Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(70)

Then, without any warning, she grabbed the two suitcases and the bag she’d packed, somehow hefted them up on her back, and strolled quickly out of the room, leaving the rest of us staring after her in shock.





26





We must have stood there for at least thirty seconds, staring at the door in surprise, none of us knowing exactly what to do with the information Corona had thrown at us. We didn’t move again until we heard rushing steps on the ground floor, and the slam of the door. Less than a minute later, an engine roared to life in the driveway, and tires squealed as a vehicle raced out of the gate.

I turned to the window, my mouth still hanging open, and watched an expensive car speed down the street, away from the house.

“Well, driving like that, in that sort of car, is going to get her attention she doesn’t want,” I said quietly.

Then I turned back to my friends and particularly Jace.

“What the hell was that? Did she actually just tell us that we need to wait another night before she can get us out of here?”

He nodded firmly, and began making his way around the room, searching for something. “It certainly wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but she’s right. Our plans have always been pretty specific when it came to Nathan’s inner crew. I was given my plan B—the person who would get me to safety if it ever came to that—but Nathan also told me that there was a specific protocol for the situation. Wherever our refuge is, it’s well hidden, but that doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to be safe.” He found what he was looking for and shoved a chair away from the wall, exposing an outlet, then jerked a charger out of his pocket and plugged it in.

“Robin, how much charge do you have left on your phone?” he asked, looking up at me.

I glanced at my phone, surprised that he was thinking of that at a time like this. “Um, like five percent,” I murmured.

That would be a problem if we were trying to get in touch with anyone else, I realized. Including, and possibly most importantly, Gabby. If we’d just been sentenced to another night in the forest, which Corona seemed to have said was safer than anyplace else right now, we were going to want to know what was going on in the world around us, so we could avoid it.

I strode quickly toward him and handed him my phone, and Jace pulled another charger from his pocket—he must have raided the stash I’d brought with me to the cave—and plugged my phone in.

“Everyone else, take turns,” he said, looking quickly at the rest of the group. “If we’re spending another night in that forest, I want to be doing some research, and that’s not going to work if we’re all out of battery.”

The others surged forward, each of them holding out their phone, and Jace grabbed Jackie’s and plugged it in.

I dropped into the nearest chair to rest my leg and glared at him. “So, you were saying?” I asked. “There’s supposedly a good reason that Corona didn’t take us with her right now?”

He nodded. “Right. The refuge, wherever it is, probably hasn’t seen any action since Nathan set it up. We haven’t exactly had time to go around checking all the hiding places and making sure they’re dust-free or anything like that. Now that we’re trying to get out of sight, Corona, as a senior member, is responsible for getting there and making sure it’s secure before she brings in anyone else.”

I stared at him. It had made sense when Corona said it, but now that we were sitting in the house she’d been so anxious to get out of, I was feeling a lot less optimistic about it.

“But she could be walking right into a trap,” Jackie said. “And she’s a senior member of the organization. Why would she put herself at risk like that? And why couldn’t she risk us all? It’s a lot safer for us to be going to a place that we at least think might be safe than staying on the outside!”

Jace sighed heavily. “I had that same conversation with Nathan when he told me about the protocol, but he was set on the point. He was certain that it would be safer for one person to investigate a hiding place—less chance of being followed, less chance of being caught. And it does make sense up to a point. I just never thought it would mean we were left out in the cold while Corona fled by herself. If we’d been thinking, we would have had the agents in charge of the exit points checking them earlier, instead of just sitting around waiting. Honestly, I don’t think Nathan thought it would come to this, either. I suspect that his organization had managed to stay out of the Authority’s clutches for so long that he’d started taking it for granted. He must be just as surprised at all of this as the rest of us.”

I stood quickly from the chair and started toward the wall to get my phone, which was at least somewhat charged by now. I ducked down, yanked it off the charger, and motioned for someone else to plug theirs in.

“Be that as it may,” I said firmly, “he’s also not the one stuck in an impossible position right now. So his opinion doesn’t get to be part of the decision. What do we do next?”

Ant, who had jumped up to put his phone on the charger, looked up at me. “Do we have a choice? We can’t stay in the city. It’s only a matter of time before the Authority is here at the house. If Corona was told that they were going to be here, I trust that they’re going to be here.”

“And they could be here at any second,” Jace agreed, nodding. Then he frowned. “They shouldn’t have even known about Corona, though. She was always kept outside of our physical missions, never part of our meetings. Nathan was very careful about that because he wanted to make sure she was safe—and that she’d be available to get us out if we needed to. How would they have—”