As much comfort as the quiet snoring of Max and Beck gave me, I drifted off to sleep, wishing my stepbrother were here. And hating that I did. He’d know what to do, and I could use his kind of strength right now.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
LUCAS
Everyone had been silent since we left Ethan’s house.
Ben drove slowly through town, the van rumbling louder than I liked in the empty streets. Storefront windows reflected the headlights back at us, pale and hollow.
The large retail store on the corner had its doors propped wide open. The parking lot was filled with vehicles. Shopping carts cluttered the lot like abandoned skeletons. A few people were hauling televisions and other electronics into their cars.
What the hell did they think they were going to do with them?
“Looks like Black Friday,” Ben muttered. “What a bunch of dumbasses. If you were going to grab things, it should be medicine, food, and water. Not a fucking TV.”
“Maybe they wanted to stream The Walking Dead,” I muttered.
No one laughed.
Adrian sat in the passenger seat, his laptop glowing softly as his fingers moved across the keyboard with mechanical precision. He zoomed in and out on the map as if he could force it to give him the answer he wanted.
He’d been doing that every few minutes since we left Ethan’s house.
Ben glanced his way. “Still got her?”
Adrian didn’t answer right away.
He slowly nodded. “She’s nearby, roughly ten miles away, and hasn’t changed position for some time."
My stomach tightened.
Why I cared was beyond me. I think it was the memory of that snaggly-toothed little girl. I definitely didn’t give a damn about the vicious bitch she was now.
Or so I told myself.
Behind me, Ethan sat with his elbows on his knees, staring at the floor of the van. The kid hadn’t spoken since we left his house.
I couldn’t blame him.
Finding your mother dead and watching your father get his brains blown out would do that to you.
Across from him, Lila kept sneaking glances in his direction, as if she wanted to say something but clearly didn’t know where to start.
A week ago, she’d been making moon eyes at him in class. Now she was trying to keep him from falling apart.
Ben turned down a smaller road behind a row of houses.
“Ten miles,” he said. “We’ll have Taryn before dark.”
Adrian didn’t look convinced.
Out of nowhere, someone ran into the road.
“Jesus—” Ben slammed on the brakes.
The van’s tires smoked as Ben squealed to a stop, almost throwing Adrian and his computer through the front windshield.
A figure staggered into the headlights, waving both arms. “Stop!”
