Cadia was saying something about not having any package for Navarro. Joe’s lips were pursed, but he nodded. He seemed to be about to turn to go. No! They couldn’t do that, just leave without even stepping inside. They had to find Devin and Petey.
Flix squirmed free of Joe’s death grip and lurched forward.
Cadia caught him in the chest and pushed him upright.
“Sorry, miss, uh, Cadia.” Flix let his eyes droop, and hoped Joe was the one who’d keep his mouth shut. “I’m so tired. I was up all night, and I had nightmares when I tried to sleep today.” He whispered, “All those bodies.”
He was gathered into Cadia’s arms. She pushed his cheek down to her warm, earthy-smelling shoulder and patted his head roughly. “You poor young ’un. I s’pose that ratchety old doctor won’t give you nothing for to sleep?”
Flix stuck out his lower lip and shook his head. “He says I need to grow on up.”
Joe huffed. “Come on, Flix, you’re being —”
“You shush on up there, pretty boy. Ain’t got no soul, you white devil.” Cadia patted Flix’s head again so hard he’d need medical attention for a concussion. “It’s all right little man. Miss Cadia’ll fix you right on up. Dumb doctors don’t know shit about the good drugs anyway.” She turned and opened the door of the greenhouse, then ushered Flix inside. When Joe tried to follow, she pushed his chest and sent him back a few paces. “Stay out.”
Joe made eye contact, and from behind Cadia’s back, Flix flashed him a thumbs-up and mouthed, “Trust me.”
Joe rolled his eyes. “Fine, little brother. But I’m staying right here and not leaving until you come out.”
Cadia slammed the door in Joe’s face. “Hmph. Bratty, horn-pricked sissy-phus. He really your brother?”
“Me’n my twin, Marcus — he’s the one with the hurt foot — we’re a few years younger.”
Cadia rattled on about Joe’s failings and his appearance as she guided Flix back into the depths of the greenhouse. Everything seemed perfectly normal. Nothing out of place. No Sons, except the old lady. Definitely no Devin and Petey. Wait. No one was in here. At all. Just him and Cadia. He’d only been here a handful of times before, picking up supplies for Navarro — which was how he knew Cadia grew sleeping herbs — but there’d always been workers. Where were they all now?
He didn’t see much point in playing coy. “Miss Cadia, where is everybody?”
Cadia was over along a far wall, snipping bright green leaves with a teeny-tiny pair of scissors. Had the light changed, or did she grow a shade paler?
“Everyone’s done tuckered, sugar. Here.” She marched back to him and thrust the clippings into his hand. “Best head on out to your brother now.”
Flix thanked her and had to keep himself from running back outside. As soon as he opened the greenhouse door, Joe was on him, his hands squeezing Flix’s arms and shoulders. He seemed to be checking to make sure Flix was still solid.
“You okay?” Joe’s voice came out low and gruff.
Flix regretted what he’d said about Joe being a robot. “I’m fine. I’ll tell you as we walk back to the house.”
It didn’t take long. Flix felt like he’d learned a lot, but when it came down to it, he didn’t have much to say.
Joe didn’t complain, though. He only listened and nodded. “And Cadia clearly didn’t want me going in. She’s hiding something.”
“I know, but it’s not like you could stow a guy as immense as Devin in a seed sack, and the whole greenhouse is only that one big room.”
Joe stopped abruptly. “Where do they store the vegetables?”
“They eat them.”
“But they have to have some excess to store up for lean times.”
Flix turned in a circle, surveying the town, the horrible little shacks stretching out in every direction, except where the bombs had blown them to bits. Nothing in this town was really made for storing food. “They’d have to have a root cellar. My grandma told me about them, but there’s no place here that has a basement or anything.”
Joe’s eyes lit up, and he stepped in closer. “Underground? Oh, God, Flix, I know where they are.”
FOURTEEN
Joe strode toward the wall, Flix and Liliana at his side. It had taken most of the remaining daylight to find someone willing to tell him where Sanders was. Finally, an awe-eyed, pimply-faced kid who couldn’t have been more than fourteen but carried a gun thicker than Joe’s arm had shuffled his feet and whispered that Joe was completely marshall and, “Oh my God alive, balls-on about how to treat people.” After all that, the kid told them that Sanders had border duty.
The walk to the wall didn’t take long. Neither would the conversation. Joe just had to plant a seed, make Sanders cocky.
And trust that a young woman who’d betrayed her family wasn’t betraying him.
Otherwise, Sanders would be expecting it. He’d know Joe was a liar. He’d have heard about the visit to the greenhouse. If Joe wasn’t convincing, Sanders would either beef up security around the greenhouse or try to smuggle Devin and Peter out as soon as possible.
Everything hinged on believing Aria had sent Joe to the greenhouse for a reason. It could be a trap, but that didn’t make sense. If Sanders really wanted to attack Joe, nothing was stopping him. He didn’t need to lure Joe anywhere. The most logical explanation was that Aria really was trying to help.
He’d seen the trap door before, though he’d never realized what it was. As early as his first trip to the greenhouse, he recalled that piece of plywood laid on the ground with a handle sticking out of it. A root cellar,
