Gone (Gone 1)

“He’s baiting you.” It was Diana coming into the room and obviously not happy with what she was seeing.

“He’s trying to prove he’s tough,” Caine snapped.

“Yes. And he’s proved it. Move on.”

“Watch how you talk to me, Diana,” Caine grated.

Diana sauntered over to stand beside Caine. She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head at Sam in mock dismay. “Well, you look pretty bad, Sam.”

“He’ll look worse,” Caine threatened.

Diana sighed. “Here’s the deal, Sam. Caine wants some answers from you.”

“Why not ask Quinn?”

“Because he doesn’t know the answers, but you do, so here’s the thing: if you don’t answer Fearless Leader’s questions, Drake is going to start beating on Astrid. And just so you know: Drake is sick in the head. I’m not saying that to scare you, I’m saying it because it’s true. I’m a bad girl, Caine has delusions of grandeur, but Drake is flat-out sick in the head. He could kill her, Sam. And he’s going to start up in five minutes unless I go back and tell him not to. So, tick-tock.”

Sam swallowed blood and bile. “What questions?”

Diana rolled her eyes and turned to Caine. “See how easy that was?”

Amazingly, Caine took it from Diana. No threats, no attack on her, just seething and resentment and acceptance.

He’s in love with her, Sam realized with a shock. The times he had seen them together there had never been any outward sign of affection, but there was no other possible answer.

Caine said, “Tell me about your father.”

Sam shrugged, a painful move that made him wince. “He wasn’t a part of my life. All I know is, my mom didn’t like talking about him.”

“Your mother. Nurse Temple.”

“Yeah.”

“The name on your birth certificate, where it has father’s name? It says ‘Taegan Smith.’”

“Okay.”

“Taegan. A very unusual name. Very rare.”

“So what?”

“Whereas ‘Smith’ is really common. It’s a name a man might use who wanted to hide his real name.”

“Look, I’m answering your questions, let Astrid go.”

“Taegan,” Caine repeated. “Right there on the birth certificate. Mother: Constance Temple. Father: Taegan Smith. Date of birth: November the twenty-second. Time of birth: ten twelve P.M. Sierra Vista Regional Medical.”

“So now you can do my horoscope.”

“You’re not interested in any of this?”

Sam sighed. “I’m interested in what’s going on. Why the FAYZ happened. How we make it stop, or else how we escape from it. On the big list of things to worry about, my biological father, who I never knew, who wasn’t anything to me, is way down that list.”

“You bug out in five days, Sam. Interested in that?”

“Let Astrid go.”

Diana said, “Come on, Caine. Get on with it.”