Saul undid his seat belt. “Well, keep thinking. Gotta shake the snake before I explode.” He got out and disappeared inside after Ariel. The difference was twofold: His clothing didn’t flounce—blinded, but no flouncing. The second difference was that he came back. Ariel didn’t.
Stefan and I went in to search for her, but she was gone. I checked out the women’s restroom myself. That was one good thing about growing up without ingrained social customs. You didn’t care when you were caught doing what traditionally you weren’t supposed to do. And naturally I was caught peering under occupied stall doors and was summarily hustled back out into the parking lot. Compared to the whole of my life, I had no problem with being called a pervert and a line cutter. I knew I was only one of the two.
Stefan stood with me on the asphalt. “She must’ve gone out the other side. Hitched a ride maybe. I don’t know, but she’s gone. I ran the perimeter. I’d have seen that pink hair if she was on foot, but nothing. She’s just . . . gone.”
I nodded. “I’m not surprised.” And I wasn’t. I’d rather expected it. “Can you go back in and get me something to eat? I’ve been banned.”
He studied me, more than baffled. “You’re not worried about her? Pretend all you want, but I know you like her. You’re not worried Raynor will catch her again?”
I more than liked her, but that wasn’t the issue. “She’s smart, Stefan. Smarter than I will ever be, and if I’m saying that, with my ego, you know it means something. If she doesn’t want to be caught, she won’t be. You think I make great fake IDs? If she wants to make any, they could blow mine out of the water.” I no longer wondered if that was the correct phrase. I knew. A few days of chasing Peter and running from Raynor and my brain was in overdrive. Cascade Falls had been good, better than good, and I missed it, but it hadn’t stretched me; it hadn’t pushed me. I was learning much more now because I had to. Necessity wasn’t the mother of invention. Desperation was. “Ariel will be fine. Probably better than we’ll be. And she’ll be safer than with anything we could do for her.”
If anything, he was more bemused than before. “You believe that?”
“No, I know that. I’ve known her for two years now. It doesn’t matter if it was on the Internet or with video cams. With my psychological and profile training, I would know her—genuinely know her, her personality, what she would do, what she wouldn’t do, everything that makes her her. I would know all of that even if we’d only written letters once a month. She will do the smart thing and that is to not be with us, near us, or anyone we might think we could trust with her. Trust me on this, Stefan. Just . . . trust me.” I gave him a light shove toward the restaurant. I’d said all I could say for now. “And I’ll see Ariel again someday. I can guarantee it. One hundred percent.” It wasn’t a lie. I believed it wholeheartedly. I knew it as I knew her.
“Pancakes and biscuits and gravy,” I ordered to get him moving. “Oh, and hash browns. Four of them. And I know they don’t make milkshakes this early, but maybe could you bribe the manager? Chocolate?”
He narrowed his eyes but started walking. He knew I wasn’t lying. I liked Ariel too much to lie about that. It was embarrassingly plain to see. But he also suspected I wasn’t sharing everything. He let it go, though, and did what I asked him. He trusted me. “You are one weird kid, Misha.”
“I’m not a kid, remember?” And for the first time since I’d been complaining about the term, I knew it was true—I knew it for an absolute fact. I wasn’t a kid, not compared to my twenty-seven-year-old ex-Mafiya bodyguard brother, not compared to the ancient Saul, not compared to anyone. I wasn’t a kid. I would never be one again. I also knew now you shouldn’t wish your youth and pseudo-innocence away.
You’d never get it back.
Chapter 11
We found Peter in Tucson.
He was waiting for us. If he was losing confidence that we’d catch up, I didn’t question the logic. But we had other things come up and they would come up again. Raynor couldn’t track me . . . or Godzilla, being in the dark there about ferret chipping, but he had to have an Institute tracker of his own. He would be following Wendy’s chip the same as we were. Peter and the rest of the chimeras, us, and a government sociopath—it was a parade no one wanted to see.
Outside the SUV’s window, I could see the city. I didn’t need a map to know we were in South Tucson. I’d already memorized the map I’d Googled on the computer. It wasn’t Cascade—not a coffeehouse or bakery in sight. There were crumbling buildings and cold, hard faces. I knew why Peter had chosen this particular place in the city. The old man they’d killed in Laramie hadn’t been a challenge. Now Peter was looking for one, or at least more entertainment value.