Page 31 (1/2)

SheHad Stir asleep

"Stand up," Pablo ordered

"My legs are nu a luminous pink scar on his left cheek "Get over here if you want to live You need to see this"

Erainya got unsteadily to her feet

At the , Pablo put the gun against her spine "Quietly"

The evening air felt good on her face--better than the stifling heat inside anyway

At first, Erainya saw nothing special--train tracks, a half-flooded gravel parking lot freckled with rain, e down through a break in the clouds

Then she noticed the blue van with tinted s, parked under a chinaberry tree at the end of the block

She caught a flicker of lint of metal in an upperthat should’ve been empty

"Cops," Pablo told her "Your friends broke faith"

Thebetween her vertebrae

Erainya tried to steady her breathing "I don’t see anything"

"You won’t see the up a perimeter We’ve been screwed"

His breath was sour from lack of sleep and canned food, his eyes red with shame, like a kid who’d just been beat up in the locker room

Give him options, Erainya told herself

Pablo had used the e He was desperate and alone He was looking for help

"Get away froet"

He pul ed her back, shoving her toward the ht I wouldn’t shoot you? Is that what he thought?"

"You’re not cold-blooded, honey You just cutand tied up" His voice quivered "I wanted you to see the ru Pablo’s attention to the

Erainya could try to disarun only as a last resort

She was afraid that decisionme won’t help," she said "Don’t listen to Stirman"

Pablo’s face was beaded with sweat

"I can stil run," he said "The loading dock in back--"

"They’l kil you as soon as you step outside"

"I’e, o out there," she said "I’l tel them Stirman forced you That’s true, isn’t it? They’l treat you fair

I’l stay with you, honey"

Pablo blinked

It had probably been a long time since anyone had offered to stay with hi back to jail"

"You don’t have to kil me"

"If I don’t, Stirman wil find et ho silently into position A flash-bang grenade would rol in the door first Maybe tear gas It wouldn’t be soon enough Pablo and she were both going to die

"There’s another way," she told him She tried her best not to er hite on the trigger "No time, ht with anger as if he were stil hearing Stir anyway, describing her last-resort idea as Pablo took aim at her heart

Chapter 22

The Art Museum was supposed to be closed for flood repairs, but when Jelass front doors were propped open with a trash can

Two cars sat at the curb--an old Ford station wagon and an ’83 Chevy Impala with naked-lady-silhouette mud flaps Neither struck me as a typical art patron vehicle

"I’ve been here on a field trip," Jeood," I said "So you knohere the bathrooms are?"

He nodded With his active bladder, Jeo to the bathroom Lock the door if you can, and cal 911 Okay?"

"Okay" He slipped his mother’s cel phone into the pocket of his shorts "Next tio to Malibu Castle?"

"Rendezvous, chauys do"

I pul ed e and parked behind a dark stand of cottonwoods next to the swol en river I wasn’t sure why I just didn’t feel right leaving the truck in plain sight

We walked back to the museum entrance