By the time he reached the rail yard it was close to two—no word from Crusher that Cassie had called, nothing from Sarge or Rook either.
Parking his truck half on the walkway, Nash jumped out and headed for the same gap in the fence he and Snake had slipped through last time—a sagging stretch of chain-link peeled back just enough to crawl through.
Only, as he rounded the corner, he saw the car—Cassie’s little rental sat just off the road beside the gap in the fence.
Nash broke into a run, reaching it in seconds and grabbing the driver’s handle first, then the passenger’s, trying each door in quick succession and finding them all locked.Up close the car looked fine—nothing smashed, no broken glass, no obvious sign of a struggle—just sitting there in the dark with the hood cold beneath his palm like it hadn’t been turned on all goddamn day.
Straightening, his eyes swept the dark stretch of yard beyond the fence.Even in daylight it wasn’t a place most folks wanted to linger, but at night it felt especially hollow, the blackness broken only by the glow of a burn barrel and the distant rumble of a train somewhere down the valley.
“Cassie?”he shouted.“Cassie goddamn Berry!”
…nothing.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“C’mon,Cassie!”Connorshoutedover his shoulder.“Keep up!”
Barefoot, jeans rolled to his knees, he raced ahead, darting between trees with ease.
Cassie ran after him, laughing as she chased him through the woods.It was just after dinner, the last of the sunlight slanting gold through the leaves.
Up ahead, Connor vaulted over a fallen log, and Cassie tried to do the same—
not quite lifting her foot in time.
One second she was running, the next the ground was rushing up to meet her.Her hands shot out too late—her forehead cracking against the ground with a sharp, blinding jolt.
“C’mon, Cas,” she heard Connor say, his voice sounding far away and weird.“Open your eyes.”
“Cas,” he said again, his hand cool against her cheek.“Look at me.”
His voice sharpened, panic creeping in.“C’mon, kid—open your eyes.”
He shook her shoulder.“Hey—wake up.”
Grabbing her, he shook both her arms.“Wake up, Cassie—you hear me?”
“Wake the fuck up!”
Cassie’s eyes snapped open.
Pain bursting behind them.
Her head throbbed so violently she had to squeeze them shut, her stomach lurching as nausea surged through her.Even so, the world kept tilting beneath her, like the ground itself was rolling.For a long moment she lay there breathing through her mouth, trying not to throw up, though the smell did little to help—damp earth and mold, sour and stale all at once.
When she finally forced her eyes open again, she found her surroundings dim and dull, the kind of underground gloom that swallowed everything beyond a few feet.A thin shaft of daylight cut in from somewhere high above her head, slanting across the…dirt floor?
Where the hell—
Her vision swam as she tried turning her head, the movement sending another sharp pain pulsing through her skull.
She tried to reach for her head—
—only to feel her arm jerk short.
Her breath caught.Her pulse kicked hard, climbing fast.Her wrists were bound together with white plastic zip ties, cinched so tightly her fingers tingled.Her ankles—
She shifted to test them and the world tipped violently, nausea roaring back as her legs dragged uselessly against each other.Zip ties bit into her ankles hard enough that she knew she couldn’t stand.
