The Infinity Tattoo Read Online Free Page B

back up very slowly until they released their prickly hold.
    Thus, he had learned the hard way to pick his way ever so carefully. Fortunately, the moon was full, providing him with plenty of light by which to navigate. After an arduous journey on the backs of pickups, taking back roads and on foot when necessary, he crested a five thousand foot rise that gave way to the Verde Valley.
    As the sun rose, he could see the long stretch of green where the river provided an oasis in the desert. He found a shed that was solid enough to keep out the animals—coyotes, snakes, scorpions and other wicked creatures of the desert. It was near the river. Shaded by large cottonwoods, it would remain tolerably cool as the sun rose. He settled in for the day under an old tarp he’d found tossed in a corner, and slept.
    He woke up as the sun was setting. The temperature was dropping rapidly from a balmy eighty degrees to around fifty. It was springtime and considerably cooler at this altitude than in the valley where Phoenix sprawled. Jack made his way down to the river twenty feet from the shed and filled his water bottles.
    Finding a fairly flat rock to sit on, he rummaged around in his pockets for the remainder of the trail mix he had scored at a gas station. As he munched on the nuts and berries and bits of chocolate, and drank copiously from one of his water bottles, he thought, now what?
    He was far enough away from Phoenix to have eluded his pursuers, he was pretty sure. When he had started this insane journey, he had no particular destination in mind, his only thoughts were on escape. It didn’t take long for him to realize that being a fugitive in the desert was not without its own hazards. He needed to rest, to regroup.
    He thought hard about what he was going to do. Then it came to him. A very good friend of his spoke often of a friend who lived in Sedona. And Sedona was just up the road. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He had kept it turned off most of the time to preserve the battery. Now he turned it on. And discovered that he was out of cell phone range.
    He stood and started walking, once again just focused on putting one foot in front of the other, waiting for the pain to subside to a dull ache. He followed the interstate, always staying out of sight of the traffic. He thought about how much easier it would be to just walk along the side of the road, but he didn’t dare.
    Leaving a military base without permission meant that technically he was AWOL. If his commanding officer had reported him, the police might also be looking for him. Therefore he couldn’t be seen by anyone, couldn’t trust anyone. Now that he had a destination, he didn’t want to take the risk of being seen hitchhiking on the interstate. Besides he looked like hell. Walking out of sight was better.
    Once he got closer to civilization, he tried his phone again. This time he was in luck. He googled the name Goodwin plus Sedona. The very first result that popped up was a company called Goodwin Landscaping. He smiled. For the first time since this insane journey began, he began to have hope. If Meg’s family had a landscaping business, they would have garages or other outbuildings where he could hide, at least until he could figure out what to do.
    There was a map on the Goodwin Landscaping website showing its location. He expanded it and studied it carefully, memorizing the roads he needed to take. Then he turned his phone back off. Standing, he grimaced in pain from the torture he had inflicted on his feet over the past few days.
    The going was frustratingly slow as he approached Sedona, for he knew that as the crow flies the place was very near, but there were no roads that traversed from the highway to Red Rock Loop Road. As he passed through the Village of Oak Creek and continued along the highway, he began to understand why. He could just make out huge monoliths of stone jutting up into the night sky as well as shadowy crevasses carved like