Page 73 of Coyote

"It's worse than the fox," I said. "A fox says I see you. This says I can reach you."

Nobody answered that, and I waited until I was sure of my own voice.

"He knew which shed John slept in," I said, glaring at Joe.

"He found John because he walked past the bike," Rafe said. "That was luck. You're the one who told us so."

I waved it off. "And now he knows what path we ride to check the perimeter, and he was confident enough about it to send two men."

Joe clenched his jaw. "You got something to say, say it, boy."

"You worked for Bonney Ranch before this. For the man who'd have hung Winston and would've shot all of us dead a year ago. We only took you in because you had nowhere to go. Maybe you're harboring some resentment about that."

"Those bastards sold me out, and you know it," Joe said. "Bonney was set to put me in the ground. This ranch is the only reason I'm not in it. So no, boy, I'm not feeling a whole lot of resentment about my second chance."

"He pulled the first tracker off the belly of Zaroff's motorcycle while the rest of us were still looking for footprints," Rafe said. "He's earned his place at this table."

"Maybe he knew where to find it because he put it there," I said.

Sierra banged the coffee pot down. Joe pushed his chair back, rose, and walked out through the kitchen without a word. Sierra looked at me then and said nothing, and I held his eyes as long as I could, which wasn't long.

"The treads turned toward the county road," I said to Rafe. "They've got to be getting gas and supplies somewhere. Let me go ask around town."

"No," Rafe said.

"I've hunted further on less."

"I know exactly how you hunt." Rafe took his glasses off, folded them, and laid them on the turquoise. "He wants you off the ranch, chasing ghosts, so he can do something worse than leave a body behind."

I put both hands flat on the table. "I want him dead. And you just want us to sit around and wait for more bodies to turn up?"

"Yes," Rafe said. "For now."

I stood. The chair legs scraped the boards, Nimue cinched around my throat, and every face at that table turned up to me except one.

John looked at the turquoise for a moment longer. Then he looked up at me. "Rafe can forbid you," he said. "I won't do that. I'm asking. I slept five months on Zaroff's ground, little one, and I know how far it sits from anything that would hear you call. Stay inside the fences. Stay where I can reach you."

The trail was five hours old and drying. I could feel it dying while I stood there, the treads filling with dust one hour at a time, some gas-station clerk's memory of a heavy truck softening by the afternoon. My whole body leaned toward the door. And John sat there with tape wrapped around his ribs and my mark under his collar and last night's word still hanging in the air between us.

How the hell was I supposed to say no to him?

I sat down, but the want to hunt stayed in my legs for a long while after.

"Thank you," Rafe said to me and not to John. He put the glasses back on. "Patrols double, and we continue to ride in pairs. They want us to escalate, so that's exactly what we're not going to do."

"That's it?" I said.

"No." Rafe turned his head. "Winston. You work the county for me. Fuel stops, feed suppliers, ice, propane, anybody hauling a load out to an address that doesn't exist. A compound that size eats every day and somebody is writing the receipts."

Winston pushed his hat back. "Quiet?"

"Quiet. You ask, we don't. He knows our faces, and he doesn't know yours are ours." Rafe put two fingers on the turquoise. "And Joe's been under our trucks since he left this room. When he finds what Zaroff has on us, nobody touches it. Not you, Coyote. Joe decides whether it's worth more pulled out of a wire or left in one, telling him whatever we feel like telling him. Until then, we drive nowhere we don't already go."

Nobody said anything. Cruz's hands lay flat on his knees.

Winston sighed and stood. "Well, I'll keep the county deputies off you as long as I can, but if they start dropping bodies anywhere else, won't be much I can do."

"I understand," Rafe said with a nod. "Thank you for your help, Winston."