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“I’m okay, Becca. Really.” He couldn’t take the sympathy. He felt so guilty about all of it, and sympathy added to the weight. He refrained from pulling away. “Just . . . sit. Eat. It’s fine.”
When she dropped back into a chair, he felt Gabriel watching him.
He was the only Merrick who hadn’t said a frigging word to Hunter since he’d walked into the hotel room.
Hunter didn’t really feel like getting into it with him, either.
But he met his eyes and held them.
Go ahead, he thought. Fuck with me. Right now. Do it.
Gabriel didn’t move.
“What’s the plan?” said Chris.
Hunter cleared his throat and quit the staring match. “The last thing Noah Dean said to me was that Calla is planning something for Monday. Something big. I have no idea where she’s hiding—and I can’t exactly look for her while Silver is out there, waiting to shoot me.”
“Monday is tomorrow,” said Michael.
Tomorrow? Hunter blinked. The days had all run together.
“What about her plans?” said Becca. “Any idea what this something big could be?”
“Kate said . . .” He had to take a breath. “She was looking on her phone. She said there were two tunnels leading in and out of Baltimore City. They go under the harbor. She thought maybe those could be a target. But they’re miles long—and I wouldn’t have the first clue how to protect something like that. Not to mention I wouldn’t even know where to start. I mean—”
“Why the tunnels?” said Michael.
“That’s the only thing I could get out of Noah. He said ‘tunnels. ’ I can’t imagine Calla hanging out in the sewers, and I couldn’t find anything about caves in Anne Arundel County—”
“There are tunnels under the school,” Michael said.
Gabriel snorted. “You mean the old bomb shelter? That’s a joke they play on freshmen. Like the swimming pool on the roof.”
“No, it’s not.”
“How do you know?”
Michael gave him a look. “Gee. I don’t know. How could I possibly know about tunnels in the ground—”
“What are they for?” Hunter interrupted.
“They lead to the boiler room,” said Michael. “And they run the full length of both schools, connecting under the auditorium. It’s pitch-black down there, full of pipes.”
“Water?” said Hunter.
o;Hunter, I’ve been missing you since the day your father died.”
He jerked his head up. “You couldn’t prove it by me.”
She blanched. It should have been satisfying. It wasn’t.
But then she recovered. “Will you sit and talk to me?”
He sat. He crossed his arms on the table and didn’t look at her. He felt weak now, for breaking down upon seeing her.
She put a hand on his arm. “That’s the first time I’ve seen you cry since your father died.”
He left her hand there. She had bracelets just like his, only hers were strung on ribbons and braided leather instead of twine. He might have made one of hers when he was little—he couldn’t remember.
