Shit, his parents. A rush of guilt took hold as he realised he hadn’t thought about them once since they’d escaped the cottage. “Do you think anyone chased after them? Can you check if they made it?” Logan had told him they’d left in the van with the others, but that didn’t mean they’d made it safely out of there.
“No, I can’t check if they got to the next place safely, but I didn’t sense any other wolves at the cottage.” He shrugged. “That’s not to say there weren’t more waiting in ambush somewhere, but we didn’t see anything when we left.”
“Comforting,” Cole grunted. “Thanks.”
Sitting on the ground next to him, Logan sighed. “I’m not going to lie to you, Cole. Things are pretty bad.” He handed him some sort of energy bar, and Cole’s stomach rumbled in anticipation. “We’ve never had anyone find us out here before. Someone leaked information, whether on purpose or not I don’t know, but we can’t assume anything right now.”
“Thanks,” Cole whispered. “For this.” He held up the bar. “And for not sugar-coating things for me.”
The energy bar was a little on the dry side, but it was edible and that was all Cole cared about right then. “How long was I asleep?” he asked between mouthfuls. “And what time do you reckon it is?”
“After midnight. One maybe. Not much later.”
“Is there really no way to check if they made it? Maybe we could find a payphone or something. They still have those, right?”
Logan shook his head. “I don’t have Sadie’s number. Or any of the other’s. For safety reasons.”
“There must be someone?” Cole heard the desperation in his voice but couldn’t stop it.
“I’m sorry.”
Cole shut his eyes and leant back against the tree. What Logan said made sense, he supposed, but that didn’t chase away the worry or the guilt. “What about my accident> Won’t that be weird if they know I’m alive?”
Logan was silent for a moment.
“Logan?”
“Your body won’t be in the accident.” His voice was soft, and it took Cole a second or two to parse what he was saying.
“What? Why?”
“Because they only go through with the plan when we contact them and tell them we’ve made it out of London to the next safe house. In your case, when you’ve reached the caves.”
“The caves? Where the fuck are they?”
“You don’t need to know.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Sadie will have notified them that your parents arrived, but not you. They can’t afford to wait too long, or they’ll miss their window of opportunity.”
Cole frowned. “What does that mean then?”
“It means your parents will be killed in a car crash and you’ll be reported as missing.”
“So it looks like I ran away?”
“Yeah.”
Was that better or worse than people thinking he was dead? Cole couldn’t get his head round it at one in the morning after little to no sleep. But one thing he did know. “So even if your pack weren’t looking for me before now, they will be when they discover I’m missing.”
Logan sighed again. “Yeah. And who do you think they’ll go to first?”
“Oh shit.”
“Yep. They’ll find my phone in my apartment and no trace of me.”
“They’ll think you helped me.”
Loganshou just nodded.
Fuck. Cole was gutted about leaving his friends behind, but it must be so much worse for Logan if he lost his pack. “What will they do?”
