Believe: The Complete Channie Series (77 page)

He had another moment of panic several hours later when he felt their bond suddenly shift to the left. But he laughed out loud when he saw the highway sign with directions to stay left at the fork and take I-15 South to Las Vegas.

Josh
followed closer than he should have, but he’d had a hard enough time finding Channie in Green River, Utah. He’d never keep track of her in Vegas. He parked a block away from the Bellagio Hotel where he felt Channie’s presence.

He woke with a start, his shield already in place. Hunter Feenie’s face was pressed against the window glass, inches from his own. “Jeeze, Hunter. What are you trying to do? Give me a freakin’ heart attack?” He rolled down his window and groaned as a furnace blast of desert air destroyed the last of his temperature control magic inside the car.

Hunter said, “Channie said you was close.”

“How is she?” Josh could still feel their bond, but it was an instinctive question.

“Better’n you. At least she has a place to sleep.”

“What happened? Why did they leave? Was it trackers?”

“Yeah, they found Channie and her daddy at the Ameristar in Blackhawk.”

“How?” Josh’s heart pounded so hard it made his ribs ache.

“Hell if I know. Nobody tells me nothing.” Hunter leaned against the car then yelped and jumped back as if it’d bitten him. “Dang. You could fry bacon on the hood.”

“Are the trackers still on their trail?”

“You think we’d have stopped if they was?”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“Channie’s momma made us all throw our phones out the window before we got out of Louisville. I ain’t got much time, but I wanted to tell you that her folks are looking to settle down somewhere close to the casinos.”

“I guessed as much.” Josh yawned and stretched. “Do you have an address yet?”

“We’re taking off after breakfast to go hunt for a place to rent. You need to back off though. I could feel you following us.”

Josh swore then said, “Does anyone else know I’m here?”

“Just Channie, on account of your bond.”

“How come you felt my presence?”

“My power-name’s Hunter, remember? After hunting you down in the blizzard back home and again when Uncle Rider was a chasing you, I got a permanent bead on ya now. I’ll be able to find you no matter where you go.”

“So, you’re sort of a tracker?”

Hunter narrowed his eyes and glared at Josh. “I ain’t no filthy tracker.”

“Whoa. No offense, dude. I was just wondering how it works. I thought maybe trackers used a bond similar to mine and Channie’s.”

“I wouldn’t wonder that out loud in front of her if I was you. She won’t like it. Even if it is true. A tracker-bond is a lot like a heart-bond except the tracker’s the only one that feels it. It don’t work both ways.”

“How am I going to find her?”

Hunter snorted. “Same way you been finding us, I reckon.”

Josh said, “It was hard enough finding Channie in Green River and Vegas is huge compared to that.” Panic’s cold fingers crept up his spine. “I can’t risk losing track of her.”

“Meet me back here at noon tomorrow. I’ll fill you in with any news.”

“How are you going to get here?”

“Me and Diego are supposed to go look for jobs tomorrow. He’s already agreed to drop me off at the end of the street so’s I can apply for any odd jobs at these here hotels. He’s gonna apply at all the McDonald’s in the area.”

Josh hated the idea of letting Channie slip through his fingers, but he didn’t want to spook her parents by following too closely. “You promise to meet me here at noon?”

“I’ll do my best. If I don’t make it tomorrow, I’ll try again the next day.”

“When you get a chance, beg, borrow or steal a phone and just call me.”

Hunter scratched the back of his head.

It was just a habit but it always made Josh wonder if the guy had lice.

Hunter nodded and said, “That could work.”

“And don’t wait until noon tomorrow. I want to know the minute they decide on a place to rent.”

Hunter said, “I gotta go fill this here thing up with ice,” then leaned over sideways and grabbed a styrofoam cooler off the ground. “Old man Kerns is grumpy as a bear what’s been woke up in the middle of winter and I already been gone too long.”

Josh reached out and grabbed Hunter’s arm. “Belks. Their name’s Belks.”

Hunter grinned and nodded. “The old man’s boxed my ears more than once for slipping up. You’d think I’d remember.”

“Yeah, well, just make sure you remember to call me.”

It
felt like three days, but only three hours had passed when Hunter called Josh from a stranger’s phone and gave him Channie’s new address. He also gave him some news that stopped his heart.
“Channie’s daddy’s giving me three days to find a job and then he’s kicking me out.”

