Page 113 of The Triangle

“Why?” he asks.

“Because. Because I didn’t know what the fuck you were gonna do.”

He stares at me with a blend of fury and what feels like respect. Then he looks down at my hand,

“That’s her?” he asks, pointing to the phone.

I look at the screen. It’s a really nice app. Very clean and simple. So Christine is, predictably, a green dot labeled Christine moving along a cartoon map. “Yeah, that’s her.”

“Where?”

I blow out a breath, turn around in a circle, trying to get my bearings, and then point into the woods. “That way. Whatever that way is.”

He stares at me. Still angry. Lots of questions. But there’s relief too. Good old Danny can always be counted on to be good old Danny.

And then he changes again. He’s a regular fucking chameleon tonight.

But it’s fear I see now.

For the first time in my life I know what Alec van den Berg looks like when he’s afraid of something.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” he says.

“Yeah,” I say. “Me neither. Let’s go.”

He takes a breath. Calms. Then says, “Yeah,” and starts off in the direction I pointed.

We can’t both be afraid at the same time. We have to take turns. And now that Alec is calmed down, his focus on what comes next… that’s when the fear creeps under my skin. That’s when I remember some words I told Christine a couple days ago. And they begin to repeat, over and over again, like a mantra.

They won’t kill you, Christine. They’ll rape you first. Torture you until you’re begging for death.

When I said it, it was a scare tactic. Get her ass moving. Get her thinking clearly. Get her somewhere other than that tinfoil apartment. I believed it, but I never believed it would happen. Not with me there to keep her safe. Not on my watch.

Yet here we are.

Lars.

I don’t know what Lars might do. I don’t know what’s going on with Alec and Lars. I’ve been gone too long. Too many things could’ve happened between then and now. All I know is that we were holding weapons on each other a few minutes ago. That Christine is with him, not me. That this feels like a setup from day one.

They set us up.

The blue inside me becomes a deep purple as I pick my way through the leftover weapons in Alec’s cache. And by the time we’re trucking off into the forest, both of us still shirtless and shoeless, like a couple of almost-Rambos or some shit, me staring at that little green dot on the app…

I’m red.

Nothing but red.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE - CHRISTINE

I’m trying to pull free from this guy’s grip on my arm, but he’s stronger than he looks. He also seems even more scared and confused than I probably should be. Which is odd. Theoretically, he’s the one in control. But then again, he is young. Maybe when I was his age I woulda looked that scared too.

Nah. I wouldn’t. I’m pretty sure I’ve never looked scared.

“Are you OK?” A voice from behind me. Coming up fast. A voice I know. Alec?

Not quite. But close.

I turn to see the person I know is called Lars, but about whom I don’t know much else. Bits and pieces pop into my brain. Fragments of conversations. Hints of a past that I maybe recognize. A Christmas tree and a young man with an angry expression. What do the images mean?