His hand finds my hair, stroking gently. “I’m sorry.”
I close my eyes, unable to look back at the shore.
My sister.
My mother.
My father.
My whole life, receding into the distance with each second.
THIRTY-FIVE
DAKOTA
The truck Cameron hot-wired three towns back rumbles to a stop, engine ticking as it cools.
I blink awake from my half-doze against Julien’s shoulder, taking in the stone-and-timber structure nestled into the mountainside. My neck aches from sleeping crooked, but the pain feels distant, like it belongs to someone else.
Everything feels like it belongs to someone else these past days.
“Home sweet home,” Julien murmurs against my hair.
If such a thing still exists.
“Holy shit.” Sienna presses her face to the window. “This is yours? I was expecting, like, a shack with an outhouse.”
“Grandfather’s hunting lodge.” Julien unbuckles his seatbelt. “Remote enough that most people don’t know it exists. Big enough for three families.”
We climb out, stretching limbs stiff from hours of driving. The mountain air bites cold and so clean it burns my lungs, nothing like the heavy stench of rot we’ve been breathing for six days.
Pine trees surround us, sentinels against the darkening sky.
Julien tenses beside me, hand moving to his machete. “Someone’s here.”
Light spills across the porch as the front door opens. A tall man with olive skin fills the doorframe. Behind him, a woman with slightly darker hair.
Julien’s whole body relaxes. “Cole.”
The man steps forward, a big smile breaking across his face. “Took you long enough.”
They collide in a bone-crushing embrace, the kind that speaks of years of trust and shared history. When they pull apart, Julien turns back to us.
“Everyone, this is Cole Russo.” He gestures to the woman. “And his wife, Arianna.”
She nods, arms folded, assessing us with wary eyes. I can’t blame her. Strangers are more dangerous than the dead.
“When’d you get here?” Julien asks Cole.
“Roads were hell, but we made it a week ago.” Cole’s eyes scan our group—Ramirez, Maya cradling a sleeping Leo, Cameron with his arm protectively around Sienna, Rosa leaning heavily on a walking stick, and me standing slightly apart. “Looks like you had a rough time.”
“Lost some people,” is all Julien says.
Cole claps his shoulder. “Let’s get inside. You can tell me everything once you’ve eaten.”
The cottage is larger than it appeared from the outside.
The main room opens into a vaulted ceiling with exposed beams, a massive stone fireplace dominating one wall, with a fire crackling, casting dancing shadows across worn leather furniture.
