Chapter 31

Chapter

Thirty-One

GRACE

D espite the length of the flight, I wasn’t one hundred percent sure of the destination except that we had to be near Mexico when we landed. They discussed border crossings. If we were going to Canada, I couldn’t imagine them flying in circles for hours just to throw me off. That would be ridiculous, as well as a waste of time.

“Remind me I want to do some shopping when we’re done,” Lunchbox mentioned as he taxied us toward some hangers. The place had what looked like a total of three, as well as a dodgy looking control tower, and a single dude in a pickup who drove over to meet us.

The only person who got out was Lunchbox. He took five minutes to sign some paperwork and hand over a yellow wrapped package that could easily be a stack of cash. The guy in the blue baseball cap saluted before he climbed back into his pickup and drove off.

Lunchbox opened the door. “We’re parking it here. They’ll see to refueling and doing an exterior check.”

“You can trust these guys?” Bones asked, shooting a look back over his shoulder to Voodoo.

“Yes,” he answered. “Network.”

Networking usually brought contacts into play, so that made a certain amount of sense. That was an odd way to say it though.

“Good,” Bones popped his exterior door and climbed out. A moment later the door on the other side of Alphabet opened.

Goblin leapt out first, then Alphabet followed, albeit more slowly. I unbuckled my seat belt, but didn’t rush. Alphabet seemed almost as sore as I was and no one was giving him hell about hurrying. Probably a good thing.

Once Alphabet was clear, Voodoo glanced at me and I extended my hand to motion him to the door. “I’m right behind you,” I offered.

“You got that?” He nodded to the tablet in my hand.

I curled my arm to hug the table to my chest. “I have it.” I didn’t think they would take it away and keep it, but I didn’t want to lose the device since I’d just gotten it.

The corner of his mouth kicked up, but he didn’t comment. He pushed out of his seat and stepped out. He waited for me to reach the exit and then offered me a hand. The narrow steps were easy to miss, but I appreciated the fact that Voodoo didn’t just pick me up and put me on the ground.

“Thank you,” I murmured. The air was warmer than I expected and the landscape seemed almost painfully flat and beige . Cloud cover kept the sun from blazing down but it hardly looked like a storm was in the offing. There wasn’t even a smell of rain on the air.

The guys already had the bags out of the back of the plane. There was a dirty, beaten up van waiting for us that looked like it could have made the trip to Woodstock back in the sixties.

I was pretty sure it was older than all of us. It was also an eyesore orange where the paint hadn’t chipped away. I looked from it to the guys and back.

“Don’t worry,” Bones said. “The seats are padded.”

“Yeah,” I muttered. “That was what I was worried about.”

They were tossing their bags into the back of the bus. The door on the side slid open to reveal a couple of bench seats in the back, with two bucket seats in the front. I climbed in and headed to the bench seat in the back.

Goblin leapt up to follow me. There were no seatbelts visible, so I parked myself on the bench with my tablet still hugged to my chest. Goblin wagged his tail as he nudged my knee.

“Hey, boy,” I greeted him and then he was leaping up onto the seat next to me. He’d settled, laying there with his tongue lolling by the time the guys climbed in. Alphabet eyed me and then Goblin before he chuckled and took a seat on the bench in front of me.

Lunchbox followed him inside and gave Goblin the same look Alphabet had. He dropped onto the bench next to Alphabet and stretched his legs out. Voodoo climbed into the driver’s seat with Bones in the passenger seat.

“Please keep all arms, legs, and heads inside the vehicle,” I muttered, “and remain seated please. The vehicle doors will close. Thank you.”

Alphabet flashed me a grin as he chuckled.

“Everyone’s a critic,” Voodoo called, cutting a look at me via the rearview.

“You meant, everyone’s a smart-ass.”

“That works too.” He winked.

The bus gave a little jolt and barked out a backfire as we rolled out. I scanned the area as we drove. I still didn’t know where we were, but I could see where we were going. Not that there were signs betraying the location.

I shifted my attention back to the men packed inside the little VW bus ahead of me. If I thought it felt crowded on the plane, this was positively claustrophobic. Did they make choices like this on purpose?

My bladder began protesting about two hours into the drive. I hadn’t listened to anything on the tablet or tried to read. I didn’t feel like throwing up. Yet, there was some comfort in just holding onto it.

The guys had gone quiet, not chatting or even doing that much moving that I could see. I was pretty sure Alphabet had gone to sleep. Goblin definitely had, his snoring vibrated against my leg where he rested. It was soothing in a way. I made it another thirty minutes before I reached forward to touch Lunchbox on the shoulder.

He glanced back at me. “All good, Gracie?”

“I need to pee,” I said, an apology right on the tip of my tongue. It had been hours since we’d been anywhere near a bathroom. I’d been circumspect in hydrating, but I’d also had to drink too.

“Got it.” He leaned forward, almost going into a crouch that put him between the bucket seats in the front. Voodoo shot me a look via the rearview mirror and he nodded.

Hopefully, we were going to find a spot with a clean bathroom. I hated public bathrooms in general. The road we’d been on had absolutely nothing off of it for the past ninety minutes. No gas stations, grocery stores, or even homes.

We’d passed a dilapidated barn and an utterly trashed billboard. The only things out here were some dust devils and an occasional tumbleweed. The clouds had also begun to break up, adding more brightness to the overall day.

I missed my sunglasses.

“We’re looking, Gracie,” Lunchbox said as he slid back into the seat. He had his phone in his hand. “Shit for signal out here.”

He tapped Alphabet and I winced. The man sat up like he’d just been waiting to be brought in. “What’s up?”

“Need to find a place for Gracie to use the bathroom.” Lunchbox showed him his phone. “No service.”

