Something Wilder

“Why else would Terry leave it with us?” Leo asked, and Lily finally caught on. If these assholes took the journal, she and Leo would be completely screwed. “Seeing as you guys are here without him… he must know something we don’t.”

“Like what?” Kevin asked, frowning. “What would Terry know?”

Lily shrugged, joining in. “If I knew that, I wouldn’t be standing here.”

Kevin blinked for several silent seconds. “Huh.” And then his expression cleared. “Why are you here, then? If you’re so sure it’s useless?”

“Why… are we here?” She floundered. “Well. We’re—we’re here—”

“We’re working our way through Duke’s clues for closure,” Leo cut in. “This is Lily Wilder, you know. The Lily Wilder? We’re finding a way for her to finally be able to say goodbye to her beloved father.”

“That’s right. Closure. It’s hard for me to talk about.”

Jay’s eyes narrowed as he studied her. “Closure. I’m not buying it.” He sucked his teeth and shook his head. “You’re just trying to get us to leave the book. Fuck you.”

Inwardly, she growled in frustration.

The two men leaned their heads together, discussing, but the attempt at secrecy was completely undone when Jay quietly said, “Either Terry’s in there already, or we beat him here,” and tilted his chin toward the slots, as in, Let’s go.

Kevin looked over his shoulder and nodded at Leo and Lily. “What about them?”

“You could take us with you,” Leo offered quickly. “Lily is better at cracking Duke’s codes than anyone.”

“Like you wouldn’t try to knock us on our asses the first chance you get.”

Leo gave a tilt of his head that said, That’s fair.

“Besides,” Kevin said, waving the journal, “we already have the directions. We don’t need you anymore. So I guess this is where we say goodbye.” He reached into his pack and pulled out a set of zip cuffs exactly like the ones Terry had.

With Jay pointing the gun at Lily, Kevin crossed to Leo, pulling his hands behind his back and securing them together with an unnerving series of clicks. Next, he instructed him to sit, and bound Leo’s feet at the ankles. When it was Lily’s turn, he did the same and put them back-to-back in the grassy clearing.

For a brief moment, Lily wondered if the two men planned to shoot them anyway, but Jay reached into her bag, took a protein bar, and tossed their packs out of reach. Biting into the bar, he threw the wrapper on the ground at her feet. “Hope you don’t get hungry.”

Kevin snorted. “You’re a dick, you know that?”

“But I’m not a killer.” Jay shrugged. “Whatever happens now is between them and nature.”

Kevin pulled Duke’s journal from his pocket and waved it at her. “Thanks again. If you see Terry, tell him to choke on it.” Sparing a last glance at their belongings strewn over the ground, he gave the packs another kick. With a little smirk, Kevin added, “Good luck, Lily Wilder.”

* * *

The sun was high overhead. They hadn’t even attempted to figure out their bullshit situation yet, and Lily was already sweating.

“I can’t believe that just happened,” Leo said. “I think we just got robbed and zip-tied by the two dumbest humans alive.”

“Can you still see them?” He faced the direction those two idiots had taken off in.

“Yeah.” Leo leaned to the side. “But just barely. They’re still walking along the rock wall.”

“Tell me when you can’t see them anymore.” Her mind raced, sorting through every possible escape route. She hated Terry for bringing those guys along with him. If he hadn’t already been dead, she’d have pushed him off that cliff herself.

“Okay.” Leo was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. “Lily?”

“Yeah?”

“I want you to know that last night was the best night of my life.”

She paused, frowning. “You know we’re not going to die out here, Lovesick City Boy.”

A laugh. “I know. But I could hear you doing that heavy rage-breathing thing and I wanted to distract you.”

“I’m seeing red,” she admitted, her heartbeat so strong it seemed to quake her skeleton. “I can’t believe they got the journal. I can’t believe we’re tied up here while they—”

“Lily.”

“—waltz in there and use everything my dad dedicated his life to—”

“The first time I had sex with someone after you,” he said breezily, interrupting her, “I asked her to call me ‘cowboy.’?”

In spite of the situation, she burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, what?”

Behind her, he nodded. “We were… you know, and it wasn’t working for me for obvious reasons.”

“Which were?” A cord of jealousy threaded through her rib cage.

“She wasn’t you?” he said, a grin in his voice. “I felt guilty and awful and sad, and I just blurted it out. ‘Call me cowboy!’?”

Lily bent forward, cackling, surprising herself. “I never even called you cowboy.”

“I know!” He leaned back against her. “It had been so long since I left, and I was desperate to prove to myself that I could still—but God—I mean—that poor woman. She probably told that story to her friends hundreds of times.”