Today was the last sliver of luck I had left. I used it all up. The next time I’m released into the woods to run for my life, it’s going to be me on the ground, brutally murdered.
Simply for existing in the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s no Loren to happen upon my abandoned backpack and follow a trail to find me right before I die. I didn’t leave anything behind. Except maybe my phone. Is that enough of a breadcrumb?
Can’t be. I didn’t leave it somewhere that someone would stumble across it. If it’s anywhere, it’s in the back of the Shuttled I ordered. What good is it there?
My dreams alternate between the boy being murdered and the happy moments in my life. Sometimes, they coexist in my dreams, as if we’re splashing around in Honey Bee’s pool, and ten feet away, the boy is being murdered.
If I live, it’s going to haunt me for the rest of my life because I should have helped him. He was a kid. He shouldn’t have died.
As we laugh in the pool, the kid screams for his life. Begs. Bleeds. Dies brutally.
And we continue to laugh, oblivious.
27
VOSS
“Where are you going with those?”Dad asks as I leave my backroom with more than a dozen laptops in my hands. I have another six on my back in my pack. He follows, with Jessica right on his heels.
“I need help,” I say without stopping to talk.
I’m making a very rash decision, and the more I look at the reserve, the more dark dread fills my chest. The trees are too thick to see through the canopy. There aren’t any fucking cameras around there that I can find.
There are no electronic eyes on the inside, which means I’m blind.
I have to do this a different way.
He and Jessica join me in the elevator. Jessica takes a few of the laptops, and Dad takes half a dozen more to lighten my load.
“Voss,” Dad says.
“You’re right. We need to know what we’re getting into, and our deadline is running out. We need to be on the next delivery, but going in blind is stupid. I can’t see through the trees. There aren’t any fucking security feeds that I can find. Which means I need to… find this place another way.”
The elevator door opens into the parking garage. I head for the closest vehicle that’ll have keys in it. Another white truck. My father and Jessica hurry to climb in.
“What’s your plan?” Dad asks as soon as I start speeding out of the garage.
“The only place we’re going to find something like this is on the dark web. I don’t know what we’re looking for, so there’s not enough of me to follow all the avenues. I need help.”
I slam on the brakes, and the truck slides to a stop beside the big house. Dad grabs my hand after I throw it into Park, and I meet his eyes.
“I’m going to teach everyone to search the dark web until we find it,” I tell him.
Dad frowns. “Is that a good idea?”
“No. We have forty-eight hours before the next pickup. I’m out of options. Do you have a better plan than this?”
He doesn’t. I can see that written on his face. Dad lets go of my arm, and I grab my pack and the laptops. Wordlessly, Jessica and Dad follow me with the laptops they have.
I’m not in the least bit surprised to find all Brek and Jessica’s friends with my brothers, Uncle Noaz, and Emerson in the parlor room. Except the two/thirds triplets. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ellory is still playing with the Shuttled driver. He hasa weird bloodlust that I try not to acknowledge since it makes my skin crawl.
“Did you find him?” Oakley asks as he jumps to his feet.
“No. I need your help.”
“What do you need?” Uncle Noaz asks.
I set the laptops down on a table. Jessica and Dad’s piles join mine, and I pull out a half dozen more from my pack. As I open the top one and power it on, I explain. “I don’t know what you’ve been told, but the information we have so far is that Brek is a victim of a pattern of abductions over the last year. Once a month, they’re delivered to a truck stop where a tractor-trailer truck takes the unconscious victim away. I’ve tracked the truck.” I pause as the computer boots up. “Uncle Kairo tracked the truck,” I correct. “The victims are deposited on a wild game reserve in Colorado. From what we’ve uncovered from the man who abducted and sold Brek, this usually only happens once a month, but for some unknown reason, there are two drops this month. The second is in forty-eight hours. I’m going to be on that truck, but it’d be helpful to know what I’m walking into.”
