Page 20 of Flashback

No wonder the boys were scared. But maybe a combination of fear and strong imaginations had conjured up this story. They could’ve seen something else and misinterpreted it.

“Why did you want to go back today?” Allie asked him.

“We weren’t trying to go back. We were trying to run away.”

“Why did you want to run away?” Dakota asked softly.

Ethan clamped his mouth shut. Clearly, he was done talking.

She was about to ask more when she caught the subtle shake of Dakota’s head. Maybe being a guy, he understood better when to push and when to wait. She’d trust him…for now.

They bumped along in the rusty truck bed to the hospital. Vehicles filled the parking lot, but the old man pulled up right out front.

Allie stood on shaky legs and lifted Nolan out of the truck while Dakota helped Ethan. She turned to Henry. “Thanks for?—”

The engine revved, and he was gone.

“Who was that guy?” Allie looked at Dakota.

“No clue. But I wish I could’ve at least shaken his hand and thanked him for saving us.”

They walked into the hospital. Locals covered in soot and ash, some of them bleeding, milled around the ER lobby. And standing among them, Jen and her husband Ray. They were talking with a man in a tan deputy uniform.

“Nolan! Ethan!” Jen rushed to engulf both boys in her arms.

“Mommy!” Nolan launched himself at her, and his arms clenched around her neck. She scooped him up, crying.

Ethan was limping, holding on to Dakota’s arm for support. When Ray walked over to them, Ethan stiffened.

“We need these boys seen now. You can go.” Ray wrapped an arm around Jen, who’d gotten up and lifted Nolan with her. She walked over to Ethan and pulled him against her hip in a hug.

“Let’s go.” Ray moved them toward the counter.

Ethan hopped on one foot. Ray tried to offer him an arm, but the boy shook his head. “I can do it myself.”

The four of them were quickly ushered back by a nurse.

A muscle in Dakota’s jaw twitched like he was clenching his teeth.

So he’d noticed it too.

“Do you think Ray is the scary man the boys were talking about?” Allie whispered. “Or do you think Ethan was telling the truth about the men in the woods? With a gun?”

“I don’t know. But they aren’t comfortable around him, even if he isn’t the ponytailed killer.”

She shuddered. “Is there really a body in the woods—one that’s been out there for weeks?”

Dakota spun to face her. “I can’t leave the boys here with Ray if he’s dangerous.”

Allie fiddled with the hanging straps from her pack, her gaze going from Dakota back to the ER. “But beyond kidnappingthem, what do we do? And Scout. I have to go find him.” Her throat squeezed.

“Scout will be okay. But you should get that cough checked out.” Dakota’s frown pinched his brow together.

Did he know something she didn’t? “What is it?”

Dakota dropped his voice. “We can’t get back there with the patients unless one of us is a patient too.”

Oh! “Right.”

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