Page 68 of Protected

She’s with a man. A rough-looking man I don’t recognize. He looks dangerous, but a lot of men do now. It might not mean anything.

But it does.

I know it does.

Trisha is saying, “That’s all I could take this time. If anything else goes missing, it will be noticed, and I’ll be in big trouble.”

I blink. Step behind a tree so I’m out of sight but peek around so I can see what’s happening.

Trisha has given the man several cans of food.

Ourfood.

“I can’t keep doing this,” Trisha continues, sounding rather whiny. “When are y’all going to make your move?”

“Soon,” the man replies. “There’s a lot of them, so we gotta be careful. You just do your fuckin’ job until we’re ready.”

“I am doing my job. I’m giving you all the information I can. But it’s getting old, and they haven’t found a lot of food lately. If you wait much longer to attack, there won’t be anything to take except the vehicles.”

My heart has frozen in my chest. It’s barely beating. And something hard and painful has lodged in my throat.

Ridiculously, my first response is vindication.

Because I knew it.

Iknewit.

From the first moment I laid eyes on Trisha, I knew she couldn’t be trusted. And that instinct has finally been proven sickeningly right. All this time, she’s been working for another group. A gang of some kind. Probably her old group we drove out of that house. And plotting with them to kill or capture us and take everything we have.

I can’t let it happen. Even if I could get away right now, Deck is still in danger. Micah and Burgundy. Logan. All of them. Most of them are good fighters in their own right, but taken by surprise, betrayed from within, they’ll have a serious disadvantage.

Right now Trisha doesn’t know I’m here and that I overheard, so I don’t waste any more time. I need to get to the Jeep and tell Carl to hurry so we can catch up with the others and warn them. I move away from the tree, treading carefully to not make any noise or bring attention to my presence.

I walk right into a wall of a man. As big as Deck, but not him.

Not him.

I huff in outrage when the man, who must have beenkeeping guard, grabs me and drags me forward toward Trisha and the other man.

“Caught a little spy,” he drawls.

Trisha gasps and whirls. Her eyes widen with shock and then fear and then something like malicious glee.

“I won’t tell!” I burst out with what’s obviously a desperate, last-ditch effort to survive this. My entire body has chilled now. I can’t even feel my hands and feet.

Trisha snorts. “You think I’m that stupid? You’ve always been on their side. Not mine.”

“You think I’d be on the side of someone who sneaks around, lying and working against us?”

“No. You’re way too righteous for that.” She turns toward the big guy who’s still got me in his grip. “Kill her.”

“Nah.” That’s the man she was talking to, who appears to be in charge. “That’d be a waste. She looks good for a few fucks.”

My stomach roils. If I weren’t so entirely frozen, I might actually vomit.

“I wouldn’t,” Trisha says. “She’s good at squirming her way out of things. Soon as you turn your head, she’ll be gone.”

“Fine. Whatever. Just do it quick ’cause you gotta get back before someone else comes looking.”

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