He grabbed the truck door. "Fine."
"Good." She walked around to the other side and got in.
So she didn't hate him, he thought. She was indifferent. That made things much, much easier.
What are you doing? Janie's conscience scolded her.Are you a stupid bimbo? Are you? B-I-M-B-O.
That is your new name. Why did you let the jerk vampire come along for the ride? You can't read a map? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SMOKING ?
She cleared her throat and stared out the window.
Okay, so she lied. She could read a map just fine. Especially this one. It looked like a frigging treasure map fromPirates of the Caribbean . X even marked the damned spot.
Damn. Damn. Damn.
She'd been fine and dandy until she read that stupid note.
The part where it said:Touching you sends me over the edge of sanity, and I don't want to hurt you like I did last night ever again.
And that was on top of the look he gave her when he thought she was going to kill him. If every vampire had given her that look, then she would have been completely screwed. Literally and figuratively. He just looked so achingly hopeless and despondent that she wanted to slap him or kiss all of his pain away.
The slap would have to do for now.
She'd convinced herself, while tossing and turning on her hard motel mattress last night, that she hated him. She'dconvinced herself. And now the damn note had to change that again.
She'd felt like the Grinch when his tiny little shriveled-up heart swelled to ten times its size. Which was painful and rather inconvenient. She'd never driven anyone over the "edge of sanity" before—at least not that she was aware of.
But maybe he literally meant she drove him insane. Like the drooling, straitjacket kind of insane. That wouldn't be good.
"Looks like we need to follow the map from the beginning to the end," Quinn said. "It's not to any sort of scale I've ever seen before. Looks like a kid drew it."
He was right about that much, and she took a moment to study the map for the first time with all her attention. There were scrawling, hump-like marks to the left side of the page that she was fairly confident represented mountains—probably theSuperstitionMountains , which were close by. Four main symbols, very roughly drawn, decorated the page. A squiggle that looked like a child's drawing of a ghost. From there, a dotted line connected to a tree-like shape that was marked in barely discernable writing:Asesino delMonstro . Then a picture of a bird of some kind took up the right side of the page. Past the bird, the last symbol was a square shape marked "desert ridge," which was rather obviously, she decided, the ridge of some desert. A small X was marked on the upper right-hand corner of the square.
Who'd drawn this thing? The fact that it led to something so important was truly ridiculous. Maybe
Malcolm had put one over on them. Why did she trust what he'd said? Well, mostly because she didn't have any other choice, that's why.
She held the map up so Quinn could see it and pointed at the mountains. "I figure those represent theSuperstitionMountains ?"
"Looks like just lines to me."
"That's not very helpful. I think it's the mountains. And we're looking for… what do you think that's supposed to be?"
He took his eyes off the road for a moment to squint down. "Definitely a ghost."
"Our first stop is the ghost."
"That's as clear as mud."
She glanced out of the window and to the side of the road. "There's a tourism office. Pull off here."
"We can figure it out."
"Pull off the road. Geez, you men are all the same. Let's ask for directions."
She got out of the car just as her cell phone rang. Quinn went in the office ahead of her.
She glanced at the call display and cringed, but then held the phone to her ear. "Yes?"
"Do you have it?" the Boss snapped.
"I… I…"
"It's a simple question, Parker.Do you have the Eye ?"
"I'm so close I can taste it."
There was silence that made Janie's arms break out in goose bumps, and a trickle of sweat slid down her spine. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched a small, light brown scorpion creep under the truck.
"I want it. I'm about to leave for Vegas right now."
"I know."
"Doyou know how much I want the Eye? How could you possibly? Obviously you don't, or you would already have it. Tell me, Parker, what is the problem?"
The question was, what wasn't the problem?
"There's no problem. There's simply a delay. As we speak I'm on my way to get it."
"So you still feel confident that you will not fail me and face my consequences."
Confident? Not so much.
"Absolutely. I won't fail, Boss. I swear it."
"And the vampire. Are you still with him?"
She eyed the tourism office. Through the large glass doors she could see Quinn lean over the counter to talk to a middle-aged woman with beer bottom glasses who handed him a brochure or booklet.
"Yes, I'm still with him."
"He must be part of the problem, Parker. My new seer tells me that there is a conflict of interest for you that centers around the vampire."
"Your seer is wrong."
"I've changed the protocol of this mission. Not only do I want the Eye brought to me in Vegas by this evening, but I want you to kill the vampire."