The tone startled her so much she stopped moving.
“You move we both die,” he said, “I’m not kidding around.”
For some reason she believed him, so stayed still while he took her inside and put her down on her feet. The place was a dump, with ratty overstuffed chairs, a kitchen-style table completely covered in bullets, casings, gunpowder, reloadingequipment, and other stuff she couldn’t have named. There were random tools everywhere she looked.
“This one of the places you go with your group?” she asked.
He pushed her into one of the chairs, and she was sure there were creatures of some kind nesting in it. Then he walked away. As soon as he did, she got up and lunged for the door. She had hold of its rope handle when he came up, bent low, and grabbed her by her ankle. He yanked her leg right out from under her. She fell face down on the floor and he dragged her back to the chair, bending to pick up a shackle attached to a bolted-down chain.
She panicked. “No. No. No.” She kicked with her other foot but he acted like he didn’t even feel it and snapped the metal band around her ankle, though she fought. When the lock snapped, she kicked him right in the face and felt his nose crack under her heel. Blood exploded from his nose, and he staggered backward and fell on the floor.
She scrambled to her feet, grabbed the chain attached to her shackle, and yanked hard. It didn’t budge, so she started working on the lock, but that was no good either.
Earl got up, hand to his bleeding nose. He walked away like he was no longer worried she might escape, and when he came back, he had a wet rag on his nose and a thick folder in his other hand.
“Here,” he said, and he dropped the folder onto the little table beside the probably rodent-infested chair. “Read it. The whole thing. Then you can go.”
She blinked in shock. “That’s all you want? For me to read this?”
“Once you do, you’ll change your mind. So yeah, that’s all I want.”
“You shot Wolf?—”
“I did not!”
“—and kidnapped me just to make me read this?” she said. “Earl, you’re not okay right now. You need help.”
“What I need is for you to read the manifesto.”
She blinked at the word, and realized he was further gone than she’d even suspected.
“Read it!”
“Okay, okay.” She kicked the chair twice, hoping to scare out any residents, sat down, and picked up the folder.
Wolf
As the avalanche of boulders descended on Wolf, something else hit him first. The big guy, Ethan Brand, in a kind of flying leap, took him out of the path of those boulders and onto the ground, where he landed on top of him. It hurt like hell.
Ethan got up as the final few rocks fell behind him, forming a neat pile where Wolf had been standing. From amid a cloud of deep brown dust, his cousin reached down a hand. Wolf clasped hold and was pulled to his feet.
“Thanks.”
“De nada,” Ethan said. You okay?”
Wolf put a hand on the front of his bandaged shoulder. From beneath the shirt and bandages, fresh blood warmed his hand. “I’m good.” Then he looked around as the others joined them.
“We’ll have to watch for booby traps from here on,” Ethan said.
Willow came and clapped Wolf’s uninjured shoulder. “That means we’re close.”
“Yeah, but where are they?” Maria asked, skimming the area.
“I’d say they went that-away,” Drew all but sang, and when Wolf followed where she was pointing, he saw the dark shadow between two boulders and realized it was a cave.
“Let’s go.” He headed for the entrance
“Slowly,” Willow said. “Watch for booby traps.”
