Ed smiled tightly, but shame flashed through his eyes. He parked the truck in an empty driveway in the left “ovary,” grabbed the bag and got out. I scrambled out after him, then had to struggle to keep up as he took off at a lope toward the trees. About a dozen feet into the woods he stopped and crouched, fished out a pair of the goggles and handed them to me. I took them gratefully since I could barely see my hand in front of my face.>“Oh.” He nodded slowly. “So…he told her, and not me.”
I grimaced in sympathy. And how different would everything be now if he had confided in Ed? I thought. Would McKinney and Sofia or whoever have found someone else to collect zombie heads for them?
Ed took a deep breath and straightened. “You just said the guy was old and died,” Ed pointed out. “Maybe that’s how she knew the research wasn’t finished. Maybe Zeke was the test subject.”
“I guess that fits,” I said slowly. I had the feeling I was missing something, and it was driving me nuts. I didn’t like Pietro, but this didn’t seem like something he would tolerate one little bit. Maybe some other zombie faction was involved? And had Zeke been trying to escape, or was he trying to break in to get more of Sofia’s fake brains?
“But why did they have me kill the zombies and deliver only the heads?” he asked. “Why not just have me locate them, and then capture them—the way they were trying to do to you?”
“Probably because kidnapping a live zombie is a lot more complicated than simply killing one.”
“Or maybe the whole point was to see if they could regrow zombies?” he suggested.
I made a face. “Seems like it would be just as effective to cut off some other body part to test these alternate brains. But whatever the reason, it does seem like they want a real live zombie now.” I paused, narrowed my eyes. “Which also means that call from Sofia was bullshit.” I quickly explained to him about the panicked phone call from her and was pleased to see his expression darken. “That bitch set me up,” I continued. “How else would McKinney have known to set up his ambush for me on that highway?” I growled under my breath.
“GPS tracker,” Ed stated.
“Hunh?”
His shoulders lifted in a shrug. “I mean, yeah, he clearly knew you were going out to her house and it does sound like she’s behind this, but he wouldn’t have known when and where exactly to set the spikes out unless he knew exactly where you were.” He paused while I attempted to digest this. “It’s how I found you,” he added, doubling my shock. “I put one on your car when I was by your house.”
I stared at him. “Are you serious?”
“Yup. I’ve been following you for the last couple of days,” he said with no trace of apology in his voice. “Kind of funny to think that you probably had two tracking devices on your car.”
“Yeah,” I scowled. “Real funny. Okay, so Sofia lured me out there and…” I straightened as fear spasmed through me. “Marcus. I need to warn Marcus.” I’d told Sofia he was out of town, but if she got hold of him and told him she was in trouble, I had no doubt he’d come running into whatever trap she and McKinney had ready for him.
I automatically looked around for my purse, then realized that everything was still in my car out on the highway. “Shit! I don’t have my phone. Do you have one?”
“I stopped carrying one. Too easy to trace back.” He swallowed harshly. “I’ve grown a little paranoid, y’know.”
“Well we need to go find a phone,” I said, throwing the brain-food I hadn’t eaten back into the plastic bag.
“There’s a pay phone at the XpressMart on Highway eighty-eight,” Ed said.
I stood, hefting the bag. “And once we’ve done that we need to pay Sofia a visit.”
A whisper of a smile twitched at his mouth. “Perhaps you should clean up first?”
I blinked, looked down at myself. “Oh. Yeah. Blood everywhere. Good point.”
“There’s bottled water and a change of clothing out in the car.”
I raked a gaze over his own apparel. “Please tell me it’s not goth chick stuff to match yours.”
He gave a dry chuckle. “I would never do that to you. It’s cargo pants and a midriff sweatshirt that says ‘Redneck Princess.’”
“Thank god,” I breathed. “I have a signature look, you know.”
“You’re a style icon, to be sure.”
Chapter 21
My nerves were shot by the time we pulled into the parking lot of the XpressMart. It certainly wasn’t a shining example of the XpressMart franchise. The “pr” and “M” in the sign were burned out, and one of the front windows had been replaced with a large sheet of plywood, on which someone had spray-painted a giant picture of a penis. But the pay phone still worked, and I had a fistful of quarters that I’d fished out of the console of Ed’s truck, though I actually had no clue how much it cost to make a call. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d used a pay phone, if ever.
“I’ll keep an eye out,” Ed said as I dumped coins into the phone. I sure as hell hoped he didn’t turn evil again. I was going to get whiplash with the insane loyalty switching here.
I paused with my finger hovering over the buttons. “Um, do you know Marcus’s number?” I asked Ed with a sheepish grin. “I have him in my contacts. I never have to actually dial it, y’know?”