Page 27 of I Am Salvation

“Sounds good.”

My stomach lets out a growl. Funny how doing the right thing brought back my appetite. “I forgot to eat lunch today. You hungry?”

He frowns. “I… I haven’t eaten either.”

“You haven’t? What have you been doing?”

He simply shrugs.

Definitely a story there. Definitely a reason why we’re going to Taos. Enough to keep his appetite at bay.

“We’ll get something on the road, then. My treat.” I give him a smile. “Let’s go.”

We take the elevator down to the parking garage where my burgundy BMW is parked. Dragon cracks a small grin as we approach it.

“What?” I ask.

“Just as I thought,” Dragon says. “Figured it would be either a Benz or BMW.”

“It was almost a Jaguar,” I say. “But this one rides better.”

He says nothing. Not that I expect him to.

I pull the key fob out of my purse and unlock the doors. “You want to drive?” I ask Dragon.

“That’s fine. If you want me to.”

“Honestly, I’d prefer if you drove. Plug in the coordinates to my GPS system in the car, and it’ll take you right there.”

He nods.

I look at him, flash him a smile. “So you’ve never been to Taos, right?”

“Nope.”

I squeeze his shoulder. “It’ll be great. Let’s go.”

Dragon starts the engine, pulls out of my parking space, and follows the exit signs out of the building.

“What do you feel like eating?” I ask. “We should probably grab something before we get out of town. The next major city we’ll hit is Colorado Springs, and that won’t be for another hour at least.”

“Whatever sounds good to you.”

“There’s a deli right on the edge of Seventeenth Avenue, and they won’t be crowded this time of day. How about a sandwich?”

He blinks. “Yeah. Sounds great.”

I show Dragon where to go, weaving through the diagonal streets of downtown Denver, until we reach the end of Seventeenth. With luck, there’s a parking spot open right in front of the deli.

“That never happens,” I say. “You must have good parking karma.”

“Good parking what?”

I laugh. “Never mind. I’ll go in. What do you want?”

“Corned beef on rye. Swiss cheese.”

“How about to drink?”