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"I’m sorry," I said quickly "I…"

He raised his hand to shut ht I should be in a better fra circus So, no, I haven’t been on theh to miss a dose and knohat happens if I do But if it’s anything like before, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal"

I still felt uneasy

"You’re not going to murder me in"It’ll be easy to do since we’ll be sharing the same bed I expect you’ll put out now"

He looked at ht

I assu but there was always that tiny part of me who never knehat to believe I sed hard and turned ed and blistering as we drove on

Out of the corner ofOf course it was a joke I felt like this est weekend of my entire life

Two miserable hours later, we pulled into the sleepy, so in the car decided to putz out 30 minutes into our drive, which meant the last two and a half hours we had the n, but with the outside te a hot blowdryer on your face My hair was an absolute rat’s nest, tangled to shit, my face was as dry as the cracked desert floor that tumbled by monotonously, and my entire back was soaked with sweat

Dex didn’t look so good either He was getting a bit twitchy and irritable, which I would have before attributed to driving in an oven, but now that I knew about his pill situation I couldn’t help keep that inatthe sweat off of his brow and flinging it out the

Dry, rolling ranches dotted with sheep and cows announced our arrival into the township As we got further in, the acres were replaced with a si bungaloith broken fences and rusted bicycles, and a scattering of crooked trailer hoathered, it looked like a forgotten tohere residents clung desperately to their roots, no matter how badly the rest of the worldaround in faded trucks or strolling the streets nonchalantly The heat didn’t seeh the dusty streets, over the gritty pave at the edge of town It reminded me of that last structure of civilization that always sat at the edge of an old Westexcept the highway and endless scrub which stretched into the surrounding mountains

Dex drove up beside a weathered Ford truck and put the car in park He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh A bead of sweat dripped down his nose

I peered at the building A sn said "Rudy’s Place" and beside that, a neon Budweiser logo A bar It wasn’t even noon but Dex drove us straight to the right place Suddenly, nothing see beer

"You read my mind," I told him

He didn’t open his eyes or wipe away the sweat droplet, which now hung fro , I reached over with my hand and wiped it off To his credit, Dex didn’t flinch He opened his eyes though and gavesomeone here," he said in a tone that insinuated I should know

"Whatever, I can’t sit any longer"

I rolled up the , grabbed my purse and stepped out of the car I had no idea ere h being outside wasn’tYou knohen people tell you it’s OK because it’s a dry heat? That’s bullshit 100 degrees dry is still 100 degrees and I eating like a pig I stretched s back and forth and tried to take in a breath of fresh air but all I got was dry dust

A pretty, pale pink adobe house across the street caughtreally unusual about it except for surprisingly colorful flowers adorning the sides It would have been a soothing sight ae crows perched ominously in a dead tree in the front yard It was such a weird contrast – perhaps that’s why I felt drawn to it The murder seemed like a black blot on the s in town

And then, a htlare of the asn’t obscuring so much, but fro, poofy, shiny goith…

I stopped myself It couldn’t be, could it?

I squinted, straining against the sun It looked like there were hout I had seen that before Itand my blood whoosh loudly in my head

"Hey," Dex’s voice broke intoby the door, beckoninga while Though, maybe he had

I looked back at the house The woone Only the crows reuardians I waited a few beats before walking back to Dex

He took off his sunglasses, shoved them in his pocket and peered at me

"You OK there, kiddo?"

I nodded, knowing there was no use explaining what I probably didn’t see "It’s hot"

He gave me the once over "You can’t handle the heat, huh?"

Phhfff As if he could His shirt was clinging to him (to his pecs, nicely), his hair was a damp mop on his forehead, and if it wasn’t for his telltale s out

I crossed rili here?"

"An old friend"

"Of mine?"

He rolled his eyes "Max My old friend, Max He was the guy who told me about this place"

"How do you know him?"

Dex squinted off into the distance, pursed his lips slightly "In college We were in the sa Sin Sinatra," I said excitedly, ree/rock band He never talked about it much and there were no YouTube clips so I didn’t know toovoice, no surprise considering how sexy his gravely speaking voice was