*Plink.*There went that last piece, falling into place.
“I won’t say anything,” Brady murmured, thinking it wouldn’t matter if he did. Ace may want to take responsibility for it, but if Brady had ever seen an opportunity for “I am Spartacus,” it was in that living room back there. “Who would I tell?” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.” He looked Ace in the eye, all of the dreaminess, the denial of the last two days slipping away. “I went into law enforcement wanting to help people. I came out here because I felt like it was the only place I belonged. You’re right. We can’t let the phone—and all its implications—just float out here in the desert like a bomb in a bottle. If I want to help people, I can’t depend on my uniform to do it for me.” He let out a little sigh, and Ace’s hand on his shoulder was reassuring.
“It’s hard,” he said softly, “to let go of the gods you had as a kid. To drop the rails you thought hold the world on track. We all got a few of those. You want to talk about rails, talk to Jason Constance. You know those kids I was talking about?”
Brady nodded dumbly.
“His own people tried to kill him because he couldn’t just let that shipment of trafficked kids go get sold. You want advice on how to let go of your old gods, he’s the one to ask. But all of us, in one way or another, had to freefall to this spot out here in the desert. We’ll do what we can to make your landing soft, but….” He shrugged again, and Brady saw that haunting vulnerability cross his face. “Just let us know if you’re gonna turn on us. We can shelter the innocent if we need to.”
Brady’s mouth twisted. “Looks like you’ve been doing that for a long time already,” he said. “Don’t worry, Ace. No matter how this falls out, I won’t do you all dirty.” He took a deep breath of sun-warmed dust. “And I’ve gotten about all the air I’m gonna get. Let’s go make a plan.”
Sunshine and Blood
ERIC WASN’Tsure what he’d thought he’d do when—if—Brady walked back in that room. The others kept up a quiet hum of conversation, of in-jokes and one-word paragraphs that spoke oflongfamiliarity and intense circumstances.
At one point, Eric noted a stain on the rug, near the entryway to one of the bedrooms. He frowned at it and muttered, “Is that blood?”
Burton shot the spot a haunted look. “God.God, why haven’t we replaced this thing?”
“Is difficult to do,” Jai muttered, also haunted. “We need them to leave on vacation. Do they leave? Nyet.”
Jason glanced at it, grimacing when he realized Cotton was nearly sitting on it. “Room’s not that big. Jai, you find something suitable, me and Burton’ll come by while they’re in the garage one day. They’ll never know we were there.” He glanced around the room. “This isn’t that big. We can have it done in two hours.”
Jai shook his head. “Nyet. If we’re replacing the rug, Ernie and I will paint. We need them gone for a day. Yes, Ernie?”
Ernie nodded. “Oh, absolutely. And if we’re giving the living room a makeover?” He shuddered. “The futon, people. We need a real goddamned couch.”
“Da,” Jai agreed. “But we shall start searching. Next race—two weeks?”
“Yeah,” Ernie said, nodding.
“Dammit.” Burton grumbled.
Jason chuckled. “You wanted to go?” he asked.
“I was gonna put money on Ace,” Burton muttered. “Damn, that boy’s made me someseriousmoney in the last three years.”
Jai’s chuckle seemedextraevil. “Da.”
“Well, I think most of us can install carpet without you,” Jason said primly. He glanced Eric’s way. “Are you in?”
Eric remembered the summers he’d worked as a kid—and a few cover assignments he’d used to get closer to a target. “Yeah,” he said, surprised to find he was looking forward to it. “I’ve laid carpet and moved furniture before. All of us could have everything done and the windows open for the paint to dry before they got back from the car show.”
“And I’ll look after the dog,” Cotton said primly.
There was some general laughter then, and Eric said, “Wait—whereisDuke?”
“In the crate in Sonny’s room,” Jai said fondly. “He sleeps there in the morning, until lunch anyway, and then, after a little walk—”
“He comes in to sleep with me,” Ernie said. “Or some variation. Trust me, that dog gets all the air conditioning, all the privacy, and as much out of the crate time as he can stand.”
“Spoiled,” Eric said, but he said it with a smile. It had occurred to him that the dog got all of the spoiling that Ace and Sonny did not give themselves. “But what happened to the rug?” Because now he was curious. Obviously everybody in this room had been planning to replace it.
“Remember that storm in January?” Jason asked, as though he was taking on the mantle of responsibility.
“Yeah, once in a hundred years,” Eric said. A hurricane made landfall on the western side of the continent, bringing record rainfall to the desert. “Was this place hit?”
To his surprise, the burst of nearly hysterical laughter that followed came fromJai, the nearly unflappable giant, who seemed to terrify everybody but this lot into silence.
