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“I tripped over something. A root, or—” He takes a careful step over the place where he stepped and looks down at it. “—or a grave.”
“Agrave?”
“A headstone.” He pulls a plant to the side—little round leaves, not a tree—and thereisa headstone.
Asmallone.
“Jameson,” I whisper.
He meets my eyes with a careful blank expression, and lets go of the plants. They pop back into place, hiding what looks a lot like a child-sized gravestone.
Then he comes back to the tree, closes his eyes, and takes several deep breaths. After the last one, he reaches for my hand.
We’re once again surrounded by silence.
“Okay,” Jameson says under his breath.
He moves a branch out of his way and steps out onto the path.
The beam from a flashlight hits him in the face, and that’s all I have a chance to see before he shoves me backward into the clearing.
“Woah,” Jameson says. “Is there—”
“You’re trespassing on private property,” a voice answers, loud and rough. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“No problem. Can you point me toward the road?”
“Hey,” the voice snaps. “No sudden fucking movements.”
“I didn’t—”
There’s more yelling, and Jameson sayingguys, guys, I’m not doing anythingand then his voice gets a little farther away. I’m pressed up against the tree, and if—
“You’re resisting arrest,” one of the voices—a different one—barks. “We’re authorized to use lethal force if you become—”
The sound of a fist hitting a face is pretty unmistakable.
It happens twice.
It’s loud, even in the eerie, not-right silence, and I feel it like they hit me and not Jameson.
“—thefuck,” he says. “What the—”
“Where is she?” The third voice is the scariest one. “The redhead. We know she’s here with you.”
“Oh, is that what this is about?”
They hit him again, and I startle in spite of myself.
What do Ido?
“The judge wants a word with his granddaughter.”
“That’s too fucking bad.” It sounds like Jameson spits. “Because I’m not telling you anything about my fiancée.”
What happens next sounds like a free-for-all, a nightmare, and I have to do something. I can stop it if I just walk onto the path and tell them I’m right here, and this is all a huge misunderstanding, and they can let Jameson go.
I take one step back from the tree and run into something.
