It was…
Fuck.
Blythe was probably right.
But I didn’t know how to let him off his leash—not when it felt like I couldn’t hold onto him without it. Aubrey was like the rain. He spilled through my fingers and set my body on fire.
He’d fucking changed me, and he hadn’t even bothered to stay behind to pick up the pieces after.
And maybe…
MaybeI understood why. I had to think on thatwhyas I stomped across the resort, heading toward the pit of zombies Aubrey and I had found in those first few days of sweeping the area.
Voices ahead caught my attention. Cutter was familiar, but the person he was talking to wasn’t. It drew me up short, and something in my chest prickled in irritation when Irealized there was noreasonfor him to be talking to someone I didn’t know.
“I told them about that stupid fucking theater and you still didn’t get the job done. You sentraidersto do it. I don’t know what else you want. Aubrey’s going to go back to the train station. Don’t you have men there? They probably already caught him. Just take him andgo. You can’t hurt Phoenix. He got hurt last time, he?—”
“We should have wiped all of you out. The Order doesn’t deal with raiders.”
The Order.
I came around the corner with my axe out, and it caught the man standing beside Cutter in the stomach. I flung him over the edge of the drop-off, shifting so I didn’t get his guts on my boots as I pulled my weapon free.
After I heard the loudthudof him hitting the ground, I turned on Cutter with narrowed eyes.
“What the fuck was that?”
I could tell by the guilt written all over his expression that he knew he was fucked. It didn’t matter—I had to take a breath to stop myself from swinging on him too. I needed information.
I needed to know what was going on. Aubrey wasn’t here.
And there wereOrderafter us.
“Phoenix, wait.” I didn’t miss the broken expression on his face, but it didn’t matter.
Nothing mattered, because Aubrey wasn’there, and he said they probably already had him.
“What did you do, Cutter?”
“He changed you!” The burst of emotion that tore across his face was almost shocking. Cutter took three steps forward and grabbed my wrist, tilting his head up and fixing me with hazel eyes half full of tears. “You aren’t the same anymore. You’re always with him. You’re ignoring your pack, your family, and… fuck. I got caught by the Order when we first got here and I was walking the perimeter checking the fence. They told me they were looking for a deserter. They said some guy with burn scars wanted to hurt Aubrey. Said he paid a group of raiders to fuck him and fuck him up. That’s why I told you about the theater. We were supposed to go together. You weren’t supposed to get hurt, you?—”
I caught him by the throat before he could finish. I didn’t need to hear anymore.
The raiders in the theater had been well armed.
Cutter had found them scouting.
Fuck.
“You sold us out to the Order.” It wasn’t just that, though. Some guy with burn scars?
Aubrey hadtoldme about a building burning down. The thought of who it might be—the fact that Aubrey was running around somewhere alone—it was too much.
“No, just him! I ran into Aubrey at the old hotel. He didn’t even have his collar on, Phoenix. I was only going to tell them where he was going, not…”
“Them?”
His face went pale, and he pulled out of my grip, backing up a few feet before he realized he was in a shit position to run. The drop-off was behind us, and I could hear the infected snarling in the pit below, agitated by the body I’dthrown down to them. There was nowhere to run, nothing for him to do but tell me the truth. “There was another one here just a few minutes ago.”
