Something Wilder

About fifteen minutes later, he said simply, “I think I’ve got it.”

Jay and Kevin bolted awake. Leo managed to stand, and Lily pushed to her feet. Bradley pulled her back when she made to move toward Leo.

“Well?” Bradley asked. “What does it say?”

Leo held Lily’s gaze before blinking over to Bradley. “You’re not going to like it.”

Bradley stared at him for a long moment. “Read it anyway.”

“It says ‘Beat ya here.’?”

Bradley rushed to the code, and Leo rushed to her, crushing her to him, breathing in.

“What do you mean?” Bradley said, picking up the scrap of paper Leo had set on top of the box. “The note just says ‘Beat ya here’? Are you kidding me?”

Ignoring him, Leo put his hands on the sides of Lily’s face and bent to look at her. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” She gripped his wrists, needing to feel his pulse under her fingertips. Strong and alive. “You?”

“I’m fine.” He was lying. She’d seen the way he’d absently cupped a hand over the ribs on his right side all night long. Even now, he worked one of his wrists free of her grip, lowering a hand to support his side. There were scrapes everywhere on his face, a nasty cut over his brow, and even in the lingering darkness, she could see bruises blooming under his eyes.

Leo was jerked away, and Bradley shoved the paper in his face. “Explain how you got that.”

Slowly, Leo explained the code, that it was called Fougère, named for the French spy who invented it, that it was a way to group numbers to form letters. He wrote out the code and explained how he got the answer, even though Lily was pretty sure Bradley didn’t understand any of it. Leo said he went through every alphanumeric code he could think of, and none of them spelled anything but nonsense. This code, though, spelled a specific phrase. And Fougère was definitely code that Duke Wilder would have known.

Leo’s exhausted words were cut off by the sound of someone throwing a flashlight against the stone wall.

“What the fuck do we do now?” Kevin said.

Bradley paced the length of the room. “Duke’s taunting us. It’s all a game to him.” He stopped pacing to narrow his eyes at Lily. “?‘Adventure over stuff,’ isn’t that what you said his motto was? Sanctimonious son of a bitch really thought people would be satisfied with the thrill of the chase and he could keep the money himself.” He ran a hand through his hair and looked at Jay and Kevin. “He got the money. We take them with us. We go back to Duke’s place and tear it apart if we have to.”

Chapter Thirty

SHUFFLING OUT OF the narrow confines of the slot canyons meant it took them all a few seconds to adjust to the brilliant morning light. The sun was fresh, the sky cloudless and almost blindingly blue. But even bloody and half-blind, Leo could still make out the blobby shapes of five people standing not ten yards away.

One of the figures burst forward. Leo startled, protectively shoving Lily behind him before realizing the body sprinting toward them was Nicole. She wasn’t headed for Lily, though. Instead, she stormed straight past them, barreling into Bradley and sending a brutal fist into his stomach. The hit sounded like she’d swung a baseball bat into a bag of flour. Literally blindsided, Bradley let out a sharp groan, doubling over.

Jay and Kevin went for their guns, but four other guns cocked in warning before they could reach them.

“Rangers?” Lily said, just as the uniforms registered in Leo’s brain.

“You fucker,” Nic seethed, grabbing Bradley’s hair and cracking her knee into his face. Blood gushed from his nose, and Leo’s old instinct remained—to move toward his friend, to protect one of his own—before he remembered. Bradley wasn’t included in that circle anymore. Finally, another figure jogged forward, dragging Nicole away swearing and kicking at the air.

Leo watched as a female ranger aimed her pistol and moved with purpose toward the man Leo thought had been one of his best friends.

“Let’s see those hands on your head, sport.”

Bradley did as she instructed but backed up a couple of steps. “Hey, whoa. I’m just here with these two”—he motioned to Leo and Lily—“following the same information everyone—”

“Hands on your head,” the ranger repeated calmly, “and get down on your knees. You can tell me all your stories back at the station.” With her free hand, she tugged a pair of handcuffs from her belt, flicking them open.

“What?” Bradley cried, teeth gory with his own blood. “Wait. Hold up. Leo. Tell them. I’m with—”

Leo’s voice was quiet but steady: “He’s not with us.”

Saying it felt like a knife to his stomach.

“You have the right to remain silent,” she told Bradley, extracting the gun from his waistband and handing it to the fourth ranger. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney…”