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There was no way to know if the guy trying to pass my parents was drunk. The vehicles caught fire and burned for hours before anyone noticed and called 911. They identified my parents from dental records.
Terra never said a word. No one did. Maybe I would have pieced things together, if I’d read the accident reports, done some digging.
But I didn’t want to know anything. One moment, my parents were alive. The next, they were gone.
I shut down. Shut off the world.
“That’s a dangerous road,” I say.
Then I find some other part of the room to be in.
* * *
I pace by one of the grimy windows, thinking things through. All I have to do is make everything on the flash drive public. Once that’s done, we’re home safe.
Just one problem: We’re stuck in a big warehouse full of massive statues and no Wi-Fi. There’s no Internet of any kind.
Our phones all have connections, of course, but I have no way to get the files from the flash drive to the phone. I need a computer. A somewhat old-fashioned one, in fact, so that I can plug into a USB, then upload the files.
Damn.
I’m going to need a public library or a FedEx office or something. But it’s 4:30 in the morning.
Nothing to do but sleep.
I’m weary. The adrenaline’s worn off. I still feel bruised and battered, although I’m much better off than I should be. Poor Aislin’s probably still feeling a lot worse.
“I guess we should try to sleep,” I say.
There’s a sagging couch, a cot, and a chair in one corner. A TV, too. I switch it on, but while someone is paying the electricity bill, no one has paid cable. I fiddle around a bit and get the local broadcast channels. There’s nothing on, but the cold light is comforting, somehow.
“I’ve got the chair,” Aislin says. “And I also have the couch. You
two will have to share the cot. Oh, and I’m a very heavy sleeper. You guys could make all kinds of noise and I wouldn’t even notice.”
“Cute,” Eve says. “I’ll take the chair. I’m the smallest.”
I stretch out on the couch. A couple of hours ago I was kissing Eve. I was sure I was madly in love with her.
I am madly in love with her.
But. But something’s changed. I’m here in the studio of the man who killed my parents. Eve’s father. Terra Spiker’s husband.
Terra, who’s done horrible things. To Eve, to me, to a whole lot of others.
There’s too much history. There are way too many complications.
What did I think was going to happen after I revealed the truth? This isn’t exactly a happily-ever-after kind of setup.
“I can’t sleep,” Eve says softly. I’m not sure if she’s talking to Aislin or to me. To anyone. “I keep seeing … the girl.”
No one asks who she means. We know.
“I wish you’d never shown me,” Eve says, and now I’m sure she’s talking to me.
I sit up on my elbows. “So you could live in blissful ignorance?” I ask. “I did you a favor, Eve.”
“A favor?”
