Page 113 of A Wolf After My Own Heart
Chapter 45
Annette let out another yelp. “Stop torturing me with torture, you torturous scumbags!”
“Jesus Christ,” Turtleneck hissed. “Will you stop?”
“Willyou? That’s all I’m asking.”
“No! We’re not stopping at McDonald’s or Wendy’s or KFC—”
“Not even for some gravy?”
“—or Sonic or Subway or Culver’s or DQ or Sakura or any of the dozen steak houses or sushi bars you’ve been babbling out!”
“This stall technique is pathetic,” Gulo put in.
“She’s not stalling,” Oz said, slumped back in his seat and staring up at the van’s skylight. “It’s not part of a carefully thought out subterfuge to get you guys to drop you guard. This is just Annette Garsea.”You poor bastards.“Enjoy.”
“Would stopping for a Peanut Buster Parfait bethatdetrimental to your time line?Honestly.”
They’d piled into Gulo’s gray cargo van
“Nice rape van, Gulo. Not creepy at all.”
and were Shakopee-bound. Mock had a gun on Annette, and Magnus was in the passenger seat with Turtleneck right behind him, pointing the gun at the back of his head. Magnus didn’t seem to notice; he was staring out the windshield and hadn’t said a word since they got in the car.
“This is the second time this week I’ve had a gun in my face,” Oz commented.
Annette snorted. “Welcome to social work.”
“I liked it better when Lila did it,” he admitted.
“No doubt. Since we have some time to kill, did you want to explain that oddKama-Rupaoutburst on the whiteboard?”
“Annette, please!” Oz yelped. “Not in front of the turtlenecks.”
“Our murders are imminent,” she reminded him. “So if not now, when?”
She’s got a point.“Nothing to explain. We’re not a couple, never were, never will be.”
“Does she feel the same way?”
“She,” he replied firmly, “has enough of her own traumas and troubles. I won’t add to them.”
“Oh, God, Oz. Not you, too. Don’t do that.”
“Do what? Be considerate?”
“Be an overbearing man–jackass hybrid. A manass. Don’t do something for her own good while leaving her out of the conversation. It’s condescendingandtacky.”
“How is being consid—”
“All right!” Gulo shouted from the driver’s seat. “Jesus, it’s like youwantto get shot in the face. Now pay attention, I’m going to explain what’s about to happen.”
Oz sighed. “You’re going to kill us, then leave our bodies somewhere that will make people think we were killed in your New and Improved Race War, because you’re boring and don’t have an original thought in your obsessively scrubbed head.”
“Species war,” Gulo snapped. “And it’s typical that you sheep would misunderstand.”
“I like how Dr. Gulo instantly proved your point,” Annette said.
