Page 78 of The Hard Way

“You have a disguise?”

“You don’t even want to know.”

“I like your bright hair,” she said. “God, look at you.”

Odin was moving toward the steps. “We need to…”

“I know.” I straightened Vanessa’s jacket. “Come on.”

We headed down, Odin first, Vanessa next and me last. We started making our way back to the car. Odin went first. That was better. We definitely couldn’t risk anybody being out here and especially not anybody recognizing me.

“Give me your phone,” I said.

She handed it over. “Code’s one-two-three-four.”

Odin snorted from ahead.

“You should change it. The girls don’t ever answer this, do they?”

“Not unless I ask them to.”

I called it on my phone and punched in a fake name. “This’ll be me. It’s a burner, so I won’t have it forever.”

“Wait, am I going to see you again? What’s the plan?”

“The plan is to solve the shit out of this. We have to work fast, though.” I thought about Odin, how he felt like we were being watched. How he’d promised me twenty-four hours of not going dark on Hank. “It’s likely Hank knows somebody’s looking into him. And we’re really far. We can’t let him know how far. Okay?”

“You solve it, and you leave? I can’t not see you again.”

“I don’t know.”

“You have to come home with me. At least see the farm. See what we’ve done. See the herd. See Petey.”

“I want to, but…” I wanted all that so badly, I could barely form a coherent sentence. Odin turned and walked backwards, eyeing me. He felt how deeply I wanted that.

“I can’t never see you again,” Vanessa said.

“We’re going to handle this problem, and we’ll see.”

“Melinda—”

I hooked an arm in hers. “I’d better not see you parked in a stupid place.”

She struck a tear from her cheek. “No, but I probably parked you in.”

In fact she had. I squeezed her tightly, telling myself it couldn’t be the last time I saw her—it just couldn’t.

She got into her car, and Odin and I watched her drive off. He wrapped his arms around me from behind. We were silent for a while, there in the whispering wind.

“Will I ever see her again?” I asked.

“I can’t answer that.”

“We have a lead, though. That’s something.”

He kissed the top of my head. “That’s something.”

We were silent for a bit longer. I had to lose her again, but maybe we could save her.

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