Chaser had been gone a long time.

I leaned back in the green and white plastic lawn chair, watching as the last of the sun lowered past the horizon. Only a thin sliver of burning orange lingered, and the longer I stared at it, the more its image burned into my retinas. I closed my eyes and chased the afterimage around the insides of my lids before opening them again.

Sighing, I counted the brightest stars in the sky. One, two, three, four… I wished I had a book. Or that there was something decent on TV or that the TV actually worked and wasn’t all static and noise. I didn’t know anything about setting up a reconnaissance mission, so I couldn’t even help Chaser plan any of that. There’d been no more word from Gasket, either.

A few hours ago, I’d even thought about masturbating to pass the time, but I couldn’t get slick. Ten minutes of rubbing my clit later, I gave up, unsatisfied and angry. Then after an afternoon on the roof, I was so bored I’d thought about hurling myself off the edge I.

There wasn’t much in the way of life out here. After spending the last week watching the comings and goings of the motel, I’d figured out it was more of a rest stop catering to truckers and wayward souls than anything else. A few hundred yards down the sand-blown road was a twenty-four-hour convenience store named Cactus Joe’s Convenience Stop.

Chaser had become a regular customer, but I’d never been down there to peruse the gossip magazines. I hadn’t left the motel grounds since we’d arrived. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to—I’d established my impatience factor over and over—it was because Chaser didn’t trust that everything and everyone in the outside world wasn’t in league with the Hollow Men.

Like a guy named Cactus Joe was working for The Man. Pfft.

My stomach growled, and I looked up at the sky. The stars were well and truly out even though the thin strip of sunlight still lingered on the horizon. Chaser was taking his sweet time.

I peeled my ass cheeks off the lawn chair and made my way downstairs. Noting the car wasn’t out in the lot, I scowled and went inside our room. We had to have some food kicking around.

I opened the moldy refrigerator and squinted at the lone can of beer. Liquid dinner? I made a face and closed the door. If my choices were beer or beer, I’d choose nothing at all. Ironically, those were the only options in the whole stinking place.

Glancing around the room, I thought about going to Cactus Joe’s. I wasn’t a prisoner here, and the likelihood of someone recognizing me at an out-of-the-way store on the ass cheek of Las Vegas was slim to none. I knew Chaser would get a tickle up his asshole about me wandering the desert on my own, but as my stomach squelched and popped, I figured he could go screw himself.

I snatched up my little coin purse and counted out the money Chaser had left me. Fifty dollars. That ought to get me a mountain of snacks to fatten myself up with. Hesitating, I wondered if I should leave a note. If he came back, and I wasn’t here… Well, things would get bad.

I took out the pen from the bedside table and tore a corner off an old newspaper. Over the black and white inked advertisement for Las Vegas Wet ‘n’ Wild theme park, I scrawled a ‘be right back’ message and left it on the table.

Outside, the motel grounds were deader than a doornail. Curling my hands into the sleeves of my cardigan, I darted across the two-lane highway and began walking toward the convenience store. Nights got cold out here, which never quite made sense to me. A car zoomed past, blowing my hair away from my face, and I glanced over my shoulder at the receding tail lights.

It kind of felt daring, being out here. Remembering how it was out on the road with Chaser the first time, I shivered. That was a different story to the one we were in now, but I still erred on the side of caution.

Outside Cactus Joe’s were a set of iron horse sculptures that had rusted to a lovely shade of coppery brown. I gave them a cursory glance as I passed, my boots scuffing the scrappy little tufts of grass that were trying to grow in the arid soil. Maybe when this was all over, I’d learn to ride a horse, but not here. Someplace cooler where people owned coats. Montana. There were horses in Montana, and it was far away from here.

I crossed the tiny parking lot that was devoid of cars and approached the automatic doors. They swished open, and a blast of cool air hit my face. I stepped into the artificial lights and grabbed a red basket. The shop assistant glanced at me in the convex mirror, then went back to the magazine he was reading.

Shuffling down the aisles, I began piling in bags of potato chips, chocolate bars, instant noodles, a packet of cookies, and a gossip magazine. I checked over my shoulder so many times, I was sure the guy at the front had pegged me for a shoplifter, but when I dumped my haul on the counter, he sighed and rang everything up. Then he shoved it all into a single plastic bag, crushing half the chips.

When I finally made my way back to the motel, I groaned when I saw Chaser’s car in the space outside our room. Typical.

The door opened, and Chaser stormed out of the room, shoving a gun down the back of his jeans. When he saw me standing in the middle of the lot, the plastic bag hanging limply from my fingers, he scowled.

“Where have you been?”

“I left a note,” I replied. “Get over it.”

“Sloane—”

“You don’t get to turn into a controlling boyfriend,” I exclaimed.

“We’re not playing a game,” he fired back.

“I know what’s at stake! We’ve been talking about it for months!”

“Then what aren’t you understanding?”

“I was hungry, Chaser. I didn’t know when you were coming back, so I went to get something to eat. Deal with it.” Turning, I strode into our room and swung the door with all the strength I could muster, but he caught it with his hand and pushed inside.

“I had to work a deal,” he said, closing the door. “That’s why it took me so long.”

“What deal?”

“Fortitude has a new live-in cook.” He sighed and sat at the table.

I rolled my eyes and put down the plastic bag of snacks. “I could do with one of those right about now.”

“The guy… The informant was almost no good. His importance to the Hollow Men was almost over, but he was able to give me a few leads to follow.”

“So in exchange for getting him out of Las Vegas and setting him up with a cushy job with burly bodyguards, you got us a couple of maybes?” I curled my lip and opened a bag of potato chips. “Seems like a bad deal to me.”

“It’s better than nothing.”

“We’ll see about that,” I muttered. Licking the salt off my fingers, I looked at Chaser.

“What?”

“I was careful, you know. You have to stop getting so worked up about my whereabouts. I just went across the street.”

“It’s not about that,” he replied, taking the bag of chips out of my hand.

“There’s that cotton wool again.” I snatched the packet back. “I may not be as smart or as trained or as bulletproof as you, but I’m your equal in this, Chaser. Don’t forget that.” I shoved a chip into my mouth and crunched. “Oh, and that goes for life, sex, and everything in between.”

Chaser grunted and began picking through my haul. “Instant noodles?”

“And chocolate.”

He took out the gossip magazine and raised an eyebrow. “I see Jennifer Aniston is still keeping busy.”

I made a face. “There are so many things wrong with those words coming out of your mouth I don’t even know where to start.”

I watched as he flipped through the magazine before tossing it aside and taking out the instant noodles and setting them on the table.

“So, what now?” I asked. “What are we going to do with your maybe leads?”

“Tomorrow,” Chaser said, filling the electric kettle with water. “We leave and see if my informant is full of shit or not.”

“Leave?”

“It’s time to head to Las Vegas.”

“For real?” My stomach churned in a different kind of way.

“For real.”