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Jake felt a flutter of anxiety about what the next couple of days would bring. Despite knowing his connection to the beast, he didn’t know how to use that connection to benefit himself or Rose Valley. Once the whole town fanned out on the prowl, he feared that more people would die, ensuring an overwhelming amount of pressure to figure out how to communicate with Billy. But where to start?
Macy insisted that they needed air conditioning for such a long ride, so now they rode back towards Rose Valley in Shandi’s Camry, Jake’s left hand interlaced with hers. It seemed unnecessarily dangerous and juvenile to be holding hands while cruising down the highway at seventy-five miles per hour, but Jake liked it nonetheless.
Saving the beast presented a tall and unfathomable order, even if the order came from Shandi. Jake doubted that they could save this creature, but Shandi once again swayed his confidence in their ability to pull it off. Of course, it would be a lot harder now that the whole town would be out looking for the creature. Though Jake worried that Billy might kill people, he also feared that a few townspeople would accidentally kill each other. Arming a whole town with tranquilizers seemed like a monumentally bad idea.
Shandi glanced over at him. He saw her out of the corner of his eye and turned to meet her gaze but her eyes turned back toward the road. She took a deep breath.
“We’re lucky... in a way,” said Shandi. “I thought for sure that Cam was aiming to kill Billy. But now we know the goal is to capture him. I don’t know if the tranquilizers will work, but at least we’ll have a shot even if we aren’t the first to find him.”
Jake nodded. “Yeah. And we have an advantage. If I can just figure out how to use it. I don’t really focus on myself much, so he’s never had a reason to come to me.”
“Yes, you’re very selfless,” Shandi teased.
“You know what I mean.”
“Yeah. I know. Maybe you don’t need to bring him to you, though. Maybe you just need to bring him somewhere you’ll both be. Subtle distinction, I know. I was thinking the schoolhouse.”
Jake thought about that. It made some amount of sense. Billy Hargrove had never lived at the schoolhouse, but his son and granddaughter lived there. If anything meant anything to Billy anymore, it would be his family. Still, it seemed unsafe.
“It puts people in danger, though. How old did you say his son is? 78? He can’t run or protect himself. He’ll be a sitting duck if Billy decides to kill him instead of reconnect with him.”
“True,” she said. “He can’t, but we can protect him. We can get Steve. He’s a crack shot. You said so yourself.”
“That’s assuming the tranquilizers work at all,” Jake remarked.
“Hmm. Maybe we don’t give Steve a tranquilizer gun. Maybe we get him something stronger. Something that might even kill the beast. I know that’s not our goal, but we need to cover our bases.”
“Okay. Yeah. That could work. Steve could even stay away, so that he wasn’t in immediate danger. He could shoot Billy before he even knew that Steve was there... if it comes to that, of course.”
Shandi didn’t immediately answer, but she did nod before drifting back into thought. Jake assumed she was thinking about the same thing he was. The best plan in the world would be useless if he couldn’t make the beast come to them.
After another mile of silence, Jake asked, “Do you think Karen will go along with it? You haven’t even told her that the beast might be her grandfather.”
Shandi twisted her mouth up in thought before answering. “Yeah. Good point. I guess I don’t know. She was very willing to share information, but I don’t suppose she’s going to be keen on putting her father at risk.”
“I guess all we can do is ask. Maybe we should have a backup plan.”
“I think Steve has to be our backup plan. We can take a tranquilizer gun and try that first, I guess, but I’m not very hopeful.”
Jake relaxed when she said this. He harbored his own reservations as to whether a tranquilizer would work. He needed to know that Shandi would be willing to kill Billy if they had to. After what Deirdre told him, he prepared for the possibility that either he or Billy would have to die.
“This is insane, Shandi. Insane. Is this really happening?”
She squeezed his hand and took the time to really look at him. “Yeah. It’s really happening. But some good came of it. You got me out of the deal. A fine catch, if I do say so myself.”
Jake laughed. “Yeah, I suppose you’re a pretty good prize. Though I did have to die to get you, remember.”
“Oh right. About that...”
Jake waved his free hand. “Nah. I get it. There’s nothing else to tell. I died. Not a big deal, right? Is it really death if you come back to life?”
“Medically? Yes. It absolutely is.”
“Well, I guess that just makes me special then.”
Shandi smiled. “I’m not sure that’s what makes you special, but something does.”
“Macy would hate this so much right now.”
“Yeah. She would. But she isn’t here right now. It’s just us.”
Jake stopped on that statement. There had been so much to worry and think about that he considered for the first time that they would be together. Alone. Without Macy. Without any responsibilities until tomorrow afternoon. He suddenly got the very strong urge to ensure that he did not go home alone.
He looked at her. She radiated so much more beauty than he’d ever realized. Not from her hair, or her eyes, or her smile, or even her perfect tiny body. Now he saw something more than that—her essence. The way that she embraced life and never wavered from a fight.
“So, my house is kind of a disaster,” he said. “I had these crazy houseguests for a few days, and then some crazy lady killed me. It’s been a rough week.”
Shandi laughed. “Poor baby. Does Steve provide housekeeping services?”
“If he does, I’ve been missing out.”
She turned off on the main highway through Rose Valley. It wouldn’t be long now until she would drop him off at Steve’s. He had spent his entire life without Shandi, but now the thought of going another night without her seemed like it would be impossible to survive.
He told himself to man up and stop being a chicken. He should have just outright suggested that he stay over at her place. Something held him back. He worried that he might lead the beast to her again, that he wouldn’t be able to stop her from getting killed.
As she turned into the gates of Watermelon Ranch, she let go of his hand. The car rumbled over the cattle guard, as the rocks ricocheted loudly off the undercarriage of the car, creating an awful racket. Shandi pulled up in front of the guest house, put the car in park, and turned to him. He didn’t say anything or make a move to get out.
She laughed. “Get going, boy. Pack a bag and get back out here. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Jake’s face turned up in a silly grin. Perhaps that’s how a good relationship worked. Perhaps this presented the beginnings of their own hive mind.
“Yes, ma’am!” he said as he hopped out of the car.
He ran inside and threw a smattering of clothes into a backpack. He tried to go through the list of what he would need to lure the beast and decided that he only needed his mind and the knowledge of how to use it to lure the thing. Hopefully he could find the latter when it really mattered.
After gathering all the essentials, he ran back to the car and dropped in next to her with his backpack in his lap. Shandi put the car in reverse and headed back down the long, rocky road to the highway.
Tomorrow would be a huge day. People would likely die. Maybe even him. Or Shandi. Deirdre said he had to die to stop the beast. But he couldn’t accept that. Not now.
As they made their way to her house, Jake wanted to wrap his arms around Shandi. To fall into bed with her. To laugh. To love. To feel alive. He didn’t plan for it to be their last and only night together, but just in case, he wanted to make it as memorable as possible.
She caught him staring at her.
“Whoa there, chief. First things first. We still have some planning to do.”