“Why?”

“When I came back with the ice, he was waiting for me outside. He asked me who Kassie was.”

“How did he know about Kassie?”

“Since he only rented two rooms last night, I had to sleep with the trips in Abby and Diego’s room. I must have talked in my sleep last night when I was dreaming about Kassie. Diego took it upon hisself to go and tell Channie’s Daddy when I went to go get ice. I tried to tell him me and Kassie was only friends, but he didn’t buy it. Didn’t really surprise me. It was a pretty good dream.”

Josh felt like a jerk. He’d been so focused on finding Channie, he hadn’t considered what this must be doing to Kassie. “Have you called her?”

“No point.”

“Just because you can’t tell her where you are or why you had to leave, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t call her. She’s going to be worried sick about you.”

There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the phone.
“She told me not to call her no more.”

“Why? What happened?” They hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other at the restaurant three nights ago. Something must have happened after they went back to their room.

“I asked her to marry me.”

“Why?”

“I ain’t quite sure. I think I just got carried away, what with you and Channie being so happy and all. I thought Kassie’d be grateful. Ain’t too many men willing to marry a woman with another man’s bun in the oven.”

“Please tell me that’s not what you said.”

“She tried to tell me we was too young to get married. I told her if she was old enough to get knocked up, she was old enough to get married. She got downright huffy about it and told me she didn’t need no husband. I think that’s when I might of mentioned that her baby was gonna be a bastard if she didn’t marry someone before it was born. After that, she said we was through. Didn’t even want to be friends.”

“Do you want me to talk to her?”

“She made it pretty clear that it weren’t never gonna work out between the two of us.”

“Man, Hunter, I’m really sorry.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“I don’t mean to be insensitive, but I’m really worried about Channie. She needs your protection. Do you think you could apologize to her Dad?”

“I already did. He told me to go get a job and think about whether or not I was ready to settle down. I spoke my own concerns about Channie’s safety. He seems to think Mrs. Belks is getting better.”

“Is she?”

“Well, she ain’t hit or cursed nobody in a while so … maybe.”

“What are you going to do now?” According to Channie, Hunter had dropped out of school in the sixth grade. He had magic and a fake I.D. but he was so far out of his element there’s no way he was going to survive on his own.

“I was wondering if maybe I could bunk with you in your vehicle until I get me a job and a place of my own.”

“You wanna stay in Vegas?”

“I cain’t go home, so it’s as good a place as any.”

“As soon as I get enough money to travel, I’m grabbing Channie and getting the hell out of here. I have no idea where we’ll go, but you’re welcome to come with us.”

It was quiet on the other end of the phone for a long time. Hunter cleared his throat, but his voice was still tight and shaky.
“Thanks, buddy. I sure do appreciate it.”

Josh
applied for every job he could think of. Fry cook, pizza delivery, dishwasher, busboy, waiter, dog walker and landscape maintenance worker. No one would hire him. So he was shocked when Hunter called him — from yet another stranger’s phone — at three o’clock to tell him he’d landed a job and wouldn’t see him until tomorrow morning.

“You got a night job?” With his fake ID, Hunter could work in the Casinos, but he didn’t have any skills. “Doing what? Bussing tables?”

“Nope. Dancer.”

“Dancer? Wait … are you telling me you got a job as a
stripper
?”

“No. I’m an exotic male dancer.”

“Oh man. Hunter … it’s the same thing.”

“Nah-uh. They said I wasn’t allowed to expose myself completely. In fact, I had to use the lunch money you loaned me to buy me some fancy skivvies. All I got’s boxers.”

“Hunter, you don’t have to do this. We’ll find you a respectable job.”

“My new boss said once I get the hang of it I can make a lot of money on account of my battle scars. She’s gonna get me a soldier’s uniform and have a jewelry expert put my lucky slug on an eighteen karat, solid gold chain. I’m gonna be ‘Hunter, the wounded warrior.’
”

The thought of Hunter — half-naked, grinning and rubbing his shoulder where Channie shot him — nauseated Josh. “You are
not
a war vet.”

“Some of them dancers make over a thousand dollars a night.
”

“Doing what?”

“Dancin.’”

“Yeah, right.”