The Mysterious Stranger (The Confidence Game 3)

“Tell him I’m in love with him.”

Cadence’s face flushed pink. “In, what?”

She didn’t wait to explain. “Tell him that.”

Back outside she paced. A jumble of thoughts crowding out logic. She was in love with Zeke. Hard core to the bone and back. She needed to see him right now. There was no reason to feel so scared. He was smart and strong. He could handle himself. But she couldn’t know that he was fine until he told her to her face. Stick together.

The only one who would know anything was Orrin.

She’d have to make him tell her what he’d done with Zeke. She about-faced and headed towards HQ.

“Not so fast.”

The voice from the shadows made her stop.

“You did a dumb thing getting pregnant. You made an enemy. Your brother did a dumb thing crossing Orrin.”

She peered into the darkness, recognizing the voice. “Beth, you got something to say, come out here and say it.”

The older woman stepped out from between two cabins. “They took Zack. Orrin wants him gone permanently. I thought you should know.”

The whole world went quiet. All of Rory’s thoughts fell to the dirt, her feelings turned to stone. A gear clicked inside her head. A partition dropped into place, separating her fear state from her need to act purposefully. “What does that mean?”

“They’ve done it before. People who cause trouble. They drug them, dump them. We get told they had an accident or they chose to leave. No one leaves here alive.”

No cemetery, no Abundance refugees. How many were killed this way? “Drug them with what?” But she knew. DMT.

“They’ll give him enough drugs to kill a horse, he’ll be sick, dehydrated. He’ll hallucinate. He’ll gouge his own eyes out, chew his own tongue off, fall and break a limb or be attacked by an animal, or wander out there for days and die of thirst.”

Bile in the back of her throat. Zeke was not dying. She’d run to him. Collect information. “Where?”

“I told you. I don’t know where. I already said too much. They drive for a few hours until they’re far enough out.”

Assess the situation. Is this a trap? “Why are you telling me?”

“I don’t like you, new girl, but you remind me of me before I started making bad choices. Everything about this place is a bad choice. I tried to stop things, the bad things, the lies, the stealing, so much hate, but I wasn’t strong enough. Maybe you’ll have better luck.”

Information checks out. Look for assets. “Which truck did they take?”

“Dark blue.”

“How long ago?”

“About an hour. They’re not back.”

She knew where they’d park the truck. She could be waiting. She’d need a weapon. Force them to take her back out there to find Zeke.

“They have a rule with the vehicles. They log the trip meter. If you can find the log and the pickup, you might be able to work out how far they drove, but they could’ve gone in any direction and stopped a dozen times.”

Eighty-eight-thousand acres. She could miss Zeke by miles. She could drive around all night and day and not find him. It was all she had. She wasn’t running without him.

From the time they called Tres to act, there was an eight-hour gap before she could mobilize the right forces to shut Abundance down. This was different to organizing a car service at the gate. There was no time to wait for help.

She was already moving when she thanked Beth. She needed the brute’s shotgun, the sat phone, food, water, medical supplies. A handful of places to visit to collect it all.

The only light moment was discovering Daniel was still out and Shavonne had risked a black mark to strip him to his underwear, tying him to the porch railing with a torn sheet and placing a plate of cookies out of his reach. She was the superhero.

Rory waited in the dark in a barn stacked full of vehicles she had keys to, but none of them would help her find Zeke. She, paced, trying to keep that partition in her brain holding, to not think about him, sick, scared, hurt, alone and a danger to himself. Trying to imagine the call she’d need to make if she couldn’t find him.