Page 27 of Nate Hayes

“Inside job?”

“Looks like it. And now we’ve got three kids and a war zone.”

He nodded slowly. “You miss your goats yet?”

I let out a quiet laugh. “Yeah. I miss everything about that damn mountain.”

Willa’s face flashed in my mind—her laugh, the way she’d felt in my arms, the way she made me believe, just for a minute, that I could have something real.

“I’ll get back to her,” I muttered. “I have to.”

Axel handed me a ration bar. “First, we keep these kids alive. Then we burn the bastards who tried to bury them.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

But before I could sit down, I heard something outside.

A twig.

Snapped.

Then another.

And then—

A child’s scream.

But not from inside.

It was coming from the woods.

Siena bolted upright. “That’s my sister.”

12

Nate

Iwas out the door before the second scream faded.

Siena was right behind me.

“I’m coming with you,” she said, breathless.

“No. Stay put.”

“She’smy sister.”

I turned, grabbed her shoulders, and locked eyes. “I need you to be alive for her. If something happens to you, she hasno one.You want to help? Stay safe. Guard the others. Iwillbring her back.”

Her eyes filled with tears, but she nodded. “Please find her.”

“I will.”

Axel handed me his backup Glock. “You want backup?”

“Not yet. If I’m not back in twenty, you come after me with hell in your hands.”

He nodded once.

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