looked around. The group of men, young and old, stood in a rough semicircle, staring at Keller, their faces hard and unfriendly.
“Sorry,” Keller said. “A little misunderstanding.” He turned to Miron. He didn’t see any friendliness there, either.
“I think you should leave,” she said.
“I agree,” Keller said. “But what about the information we need?” He saw Angela come out on the porch behind Miron. “The information she needs,” he pointed at Angela “to help find her husband?”
Miron shook her head. “I can’t help you,” she said. “My contacts don’t want to talk to you.”
“That’s not acceptable,” Keller said.
“Not…” Miron’s dark face grew even darker with anger. “How dare you come to my house, and tell me what’s acceptable? You people…you think you own everything.” She pointed at the cars in the lot. “Get out,” she said in a hard, angry voice. “Now.”
“Jack,” Angela said, “let’s just go.”
He turned to her. “We can’t…”
“Jack,” she said quietly. “Please.” She came down off the porch. “Come on.” She led the way, moving with slow dignity behind her cane. The circle of men parted to let her through.
He could feel the blood pounding in his temples, feel the rush of adrenaline ramping up, but he followed her to the parking lot. “Look,” he said, “stay here. I’ll go back and try to talk to her again.”
“No,” Angela said. “We need to go. Now.”
“But if we do that,” Keller said, “we’re stuck. We’re at a dead end.”
“Not exactly,” Angela said.
“What does that mean, ‘not exactly’?”
“It means that while she was running outside to see about the commotion, I stole her cell phone,” Angela said. “We can look at the last number called. And it may have the numbers and the addresses of the people she does business with.”
“Okay,” said Keller. “I see your point. Let’s go.” They got in the car. When they were almost at the end of the driveway, Keller said, “She’s really not going to be happy when she finds out you’ve got her phone.”
Angela looked back. “I think she just did.”
Keller looked in the rearview mirror. The big Ford truck was barreling down the driveway after them.
“SHIT,” KELLER said. He punched the gas and the tires on the rental squealed as they hit pavement. The car fishtailed for a few heart-stopping seconds before Keller got it back under control. He headed down the two-lane road that cut through the rolling countryside.
“He’s gaining,” Angela said. The rental was comfortable, but underpowered. Keller saw the big truck growing larger in the rearview mirror. He gritted his teeth and pressed the gas pedal down all the way. They only pulled ahead a little before the truck accelerated and began gaining again. Keller looked down at the speedometer—85…90…95. The rental’s engine was beginning to strain.
“What do they think they’re doing?” Angela said as the truck drew within inches of their back bumper. Then she yelped as the truck sped up and rammed them. The car shuddered from the impact, but Keller held it under control.
“Guess they really want that phone back,” he said.
“What are you going to…” the truck hit them again, causing them to swerve slightly.
“Guess we’re going to have to give it to them,” he said. He saw a sign up ahead and put on his signal.
“Jack,” Angela said.
“Listen,” he said. “We don’t have much time.” As he began slowing, he told her what to do. They reached a wide spot in the road where an abandoned gas station stood. The front plate glass windows were long gone and boarded up and rusted stumps of piping stuck up through a crumbling concrete island where the pumps used to be. Keller pulled to a stop on the time-shattered concrete slab of the parking area. Weeds grew up between the cracks, brushing against the bottom of the car as they stopped. The truck pulled in right on their tail. Keller took the phone from Angela and got out. Three men got out of the truck. One was Frank, the older man who’d greeted Keller when they’d first arrived. The other was a squat ugly man with acne scars on his face and muscles bulging against his tight T-shirt. The third one was Cesar. He was grinning and holding an L-shaped tire iron.
“Howdy,” Keller said. “How can I help you fellows?”
“Your friend took something that didn’t belong to her,” Frank said. “And we need it back.”
Keller held up the phone. “You mean this?”
The man nodded. “Yes. That.”
“And if I give it back,” Keller said, “We can go on our way?”
Frank shook his head in apparently sincere sorrow. “I’m afraid not,” he said.
Cesar broke in. “We’re going to fuck you up, bitch.” He slapped the tire iron into his palm for emphasis. Acne Scars had come up to stand on the other side of him.
“Cesar,” Frank said impatiently. He turned back to Keller. “Tia Rosita says you need to be taught a lesson. And warned to stay away.” He nodded at the car. “Your lady friend will not be harmed.”
“She’s too messed up to fuck, anyway,” Cesar said nastily.
“Oh,” Keller said. “Well, that’s a relief. I guess. Still, I’m not sure I can give you what you want.”
“Then,” Frank said, “we’ll have to take it. Cesar. Mateo.” The two men advanced on Keller, grinning.
“Oh, all right,” Keller said when they were a couple of feet away. “Here.” He tossed the phone underhanded at Cesar’s face. Startled, the young man stepped back and instinctively swung the tire iron as if he was trying to bat the phone away. He missed, the wild swing almost catching Mateo in the chest. Keller stepped forward, seized the iron with his left hand, and punched Mateo in the face with his right. Mateo’s head snapped back, but he recovered from the blow quickly. He swung at Keller, who was twisting to his right, grabbing the iron with both hands now and using Cesar’s grip to pull him sideways into Mateo and throw off the aim of the punch. In the tangle that followed, Cesar loosened his grip on the tire iron and Keller ripped it out of his hands. He used the momentum to spin around, drop to one knee in front of Cesar, and smash the iron into the younger man’s knee as the counterpunch went over his head. Cesar screamed and fell to the ground, clutching the shattered knee in both hands. Keller stood up, reversing his grip on the iron, and jammed it into the gut of Mateo, who was charging forward, arms outstretched to wrap Keller up and bear him to the ground. Mateo grunted in pain and doubled over. Keller raised the
