“Let’s just keep an eye out and see what happens.”
We took turns, one dozing while the other kept watch, both of us still exhausted from our sleepless night at the motel. No one left the ranch, and not many vehicles drove past. It was a quiet road.
Finally, at ten-thirty, a navy-blue truck came down the driveway. I elbowed Dallas, who was asleep behind the wheel.
“Look.”
We lowered ourselves as the truck roared past. I couldn’t see who was on the passenger side but I caught a flash of the driver’s profile and dark hair. It was Brian.
“Was that Gavin with him?” I said.
“I don’t know, the sun was glaring off the windshield,” Dallas said.
“Let’s see where he’s going.”
*
We followed the truck to the bus station and parked around the back side, where we could watch the truck in the parking lot. Brian’s wife got out of the passenger side and went into the station. She was wearing a pretty sundress. His daughter, in shorts and a T-shirt, climbed out of the backseat but stayed by the truck. Through the window we watched his wife go up to the ticket agent.
“Can you see how many tickets she’s buying?” Dallas said.
“No.” I was worried about the fact that we’d left Gavin back at the ranch. What if he went out to the warehouse and hurt the girls? I reminded myself that he probably wouldn’t go without Brian.
A few minutes later the woman walked out to the parking lot. Brian was helping the young girl bring a suitcase out of the back of the truck. He also handed one to his wife, then gave her a hug, but it was perfunctory. The wife and daughter walked toward the waiting bus. His wife looked back at him, her face anxious as she climbed aboard. I wondered what he’d told her.
Brian was leaning on his truck, watching the bus. It started up and he glanced at his watch, like he couldn’t wait to get out of there. He looked back at the bus, gave a smile and a little wave. I could see the girl waving back from the window, her dark eyes big. I thought of Skylar.
The moment the bus was out of sight Brian’s smile disappeared. He walked into the building.
“Where the hell is he going?” I said.
“Maybe he’s using the bathroom?”
We stared at the door, waiting for him to come back out.
Suddenly his face was at Dallas’s open window. We both jerked back in our seats.
“Why are you following me?” His voice was cold. His eyes flicked around, checking to see if anyone was watching.
“We know you have them,” I said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Where are they?” My voice shook with rage. A woman walking by looked at us curiously.
“I told you already, I don’t know.”
“The cops are talking to your son today. He was the last person to see Skylar. If anything’s happened to her, he’ll be blamed.”
“Still don’t have a clue what you’re talking about,” he said, bending down and peering into the car. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m married now.” He held his finger up, showing his ring. “So if you were looking for a little repeat…”
Dallas’s face was flushed and angry, like she was going to explode any minute. Her hand reached under her seat where she’d put the gun.
He straightened, stepped away a couple of feet.
“Go back to wherever you’ve been hiding, girls.” He walked to his truck, climbed in, and roared off.
*
Dallas was silent all the way back to the motel. She whipped open the door, tossed her purse onto the bed, and started pacing, her hands on her hips, her jaw clenched. “Fuck,” she said, shaking her head. “It should have been me.”
“What are you talking about?”
She sat down on the edge of the bed, ran her hands through her hair. “I should’ve come here years ago and finished those scumbags off. That’s why I bought the gun—I just never had the balls to see it through.”
“It was smart you never came back. Look what’s happened now.”
“Yeah, they’ve got Crystal and Skylar.…” She turned away, hiding her face. She got up and grabbed a cigarette from the pack.
“It’s not your fault.”
“I should’ve killed Dad, it should’ve been me. I screwed up, and I screwed up when we got to Cash Creek. I didn’t protect you.” She sat back on her bed.
I didn’t know what to say, had never heard Dallas talk like this.
“You always look out for us,” I said. “We know you tried.”
“I just want to kill those fuckers and make it right.” She took a drag, blew it out in an angry rush.
“Nothing will ever make it right,” I said. “It happened. We just have to find the girls and get out of this shitty town.”
She looked down at the cigarette in her hand, rolled it between her fingers, her eyes narrowed. “We should go back to the ranch, wait until Gavin leaves, then sneak onto his property. We have to find out if the girls’ cars are there.”
“You think they would’ve kept them?”