“Oh, yeah, and what was with that fake accent?” Raya said. “New Joy-sey meets Fla-ri-dah? I’m guessing he’s a gig actor who’s not too good at his day job.”
They all laughed. Even though Benny was a fake, somehow it was still a relief knowing that he hadn’t died. One less thing to be sad about.
It felt oddly natural—the three of them sitting on the ground together, hanging out and talking. Almost as if it was just a regular school day. Not the day they had died. The day everything had been lost, and then found again.
Ana glanced from Alex to Raya, drinking in their faces, the closeness. This was everything, and she’d come so close to losing it all. It was a ridiculous thing to say, but she almost feltlucky. Not everyone got a second chance—she knew that better than most people. But here it was—a do-over, and this time, she would not lose sight of what mattered most in the world. She would not lose them again.
“I love you guys,” she said quietly.
“Okay, much though I love you back, I’m not into threesomes,” Raya said, climbing to her feet. “I’m going to find myself an air-conditioned ambulance and get the heck out of this overheated hellhole. Catch you later.” She winked and walked away, heading after Caden. “Wait up, Big C. Don’t suppose you have any spare smokes kicking around?”
One of the ambulances started up, slowly reversing out of the line,and pulling away. Probably Jade and Jax’s ride. The two of them had barely spoken since waking up at the diner. Nothing like a near-murder experience to test your relationship. A hollowness had crept into the space between them—a crack in their veneer. Hopefully it would heal andThe Jade and Jax Showwould be back in full swing, posted for all to see. Maybe the damage didn’t run too deep. But even as she thought it, Ana pictured Jade’s face at the diner—the empty look in her eyes as though something was disconnected inside her—broken. Whatever came next for them, it was going to be a long road ahead.
Ana watched the ambulance go, lights flashing as it pulled away from the gas station heading into town. It would be their turn to leave soon—to ride away and leave all this behind. To see her mom and Alex’s abuela. To pick up and start over—again.
“Okay?” Alex asked, rubbing her shoulder.
“Yup. All good. Considering.” Ana stretched. She was feeling a bit numb from sitting in one position for so long. A deep, pervasive tiredness was settling over her as the adrenaline wore off. She would sleep for a week, given half a chance.
“Ana…there’s something I wanted to ask you when we were alone.” Alex sounded a little on edge. “On the line, you knew we weren’t going to die, didn’t you? I just…why didn’t you tell me?”
She had been wondering when this would come up. It had been one of the hardest things she’d had to do in a very bad day—letting Alex believe that they were going to die.
“Alex, I’msosorry.” Ana looked away, avoiding his eyes. She would never forget the look on his face as they crossed the line—if only she could have spared him that. “I wanted to tell you more than anything, there was just no way to do it without Ellis finding out too. In the bunker there was a video feed from inside the diner on the laptop. I kneweveryone was alive, and if we could just cross the line, we’d be okay. But Ellis was dangerous—he could have hurt you, or worse. I had to let him think he’d won. If there had been any other way, I would have told you. I’m so sorry for putting you through that.”
“It’s okay,” Alex said, pulling her close. “It wasn’t on you. I get it. To be honest, I thought you were pulling aRomeo and Juliet. Leading us to our death. I’m sorry—I underestimated you.”
“That’s the theme of the day.” Ana laughed. But as she said it, another thought occurred to her. There had been another theme, an undercurrent that had carried them through everything.
The truth will set you free.
The final step in Hunt’s cruel, psychotic game. He had brought them here to torture them into confessing their parts in the fire and clear Karl’s name. But his plan had failed, the confessions had been destroyed by Ana, and rather than clearing his son’s name, he had revealed himself to be the very thing his son was accused of—a monster. Even if the truth about Karl’s role in the fire eventually came out, the Hunt family name would now forever be tainted with evil.
But, ironically, for the survivors, after everything that they had been through, after confessing their guilt and accepting their fate—in some strange way, the truthhadactually set them free. Each of them had been given something that Danny, Maia, and Karl never had—a second chance.
Ana nestled her head into Alex’s shoulder, looking out across the desert.
The first rays of dawn light clipped the top of the distant mountains and cut through the sky, turning the world gold and purple. The lightness inside her soared for a moment. A new day was beginning—a brilliant day filled with color and life and love.
She glanced up at Alex, his face touched by the golden light, his softbrown eyes catching glimmers of the sunrise, sparkling. They had time. They had a future. Wherever it would take them; whatever came next. She could breathe again, deeply—freely.
Closing her eyes, she felt the first rays of light on her face, the warmth of a new beginning. Her skin tingled, every sense felt alive. It was as if some powerful force was hugging her, holding her close, letting her know everything was going to be okay.
But she knew it wasn’t the universe or some god that she was feeling. She knew exactly who it was. She could sense him all around her now—in the wind, in the sun, in her heart. For so long she had missed him. For so long she had been shut down, held back with the weight of guilt and grief. But after all this time, after everything, in the dawn light sitting on the cracked, gas-stained concrete in the middle of nowhere—he had found her at last.
He was here with her.
Her brother. Danny.
A year ago, she had grabbed her schoolbag off the kitchen table and run out of the door and out of the life she knew, forever. Since then, she had been lost, somewhere dark and lonely. But it was finally over. She wasn’t alone anymore.
At long last, it was time to go home.
