Page 50 of Burn

Just when I’d about given up on waiting for Bones, he suddenly opened the passenger side and slid inside. I got a brief look at his hands under the overhead light. One set of knuckles were raw and bloody. There was blood on his shirt too. Voodoo had blood on him as well.

“Let’s go,” Bones said.

Without comment, Voodoo started the Bronco and turned back onto the stretch of road we’d been driving along. We’d barely gone a few hundred feet when something went up behind us in a plume of too bright fire. There was also the sound of shattering glass followed by an intense vibration.

“Did the Jeep just explode?”

“Yes,” Voodoo said over his shoulder. “Gas tank was three quarters full. It’s going to burn for a while.”

Regret tangled in my gut. “I’m sorry about your car.”

Voodoo shrugged. “It’ll be fine, we can replace a car.”

Bones’ phone began to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket. It didn’t look shattered like Voodoo’s but it was definitely filthy. “That didn’t take them long.”

He didn’t answer the phone, however, he just sent a message then lowered the phone again.

“You know,” Voodoo said, almost conversationally. “Just cutting them out is going to make them more stubborn.”

“I’m aware,” Bones said. “By the time we get back, I’ll have a better plan for them and for us.”

For them?

Lunchbox and Alphabet.

“Did I get them into trouble?” My side hurt and so did my hand. Even my cheek ached. I just wanted a bottle of some painkillers, an ice pack, and a very long nap.

“No,” Voodoo said easily.

“They got themselves into trouble,” Bones said, as he switched screens on his phone. “We need a new contingency.”

He didn’t say anything else for quite a while. After another thirty minutes or so, he said, “Uranus, forty-two miles.”

“Lake of the Ozarks?”

“Maybe.”

They were talking in code again. Or maybe they meant exactly what they said. I was almost too tired to care at the moment.

“Let’s find a highway motel, get you two settled, then I’ll go for supplies and a new car.”

Voodoo didn’t say anything, he did frown. Despite shooting a look at Bones, he didn’t say anything at all. He didn’t like the plan?

It took over an hour, but they found a cozy little hotel just outside of town and off the highway. The rooms all had external doors, so we could go straight inside. Bones left us in the car while he cleared the room Voodoo had rented.

How they managed to not look covered in blood impressed me.

As it was, Bones also unscrewed the light that was right outside the door to the room and then unscrewed the light on the door next to it. It created a deep shadowy relief against the building, almost masking the doors.

“We’re clear,” Voodoo said, sliding out of the car. He snagged the bags and then came around to open my door. It took me a moment to stand, as it was, I listed heavily. “Hey,” Voodoo caught my arm when I would have just fallen back into the car. “Woah?—”

The bags hit the ground suddenly as the world went sideways.

Then everything went dark.

Chapter

Eighteen

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