She had just enough time to slide the envelope back onto the front seat. She was about to close the door when she saw another envelope, this one spilling its contents—what looked like Polaroid photographs. She could only manage to take one. It was a much easier grab, but it almost cost her. Sammy’s steps were heading toward her. There was no time to hide. Summer stuffed the disk in the waistband of her jeans and crawled under the Chevy. She was breathing so loud she was sure Sammy was going to hear her, but lucky for her, the guy never stopped talking.

“Marvin over at Nirvana asked if we had a couple of waitresses we could send over, said the girls you sent to the motel and post office are working out real good.”

“Send the sisters,” Taured said. “Tell them to listen and learn and be good little employees.”

“On it.”

The sisters were Rhodi and Dawn, two of Taured’s earlier converts who’d moved into the compound with him eight years before. Her mother called them loyalists, in a not-nice way. They looked like twins but got pissed if you said so. Dawn had a tattoo on the back of her hand, a mandala, as she called it—that’s the only way Summer knew how to tell them apart. Not that she needed to; she didn’t like them or the way they watched her mother with little smiles on their wiry lips. They smoked their cigarettes and leered and listened like desert snakes.

The BMW’s door opened and closed. Summer watched Sammy’s boots stir up dust as he walked the two envelopes over to Taured.

“This it?” Taured asked.

“Yup.”

“Good, go gas her up. I’m sending you out again.”

“But we just got back.” Sammy’s voice was incredulous.

Taured kept talking like he hadn’t heard the upset in Sammy’s voice. He was rattling off the next set of plans. Summer was lying in a pile of her own sweat, realizing that her mother would be gone again by morning. They always left in the night and were gone by the time everyone was up for breakfast. If she wanted to talk to her, it was going to have to be tonight.

“You’re going to Florida.”

“Man, we have to go so soon? You said there’d be a break after Minnesota, and we went on to do two more cities—”

“Lorraine is causing problems.”

There was a thick silence as Sammy reevaluated his position. Summer, who had never seen the underside of any car before today, much less two, was praying, her lips moving without sound. In her mind, she saw her mother’s pierced ears—was he referring to that or something else?