The Lair

seen before.

He was shorter than Carter, but broad through the chest, like a pit bull. He had long, dark hair and enough tattoos to have had his own reality TV show in the Before. Okay, so she didn’t really know how many tattoos he had. She was just extrapolating based on the fact that he had tatts peeking past each sleeve cuff and his collar. One sprawled up his neck. Mi Familia. This guy had “Latino badass” written all over him. Literally.

The desk had been moved back to the center of the room and had a map of the U.S. spread out across the surface with bobbleheads holding down the corners. Both of the guys looked up when she walked in. Carter smiled when he saw her, but there was something invasive about the way this new guy sized her up. It was a look that simultaneously assessed her physical assets and dismissed her as useless.

That kind of good ol’ boy bullshit annoyed the crap out of her, so she walked up to him and stuck out her hand. “You must be Ely.”

His eyebrows inched up his forehead then slowly he smiled as he gave her another once-over. “I guess my reputation precedes me.”

“Only forty-three Elites made it out of the Academy. I know forty-two of them already, so . . .” She thrust her hand forward again. “You’re Ely, and I’m Lily Price.”

He had already started reaching for her hand, but when he heard her name, he froze. “Lily?” He sent a look to Carter, before finally taking her hand in his. “Lily. You’re Carter’s Lily.”

She firmed up her handshake a little. “Actually I’m my Lily.”

Ely chuckled. “Yeah, you are.”

Even Carter laughed a little and the sound made something inside of her quiver with longing. God, it had been so long since she’d heard him laugh. Only then did she notice that he had a nasty-looking black eye forming and that the skin on his cheekbone was spilt open. The injury didn’t look fresh, but she was sure it hadn’t been there the day before when they’d left Armadales’ house. Ely had a similar collection of scrapes. His lip was busted open. And those were just the wounds she could see. Obviously they’d beaten the crap out of each other sometime in the past twenty-four hours.

Funny, everything in the world had changed. The friggin’ apocalypse had happened and she still didn’t get guys. Go figure. If they had so much extra fighting energy, did they not have enough targets?

Carter gave her a nod and asked, “What’s up?” She walked over to the desk but Carter rounded it quickly. “You need something?”

“Yeah, you got a second?” She tried to glance around him, but again he angled himself between her and the map. Which was definitely strange. Why the sudden secrecy?

“Sure.” He took her arm and started steering her out the door.

He led her a few steps down the empty hall before turning toward her. “What do you need?”

She sucked in a deep breath and just spat it out. “I need you to talk to McKenna. She’s freaked out about the Tick attack and about having the baby here. She’s started talking about leaving. Trying to drive up to Canada. But she trusts you. If you tell her she can’t go, she’ll listen to you.”

“Of course she can’t go,” he said stiffly, still not really looking at her.

He seemed distracted—which was fine, she didn’t feel like she had to be the center of his universe. But there was a distant, dismissive quality to his voice that she’d never heard before and it tore at her heart.

So this was it. This was him distancing himself from her. This was going to be brutal. This was going to hurt. Not just now, but every day, it was going to hurt.

Half to herself she muttered aloud, “Maybe I should just go with her. Solve all our problems.”

Carter’s gaze cut to her. “What was that?”

She blinked. “What?”

“You’re thinking about going with her?”

“Well, no. Not seriously.” Until now. Maybe leaving now would be better than this. “I can’t let her go alone. I can’t force her to stay here. And what if she’s right? What if we could find help in Canada? Maybe they have no idea there are still kids in the United States who need their help.”

Carter looked at her like he couldn’t decide if she was a genius or a crazy woman. “You can’t be serious. You can’t just take off for Canada on your own, when—” He broke off and spun away from her to plow his hand through his hair. “It’s out of the question.”

“What am I supposed to do? Base Camp is a sanctuary, not a prison. I can’t lock her in the RV and force her to stay. And I can’t let her go by herself.”

Carter paced the hall, clearly frustrated. Which was no different than how she felt.

She had wanted his help convincing McKenna not to go, and now—inexplicably—she was arguing to leave with McKenna. How had that happened?

“Forget it,” she said, turning to leave.

Except Ely was there in the hall, arms crossed over his chest, listening to their argument.

“She’s right.”

“What?” Both Carter and Lily asked at the same time.

“No one knows for sure if Canada is there, but it couldn’t hurt to send them to check it out.”

Carter’s expression darkened. “No way.” He took a menacing step closer to Ely. “There is no way in hell I’m sending two girls, unprotected and alone, to drive up to Canada just to ‘check it out.’”

Ely held up his hands in a gesture of mock surrender. “Just saying. It’s a short trip. Canada’s, what, a two- day drive from here? They’d be gone, what? Four or five days. Tops.”

“Did you miss the part where I said I wasn’t sending two girls alone?”

“If you don’t want them to go alone, no worries, I’ll go with them.”

“You?”

Ely flashed a smile that was more arrogance than charm. “Hey, you could do worse than me. I’m the best there is.”

She looked at Carter, expecting him to slap down Ely’s offer, but instead, he was looking from Ely to her, his expression calculating.

She held out her palm to Ely. “Give us a minute, okay?” She didn’t wait for him to answer, but closed the distance between her and Carter and leaned in to whisper, “Is this what you really want? You want me to go with Ely?”

Carter looked at her. For the first time today, she felt like he was seeing her. Really seeing her. His expression softened and she felt that familiar pull. That aching yearning that she’d always felt around him.

“He’d keep you safe,” he said simply.

“That’s not what I’m asking.”

How could he do this? How could he even think about sending her away?

His hand twitched, like maybe he was about to reach for her, but then he dropped it back to his side.

“McKenna isn’t safe here. And you’re right, we can’t make her stay. How do you think people will react if she bolts?”

Lily hadn’t thought of that yet. If McKenna made a run for it, other people would panic, too. They’d all want to go. It all came back to that house of cards. Yesterday was the earthquake that shook the foundation. McKenna bolting would be the tornado that knocked down the remains.

He dipped his head and kept talking, his voice low pitched and fervent. “But if you go with her, if Ely goes, if it really looks like a scouting mission, then it’s better, right?”

“I don’t know. Maybe,” she answered honestly. She couldn’t even think through this logically, because her mind was reeling and her emotions were raw. Carter was her protector. Her anchor. And now he was getting rid of her.

“You could go and be back in just a few days. If you find sanctuary in Canada, you could just stay there. Ely would come back for the rest of us.” Carter sent a look down the hall to Ely. “He’ll keep you safe. He’s the best of the best.”

“Do you trust him?”

Carter looked across the room at where Ely leaned insolently against the wall. “I do. I fought beside him at the school. He’s tough and he’s strong. The fact that he’s lived on his own this long means he knows what he’s