“He looks like a jack-in-the-box, don’t he?” Johnny says. He kicks Pedro, who’s crouched next to his bike. “What do you think? Is he just a weenie wagger putting on a show?”

Pedro doesn’t respond. His head is down, and he’s gasping for air. Johnny kneels beside him.

“What’s wrong?”

Pedro wipes away a strand of drool and swallows hard. “Help me up,” he says.

Johnny and Bob walk him around the parking lot until he’s breathing normally and able to stand on his own.

“I’ve gone too long without feeding,” he says. “It snuck up on me.”

“How bad are you?” Johnny says.

“I’m gonna have to hunt tonight.”

“So we’re calling off the search?” Bob says, anger in his voice.

“I’ll be fine on my own,” Pedro says. “You two keep looking.” He gets on his bike and starts it. “I’ll catch you back at the motel,” he says before riding off.

“Cuidado,” Johnny calls after him.

Real Deal and Yuma start by riding every street in their sector twice. The problem is, nobody walks in this town, so pretty much their only hope of spotting a rover without getting off their bikes and going into every goddamn place is to catch one entering or exiting a bar or 7-Eleven. And what are the odds of that?

Yuma signals Real Deal to turn into the parking lot of a strip mall with a twenty-four-hour laundromat. The place is empty, and all the other businesses in the mall are closed for the night.

“You see something?” Real Deal says.

“I’m bored,” Yuma says.

She steps off her Harley and pulls a screwdriver out of one of her saddlebags. Walking into the laundromat, she goes to the soap vending machine, uses the screwdriver to bust the lock, and pockets the money she finds there.

“Feel better?” Real Deal says when she comes out and gets on her bike.

“Still bored,” she says.

The two of them have been together for nine years. They met in Dallas and fell in love fast and hard. She’s on-and-off crazy, so’s he, and they accept this in each other. So far, whenever she’s lost it, he’s been right enough in the head to stop her from getting in too much trouble, and she’s done the same for him. Riding with the Fiends for the past five years has helped too. The discipline imposed by Antonia keeps them on track most of the time.

Real Deal’s not sure what flipped Yuma’s switch tonight—Bob getting dusted, the other Bob acting like an asshole, losing out on the baby—but he knows he’s got his hands full. Her next stop is a closed gas station. He waits while she jimmies the Coke machine. A few minutes later she tries to smash her way into a parking meter with a hammer.