A quick rap sounded at the door, then it opened and Jackson stepped in, carrying a bundle of clothes. “I dunno, Precious,” Jackson said. “I guess you might be able to find something in this to tide you over for the night. Do you still need the keys to my truck?”
A sudden twinkle lit Claudia’s green gaze, and Luis bit back a grin. Reluctant to break the connection with her, he didn’t look away, nor did he release his hold. He said, “My name is Luis Alvaraz. Now that Claudia is back safe, apparently the transportation issue is no longer quite so urgent.”
“Huh,” said Jackson. “Well, that’s got to be a good thing, right?”
“Yes, it is,” Luis said. “For the moment.”
Then he had to give in to the inevitable as Claudia pulled gently out of his hold. She said to Jackson, “I still want you to leave for Fresno, as quickly as possible. Would you do that, please?”
Jackson nodded thoughtfully. “Guess we no longer need that all-night poker game, do we?”
“No,” Luis said. He accepted the bundle of clothes from the older male and looked through them. He added, “Please tell Stewart that I will make sure his clinic is reimbursed for the healing potions.”
“Will do,” Jackson said, and he paused. “You ever gonna tell me what’s going on?”
“There’s trouble with the mine,” Luis said. He glanced at Claudia and fell silent.
Jackson poked his tongue in his cheek, and looked back and forth between the two of them. Then he sighed. “All right, I’ll leave, but only if you promise to tell me the whole story sometime.”
“I promise.” Luis offered his hand and said gravely, “I owe you more than I can repay.”
Jackson shook his hand. “So that means I can sock you with your own vet bill?”
He grinned. “I expect you to.”
Then Jackson and Claudia looked at each other. Jackson’s voice turned gruff. “You’re not gonna just disappear when my back is turned, are you?”
She shook her head, her eyes smiling. “I owe you too, at least a few Heinekens. Maybe even a diner dinner.”
“Right,” Jackson said. He heaved a sigh as he looked around the trailer. “Don’t bother to lock up when you leave. I keep hoping somebody’ll steal that old TV.”
Chapter Six
Death
Claudia followed Jackson to the door. Luis turned away, giving the other two their moment alone. He shook out a pair of faded blue sweatpants, held them against his waist and considered the length. They ended mid-calf.
The door opened and closed. Then Claudia expelled a soft gust of air, and he knew without looking that she was laughing. “You’re going to look like the Incredible Hulk.”
“I know,” he said.
“Give me those,” she said. “I’ll hack off the elasticated hem.”
He handed them over and inspected the T-shirts in the bundle. They were all too small for the width of his shoulders. He gave up on the clothes, tossed them aside, and went to raid the fridge for the beef dinner. Suddenly he was ravenous. He didn’t bother to heat the meal in the microwave. He found a fork and started shoveling food in his mouth.
Claudia remained silent. Without looking at her directly, he was aware of everything she did, every breath she took. She picked up the blankets from the floor, folded them and set them in the shadowed alcove on the bed. Then she rolled up her sleeping bag. She didn’t waste anything, not a single motion in anything she did or a single word urging him to explain. She waited for him to speak in his own time and every spare, fluid movement she made was pure poetry.
Fuck, his whole body tightened at the sight. He wanted her more badly than he had wanted anyone or anything before in his life, and to be frank, up until this point, he had been a promiscuous bastard. Desire was a fire dancing underneath his skin.
All too soon the dinner was gone. He used the last of the rolls to sop up the cold gravy and gazed at the empty container. Then Claudia spoke, sounding amused, “There’s more food in the fridge. Eat anything you want. Eat everything.”
He gave her a grateful look and dove into the fridge to polish off all the lunch meat, a half loaf of bread and several individual containers of yogurt. He ate quickly, to fuel his taxed body rather than for enjoyment. He was just finishing the last container of yogurt when he heard an odd noise, and he remembered he had heard it earlier as well.
Shuffle, flip.
He looked at Claudia, sitting at the table on the end of the L-shaped couch. She had finished hacking off the elasticated hems of the sweatpants and set the pants on the table. Now she was shuffling a deck of cards. She flipped over the first seven cards, scooped them up, reshuffled the deck and flipped over the top seven cards again. The deck gave off a faint glow of Power.