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He laughed once, but entirely without humor "You are the ball-biter I can tell by your attitude"

"Ball-biter?" asked Rob, sounding totally confused

I heldto shoot Jackson, but he didn’t know that I wanted to knohat he was doing out on the highway headed north If I could get hi hiet hi incident, that would be a bonus

If he didn’t tell us his secrets, I wasn’t going to shoot him I planned to let the elements or some canners do the dirty work for ainst me Life was precious, especially now that we appreciated itvery heavily on h he totally deserved it, it still wasn’t enough to

Winky handed me the heavy nine millimeter weapon I held it up to ut shot"

"Da down to rub his belly "That’s the most painful way to die, you know"

"I knoorse way," I said, thinking of Peter’s poor little sister I raised the gun to eye level,the i to keep the blood spatters off of thester-style, Jackson finally cracked

"Yeah, okay fine," he said, running his fingers nervously through his hair "Jesus You guys are nuts, you know that?"

Three e of the trailer and climbed doith help from Rob and Bodo

"My family and I have a ranch just north of here A ranch I’d like to keep secret if you don’t roup of assholes who had this truck and the kids inside it So I snuck up on them and bashed their heads in and took the truck That’s it" He shrugged like it was no big deal

"And ere you going to do with all of the to the s behind the semi

"It’s not a problem," said Jackson, a note of pride in his voice

I looked over at Bodo His jaw muscle twitched, and ain with one of his silly s day," I said, sighing for e to use them for labor"

When Winky started to bristle he finished quickly

"And feed theirl Just relax, would ya?" He was frowning at Winky, but at the same time obviously wary of her "I told you … I ain’t no people eater"

I couldn’t help it The set that stupid song out ofsometimes in the car ere on road trips

A kid’s voice cael or so it was so pure and sweet "It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater…" And then a raspy cough promptly stopped the serenade

Paci chuckled

"What the hell was that?" asked Rob, finally tearing his gaze from Chantal’s lovely face to stare at the back of the truck The owner of the voice was not visible frobird" Chantal’s expression hardened "The other guys who took us said they’d ri to think about what thatto the onna do?" asked Jackson

I stepped back, putting so for the others to joinhied, treonna hurt anyone"

"You left them in the trailer," said Winky "Soonna do? Make ‘e he saidthis ranch actually existed

"Why don’t we have him take us to his place?" asked Rob "Kill two birds with one stone … check out his story and take his cattle at the same time?"

"Hey! You can’t take un caain

"We can, and ill So stand there and shut up while we figure this out"

"Shiiiiit," he said, scowling and kicking at the dirt "All this ti to shit I don’t knohy I even bothered"

I felt terrible I was talking tough, but I could iine what it would feel like to build a horoup and then have someone waltz in and take it If anyone ever tried to do that with Haven I’d explode

"We need to split up," said Paci, speaking in low tones so no one but our little group would hear

"Yeah Our people could be getting ht now, for all we know," said Rob He looked antsy, staring off into the direction of the Miccosukee village

"Let’s split up then," I said "Who goes where?"

"Rob, Winky, and I will go to Kahayatle," said Paci "You and Bodo go with that Jackson guy We’ll let the other kids decide what they want to do"

"They’re not going to be able to do anything," said Winky "They’re all too weak That guy Jackson probably did the them in the trailer, if his ranch story is true"

"Maybe they can just hang out for a day here by the side of the road or soested "It’s not ideal but it spares the around inside that oven for a while at least"

"Let them choose," said Bodo "Den they can’t blame us if it’s bad"

Everyone looked at each other, all of us eventually nodding