She just stands there silently.

Alex had never thought, then, that he would ever have reason to doubt the man.

He gave a casual shrug, keeping his expression neutral. "Nothings going on--I just dont get along too well with the CIA, either. So I thought Id take a break. The lady and I met in Maine--she felt like taking off for a while, too. She was just joking when she said she was kidnapped."

"Youre not a runaway, are you, Miss?" asked Cully, propping his muscular forearms onto the table with a grin. He swirled the golden liquid around in its glass.

"No, I'm not. I wasn't joking. He," she gestures to Alex, "broke into my neighbor's house, shot them, then forced me into his car after he realized I saw him."

"Well, I dont blame you about the CIA," said Cully to Alex. He drained half his glass in one gulp. "Cell phone service, yes--running an outfit like this, no. Buncha yahoos, if you ask me. What we need is your old man back, God rest his soul. Also, I thought you had been raised better."

The words seemed to hang in the air as a memory came back to Alex: they had just buried his father out there in the blistering desert, a mound of rough, sandy soil the only marker. Cully had dropped his hand heavily on Alexs shoulder as they trudged back to the Jeep.
I know how you feel, boy,
hed said.
I had to bury my mama when I was just a few years older than you. Hurts like hell.

Now, sitting at his fathers old table, Alex nodded at Cullys comment--but he could feel the adrenaline surging through him. Cullys mother was dead. Who the hell had he been texting, then?

She doesn't know anything about Cully, so she isn't finding any of this suspicious.

"So whats your plan?" asked Cully. "You wanna stay out here for a while, show miss the sights?" He winked at her. "Man, we got some good ones. We got lizards and buzzards...coupla coyotes...plenty of sand, if you like to sunbathe..."

She takes another sip of her drink, staying silent.

"Ah, you cant come out here all this way and not stay awhile," said Cully easily, sloshing another few fingers of bourbon into Alexs glass. "'Sides, be nice for me to have the company. Gets sort of lonesome out here, and thats a fact."

"Yeah, I bet." Alex took another swig of his drink, leaned forward on his elbows. His voice sounded like it was echoing in his ears as he said, "So hows your mom doing?"

Cully chuckled. "Oh, you know, the old gals still going strong--plays bridge like a fiend down there in Mobile. Think Im gonna have to sign her up to Gamblers Anonymous. Or else take her to Vegas, let her clean up on the slot machines."

"I thought your mother was dead," said Alex.

There was a beat. Cullys mouth was still curved in a smile, but the laughter had left his eyes. "No, thats my stepmama. She died of cancer when I was about sixteen; cut my old man up plenty."

Cullys father had been a Baptist preacher; Cull had often made jokes about how he himself had broken practically every one of the Ten Commandments by the time he was a teenager. Alex remembered him laughing, shaking his head:
My poor old daddy, I almost drove him to drink. There he was, a preacher who lived by the good book; had been with the same woman his whole life and somehow he got a hell-raiser like me for a son. Man, he almost used to cry as he was whalin on me with the flat of his Bible.

The same woman his whole life. There had been no stepmother.

That does catch her attention. But she doesn't say anything.

Hardly able to believe he was doing it, Alex reached for his gun. In one fluid motion, hed pulled it from its holster and flicked the safety off. He pointed it at Cully. "Who did you text, Cull?"

A hard wariness came over Cullys face. He lowered his glass. "Now, Alex--"

Alex stood up, never taking his eyes off him. "Answer me."

Cullys gaze narrowed; he hefted himself out of his chair. "Alex, bud, theres some sorta mistake here..."

"Get your hands up," said Alex. Cully did so in slow motion. Alexs eyes stayed locked on his. "Reach into his breast pocket and get his cell phone," he told the girl. "Cully, if you move an inch, I swear to God Ill shoot you."