“Ask me who then.”
“Unless you’re asking me to interfere, I should think the less I know the better.”
“You’re not fun when you act all stern.” She gave him an impish grin. “Does Nadine like it when you boss her around? I bet she does. That girl screams daddy issues.”
“Don’t you have someone else on the rota to emasculate with your crude psychoanalyses?”
“I thought you didn’t want to know where I was going,” Odessa said sweetly.
Cal made an aggravated noise, warding her off like he was banishing a demon. Odessa flipped him off before letting herself out the door, a fresh spring in her step.
Shaking his head, he looked out at the black sky beyond those pitted glass windows, wondering if he could bring himself to do what needed to be done.
C H A P T E R
N I N E
the dark trembled
She was going to the mines—just like he’d known she would. She was loyal to her sister, so determined for the truth that she would walk blindly into the woods, ready to meet the wolf. She hadn’t lived under Ravensgate’s shadow long enough for it to poison her heart. But where she was going now, none of her wistful idealism would save her.
Valor didn’t help you when it came from beyond the grave.
Cal turned from the window. He’d asked Rael if he was ready twenty minutes ago and was relieved when the response was a vague yes because God only knew he’d warned his family enough about keeping things off the record. No trophies. No fucking paper trails. If they had gotten rid of that fucking green book from the beginning, like he’d suggested, they wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place and Noelle might still be alive—
Don’t think about that, he instructed himself.Let dead sparrows lie.
He still had a lot of work to do. More of it was piling up even now. Rael’s message was sandwiched on both ends with email chains from clients and senior lawyers at the firm. He could respond to them later, after he was finished. It would be, he thought ironically, more festive.
Rael was waiting at the mine entrance in a loose-fitting chambray shirt, hands tucked into the pockets of his Levi’s like a good old-fashioned country boy. Cal supposed he cut the same figure in his white T-shirt and faded jeans. It was calledaggressive mimicry in nature, when the predators hobnobbed with the prey.
“You sure about this?” Rael didn’t beat around the bush. “She seems like the jumpy type. I could probably get her to back down with the threat of legal action and a few harsh words.”
“She doesn’t need harsh words. I’ve tried urging her to caution but that just makes her dig her heels in and spit. It’s remarkable,” he said. “She’s afraid of everything but what she needs to be.”
Rael nodded, though it wasn’t clear which statement he was agreeing to. “If you want to scare her, hunting her through the mine ought to do the trick. Not even the locals go near it.”
They both glanced at the gaping stone orifice. The main tunnel had been closed before Cal was born but he’d heard stories about the mine’s toxicity and the effects it had had on the population. For years, the miners had toiled in those poorly ventilated tunnels, inhaling toxic dust. Eventually, due to a variety of physical and neurological conditions, the EPA had come in and had the place stabilized, closing off the deeper tunnels to keep out teens and vagrants.
Dottie still had her hands full keeping out would-be trespassers, whether it was urban explorers looking for a cheap thrill to film or locals sneaking off to fuck without being seen.
He had been one of those, once,
Cal wrenched the board blocking off the tunnel free, straining with the effort. He had broad shoulders but there would be just enough space for him to squeeze through if he twisted a little.
“You wait outside,” he ordered Rael. “In case she decides to run.”
“Yes,sir,” Rael said, in an eerie approximation of his butler.
Nadine appeared promptly at 9am, just barely visible through the crack in the stone. She was wearing capri pants and a blouse, looking more like she was showing up for a job interview than confronting a secret witness. There was an uneasiness on her face as she surveyed her surroundings, her feet still turned towards the exit.
“Nadine,” he said.
She stiffened, swinging back around towards the tunnel. He switched on his phone’s flashlight, masking the glow of the screen as he texted Rael:She’s here. Don’t let her get away.
“Is someone there?” she asked. “In the tunnels?”
Her voice quavered. She took a half-step towards the opening, gauging its distance and size. The same mental calculus played out on her face in real time whenever he helped himself to more of her liberties than she thought she wanted. Assessing risk versus reward.
