He had lost his gun when Xander tackled him to the ground. Not that it mattered; without bullets, it was useless. Also useless: his cell phone. Luke dug it from his back pocket as he opened his car door. The screen was a webwork of shattered glass. A few shards had fallen out, revealing the hardware beneath. He swore miserably, hit the power button anyway. A light stuttered deep inside, but that was all. Luke tossed it onto the passenger seat and dropped behind the wheel. He patted his front pockets for his keys. Empty. There was a dark moment when he thought he’d lost them, too, then noticed them dangling from the ignition.

He clutched them, eyes closed, wishing they were the keys to something else—a rocket to another world, a doorway to another life, one without wives and friends and Vikings. For a moment everything faded, then he cranked the key and his old car brought him back.

Luke turned the Caliber around, started down the driveway, then jumped on the brake. Sierra Vista waited, two lanes of sunbaked blacktop, the stars on one side, the sunset on the other. He looked left, where Ramón had driven away with Lisa. There was an unfathomable breadth of nothingness out there, all too easy to disappear into. Maybe Ramón would live in a cave and eat rattlesnakes until the heat was off. Or maybe he’d dig a grave big enough for five women, then find a little town east of the Mississippi and start over.

He looked right, toward the sunset, where the Mustang had disappeared with Kitty tied up on the backseat. It was all too easy to imagine what would happen to her. The only question was, would Johan bury her in the desert, or leave her body for the vultures?

Luke screamed and hammered the wheel, knowing he could only catch up to, and maybe save, one of them. He remembered Lisa’s kiss, how familiar and warm it had been. And Kitty, who had saved his life more than once, and whose happy place was in her son’s arms.

His wife, or his friend? His life, his career, exoneration . . . or Kitty’s life, her future, her being there for a little boy?