The Lair

me exactly what happened.”

“Okay.” Another rasping, quivering breath. “Things went bad.” There was another pause and I could tell she was trying to figure out what parts of the story she should say aloud. What was important enough to push through and what could be left out. “He tranqed me. He was taking me somewhere. To someone, but he didn’t say who. Only that they wanted me alive.”

I felt a white-hot rush of anger blast over me. Anger hotter than a windstorm in the Texas summer. So strong it burned my skin and blurred my vision.

I had trusted Ely. With my life. With all of Base Camp. With Lily.

He had promised to keep her safe. He’d said he would guard her with his life.

And then he had tranqed my girl—my girl—so that he could deliver her to God only knew who.

“Where are you now? Are you safe? Did you get away from him?”

“I’m . . . yeah, sure. I’m safe.”

“I’m going to kill him.” I hadn’t even meant to say it aloud because I knew Lily would argue. Screw it. “I’m gonna fucking kill him.”

She made a sound that—over the sketchy connection of the satellite phone—almost sounded like a strangled laugh. “That might not be necessary.”

“Why?”

“Because I kind of kicked his ass and left him out in the middle of nowhere without a car.”

And that, that right there, was just one more reason I loved this girl.

Ely was as tough as they came. But my Lily, she was tougher. She never gave up. No matter how hopeless things seemed, no matter how helpless she might appear, she never just laid down and accepted that. She fought.

Despite everything, I found myself chuckling. “Yeah, you did.”

It sounded like maybe she was chuckling, too. The kind of desperate, frenetic laugh of someone very close to the edge.

“Carter, the thing is, I don’t know who he’s working for. I don’t know if it’s one of the Deans. Or Bob. Or who. I have no idea. But we have to assume the worst.”

“You think he gave away the location of Base Camp?”

“I don’t know. But if he did, then everyone is in danger. You have to get those kids out of there. You have to be ready. You could—”

“Let me worry about Base Camp,” I said. Then it occurred to me that her “Yeah, sure. I’m safe,” hadn’t been particularly reassuring. “Let’s get you home first. I mean, unless you guys are in Canada already. You should be there by now, right?”

“That’s the other thing.” Her voice caught. I could hear the tears in her throat, choking her. “McKenna didn’t—”

I cursed again. “Did Ely—”

“No.” Another long pause. “She went into labor. She bled out. There was nothing—”

I sagged against the side of the desk. It felt like my heart actually stop beating. Like it was being squeezed by all the grief and sorrow. McKenna. Gone.

Since losing Joe, McKenna had seemed fragile and worn, not quite of this world. But everyone had loved her. She was hope. The crazy, insane hope that somehow we were all going to make it.

“The baby?”

“Is fine. She’s here. She’s beautiful. But Carter, I can’t feed her. I can’t take care of her. I can’t—”

“Where are you? Wherever you are, I’m going to come and get you. You hunker down. You stay safe. I’m coming.”

“No. Carter, it’s okay. I have a plan.”

“What? What’s your plan?” And it had better involve staying safe and waiting for me to get there.

“Shh,” she murmured reassuringly. “It’s okay. I know what I’m doing. I’m going to find the nearest Farm and turn myself in. They take care of—”

“No! You stay where you are. I will come for you. I can leave here in five minutes. I can be there in—” Shit. She was most likely in Montana. Even if I took the fastest car, even if I drove through the night, it could be days before I got there. “You just stay low. Stay safe and keep her alive. I will come for you. I’m leaving right now. You just tell me where you are and I’m coming for you.”

“No, Carter. It’s—”

“Just tell me where you are.” I’d be walking out the door already but I was terrified of losing the phone signal.

“This is a good plan.”

“You cannot be serious!”

“I am. Listen, at a Farm, they’ll be able to feed Josie. They can keep her alive. They’ve got to be set up for this kind of thing, because some of the Breeders should be ready to give birth soon, right? So they have to be able to care for a baby. And as long as you know where she is, you could come get her. You could rescue her when she’s older.”

“And what about you? You’re eighteen. And you risked your life to get off of a Farm. You can’t—”

“No, I’ve thought about that. If I turn myself in to a new Farm, they won’t know how old I am. I can lie. And you . . .” I heard her swallowing. “You can come and get me. You saved me once. You can save me again.”

There was something in her voice that I didn’t trust. It took a second, but I figured it out. She suspected that Ely had planned on turning her over to Roberto. Roberto wouldn’t stop looking for her. Which meant she was planning on trading Josie’s safety for her own life. “Just tell me where you are.”

“Carter, I—”

“Where are you? Montana? Idaho? Somewhere in Canada? Where?”

“Canada?” She sounded baffled for a second. “No. I’m not in Canada. We changed our game plan. We headed for Mexico instead of Canada. I’m in Texas.”

And then, it hit me. Like a speeding train. Right in the chest. “You’re where?”

“In Texas. Some tiny town. Sweetwater, I think.”

“You’re in Texas?”

“Yeah.” Her words slowed to a trickle. “It seemed like a good idea. Because of the guns. And the cartels . . . and . . .”

My string of curses cut her off.

“I’m there, too.”

“You’re in Texas?”

“Yes.”

A long moment of silence, and then, “Oh.”

We were both in Texas. And frankly, there was no way in hell that we’d both ended up here by accident. “Tell me exactly why you’re in Texas because of the guns and the cartels?”

“Ely said—”

I cursed again.

She ignored me and kept talking. “That Canada had probably fallen. Their army wasn’t as well armed as ours, so they wouldn’t have been able to fight off the Ticks. He said he’d been all the way down to the wall and he thought the drug cartels had kept the Ticks from going farther south than that.”

I cursed some more. Even though I could see how perfectly logical that argument was.

“Why are you in Texas?” she asked.

“Because of Ely.” It seemed so obvious now, looking back, that he’d been driving us both here. . . . No, wait. Not both of us. Just her.

He’d said it during that first conversation he and I had had about the Farm in San Angelo. “Bring Lily down there. She can convince them to fight.” He hadn’t actually given a damn whether or not I came to Texas. He’d been angling for her all along.

In fact, after she’d agreed to leave Base Camp with him, he’d lost interest in our plan to go to San Angelo.