For as long as Boyd can remember, he's been pushing pins into a map. Carson City, Las Vegas, Albuquerque -- all places he wants to see, for a dozen different reasons that wouldn't mean a thing to anyone else. When he finally gets a chance to purchase the '70 Plymouth Duster of his dreams, at a price that even he can manage, Boyd jumps at the opportunity.<br><br>Oliver seems like just another kid with a broken dream when their paths cross in Vegas. Against Boyd's better judgment, he offers to let Oliver hitch along for the ride when Oliver confides the need to get out and get gone.<br><br>But isn’t long before Boyd realizes Oliver's reasons for running are more complicated -- and more dangerous -- than Oliver let on. Boyd doesn't like people who play hardball, and he definitely doesn't like people messing with a man who's managed to light a fuse that Boyd forgot he had.

Road Trip

It only took him two hours to get to his first destination.


Carson City was one of those pins that had been in place as far back as Boyd could remember. Boyd couldn’t recall the exact thing that had prompted him to put the pushpin in that name, most likely an old movie, or a youth’s novel—something with gold mines and bad guys and railroads that had been cool enough to tweak a young man’s imagination. He had, after all, been a fairly decent reader back in grade school when his head would slow down enough to let him do it.


Chapter 3