And I did.
I hit the ground on my shoulder and rolled. My head swam.
Up on my feet.
Run, Aggie had said. I ran.
Lungs burning. Someone yelling. A kid yelling.
Just a kid.
Go. Go. Keep going.
I made it to Jefferson Street and turned left. I didn’t dare look over my shoulder. I was running from my mother. My mother who had been gone for six years and shown up out of nowhere. Who had shown up in my kitchen ten minutes before Aggie was dead. Shot by people ambushing the house. People Nick had fought and shot and killed.
Who were those men and woman dressed all in black like they were ready for combat? They couldn’t have been the Branch, otherwise they wouldn’t have attacked Nick, who my mother had said was working for the Branch.
The Branch.
Riley.
And then I realized how I knew that name. Where I knew that voice from.
In the woods.
The night Nick saved me.
Take care of it, the voice had said. It being me.
Riley was the Branch.
And my mother was a part of it.
Chloe picked me up within ten minutes, as promised. She handed me an iced coffee as soon as I slid in beside her.
“You sounded like you needed one,” she said as she pulled away from the curb.
I took a drink. Even though my stomach swam, my throat was raw, and my tongue was like sandpaper in my mouth. Something cold felt good.
Chloe eyed me. “So what happened? You feel like talking about it?”
I didn’t. I wasn’t even sure how to put it into words. Aggie was dead. My mom was back. And she was working for someone who’d ordered Nick to kill me. Unless… I’d been mistaken?
Nothing made sense. Maybe I’d overreacted. Maybe I had been safe with my mom.
“Not yet,” was what I told Chloe. “I just needed to get out of there.”
“Where was ‘there,’ exactly?”
“It was a friend of my mom’s.”
Chloe went silent for a moment as she turned a corner back toward town. “You never talk about your mom.”
“That’s because there hasn’t ever been anything to say.”
I took another sip of my coffee. The liquid ran cold down my throat.
“So anywhere you want to go?” Chloe asked. “Back home?”
My stomach churned. I couldn’t go back there ever again. It had been the only place where I’d ever felt safe after what had happened six years ago. Now it was painted with Aggie’s blood.
“No. Do you feel like just driving?”
“Sure. Whatever you want.” She glanced at me. “Drink some more coffee. You’ll feel better with some caffeine in your system.”
I took another long gulp. Then another, and set the cup in the holder. I curled into the seat and rested my head against the passenger-side window.
My vision thinned and grew fuzzy on the edges. I shot upright. I really was exhausted.
Another sip.
Chloe stopped for a red light, and the traffic passing through the intersection blurred.
My eyelids grew heavy and winked closed. I shook myself awake again.
“If you want to sleep, go ahead,” Chloe said. “I’ll wake you up in a bit.”
“Yeah, maybe I will.” I scrubbed at my eyes. Maybe when I woke, everything would be right again.
I slumped in the seat, propped my head in my hands, my elbow on the armrest.
“Thanks, Chloe,” I mumbled as I let my eyelids win over and slip shut.
“No need to thank me.” She reached over and patted my shoulder. “Get some rest.”
And then I was out.
33
NICK
MY CELL RANG.
“Who is it?” Anna asked.
“It’s Elizabeth.”
We all looked at each other as the phone continued to ring.
“Answer it,” Sam said.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Chloe.”
I let out a breath. “I thought you were Elizabeth.”
“She’s here. With me.”
“She is?” I started to pace and then thought better of it when a shot of pain ran up my side. “Is she okay?”
“Yeah. A little tired. She’s sleeping right now. But…” She trailed off, and I clutched the phone harder.
“But what?”
“She texted me, all hysterical. And then when I picked her up, she didn’t want to talk about it. Did something happen?”
I glanced at Sam, then Anna. Cas and Trev were silent on the couch.
“Can you meet me somewhere?” I asked. “I just want to see her. Make sure she’s okay.”
“What happened, Nick?” There was an edge of suspicion in her voice.
“Something… with her mom. She’s back.”
“Her mom is here? Where?”
“I’ll explain it all later. Where can I meet you?”
She ran off an address for a park in a residential area. I hadn’t been there yet, but I had an idea of how to get there.