Page 83 of Bourbon Bliss
“What?”
“Lift me up so I can climb over,” she said. “I need to get in and look around.”
“Has it occurred to you that this is private property? Those locks make it pretty clear whoever owns this place isn’t interested in people wandering around.”
“The likelihood of us getting caught is extremely low,” she said. “There’s no outward sign of habitation.”
I didn’t particularly like this, but she had a point. We hadn’t seen a soul for miles, and it was dead quiet out here.
“Okay.” I crouched so she could climb on my shoulders. “Just be careful.”
I stood, getting her close enough to the fence so she could scramble up and over. I heard her feet drop on the other side.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine. Are you coming?”
I did another pull up on the fence, then hoisted a leg over. Careful of my knee, I popped over the top and dropped down to the ground.
June brushed her hands together. “Ready?”
“Lead the way, Scooby-June.”
Inside the fence were a series of worn buildings with saggy porches and peeling paint. It certainly looked like the sort of place a cult might live. There were multiple buildings in various sizes. Some could have been living quarters, and others larger communal areas. Raised garden beds and empty chicken coops were on the far side.
We wandered around, but didn’t see any signs of recent habitation. One of the buildings was unlocked, so we ventured inside, but it was empty. Bare wood floors, no curtains or blinds on the windows. Nothing hanging from the walls or left behind in a cupboard or closet.
If Callie’s cult had been living here, they’d cleared out every last scrap they owned.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“It doesn’t look like anyone’s lived here for years,” she said. “But the yard and garden beds aren’t overgrown, either.”
“I noticed that, too. Still, doesn’t tell us much.”
June stood in the center of the courtyard, hands on her hips, and looked around. “Callie said she hid during the chaos of them leaving. If they were that desperate to get out quickly, do you think they would have left it this empty? Wouldn’t they have left something behind?”
“You’d think so. But maybe they didn’t own much. If they didn’t have much to take, maybe they didn’t miss anything.”
“They missed an entire person, according to her.”
I nodded. June was right, this place didn’t look like a cult had left it only two months before. But that didn’tproveanything.
“We need more information,” June said, heading for the fence.
“How do you propose we do that?”
“Go back to town, of course.”
I crouched so she could get on my shoulders. I didn’t like where this was going. “And what are we going to do in town?”
“Talk to the bikers.”
Ah, hell.
* * *
Not a shredof fear showed on June’s face as we walked in the biker bar. It was dimly lit by a few exposed light bulbs on the ceiling and the glow of neon signs. A big screen TV showed a baseball game in the back. The walls were covered in old posters, bumper stickers, and vintage license plates. One had a huge painted mural of the Free Renegades logo.
