West’s eyes cooled. “My son may have spoken out of turn.”
“But not incorrectly,” I pressed.
He didn’t answer. Another one of those tiny, calculated silences he did so well.
Everything in me went icy.
They weren’t just withholding. They were coordinating.
“Max is in the game,” I said slowly. “You know what that means. You know where that puts him. You know what it would do to me if I tried to follow.”
“Mackenzie,” West said, leaning forward slightly, voice softening into what I recognized as hisinterview mode, “our priority right now is your safety. You’ve been through significant trauma. Your perception of events may be?—”
“Don’t you dare.” My voice came out like broken glass. “Don’t you dare tell me I didn’t see what I saw just because it’s not convenient for your report.”
He sat back, studying me.
“I’m not your suspect,” I said. “It’s me. Mackenzie. I’ve grown up with you.”
Behind me, Jeremy shifted his weight. I could feel his eyes on the back of my neck.
“We are not giving up on Max,” West said at last.
“That’s another line,” I said.
“It’s the truth.”
My laugh came out thin and ugly. “You keep saying that word like it means something here.”
He folded his hands on the table, perfectly composed. “Whether you believe us or not, we’re working to dismantle the organization behind this and to recover everyone we can.”
“Everyone,” I echoed. “Not him.”
“Everyone,” he repeated.
But when he said it, his eyes slid just slightly away from mine.
Everyone was lying. Or if they weren’t, they were lying by omission, which felt worse.
Either way, they were never going to tell me what I needed to know.
Which meant, like always, I’d have to figure out on my own.
34
MAX
24 HOURS EARLIER
Aslight nibble from a rabbit on my fingers snapped me out of a deep sleep.
Or what felt like sleep.
I must have lost consciousness. Or blacked out? My brain wouldn’t land on a word that felt right.
The sun shone brightly through the trees. It was fucking bright. I squinted, shielding my eyes as I looked up. Had the sky always looked like that? It looked like someone had pulled a fake sky down over the real one.
Heat bounced off my skin in thick, sticky waves. I was soaked in sweat. Damn. I felt hungover. My fingers rustled through the leaves as I hurried to find my phone.
