“Are you going in?” I asked.
“Maybe.” Diesel prowled the yard and found a large rock. “Get back,” he said. “Stand by those trees.”
He hefted the rock and pitched it through a front window. Seconds after the window shattered, th
e house was literally blown apart by an explosion.
“No need to go in,” Diesel said.
“What the heck was that?”
“Motion bomb. Remember the Sky Social Club? Classic Wulf. He loves that crap.” He took my hand and pulled me to the car. “We need to get out of here before the police and fire trucks clog the road.”
“But the house is on fire!”
“It’ll burn itself out. There’s no wind, and the woods are wet from the rain. There’s a large enough patch of cleared ground around the house, so the fire won’t spread. I’m sure there’s no one inside, and if there is, it’s too late to help them.”
We ran to the Subaru. Diesel opened the door and groaned. The SUV was full of monkeys. Six of them in all, plus Carl. They were all sitting in a row in the backseat. All but Carl were wearing hats.
“Get out,” Diesel said.
The monkeys sat tight and exchanged ner vous glances.
“I know you understand me,” Diesel said.
I looked at the monkeys. “They must be Carl’s friends.”
“I don’t care if they’re members of Congress. They have to go.”
“Carl did save my life,” I said.
Diesel rammed himself behind the wheel. “I don’t have time for this.”
He drove into the clearing, turned the Subaru around, and drove out. He hooked a right at the end of the road and headed for the Expressway. We could see the flashing lights of emergency vehicles in our rearview mirror.
“We can leave the trailer and the ATVs here,” he said. “I have to get out of these clothes. I’m starting to mildew.”
We stopped on the way home and got four large pizzas and a six-?pack of beer. Diesel parked the Subaru in my lot, then we all got out and trooped into my apartment building and into the elevator.
“I feel like I married into the Brady Bunch,” Diesel said, monkeys hanging on to his pants legs.
I hit the button for the second floor and got my key out of my bag. “Last time you came to town, I ended up with a horse in this elevator. These things don’t happen when you’re not around.”
“I don’t believe that for a second,” Diesel said.
I opened the door to my apartment, and we all rushed inside. Diesel put two pizza boxes on the floor for the monkeys, and we ate ours off the counter. Who says I’m not civilized? I just hoped my mother never found out about this.
Diesel ate an entire pizza and chugged two bottles of beer. He kicked his boots off in the hall and dropped his still-?wet jeans on the floor.
“I need a shower,” he said.
I was relieved to see he was wearing underwear and that his T-?shirt covered almost all the good stuff.
“I could strip down further,” Diesel said.
“Not in front of the monkeys.”
He grinned, ruffled my hair, and sauntered off to the bathroom.