“Yeah, I’d want to die if I had a rash like that.” She watched the car’s headlights slow and stop be-hind the Camaro. “I hope to hell that’s not the cops.”

It wasn’t. It was a Mercedes, sky blue.

Velvet grabbed Robby’s elbow and squeezed.

“Stay low and follow me.”

The highway guys had driven out every truck except one at the far end of the yard—it had a full load of sand, but one tire was flat. She slithered underneath and pulled Robby after her. She couldn’t see Julian anywhere.

“What’re you doing?” Robby hissed. Velvet tried the truck’s door. It opened. The dome light came on.

“Shit! Get in there!”

She boosted Robby into the cab and climbed in after her, slammed the door, and locked it. Robby twisted and tried to push the button down on her side with her head; the coat slid off her shoulders.

“Could you—”

Velvet readjusted the coat and reached across to press the lock. Outside, everything was quiet, nothing moving. No sign of Mr. Julian, except for the blue Mercedes parked on the road behind the Camaro.

“Now what?” Robby’s breath made a thick white cloud in the still cold air.

“I’m thinking!” Velvet slapped herself on the side of the head. “The gun! The gun’s in your pocket!”

“Gun …” Robby twisted as Velvet dug in the coat’s pockets. She came up with the automatic and smiled in triumph. “You can’t just—”

“Oh, fuck that. He tried to kill me.”

Something slammed into the back window, shattering it into a thousand glittering pieces; Velvet screamed and threw up her hands to cover her head; the gun fell to the floor. She hit some button on the dash, and the engine started up with a grinding roar. Cold air blasted out of the vents. Robby curled into a ball on the seat.

Mr. Julian reached through the ruin of the back window and unlocked the door on Velvet’s side. She lunged for the gun on the floorboards, but it skittered away under Robby’s feet.

The door jerked open. As Velvet got her fingers on the gun, an iron bar slammed into her arm. She screamed so loud she almost didn’t hear the bone break, but she felt it, all right, felt it even more when Julian grabbed a handful of hair and jerked her out of the truck. He hit her again, this time in the side. She fell flat and rolled, and the bar hit gravel instead of her head, where he’d aimed. She rolled under the truck and crawled desperately for the other end of the truck. Where the hell was he? Getting Robby? Beating her? Shit, shit—

She crawled out under the truck’s bed and rolled to her knees.