Laughing, I said, “Not now. Go wash your face.” When he went into the bathroom, I took the velvet ropes from the closet and put them in the sports bag.

He came out of the bathroom with my makeup case. “You’ll have to teach me to use this. I can’t go looking like shit to Nettie.”

“Just use the cover stick for under your eyes and a little blush on your cheeks, like this,” I said, and touched him up, lining his eyes, too. I smoothed clear gloss on his lips to counteract the dryness and he bit my finger and sucked it. “You’re incorrigible, Wil.”

“It’s been yonks,” he said. “How do I look?”

Oswald’s old jeans were falling off Wil’s thin hips, but a good meal and cosmetics had done wonders. “You look sizzling for a cold body. Vámonos.”

Wilcox picked up the white woven cloth. “I’ve become attached to it.”

I took the sports bag when we went outside to the big ugly white truck. Once I was sitting high in the cab and revving the engine, I had to admit that it seemed like the right kind of ride for a confrontation. “Strap in and hang on.”

We drove to the gate, which swung open and I waved to the guards in the black cars. I could have talked to them, but that would have slowed me down and I felt a need for speed. One car door opened and a man in a navy suit jumped out, but I was already racing to Nettie’s house.

The sky was still dark, and the road was all ours; it was too early for the meth dealers to head home, or the commuters to go to work. The guards were tailing me and one tried to speed up, but I put the pedal to the metal and lost them at a turnoff onto the highway into town.

When I’d lived at the ranch, I spent many hours going through the small town looking for potential gardening clients. There was one house with a purple gate and exuberant Climbing Peace roses. I stopped a few houses down from the single-story stucco bungalow. A light was on inside, showing through the curtains at the edges.

“I can’t wait to see Nettie again,” Wil said. “What are you going to do?”

“Grab her father and turn him over to Gabriel Grant, Oswald’s cousin who handles security and has a sense of compassion.”

“Perhaps Nettie will try to defend him and you can have a wild catfight, clothes being ripped off, nipples twisted, bottoms spanked, that sort of thing.”

I reached behind me, unzipped the sports bag, and grabbed the black velvet ropes.

Wil opened his mouth, and I said, “Not now, Wil. I don’t anticipate any problems, but I want you to stay outside until I’ve subdued Matthews.”