She smiled at him, and he pointed to her left hand, which was now swollen, bruised, and covered in tiny, angry fake-bird bite marks. “That looks worse.”

“It really does.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Some.”

Some probably meant a lot.

She pressed her cheek to his shoulder. He loved how she kept doing that.

He slipped an arm around her. Beto and Ivy leaned forward, talking to Anna in the front passenger’s seat, and it almost felt like they had a bit of privacy in the very back.

He turned, his lips barely brushing against her forehead as he spoke quietly. “You want me to grab some alcohol and numbing cream? We have more.”

She reached her good hand up to lace her fingers through his, shaking her head. “Can we just take a minute?”

“Yeah,” he said softly, holding her a little tighter. He could feel her relax against him, her body going loose and soft. He liked that she felt comfortable letting her guard down with him. He suspected it wasn’t something she did with everyone.

They sat in silence for several moments, until Queso opened the front door of the van and climbed into the driver’s seat. He started the engine. “Everything looks clear. The shipment is still on the truck, and it’s just down the road.”

“Seriously?” Maisie said. She straightened, and Lennon reluctantly slipped his arm from her shoulders. Their eyes met briefly, and she gave him a soft smile.

“Yeah. Or it was, when I checked last night.” He looked Anna up and down. “I’d heard Vals were always armed to the teeth, but damn.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“What is that?” He pointed to something on Anna that Lennon couldn’t see.

“Smoke bombs.”

“Really? How do they—” He cut himself off with a shake of his head. “Anyway. We should be able to get to the shipment pretty easily, and then I can tell you the best road back to Val’s. Might not be totally smooth sailing, but there’s a chance they might not stop a Spencer truck.” He pulled out onto the road.

Anna lightly punched his shoulder. “I like you.”

Lennon opened the backpack. “We should let Hadley know we made it.” He grabbed the radio to see that the light was blinking.

“Hey, Hadley.”

“Are you there? Did he meet you?”

“Yeah, we’re in the car with him right now. We just managed to not get blown up.”

“Oh, in the land-mine field? That place sounds stressful. Hi, Queso!”

Lennon glanced up at Queso, but his eyes were on the road, and he didn’t reply. He wondered how much he and Hadley told each other.

Maisie leaned forward. “Is there any chance of negotiating with Jonathan Spencer?”

Both Ivy and Beto turned around to look at her like she’d lost her mind.

“What?” Maisie said. “It worked with Val.”

“No,” Queso said. “Jonathan is not Val. He hates Val, actually. If you manage to get the truck, you need to get it out of here before they notice it’s missing.”