One By One by Freida McFadden(54)

“So?”

“So don’t you see?” He lowers his voice. “It had to have been Noah.”

“What are you saying?” I blurt out. “You’re saying Noah engineered this entire thing? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

“That first night when we were about to go to sleep, we all drank some water,” Jack says. “Except Noah was a ‘gentleman’ and he passed most of it to you, right?”

I do remember how touched I was when he barely drank any water, even though I assumed he was thirsty as I was. I didn’t realize Jack had noticed. “Right…”

He chews on his lip. “I thought at the time the water had a strange, chalky taste. And now I’m sure of it. Someone put something in that water.”

It did have a strange taste. But still. “That’s crazy.”

“Really? How else did we all sleep so soundly through the night?”

That’s a good point. I was surprised at how deeply I slept that night considering I was lying in a bed of leaves. But Jack was the one who went off with Michelle that night, not Noah.

Of course, it was Noah who told me that…

“Maybe it’s all a game he’s playing,” Jack says. “He’s torturing us as he gets rid of us one by one.”

I stare at Jack. I don’t care what he says, Noah would never do something like that. This man is my husband. “That’s crazy. Why would he do something like that?”

Jack lowers his voice. “Because of us. Because he knows what’s been going on between the two of us.”

“He doesn’t know…”

“I think he does.”

I start to protest, but then I remember Lindsay said the same thing. She was certain he knew Jack and I were having an affair. “Even so, he wouldn’t do this. He just wouldn’t!”

“I know Noah longer than you do, Claire.” He folds his arms across his chest. “And I think he absolutely would do something like this under the right circumstances.”

“Bullshit.”

Jack looks at me for a moment, as if debating something in his head. “Our freshman year of college, Noah’s father died. They were really close, and he was a mess.”

“I know.”

“You know the story,” he says, “but you don’t know what happened. He was walking around like a zombie for months. Anytime I asked him a question, he would bite my head off. I borrowed some water he was keeping in our mini-fridge, and he walked up to me and punched me in the mouth.”

I gnaw on my thumbnail. “He punched you?”

“I’m telling you, he was a mess.” Jack shakes his head. “And that’s how he was acting at the beginning of this trip. Claire, I don’t know what he’s capable of right now. I’d like to think he couldn’t do something like this, but I know I didn’t do it, and I know it wasn’t you, so…”

“This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life.” That sick feeling is almost overwhelming. I need to sit down. “Jack, Noah is not a murderer. I know that for sure.… I just… I can’t have this conversation with you anymore. I… I have to go…”

I turn on my heels and run back in the direction of the cabin before Jack can say another word. It turns out that I might’ve been right about us being hunted. But it wasn’t an animal hunting us.





Chapter 34


CLAIRE



Jack is extremely subdued during dinner. And so am I.

I make us some sandwiches again. There’s a good amount of food in the refrigerator, and the cupboards are packed with canned goods. It will more than get us through the week if it takes that long for somebody to find us. We can survive out here a month or longer if we had to. Hell, we could probably get through a year if we don’t mind eating lots of canned beans. And we have unlimited water.

That said, I want to get out of here as soon as possible. I’m dreading even spending the night here.

“We don’t want to finish all the fresh food,” Noah comments as he chews on his sandwich. “I mean, we want to leave something for when the guy who lives here comes back, right?”

Jack and I exchange looks. See? If he killed that guy out in the pick-up truck, he wouldn’t say something like that.

Or would he?

“So I thought me and Claire could sleep in the bedroom tonight,” Noah says. “Do you mind sleeping on the couch, Jack?”

“Yeah, fine,” he mumbles.

“Are you sure you’re okay with it? I just figured the bed is bigger, so…”

“I said it’s fine!” Jack snaps. When Noah goes silent, he stands up from his seat fast enough that the chair nearly falls over. “I’m going out for a walk.”

“Now?” I say. “But it’s dark out!”

“It’s perfectly safe out there,” Jack says. I don’t fail to notice his emphasis on the words “out there.”

He grabs his sweatshirt and his rifle, then leaves the house without another word. I hear the echo of the door slamming behind him.

Noah raises his eyebrows at me. “What’s with him?”

“He just…” I hesitate. Even though I don’t believe a word of what Jack said about Noah, I still don’t want to tell him what I know about the dead guy in the pick-up truck. “I think he’s worried nobody is looking for us.”