“Right.” Alphabet scrubbed a hand over his face. “Give me a few. We may have to stop if I have to set up the dish.”

I grimaced. “If we have to stop, maybe we can find a bush I can step behind.” While I would prefer a clean bathroom, I could make do if necessary.

That earned me a surprised look from Lunchbox. Ten minutes became fifteen, then we were at thirty when Alphabet said, “Find a spot to pull off.”

“Not sure where you think I’m doing that?” Voodoo said. “We have a fat lot of nothing, more nothing, and oh look— nothing .”

My bladder ached and I was squeezing my legs together. Now that I’d given any thought to the need to pee, it was making me crazy.

“Can we just pull off to the side?” We hadn’t seen any traffic at all. “If you guys just go to the other side of the van and give me some privacy, I can just pee in the sand.”

Or at least, I thought it was sand. It could just be dirt. Voodoo sent me another glance and I could have sworn there was an apology in his eyes.

Thankfully, he pulled onto the shoulder without any further nudging. The guys spilled out like they needed to secure the area. I just let them. Goblin hopped right out, found a tuft of weeds and cocked his leg.

Lucky bastard.

The doors behind me opened and Voodoo was there. He opened one of the bags and pulled out handwipes and toilet paper.

“Do I want to know why you already had that in a bag?”

His flash of a grin was all amusement. “I think you can figure it out.”

Clearly.

“Also, leaving this side door open and the door up on the passenger side. It will give you some cover from the road. I doubt anyone is coming but…”

“Yeah,” I said, sliding out the side door to meet him. “It would be our luck this is the moment someone showed up.”

“Give me one more minute,” Voodoo said and he did a circuit around the side of the van and then dropped to glance under it before he kicked at the ground with his boots. “Okay. We look good. No snakes or scorpions.”

All of a sudden I didn’t want to pee ever again. I stared at him.

“I’ll keep watch from the back.” Then he was gone. The others were on the far side of the van or in front of it. I set the toilet paper and the wipes just inside the van and pulled the pants and underwear down.

After a swift internal debate, I faced the van and angled my ass away so I could squat and pee. The relief was so profound, I could almost forget where we were. Finished, I used a bit of toilet paper to wipe before I pulled my pants up, then I used a wipe to clean my hands and wrapped the wipe around the toilet paper.

“All good?” Voodoo asked, he still had his back to me but he was at the edge of the door.

“As good as I can be.” Though to be honest… “And I do feel better, so thank you.”

We took advantage of the break to deal with the trash. The guys also took the time to take a leak and I made sure to keep my eyes to myself. It had definitely gotten a lot warmer, because I was sweating by the time we climbed back into the van.

The air conditioner was going to have to work overtime but since I was no longer about to piss my pants, I could afford to wait. The water was cold, and there were sandwiches. I ate one that was all cucumbers, cheese, and ham.

When the guys weren’t looking, I split some of it with Goblin. His goofy wide grins after he finished up each bite were a definite improvement on the day. At some point, I must have fallen asleep, because I woke up to Lunchbox lifting me out of the seat.

“Shh,” he said in a low tone. It was dark outside and a great deal cooler. “Just go back to sleep, Gracie. We’ll get you inside. We can’t do anything until tomorrow.”

A thousand questions bounced around in my head, but I was exhausted. I felt even groggier than I’d been after the heat of the day.

“Please just tell me there’s a real bathroom.”

His soft huff of laughter was only forgivable because he said, “Yes, and it’s clean too. Bones said they even have hot water.”

Oh, that sounded heavenly. I smothered a yawn and rested my head against his shoulder as he carried me inside. I didn’t really get a good look at where we were or the place we were going into.

The lights were low and there was a kind of buzzing hum from them. Then we were in a bedroom and the door to the bathroom was open. Lunchbox put me on my feet carefully and balanced me until I wasn’t quite so shaky.

“Try not to wake yourself up,” he said as he reached in and tugged a cord to turn on the light in the bathroom. “I’m going to grab your gear.”

Right. My gear.

“My tablet?”

“I’ll get it,” he said then he was gone. I went in and used the toilet—so much better than the side of the road. When he came back, there was a small bag of toiletries so I could wash my hands and face. I did a quick, if sketchy, brush of my teeth and then stripped out of my pants to climb into the bed.

I didn’t care about the rest of the stuff. The sheets smelled mostly clean and the pillows were soft. “Thanks, Lunchbox,” I said around another yawn. He was still in the room, but eyes were already closing.

“Anytime, Gracie. I’m going to shower…”

I was pretty sure there were more words, but I just curled up and went to sleep. The next time I opened my eyes, there was light showing around the edges of the blinds. My back protested when I shifted. Everything protested really.

The door to the room was closed, though the door to the bathroom was open. There was a faint hint of soap and dampness in the air. Like someone had showered. The bathroom was still humid. Someone had showered…

I glanced at the bed and it wasn’t that rumpled. I’d apparently curled up on my side and then not moved. After I peed, washed my hands and face and found a brush with my toiletries to ease any snarls from my hair, I studied the bedroom itself.

A queen-sized bed, a dresser, a place where a mirror used to be. A corner wardrobe for a closet. A wing-backed chair that was angled toward the bed, though there were rumples of the covers at the foot there, like someone had been sitting there…

I glanced at the chair again then back to the bed. Sitting in the chair and resting their feet on the bed? Had someone slept in here with me in the chair? The place didn’t feel like a hotel, that didn’t mean anything but still.

Honestly, after all the rest, I found it hard to find that part objectionable. At least not right now. I dragged on my pants and opened the door. It was unlocked.

Well, that was already an improvement over where we’d been. So the question was, where were we now?