Chapter 426

• Present Day
• My motorcycle purrs like a tiger beneath me as I lean into a curve on a remote highway, taking the turn a little too quickly. Adrenaline skitters through me, and I laugh out loud when I can sense the road only inches from my leather boots. Danger makes me feel alive, more than anything else has in years, so it’s par for the course for me to take a few chances here and there. Once through the curve, I straighten out on a long stretch of empty road as flat as a board beneath a sunset sky.I like sunset in New Mexico. It’s the only time I see color in this desert country. Everything’s brown—brown mesas, brown dirt, brown rocks, green shrubs that are so dry they’re a hair shy of brown. I miss the green mountains of Montana, the colorful wildflowers, the big blue sky. The sky here isn’t ever brown, but when temps soar into the nineties, into triple digits, the sky turns colorless. Might as well be riding my bike on Mars.
• I open up the throttle and shoot forward, taking advantage of the empty stretch of this two-lane highway. My ass has been on this seat for a big chunk of the day, and my tailbone’s sore. My body’s stiff. I’ll need a damn shovel to peel my thighs off this bike when I finally stop. A road sign whips past—Oscura, 5 mi.