Or could they? They were going to have to make the announcement sometime, and soon. Still, he felt they needed more time to think things through before they made the big unveiling. That meant they needed a place to hide both the team and the bus in the interim.

Savannah thought they should stay outside of town. Cole agreed, but that still didn’t solve the problem. The bus was more than forty feet long. There weren’t many places large enough to hide it, inside or outside of town.

Savannah suggested that perhaps they could use a barn.

Cole considered it. He remembered that the father of Willard Blunt, the Jackrabbits’ strong safety, ran a small cattle ranch off Route 6, south of town.

The problem was that Thedford Blunt wasn’t exactly known for his warm country hospitality. He was known, however, as a man who drank rotgut whiskey for pleasure and fought men for sport. Cole had once seen him hack off a man’s ear with a bottle cap at the pool hall.

Cole had also been to the Blunts’ ranch once before and witnessed yet another example of the man’s fury, which he elected not to share with Savannah at the moment.

He looked into the mirror above him. Willard Blunt sat against the rear door, staring into space through bloodied eyes. A deep laceration ran the length of his forehead. A front tooth poked through his bottom lip. Given what Cole knew about Willard’s father, the Blunts’ ranch was the last place they wanted to be caught trespassing … even if they were bringing back what remained of Thedford’s only child.

But dawn was not far off. They needed to get the bus off the road before first light, and at the moment they didn’t have a whole lot of options.

Cole decided they had to risk it. He told Savannah to follow him in her car and said that he’d signal out the window if there was any trouble.

It was clear that she was eager to get off the bus, but Cole also sensed her reluctance to leave him alone with the Jackrabbits. In truth, he was a little apprehensive about it himself. He resolved to push such thoughts away.

He started the engine again and pulled away from the shoulder, with Savannah following closely in the Honda.

With the seats ripped out, the players sat low enough so as not to be seen through the windows, but the wrecked vehicle was hardly inconspicuous. With the exception of a few curious looks from the drivers of passing cars, they made it to the ranch in half an hour without incident.

Cole pulled onto the shoulder along the property’s southwest fence line. Some thirty head of cattle were grazing the flat, sparsely wooded pasture as the first light of a cloudy dawn rose behind them.