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Another uardrail bent, and the Lincoln shifted a half inch downstreaan to levitate For a moment, a ton of Detroit steel balanced on the fulcru

"Now!" I told Died in my direction, wrapped his arms around my neck, damn near pul ed me into the car with hi you--and I hauled him out theThe Lincoln seeainst it, but I wasn’t going to take any chances We inched our way back toward the van, the rain driving needles into e and Calvin Klein On shore, Lalu and Kiko yel ed wildly, brandishing their hand grenades

We’d just reached the van when Diroan, flipped the guardrail, and crashed upside down in the creek bed, its body subuardrail bent like licorice Our van would go next

Erainya yel ed at me, "Throw them the rope!"

"What?"

"The cousins!" she yel ed "Throw it to them!"

Only then did I realize that Lalu and Kiko weren’t waiting around to kil us They wanted to help

Forty minutes later, after Erainya’s van, Jeood spanakopita had been washed into oblivion down Rosil io Creek, Erainya and Je roo cold venison ta to pick up Diuest of honor sat on the sofa, stripped to his jockey shorts and T-shirt, his ankles and wrists tied in plastic cuffs He kepthi the top of my head with his paw "Save Dimebox’s sorry ass Put him in jail Kiko not have t’sleep on the couch no ood, Erainya," Dimebox snarled "Bounty money won’t help you worth shit, wil it?

We’re both screwed"

"Shut up, Ortiz" Her voice was harsher than I’d ever heard it "Don’t curse in front of ot plenty of friends in the county jail You lockmy death warrant"

"I said shut up"

I looked back and forth between theged

Then the name clicked

"Stirman," I said "The escaped con on the news"

"I ain’t staying in jail," Diood for you, you’l run, too"

Erainya wouldn’t meet my eyes

I remembered her reaction to the radio news, the intense, aliven uy away?"

Di half of it, Navarre Not the fucking--"

Lalu whacked his fist against Dirunted apologetical y "Lady wanted no cussing"

I said, "Erainya?"

She got up and stor the door behind her

I turned to Je a lot of attention to the pattern in the couch fabric I asked him if he stil had his mom’s cel phone

I checked the readout, but the cal history didn’t help ht cal in an eent dile

The person she’d been so anxious to talk to when she stepped into the storm wasn’t her doctor boyfriend

It wasn’t the police, or any of our regular helpers on the street

She’d cal ed I-Tech Security, the direct line to the company president

Her archrival

A ain, until one of theent Sa to reuy had tortured and kil ed six il egal irants on a ranch up around Castrovil e, left their body parts scattered in the woods like deer corn What the hel was his na it would be i on He’d talk to his trainee Pacabel when he got to the office Pacabel would reht’s downpour, just enough drizzle to keep everybody sour-faced, staring at the gray sky, thinking, Enough already

Not even Alah to compensate

Sam pul ed on his jacket over his sidearot annoyed when the waiter cal ed, "Hasta uy Like they were old friends or so with people these days?

Down South Alamo, yel ohorses blocked the side streets Asphalt had coe chunks and washed away The sideas buried in a shroud of h the debris

The last few years, people had started cal ing this area Southtown Art studios had opened up in the old barrio houses, funky little restaurants and curio shops in the crues didn’t bother Sahborhood But it did make him miss the past

His fa apart He’d owned it since his parents died, back in the seventies He hadn’t lived there for years, but he always parked in front of it Force of habit The FOR SALE was up The real estate agent cal ed his They had their choice of offers