Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet

“We have to get him to safety.” I put a hand on his forearm. “Please, Reyes.” Artemis whined as though asking for his help as well.

Fighting the frustration he felt, he bent down and lifted the kid into his arms. He wasn’t exactly small, but Reyes had no difficulty rising to his feet with a sixteen-year-old kid in his arms. Artemis barked in excitement, offered me one last nuzzle, then disappeared to wherever she’d come from, leaping into the earth beneath us. I couldn’t help but be in awe. Where the heck did she stay?

I looked back at the other man who’d been possessed, Reyes’s opponent. A current of guilt jolted through me. He’d been innocent, too.

“Not that one,” Reyes said, kicking the door open. Most of the cars were gone. Thankfully, the rain had stopped. I followed beside them, watching the boy carefully.

“Which one?”

“The man inside. He was not worthy of your sympathy.”

“But he was innocent.” I hurried around and unlocked the passenger’s door.

“No, he wasn’t. Pull the seatback forward.”

I noticed the kid’s incorporeal essence was no longer in my backseat. Was he back in his body? Is that how it worked? I pulled the seat forward and Reyes deposited the kid in the back.

“Keys.”

“Wait—are you driving my Jeep somewhere?”

“I’m driving you away from here. Give me the keys and get in.”

“I can drive myself, thank you very much.”

“And what if he gets possessed again while you’re driving up I-25?”

I tossed him the keys. “The transmission sticks a little.”

He climbed in the other side as sirens sounded from the east. We headed west, skidding through the wet parking lot and swerving onto Second. “Where are we taking him?” he asked.

“I know just where to keep him for now. They’ll know what to do. Just get to Central and head east.”

Only after the sirens grew too distant to hear did I remember that we’d left Elaine Oake at the warehouse. I wondered if I should mention it, then realized I had to get over my pettiness. She could be in danger. “We left your girlfriend back there.”

One corner of his mouth lifted in indifference.

“And we just left a crime scene.”

Another shrug of indifference.

“I can’t just leave a crime scene,” I said, realizing what I’d done.

“You can this time.”

I looked over my shoulder. “Maybe we should go back. They’re going to want to know how that man died.”

He didn’t seem to care about that either. “Are you broke?”

The last thing I wanted to talk about were my financial woes. I wanted to discuss demons and possession and how innocent children suddenly became pawns in this war Reyes had been warning me about. But I decided to placate him. Maybe my cooperation would help him open up.

“I moved out of my offices,” I said, trying to block the pain of my father’s betrayal. Reyes would be able to feel it anyway. “And I just haven’t gotten back on my feet after the accident.”

“You’re calling what Walker did to you an accident?”

“It makes me feel better, so yes.” I didn’t enjoy pondering the fact that what Earl Walker did to me was no accident. He’d come after me with two goals in mind: Interrogate through the use of torture, then kill. But the word accident seemed to make the whole thing more palatable.

Reyes’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “I’m sorry, Dutch. I never thought he’d come after you.”

Hoping to dismiss the conversation, I folded my arms in suspicion. “Are you trying to get out of paying your bill?”

He almost grinned. “How did you come up with a million dollars?”

I plucked a string off my jacket. “I added my regular daily charge plus expenses, then rounded up.”

After a quick sideways glance, he asked, “You’re not very good at math, are you?”

Since we were on the subject of changing the subject, I decided to ask a question of my own. “Why are you staying with her?”

He looked at me just as a passing car’s headlights lit his face, the low beams shimmering in his rich brown eyes. “She offered.”

“You could stay with Amador and Bianca,” I said, mentioning the only true friends he seemed to have.

He turned back to the road. “I could stay with you.”

I snorted. “Not likely.” Though it was a ridiculously nice thought, one that sent a spark of interest jolting through my nether regions. Since we were being civil to each other, I said, “I’m glad you’re out.”

“Prove it,” he said as a wicked grin spread across his face. I ignored the flip-flop of my stomach.

“I’ll expect a check soon. Don’t make me come looking for you again. It’s just up here.” I pointed to a building that sat perpendicular to one of the oldest churches in Albuquerque. A sign outside it read THE SISTERS OF THE IMMACULATE CROSS.

“You’re taking him to a convent?” he asked.

“It’s hallowed ground.” And they would take him in. I looked back at the kid. How could they not?

Reyes slowed to a stop beside the adobe building and put Misery in park. A single light illuminated the front door.

Instead of getting out, I turned to my chauffer. “I have to know more about this, Reyes. If they’re after me, I have the right to know what’s going on.”