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I honestly had no idea what to say to that

"Sorry," I ive you a shakedown about it"

"It’s okay," Liam said, after the silence had stretched to the point of breaking "It’s fine"

There wasn’t a way to explain how I knew Maybe it was the way Lialancing in his sideafter a silver car had passed us from the other direction It could have been the way his shoulders sagged, sloping down in a way that was so defeated I just knew, long before I caught his worried eyes in the rearviewZu and Chubs as they watched an endless stream of forest pass by the side s, I crouched between the two front seats again

Lia in the direction of his side mirror See for yourself, he see behind us, back about two car lengths, was an old white pickup truck With the rain fogging up the air between the two cars, I couldn’t tell if there were one or two men inside They looked like little

"Interesting," I said, keeping my voice even

"Yep," he said, his jaw clenched The inia Glorious Mountain State Land O’Many John Denver Songs"

"Maybe…" I began slowly, "you should pull over and look at aout the situation Liahtly wider than the twisting road ere leaving If the truck was following us, they wouldn’t be able to stop without revealing it In any case, whoever was driving the truck wasn’t being aggressive about it If he was a bounty hunter, as Lia us out, too

We continued up Gor its natural curve Black Betty slowed in anticipation of the upco his turn signal on I looked in thewhen I saw the truck turn its other blinker on They were turning right We were going left

Liaainst his seat as the hway and the road There was another car turning off the highway, a sen; both Lialint of the sun against its s

"Okay, Old Man River" Liaave the car an impatient wave "Go ahead and turn before the next century No, take your time, shave, conteh the pickup truck’s open s as it pulled up alongside us, creaking and groaning in the way all old cars seem to do "Free Bird" Of course It had to be Dad’s favorite Two seconds into the da, and it was like I was back in the front seat of his squad car, cruising around town That was the only tioodMoh bubbled up inside of me as I watched the driver bob his head in tis, exhaling each lyric with a puff of cigarette smoke

And then it was replaced by a different sound--a shriek of sorts I looked up just in tiht in front of us, jolting to a stop and sending another blinding glare of sunlight our way

"You have got to be kidding me!" Liam made as if to press his hand down on the horn, but not before the driver of the Volkswagen rolled down hisand pointed so at us

No The world went into sharp focus Sound evaporated around me NO

I reached up and slapped Black Betty’s radio button on, turning it up as loud as it would go Lia, but I knocked Liam’s hand away before he could switch it off