Read Nowhere to Run for Free Online

animals. I saw all the bones back there. You’ve been poaching game all summer.”
    Caleb said, “Okay.”
    “So why don’t we get back,” Joe said.
    Caleb nodded, shouldered around Joe, and strode back up the trail.
    As Joe followed, he wondered if he’d been suckered, and why.
     
    CAMISH WAS STILL on his seat on the log and he watched with no expression on his face as Joe emerged from the woods. A cloud had finally passed in front of the sun and further muted the light. While they were gone, Camish had started a small fire in a fire pit near his feet and had cleaned and laid out the trout Caleb had brought back.
    “Guess what,” Caleb said to Camish, “he’s going to give us tickets .”
    “Tickets?” Camish said, placing his big hand over his heart as if pretending to ward off a stroke.
    Joe felt his ears get hot from the humiliation, but said, “Wanton destruction of game animals, for starters. But we’ve also got hunting and fishing without licenses, and exceeding the legal limit of fish.”
    Again, Joe caught the brothers exchanging information through their eyes.
    Joe wrote out the citations while the Grim Brothers watched him and smirked.
    Caleb said to his brother, “You’re gonna get mad, but I told him we were from the UP. And you know what he said? He said, ‘Union Pacific? ’”
    Camish laughed out loud and slapped his thigh.
    “Oh, and earlier, you know what he asked me?”
    “What?”
    “He asked if we’d ever run across any remains of that girl runner. You know, the one who took off running and never came back?”
    “What did you tell him?”
    “I said sure, we raped and killed her.”
    Camish laughed again, and Caleb joined him, and Joe looked up from the last citation he was scribbling and wondered when he’d left Planet Earth for Planet Grim.
     
    HE HANDED THE CITATIONS to the brothers, who took them without protest.
    “I’d suggest you boys get out of the mountains and straighten up and fly right,” Joe said. “You’re gonna have big fines to pay, and maybe even jail time if the judge comes down hard.”
    “Straighten up and fly right,” Camish repeated in a soft, mocking tone.
    “What’s the reason you’re up here, anyway?” Joe asked. “I find people all the time looking for something they can’t get at home. What’s the story with you two?”
    The brothers looked at each other.
    “You wanna tell him?” Caleb said.
    Camish said, “Sure.” He turned to Joe. “Let’s just say this is the best place for us. I really don’t want to go into detail.”
    Joe waited for more that didn’t come. Finally, he reverted to training and said, “If you want to contest the citations, I’ll guess I’ll see you boys in court.”
    “Gee,” Camish said. “Do we have to wear ties?”
    Caleb snorted a laugh at that.
    “You can wear what you want,” Joe said, feeling ridiculous for responding.
    Caleb said to Camish, “But we got folks to look after.”
    Camish shot Caleb a vicious glance, which shut his brother up.
    “What folks?” Joe asked.
    “Never mind my brother,” Camish said. “He knows not what he says sometimes.”
    Caleb nodded, said, “I just babble sometimes.”
    “Is there someone else up here?” Joe asked.
    “Ain’t nobody,” Camish said.
    “Ain’t nobody,” Caleb repeated.
     
    JOE MOUNTED BUDDY, clucked his tongue to get him moving, and started back up the hill. He was never so grateful to ride away. He tried not to look over his shoulder as he put distance between himself and the camp, but he found he had to if for no other reason than to make sure they weren’t aiming a rifle at him.
    They weren’t. Instead, the Brothers Grim were laughing and feeding the citations into the fire, which flared as they dropped the tickets in.
     
    THAT NIGHT HE DISCOVERED his satellite phone was missing. He remembered powering it down and putting it away into its case the night before, after leaving the message for Marybeth. He emptied the contents of both