Fear (Gone #5)(21)

“Caine could easily lift these things and move them,” Sam said.

“So why are they still here?” Jack asked. Then he answered his own question. “Maybe they took the other missiles and just left this one. We should check the seals.”

Sam took slow, cautious steps closer. He aimed the light’s beam at bright yellow tape that sealed each crate. The tape had been carefully sliced and then pressed back into place.

“They’re gone,” Sam said flatly. “Caine has them.”

“Then why leave the one?” Jack asked.

Sam took a shallow breath. “Booby trap.”





EIGHT

36 HOURS, 10 MINUTES

“YOU CAN’T LET him get away with this!??? Penny shrieked.

Caine wasn’t having it. “You stupid witch,” he yelled back. “No one told you to let it go that far!”

“He was mine for the day,” Penny hissed. She pressed a rag to her nose, which had started bleeding again.

“He tore his own eyes out. What did you think Quinn would do? What do you think Albert will do now?” He bit savagely at his thumb, a nervous habit.

“I thought you were the king!”

Caine reacted without thinking. He swung a hard backhand at her face. The blow did not connect, but the thought did. Penny flew backward like she’d been hit by a bus. She smacked hard against the wall of the office.

The blow stunned her, and Caine was in her face before she could clear her thoughts.

Turk came bursting in, his gun leveled. “What’s happening?”

“Penny tripped,” Caine said.

Penny’s freckled face was white with fury.

“Don’t,” Caine warned. He tightened an invisible grip around her head and twisted it back at an impossible angle.

Then Caine released her.

Penny panted and glared. But no nightmare seized Caine’s mind. “You’d better hope Lana can fix that boy, Penny.”

“You’re getting soft.” Penny choked out the words.

“Being king isn’t about being a sick creep,” Caine said. “People need someone in charge. People are sheep and they need a big sheepdog telling them what to do and where to go. But it doesn’t work if you start killing the sheep.”

“You’re scared of Albert.” Penny followed it with a mocking laugh.

“I’m scared of no one,” Caine said. “Least of all you, Penny. You live because I let you live. Remember that. The kids out there?” He waved his hand toward the window, vaguely indicating the population of Perdido Beach. “Those kids out there hate you. You don’t have a single friend. Now get out of here. I don’t want to see you back here in my presence until you’re ready to crawl to me and beg my forgiveness.”

Penny said two words, the second of which was “you.”

Caine laughed. “I think you meant ‘——you, Your Highness.’”

He lifted Penny up with a slight motion of one hand and tossed her out through the open door and into the hallway.

“She could be trouble, Your Highness,” Turk said.

“She’s already trouble,” Caine said. “First Drake, now Penny. I’m surrounded by psychos and idiots.”

Turk looked hurt.

“One thing, Turk. You ever see me freaking out, like Penny is pulling something on me? You shoot the witch. We clear on that?”

“Absolutely,” Turk said. “Your Highness.”

“You get that you’re the idiot, right, Turk?”

“Um…”

Caine stormed off, muttering, “I miss Diana.”

Quinn was still vibrating with rage by the time he made his way to Clifftop. Rage. But fear, too. In getting Cigar out of Penny’s grip he had made a very dangerous enemy. Maybe two. Or even three, depending on where Albert came down.

Walking through the carpeted hall, feeling his way in the dark, Quinn realized with surprise that he was hearing voices. From a room at the far end of the hall from Lana’s oceanfront room he heard children playing.

He stopped and listened.

“You lose; you totally lose, Peace.”

“Because you cheated, you little thief!”

“Guys, keep it down, huh?” That last voice Quinn recognized as Virtue, who was often called Choo.

Sanjit had moved his siblings into Clifftop? When had that happened? The whole bunch of them, all the island kids, had moved to the lake with Lana. But after a few days she’d returned. Clifftop had become a part of Lana. It was where she felt safe.

Quinn realized with a stab of jealousy that Lana had okayed the island kids moving in here. No one argued with Lana. And until now she had placed an absolute ban on anyone sharing even a tiny corner of her Clifftop redoubt.

He knew that Lana was sort of seeing Sanjit, the new kid. But letting him move his whole family into Clifftop?

There had been a time when Quinn thought Lana and he might… But then events and realities had killed that daydream. Quinn was just a working guy, a fisherman. Lana was the Healer. As such she was the most protected, respected, even revered person in the FAYZ. Not even Caine would dream of messing with Lana.

And as intimidating as all that was, there was more: Lana was as tough as a spiked baseball bat.

She had seemed far, far above Quinn.