” Voodoo asked, he still had his back to me but he was at the edge of the door.

“As good as I can be.” Though to be honest… “And I do feel better, so thank you.”

We took advantage of the break to deal with the trash. The guys also took the time to take a leak and I made sure to keep my eyes to myself. It had definitely gotten a lot warmer, because I was sweating by the time we climbed back into the van.

The air conditioner was going to have to work overtime but since I was no longer about to piss my pants, I could afford to wait. The water was cold, and there were sandwiches. I ate one that was all cucumbers, cheese, and ham.

When the guys weren’t looking, I split some of it with Goblin. His goofy wide grins after he finished up each bite were a definite improvement on the day. At some point, I must have fallen asleep, because I woke up to Lunchbox lifting me out of the seat.

“Shh,” he said in a low tone. It was dark outside and a great deal cooler. “Just go back to sleep, Gracie. We’ll get you inside. We can’t do anything until tomorrow.”

A thousand questions bounced around in my head, but I was exhausted. I felt even groggier than I’d been after the heat of the day.

“Please just tell me there’s a real bathroom.”

His soft huff of laughter was only forgivable because he said, “Yes, and it’s clean too. Bones said they even have hot water.”

Oh, that sounded heavenly. I smothered a yawn and rested my head against his shoulder as he carried me inside. I didn’t really get a good look at where we were or the place we were going into.

The lights were low and there was a kind of buzzing hum from them. Then we were in a bedroom and the door to the bathroom was open. Lunchbox put me on my feet carefully and balanced me until I wasn’t quite so shaky.

“Try not to wake yourself up,” he said as he reached in and tugged a cord to turn on the light in the bathroom. “I’m going to grab your gear.”

Right. My gear.

“My tablet?”

“I’ll get it,” he said then he was gone. I went in and used the toilet—so much better than the side of the road. When he came back, there was a small bag of toiletries so I could wash my hands and face. I did a quick, if sketchy, brush of my teeth and then stripped out of my pants to climb into the bed.

I didn’t care about the rest of the stuff. The sheets smelled mostly clean and the pillows were soft. “Thanks, Lunchbox,” I said around another yawn. He was still in the room, but eyes were already closing.

“Anytime, Gracie. I’m going to shower…”

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