Page 37 of To the Grave

I shook my head.

“All good,” Gray said.

Lauren pulled out her phone and pressed record as Olivia started talking.

“I’m thinking a wallpaper on this wall… maybe something vibrant with foliage…”

Chapter 27

Wolf

The diner was dark in spite of the early hour, two windows at the front facing away from the morning sun and letting in so little light it could have been late afternoon. It was barely big enough for four tables and the counter, the waitress turning sideways to carry multiple plates to a couple at the back of the place.

It sounded like an out-of-tune guitar.

“Where the fuck are we?” I asked.

“Greenvale,” Jace said. “It’s halfway between Carlton and Phoenicia.”

“Literally never heard of it,” I said. It wasn’t the first time I’d stumbled on a tiny two-block village off all the main roads but it was still surprising when it happened.

“That’s the idea,” Jace said.

He waved to the waitress and she nodded at the two empty tables. Jace chose one away from the windows, which made sense. We’d gone to a lot of trouble to stay out of view. It would be dumb to do something careless now.

“I’m fucking hungry,” Otis said. “These early gym mornings are killing me.”

We’d gotten up early to take Daisy to the gym against her protests — I was starting to worry she’d been telling the truth when she’d said she hated us — and had ordered coffee but not food while we waited.

“I’ll take over if she’ll let me,” Jace said, sliding into one of the chairs.

“Fat chance,” I said.

“Yeah.” He sounded dejected, and I didn’t blame him.

We’d all known there would be fallout from Jace’s fake death, had known Daisy would be pissed and hurt that we’d kept the truth from her, but none of us had had the time to think it through when Jace came up with the plan. At that point, the fire at the compound had been raging all around us, the whole building about to cave in. We’d had less than two minutes to discuss the idea.

And yeah, I’d second-guessed the decision on a daily basis, especially when Daisy was in the worst of her depression, but by then it had been too late.

“Think we made a mistake?” I asked.

“Who knows?” Otis said, opening the menu. “Can’t do anything about it now.”

The dark-haired waitress came to take our order, poured us all coffee, and retreated to her other tables.

I took a drink of the coffee and took the place in: the 1970s paneling and chipped Formica tables, the vinyl chairs and smell of stale coffee. I could only hope Jace was right about the food.

“Did you come here a lot?” I asked Jace. “While you were gone?”

“Now and then,” he said. “When I got cabin fever. No pun intended.”

We knew now that Jace had been living in one of the abandoned hunting cabins in the woods, getting by with the cash and supplies Otis and I had left at our drop point. It sounded rough, and that wasn’t even counting how hard it must have been to stay away from Daisy.

“So what are we going to do?” Otis asked.

I turned my silverware over in my hand. “About the missing girls or Jace’s fake death?”

“Both,” Otis said.

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