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Caleb let out a whuffling sound and turned onto his side, burying his face in his pillow

The distinctly canine movement made my lips curve into a fond s hied to the valley, with his pack, not running o back hoirl and have furry little babies He deserved someone who could share her whole life with him, not just carefully edited sound bites

Just walk out, et the hell out before you e to talk yourself out of this Move your feet

So that’s what I did I slungover my shoulder and made it all the way to the door I looked back

Damn it, why did I look back?

Caleb’s hair was all mussed around his face, his relaxed, nearly boyish face His lips were parted as he breathed deeply I was going tomore than to crawl back into bed, where it arm and safe and smelled like him

I moved closer to the bed, even asthe laws of co just short of runninghis cheek

"Be happy" I pressed the barest whisper of a kiss against his cheek, inhaling his spicy, woodsy scent one last time, and ran out of the motel room as if he was hot on my heels

9

I Make Use of Stolen Law-Enforcement Equipment

I, for lack of a more flowery term, hauled ass up the street to a bar called Slippery Sa, and I ended up pulling a ha But it orth it to be able to close myself up in the dark, smoky room and hide in a booth lit only by a neon blue St Pauli Girl sign

The waitress wasn’t thrilled to have a nonordering freeloader taking up her booth So when Ifor a ride, she was quick to point out the bar’s beer distributor, Bart, ould be departing for parts unknoithin the next thirty ood towas parked out back, which was even better

Bart illing to take me as far as a saloon about four hours ahere he happened to know of a Coca-Cola distributor who ran a regular route to Rooklin, about a hundred miles east He vouched for Carl, the Coca-Cola man, as a noncrazy non–serial killer and proe for rateful Even when he insisted on showing randkids, and various salht in the past year

Bart dutifully handed me off to Carl, who turned out to be a skinny, pi wheel without the aid of a phone book But he was very sweet and offered hts into Battlestar Galactica that I’d never considered Despite his willingness to share his thermos of coffee, I was pretty much dead on my feet by the time we rolled into my latest destination

Rooklin was like so h, a tiny oasis of civilization carved out of a gap between reen trees Main Street consisted of a dozen wooden storefronts craether, as much to save on constructionwinters There were no chain stores or fast-food restaurants, just locally owned essential businesses: a grocer’s, a bar, a medical clinic, and a combination pawn shop and office-supply store called Dudley’s Duplicates

Carl sentfull of Oreos and a bold pat on the ar me luck as I wandered down Rooklin’s ht painful to sell the little eiven ed to hold on to it all this tihty-five dollars to a pawn broker But in a choice between sentiured Gramma would understand She’d been a practical woman

I supposed this was h hts and buy a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter froht be able to arrange a ride to Anchorage for oing to have toall of ood price

Tucked as safe as I could be in the luxurious accoht-Price, I sat at the foot of the luer of slipping into crippling despair, I needed to find the bright side I was alive I was--for the ood If I could get some sleep, I could face the next day

I spent two days burning through time slots at Dudley’s Duplicates’ Internet "café," also known as tobbly folding chairs and a card table in the corner of the store I contacted Red-burn through a newly established qwick our safe word, caduceus, to verify that it wasas me I updated her on my situation and asked for any details on my new identity, which she couldn’t provide yet She did, however, wire ans could remain unpawned And because it was a better nervous habit than s-order laws in Alaska While the state troopers would be willing to assist authorities close to Glenn, I still had no idea where he was He was sh a fake IP address, so that wouldn’t be any help I didn’t know if he was really getting closer toto take the risk, either way

While I had much better evidence of Glenn’s harassal revenge on hiness to dirty the pack’s collective paws cut h clearly justified, illegal revenge My best hope noas si-terood and -terht-Price Rooms

Constructed in one of those old-fashioned "open courtyard plans," the motel had seen considerably better days Of course, so had I I just wanted to get out of the cold and get so here, and it didn’t have anything to do with the cracker-thin htht since I’d arrived in Rooklin The nightginged in every dreaht, it was in my bedroom in my cozy little house in the valley; the next, it was my motel room in McClusky; and the next, it was the first roouilt, the worry, and the lack of sleep had co sensation that settled between my eyes like a half-for Caleb the way I did It was cowardly, and Caleb deserved more than that He deserved more than a stupid Post-it note on a lampshade And what really sucked was that I would never be able to apologize for it, because I would never see hiain I wasn’t sure he’d want ht on the other side of thesounds he made in his sleep I missed his terrible taste in road e jerky in his truck Isafe

I scrubbed my hands overaround outside like this, but I was just so damn tired I shuffled down the cracked ce with the plastic key fob as I made my way to my room There were only twelve of them, and I had rented unit eleven, at the far end of the complex