Page 14 of Lure

“Okay.” I could agree with that. Because it also meant I wouldn’t be stuck here in the van wondering what the hell was going on or risking getting hit again. The barn was safe the first time we wandered out to it at the safe house. I had no idea where that man came from or who he was or why he’d attacked me.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure why any of this had targeted me or if they had targeted Am and I’d been swept up into it. The sickening realization had been there in the pit of my stomach since the nightmare began—none of this was an accident.

If that was true, then it was a solid chance that Am wasdefinitelymissing. The cold dread of that reality struck like a sucker punch to the gut. Tears burned in my eyes and I forgot how to breathe.

A whine from the backseat had Alphabet twisting toward me. “Hey…”

I swallowed around the hard lump in my throat and blinked furiously. I didn’t want to cry. I didn’t want tofeelany of this. Amhadto be okay. If it was me living in denial, then I wouldinvest in a vacation home here. I was going to hold on until my fingernails were gone and I didn’t have the strength for it anymore.

“I’m okay,” I lied. “I mean, I’m not, but I will be. What do you need me to do?” The last thing I wanted to do was talk about any of this. Not about what happened or why or who…

Alphabet touched my chin with light fingers and I shifted my gaze to meet his. The contact was barely there, another illusion of connection but one I leaned into this time, instead of away.

“I will be okay,” I told him. “I promise. We don’t have time for me to be anything else.”

He studied me and I hoped he found whatever he was looking for, because I couldn’t fake it anymore than I already had. Not when we had a whole other threat on its way to us.

“We’re going to talk about this again,” he said in a voice that was almost too soft. It held more force than when he’d yelled earlier.

“Later,” I murmured, needing him to agree. But would he? “If you insist.”

“I do,” he said, with a nod. “For now, unbuckle Goblin and let him out.” He swept a look down me. “It’s going to be chilly out there, grab a jacket from the back and a knit cap.”

He was agreeing and an unreasonable amount of gratitude spilled through me. “Okay.”

With that, he let me go, shut off the van and climbed out. He wasn’t kidding about the cooler air. Goosebumps decorated my skin as I released my own seatbelt then climbed into the back to free Goblin.

The dog gave me an open mouth grin before he licked me from chin to eyeball. It was ridiculous and made me laugh. “You’re welcome,” I told him before I slid open the side door. Goblin hopped right out without needing me to say a word.

Even without a breeze, the sweat on me seemed to make it colder. I hadn’t even realized I had been sweating. I closed the side door before I circled to the back. Alphabet had a huge case in his hand and he passed me a jacket and a knit cap. I put them on then took the next bag he handed me.

“Let’s go.”

True to my word, I didn’t ask anything as I followed him up the rise to where the rocks continued to stretch toward the sky. It didn’t seem like we were that much higher, and we weren’t—from the van. Apparently, we’d come up an incline or to the top of an incline.

Goblin paused to piss on a rock before he trotted after us. The walk was up a bit more of a gentle sloping hill. Or maybe not so gentle, it made the backs of my legs protest. Once we got to a spot where we could see the desert spread out below us or as much as we could with the light of the moon, he set down his case.

“Get down, flat to your belly.”

“Where do you want the bag?” I mean, he’d said no questions, but then he gave me the bag.

He faced me and lifted the strap off my shoulder with a faint smile. “I have it.”

I nodded once then dropped to lay on my belly. The rock was definitely cold and hard. Alphabet didn’t say anything, just unlocked the case and flipped it open. There was a gun inside… areallybig gun.

He set his phone on the ground next to me so I could see the screen too. We were still the red dot, I assumed, and that blue dot was definitely getting closer. Goblin came to sit next to me while Alphabet assembled the gun.

I didn’t know what it was, but it was damn impressive. A dozen questions formed and died on my tongue. Maybe we could revisit those later too. Still, once he had the gun together, he setit up on some kind of stand that kept the barrel up while he laid down and put his eye to the scope.

The silence grew deeper now that the shivers of metal scraping on metal as he put the pieces together faded. Then he unzipped the bag, splitting the quiet. He passed me a pair of binoculars and then pulled out a huge cartridge that he plugged into the gun itself.

With a sharp clack of the slide bolt, he had loaded a bullet. There was no mistaking that sound. I swallowed again. “Use the binoculars, let me know the minute you see a vehicle heading this way. They should be close enough to spot by now.”

Happy to pull my attention from his monster weapon, I put the binoculars to my eyes and then snickered. His monster weapon.

Oh my god, Grace. Shut up.

“What’s funny?”

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