A flash of lightning illuminated Brian’s scowl. In the dark again, she still felt his heavy stare.
“You knew something, Amelia.”
Yes, she did, enough to know they needed to leave, enough that she could’ve done more, said more. Weighed down with shame, she slouched in her seat.
“There were people there who didn’t belong. Richard panicked when he saw them.”
Brian hesitated and, for a moment, nothing manifested on his parted lips.
“They didn’t just come in right off the bat killing everyone. I think they were looking for certain people.”
For me.Amelia studied the empty road. It offered no reassurance but unnerved with eerie exposure. Her stomach soured and hands wrung in a grip so tight her knuckles ached.
“Brian, I think I’m in trouble.”
The leather seat crackled as he fidgeted. “Trouble how?”
“Burt knew things he wasn’t supposed to, information about the Moriartys and the Velascos. War plans, apparently. It was in a folder. I saw it by accident.”
“Why would he have that?”
A question for the ages, Amelia shook her head. Another police car barreled past them in a blur of whirling lights.We need to leave.
“Who else knows?”
“No one. Burt made me swear not to tell anyone. I didn’t, but I don’t think that matters now. They already know I’ve seen it.”
“Who? The Velascos or Moriartys?”
“I don’t know. Probably both.”
Brian fixed his eyes on the rearview mirror as a downpour battered the car.
“The tall guy with the black hair. I know you know him. Who is he?”
“Emory Holt,” Amelia whispered and instantly understood the contempt her father put on his name. “He’s Chief of the Moriartys.”
“JesusfuckingChrist. What if…”
The thought hung unspoken like forbidden fruit neither would pluck. There were too many “what ifs” to ponder.
What if Emory found her? What if they planned to do to her what they did to Burt? What if it wasn’t the end?
That seemed certain. The events were connected in a fated tapestry and Amelia could follow the thread that warned it wasn’t a tragic one-off.
“We need to leave,” she said. “You can drop me off at home.”
Brian gaped at her. “Are you out of your fucking mind? I’m not doing that!”
“And I’m not putting you in danger! If they want me?—”
“Then they’ll find you exactly where they expect you to go. Something awful is going on. We both know that much. It’s not safe to go home.”
Amelia battled the instinct to argue. It was the watershed moment that read from the margins the thing they hadn’t yet said. Only the hunted hide. There was no going back.
“We should go,” Amelia said and glimpsed the lake waters below that churned in tandem with a restless sky. “We’ll get as far as we can until we’re safe and then reach out for help.”
“As long as we stay together, we’ll be fine.”
