On the far side of the cabin, North knelt next to a set of depressions that they hadn’t seen on their first visit—probably because they hadn’t made it to this side of the cabin. They had stopped their inspection and gone inside when Quentin collapsed.

Shaw jogged up, breathing easily, and said, “Tire tracks.”

“Oh. I thought a deer left these.”

Ignoring him, Shaw hunkered down next to the flattened grass and torn earth and said, “Too small for a car.”

North eyed the depth of the prints.

“And it didn’t weigh very much,” Shaw said. “I’d say a golf cart.”

“It’s like living with Sherlock Holmes,” North said.

“You probably don’t know what a golf cart is. See, outside of the city, they have this stuff called grass. Oh, and they have trees. But if you spend your whole life on a construction site pouring cement and eating your lunch on an I-beam—”

“Jesus Christ,” North said, standing up to continue his circuit of the house.

“—then you probably wouldn’t know that. See that big brown thing? With all the little green things? That’s a tree.” Shaw slipped an arm around North. “It’s ok. It can’t hurt you. I’m right here; I’ll keep you safe.”

“I feel like the President.”

“And this green stuff, what we’re walking on—”

“Shaw, you’re buying yourself a hell of a lot of trouble.”

Flashing a reckless grin, Shaw said, “This green stuff is called grass. And I know you spent the first nine months of your life tumbling around in a cement mixer, and after that you smoked a cigar and worked sixteen hours in the sun and cut your own umbilical cord with a pair of tin-snips, but I wanted you to see what the rest of us get to enjoy.”

“Are you finished?” North said as he opened the A-frame’s door and led them inside.

“I just thought you’d like to see the world the way the rest of us frail, lowly mortals see it.”

“This is longer than your usual spiel. You must be still walking off that boner I gave you.”

“That’s right: we lowly mortals of flesh and bone who grew up playing tee ball and climbing on jungle gyms and going on dates instead of wearing a hardhat and chewing through steel and eating a lug nut for dessert.”

North arched an eyebrow, fighting to keep a smile off his face. “A lug nut for dessert? That’s new.”

“I thought of it after watching you demolish that ice cream sandwich. You know. The one you thought I didn’t see you buy at the Casey’s.”

Heat prickled up North’s neck and along his cheekbones. “So, the son of a bitch was here, right? What was his name? Donovan?”

“It’s a Bluetooth speaker,” Shaw said. “The range isn’t that good. Probably ten yards.”