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“With the coordinates.”
In her bag in the backseat. She twisted around to grab it and handed the card over. “What are you doing?” He put his window down and followed the other number with his thumb as he pressed numbers on the keypad. Until that moment, the other sequence had meant nothing. If his guess was wrong, they could get into real trouble. “Please don’t do that. Be careful, Danny. It could hurt you.”
“Zap me with a proton charge?” he jeered just as the pad flashed green.
The gate began to open. Stunned again, Tess wasn’t sure she wanted to see what was on the other side. Danny tucked the card in the visor and drove forward, keeping their speed low. He killed their headlights too. The moment became more ill-omened the farther they progressed.
Sitting up poker straight, Tess fumbled for Danny, laying a hand on his arm, hoping for comfort or to convey some if he needed it. The concrete ground held no vehicles. No signs of anyone. No obvious clues. The place wigged her out.
“We shouldn’t be here,” she whispered like someone might hear her. “I shouldn’t have brought you here.”
Before arriving, she’d wanted to know what was at the end of the trail. The letters confirmed that the danger was real, but she couldn’t have imagined it would look like this.
“It’s completely dead,” Danny said, slowing the truck to a stop halfway between the gate and the building. With both hands on the wheel, he leaned forward, craning to see the height of the building through the top of the windshield. “This is sorta cool, baby.”
The wonder and excitement in his tone confounded her. All her life, Tess had been running from something unknown. If someone or something with means like these was after them, her mother was right to run, right to hide.
“Why would my mom send me here?” she murmured to herself. “Why would she want me to come here? Alone?”
Anne couldn’t have known that Tess would meet Danny. If by some divine intervention she’d ever figured out the numbers, she could’ve found herself there. Alone. If it wasn’t for Danny, she would never have got so far. His support held her up, got her through the weak moments. The gate with the keypad was enough to put her off visiting the structure. Hell, just the sight of the place had done that.
Danny put the truck in park and grabbed the card as he opened his door to leap out. “Let’s find out.”
“No,” Tess called, unfastening her seatbelt to exit and follow him. “Danny, stop.”
He was on his way to a door, another solid piece of metal, with a keypad right there beside it. Despite her calling out, he didn’t slow down, and it was a struggle to catch up to him. When she did, he was just a few feet from the door.
Tess leaped in front of him, putting herself between him and the keypad. “I want to leave.”
“We will,” Danny said, trying to ease her aside. “Soon as we see what this place is.”
Shaking her head, she grabbed for his arm when he swerved around her. “Please, it’s dangerous,” she said. “Danny, I don’t like it.”
His fingers were almost on the numbers. Tess used her body to push them aside and blocked the keypad.
He exhaled. “Let’s see what happens.”
“This isn’t an adventure, okay? It’s my life. My mom spent her whole life trying to protect me from this. Whatever it is, we should leave it alone. Let’s do South America instead. I promise I won’t mention your dad. Not once.”
“Babe,” he said, propping an arm on the wall over her head. “Your mom left you these messages because she wanted you to come here. It’s only scary looking because it’s night and it’s quiet.”
Now that he’d pointed it out… No hint of a wind moved even a single branch. There were no sounds of wildlife, no birds. She couldn’t even hear Danny breathing.
He tried to push her aside, but Tess fought to stay in place. “Okay, well, if you’re right, if that’s what it is, how about we come back tomorrow? When it’s light?”
“Tomorrow?”
Tess smiled, doing her best to appear calm and relaxed. “Yes. Think about it, if there are people inside, they’ll be sleeping. Waking them up’s just going to piss them off. If they’re angry, they’ll scare me. Let’s let them sleep…” She laid her hands on his torso to get in close. “We’ll go back to the Beast and I’ll show you how grateful I am that you humored me.”
Though she could tell he was softening to her will, he wasn’t all the way there and held up the card. “I wanna know if the number works.”
“We can find out tomorrow… or maybe we can just knock.”
That didn’t convince him. He blinked slowly, showing he didn’t buy it. “We’re here and the keypad is right there. It’s been a month, Little Red. You don’t wanna know?”
Fear was stopping her. Anne wanted her to be there. Her mom provided the numbers on the card. There were so many uncertainties about what might come next. One thing Tess knew for sure: her mother wouldn’t endanger her.
She sighed. “Okay. Put in the number, we’ll see if it works.” She pointed a finger at him when he grinned. “But we’re not going inside. We just want to know if it works. We’ll come back tomorrow, in the daylight, if we decide we want to visit again.” Nodding, he held the card toward her. “Me?”
