“Okay. Let’s keep looking for them and get rid of as many as we can. We have to assume whoever is doing this is watching every move and listening to us too.” Ana looked around. They needed to act, not sit around and give up. Anything would be better than that. “We can light a signal fire in the pool. If we throw on damp wood and leaves, it’ll smoke. We can use a blanket or towel and send smoke signals. And we need to think. If we can figure out who’s doing this to us, we might be able to find a way to stop them.”
“She’s right,” Ellis said, stepping forward and somehow placing himself between Ana and the others. He was taking charge. “We split up. One team to disable the recording devices. One on the smoke signal. The others can break the locks on those three outbuildings—there were some pliers in the pile of junk Caden and Benny collected. We’ve searched every other corner of this fucking motel. We need to get inside and see if there’s anything that we can use to get the fuck out of here.” He looked at Ana. “And while you’re at it, start thinking. I want each ofyou to come up with a list of possible suspects. Who knew you were coming? Who might want to hurt you? Anyone you can think of. We need to know who we’re dealing with here.”
“Wait, maybe those two cowboys are behind this?” Jade said, pushing herself up from a giant pile of pillows. Jax and Jade had commandeered the entire bed on arrival.
Ellis shook his head. “They were getting instructions from whoever was on the other end of that radio. That’s the person we need to find. That’s the one who’s doing this to us.”
Ana nodded, racking her brains for anything that might help.
“We can build a bomb shelter,” she said, thinking as she spoke. “If we collect as many old mattresses and pillows as we can, we can pile them up somewhere, just in case the timer runs out and we need to hide.”
“Too risky.” Ellis shut her down. “You saw the shed explode. We’ve been warned. The whole motel will blow up if we don’t play the game. A pile of old blankets won’t protect against that. Face it, if this place blows, we all die. Anyone got any serious suggestions?” He turned away from her. Ana couldn’t help feeling she was being put firmly in her place.
“We’ll search for the cameras and bugs and stuff,” Jade offered, nudging Jax. He nodded and reached over to the bedside table, where he’d left his phone charging—always ready for action.
“I’ll take the fire,” Raya said, pulling her Zippo from her pocket and flicking it.
“Alex, Caden—why don’t you take the outbuildings?” It was phrased as an order. He checked his phone. “Okay, we’ve got forty-plus minutes left. We’ll meet back on the line, near the road sign, twenty minutes before the hour is up. That leaves about twenty minutes to figure out how to get the fuck out of here. Let’s go, people!”
Ana was shut out. Her punishment for daring to threaten Ellis’s rule.
“I’m going to build a bomb shelter.” Ana said it quietly.
There was a long silence. Ellis turned his cold eyes on her, tilting his head to look down.
“We discussed that. It wouldn’t work. I told you…”
“Youdiscussed it. I disagree.” Ana had no idea where it was coming from. She didn’t have a confrontational bone in her body. But something about the stress of the situation was pushing her into the line of fire.
Ana knew full well what Ellis was thinking. He’d suggested meeting on the line for a reason. The odds of them finding something that would save them were slim, to say the least. Ellis wasn’t going to take any chances. One of them would be crossing the line before the hour was up, whether by choice or otherwise, and it wasn’t going to be Ellis.
“I told you that a shelter wouldn’t work,” Ellis said, his voice tight with barely contained frustration. “We all saw the explosion. We wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Unless you build it somewhere that’s already been detonated.” Ana turned to the others. “Think about it. The explosives were planted before we arrived. If we wait on a spot that’s already been set off, we should be safe.”
She looked around. A few of them were nodding.
“That’s ridiculous. If we sit on the spot where the shed used to be, we’ll be sitting ducks. It’s completely exposed, there’s no shelter. And assuming we miraculously survive the explosion, we’ll get shot—picked off one by one. It can’t work,” Ellis protested. He was not liking this one bit.
“I wasn’t talking about the shed,” Ana said. “We can make a shelter in the bus.”
It made perfect sense. The shell of the bus was a metal core. Theycould pull out the remaining seats and build a decent bomb shelter. It would be hot and tight, but it just might work.
“I’ll help,” Alex said quickly. “It’s a great idea.”
“Yeah, I’ll help too,” Caden mumbled.
Ellis looked like he’d been slapped. Outmanned. Outgunned. He looked from Ana to Caden, and finally Alex; his eyes narrowed.
“All right, fine. I’m not going to waste any more of our precious time arguing about it. Do whatever the fuck you want. We’ll meet by the bus, twenty minutes before the hour is up. Let’s go!”
Ana smiled, relieved that the moment was over. The confrontation had ended. They had a plan. She could duck back out of the spotlight and get on with doing what she was best at—watching and thinking.
With a little shuffling around, they all got into their teams and tentatively opened the door. The bright light was blinding. Ana squinted through half-closed eyelids as she stepped into the hot sun. Jax and Jade headed off one way, Raya the other. Caden lolled off by himself, on a hunt for things to pad the bus shelter.
As Alex stepped out, Ellis caught his arm.
“Things are going to get nasty around here really fucking fast. You might want to remember who your friends are, Cabrera,” he said quietly.
