"Don't worry," Max said. "If you follow my rules, I have a 100% goat survival guarantee."
"And what are your rules?"
She smiled at him, and wished once again that she could feel his shift animal looking back at her with the esteem and fascination that hers felt for him. "Just one. Don't get killed. I like my clients alive and healthy and able to pay up."
Her jaguar, and Max herself, wanted more from him. Much more. But if it wasn't something he was able to give, she would only break her heart running after it.
She'd done enough of that in her life already.
GIO
They arrangedto meet at a remote spot in the Arizona desert three days later that Max said was a perfect spot for an ambush. She told him it would take her that long to get her supplies together.
"Do you want a ride?" she asked as they parted at her office. "I can drive you out there."
Gio shook his head. "I'll get there on my own."
"Hmm. Give me your phone number and I'll shoot you the GPS coordinates."
"I don't carry one anymore."
"You don't have a phone?" Max said in shock.
"No one to call," Gio said shortly.
He didn't want to admit that he had lost his phone on one of his early stonewalking attempts. It was presumably buried somewhere in the Earth's crust to baffle future generations of archaeologists. At that point he had realized that it was probably also possible to trace him with a cell phone and decided not to bother getting another.
"Ah," Max said. "You know, I don't normally take on clients who I can't get in touch with at all. It's a bad business model, you know?"
"Understandable," Gio began.
"But I really want to take your case." She was looking at him with a peculiar intensity that he couldn't understand. "Can you give me some way to get in touch?"
Gio shook his head reluctantly. "I simply can't stay in one place long enough. I can give you a down payment, if that helps."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his money clip. He saw her eyes get wide. Then she reached out a hand and put it over his.
"No," she said decisively. "Tell you what. Give me enough to outfit our fishing expedition, and we'll start with that. Let's discuss fees later."
She named a number, and Gio paid it in cash.
"As for your rendezvous location," he said, "I can get there if you show it to me on a map. A picture would help."
Max pulled up a map on her phone. After searching a bit, she also found a photo. "Is this good enough?"
It looked like a still from a Western movie, with a weathered fence and rolling dust-colored hills. Gio looked at it for a long moment and committed it to memory, then nodded. "That'll do."
"You don't have a phone but you have a car?"
Gio smiled. "I don't need a car. See you in three days, Max."
He indulged himself and let his fingers linger on hers, brushing her hand as they parted. When he looked back, she was still standing by the door of her building, gazing after him, mouth half open as if she wanted to say something. Seeing him looking back, she whirled hastily and went inside.
* * *
By now, Gio was good at avoiding pursuit in the short time, and a series of low-cost motels kept him on the move. They could still close in on him, but since the plan was to set a trap, it didn't matter if they got close, as long as he didn't give them a chance to spring their trap first.
He stonewalked to Max's rendezvous location. As always, it was disconcerting and unpleasant, though somewhat less so since he had some time to prepare first.
