The Replaced(81)

I kind of envied Willow’s power. I’d always been more of a line drive hitter.

She only struck him once, but it was more than enough. The bat made this disgusting sound as a fine spray of blood filled the air, and a look of sheer horror passed over Agent Truman’s face. He blinked once, and only once, and then his eyes rolled all the way back in his head before he dropped forward, falling heavily on his knees and then landing face-first in the sand.

“It was my turn to save you.” Willow beamed, shouldering the bat.

Griffin was already scrambling to her feet, gasping and cringing because the wounds on each of her shoulders were beginning to pucker around the edges. It had to sting like you-know-what.

She tugged my arm. “Simon and Tyler are waiting for you at the Jeep, out in front of the camp.” She turned to Willow then as she sucked in a breath through her clenched teeth. “You take her. I’ll stay here and handle . . . this.” Her gaze moved to her father—Agent Truman—who was still lying blacked out in the dirt. She reached out and nudged him with her boot. “Go!” she hissed at us. “I mean it. Go, before the old man wakes up.”

I didn’t wait to be told again, and I didn’t look back. Griffin could handle her father, the agent-slash-doctor, I had no doubt about that.

Then Willow and I were literally dodging bullets as we made our way through the tent maze. Willow knew exactly when to zig and when to zag, and she got us through the chaos not only unscathed but also unnoticed, and suddenly I was even more impressed by her, glad she was on our side.

When I saw Tyler, though, I nearly gave up on that whole not-crying-in-front-of-others thing. I thought I’d be the only one feeling panicked, but the strain across his forehead told me he was at least as worried about me.

His brow crumpled when he saw me, and before I could run to meet him, Willow grabbed my arm. She used her own body to shield me as she dragged me across the last stretch of open ground to where Tyler was waiting to meet us.

When I felt his arms go around me, and his lips against my forehead, I had a hard time stopping the words I love you from bubbling up my throat.

“I need to get you two out of here without anyone seeing us,” Simon insisted, jumping into the Jeep and firing up the engine.

I didn’t get the chance to thank Willow for saving my butt, because when I turned around again, she was gone.

“Where are we going?” I asked Simon as Tyler and I climbed into the Jeep behind him.

“Buckle up, keep your head low, and try not to distract me. I’ll do my best not to get you killed,” Simon told us as he pushed the vehicle into gear and spewed a cloud of dust in our wake. “We only have an hour to get to the designated meeting point. If we’re late, we miss our chance. And if we get caught, we’re dead.”

And with that, I felt Tyler reach for me from the backseat. I let him take my hand, gripping his in return as the wind battered us while we raced across the desert.





CHAPTER TWENTY


SWEAT TRICKLED DOWN THE BACK OF MY NECK as we hurtled along the two-lane highway.

Every now and then, even from the distance we’d put between us and Blackwater, we’d hear, and feel, an explosion so loud it rocked the ground beneath us, making the Jeep shudder as it coursed along the plane of the asphalt. Acid burned in the back of my throat as I worried about everyone who was still there, back at the camp—Jett and Willow, who’d stuck with me even though I’d never really declared myself one of them, and Griffin and her people, who were now fighting our fight.

And then there was Natty.

I had no idea where Natty was now. No idea if she was on our side . . . or on Thom’s.

But regardless, I couldn’t help the way my stomach knotted when I thought about her. Until I heard otherwise, I couldn’t force myself not to care about her, just because, as Griffin pointed out, her actions made her “look guilty.”

Friendships were never that simple. I knew because of Cat.

Cat, who was five years older than me now and had moved on with her life while I’d been gone.

Cat, who was Austin’s girlfriend now.

Cat, who would forever be my best friend, no matter how hard I tried to deny it.

I checked my watch. And I checked it again, and afterward, I craned my neck to check on Tyler, but he was already checking me checking him. I smiled because even if he couldn’t remember us—the us that curled my toes and made my cheeks burn every time he grinned his crooked grin and feathered his finger along my lower lip, he was looking at me like that now. With that same crooked smile.

There was something about being trapped like this with Simon and Tyler that had me feeling twitchy and tingly, and I couldn’t decide if it was the good kind of twitchy and tingly, or the super weird kind.

Simon had managed to get us away from Blackwater Ranch undetected, yet even away from the onslaught of the Daylighters, alarm bells were still going off inside me.

As the road, and my heart rate, leveled out, I finally asked Simon the question that’d been driving me crazy. “Did you know it was Thom—that he was the traitor? I mean, did you ever suspect?”

Simon’s jaw tensed, and I could see it was eating him up inside. “Not until Griffin . . . until she came to me and told me about the message they intercepted.” He seethed. “Griffin asked Jett to look into it, and it was Jett who discovered it. Jett helped lay the trap. He was the one who traced it to Thom.”