AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Do you?” His voice stayed deadly soft.
She inhaled, pushing out her natural impulse to fight back, and tried to regain her control. Roger could be in trouble, and having Holt there might not be a terrible thing, now that he was already standing right there. “I’ll explain if you calm down.”
“You will explain even if I start shouting.”
Holt wasn’t exactly making it easy to take the high road. She did it anyway. “Roger hasn’t checked in.”
Holt didn’t say anything for a second. Just stared at her while the deep frown lines on his face eased. Not much but a bit. “I need more details.”
She toyed with the idea of telling him only enough to clue him in but not enough to overshare about Roger. She abandoned the idea as soon as she thought it. This wasn’t the time. Knowing too much might endanger Roger’s cover, but Holt possessed a protection power she didn’t and she had to trust he would step up.
She stuck to the facts and recited them as if reading from a file. “Roger Wallace, a former resident at New Foundations. He lives out here. We have a check-in schedule and he missed it.”
“How many times?”
She didn’t pretend to misunderstand. Holt was collecting details and she appreciated the need. “Two.”
“Has it ever happened before?”
Roger worked with her. He provided the information she needed to help others. He had trouble adjusting, but he could walk former members through the necessary life skills and he had volunteered to do that.
That meant she stayed in constant contact with Roger. Three days without a word was two days too long. They had a mandatory check-in time every other day. He’d never missed one. “No.”
Holt’s arms finally dropped to his sides. “We’ll get back to the part about how you know him and who he is to you later.”
That was exactly what she didn’t want. “I don’t think—”
“But right now we’re going to check on him.” Holt walked past her.
She grabbed his arm and dragged him to a halt. “Stop.”
“Lindsey, do not test me. I am trying not to unleash on you for running out without telling me.” He didn’t pull out of her hold. His jaw had also unclenched.
She took that all as a good sign. “You would have insisted I not come here.”
“Right.” He jerked as if he wanted to take off again.
“Holt, stop.” The man’s stubborn nature made her head pound. “You are walking into danger.”
“You’re saying he’ll shoot if he sees me?” Holt didn’t seem all that concerned about the possibility.
From only a few days with him, she guessed he thought he could take on a bullet and win. Sometimes she wondered. The guy did possess this amazing sense of confidence. She watched him and felt safe and secure.
But there were explosives rigged and planted along the route to the house. She could look up and see it ahead, but getting there required twists and turns. Taking Roger out of the camp didn’t change his us-against-them mind-set. “If you even get that far. He’s got a system of traps out here.”
“Then we’re leaving.” The news didn’t faze him at all. He listened, nodded and reevaluated. “It’s that simple.”
She loved that about him. She threw roadblock after roadblock at him and he didn’t shake. She’d never known a man like him. Her father had been weak and easy to turn. He’d heard about New Foundations and viewed it as some Nirvana. A place they could go and be safe.
“I know where the explosives are.” She pointed to random spots on the ground. But they were only random if you didn’t know the pattern. She did.
“We still need to go.”
The words came out strong and sure, but a strange emotion moved over his face. She guessed the rescuer inside him battled with the guy who got the job done. She tried to make the fight a bit easier. “First, I’m attacked and now Roger missed a check-in.”
Holt studied her. “You think he’s in trouble.”
“I know he is.”
He nodded and stepped in closer. “Tell me about the booby traps.”
She turned over his hand and traced a pattern on his palm. “The explosives are buried in an ‘x’ with a set of devices in the middle of the drive in a line from that tree.” She pointed at a strange bush with red-brown leaves planted among the thick growth. A shock of color among all that green.
“Got it.”
She knew he would, so she told him all of it. “There are trip wires and I don’t know what else throughout the woods. If we stick to the path and use clues, mainly those posts, we’ll be fine.”
