Dani dipped her head down. She lowered the knife onto her lap. “I can’t.”
Even in the confined space, Lynn struggled to hear her. She frowned. “Why not?”
Dani’s head came up again. Her expressions were now entirely obscured by darkness. “Because you’re wrong.”
Lynn waited for an explanation.
It didn’t come.
“What am I wrong about?”
“I can’t go back. Kate won’t let me in.”
If Lynn could have one wish granted right now, it would be to be able to look Dani in the eye and tell if she was lying. “She won’t leave you to die at the gate, Dani.”
Dani was silent for so long that Lynn got ready to prod her again. “That’s what she said.”
Could anyone manufacture the intricate layering of pain, anger, and fear in Dani’s voice? Lynn couldn’t, but she wasn’t a very good liar. The question was: how good a liar was Dani? “She literally told you that unless you came back with Richard’s body, she wouldn’t let you back in?”
Dani shifted. Another pause—shorter this time. “Yes.”
Lynn turned fully toward her now. “And you believe her?”
“Kate’s a woman of her word.” A little tremble to her voice betrayed she wasn’t exactly sure of Kate’s actions if Dani went back.
“Even if she is, she must have said it as a heat-of-the-moment kind of thing, Dani. You know that.” She scrambled to find the right words to convince Dani. “I don’t know Kate very well, and I can’t say I like her, but you said it yourself: you’ve been useful. And you like each other, right?”
Dani’s clothes rustled as she seemed to shrug. “Would you risk it if you were me?”
Lynn opted not to answer that. “And what about the others, hm? Ren? Eduardo?”
“You must have realized Kate and Cody are in charge. Dean would side with his mom. Ren and Eduardo might vote for me, but that’s still three against two.”
“Flint?”
Dani sighed. “I don’t know. But even if he voted in favor of me, not every vote is equal. Trust me, I have been thinking about this since the moment I realized you were not really going to get Richard’s body with me.”
Lynn chose strategic silence.
“I always suspected you had other plans—you agreed too easily—but I hoped that maybe I was wrong.”
Dani’s nearly disembodied voice in the darkness tore into Lynn’s gut as if it’d been the knife still on Dani’s lap. “Damn it, Dani.” Her resolve wobbled. Time to change tactics. “Okay, say they would kick you out like that.” She snapped her fingers. “Then why would you even want to go back?”
Silence. “I don’t have anyone else.”
Lynn squeezed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose. Now what? She couldn’t go through with this stupid suicide mission for Richard’s body. Neither did she want to kill Dani to get away from her. She could still escape, of course, but what if Dani did follow her? Did she want her death on her conscience? Obviously, she couldn’t convince Dani to go home, so it was time to adapt. “Okay, you know me. Come with me. We’ll take the 87, go west, forget about this whole insane idea of getting Richard’s body.” In the stillness—Skeever seemed to have fallen asleep somewhere—Lynn could hear Dani swallow.
“I don’t trust you. You were going to leave me here without another thought. What guarantee do I have you won’t leave me somewhere else? You said it yourself: I’m a hunter—a good one—but I’m not a Wilder like you.” Her voice broke on the last syllable, and she sniffed as if she was fighting tears.
Shit. She couldn’t really blame Dani. Put in Dani’s shoes, Lynn wouldn’t trust herself either. “Getting Richard’s body is lunacy.”
“I know.” Dani sniffed again. “I don’t have a choice.”
Lynn pondered that. Dani had plenty of choices, didn’t she? Testing the theory that Kate wouldn’t let her back in and running away with Lynn were two of the most obvious ones, but there were probably more.
“If you tell me where he is, I’ll get him myself.” Dani’s voice shook. “I’ll figure out how to get him to the Homestead.”
Lynn groaned. “You can’t be serious.”
Dani shifted. The leather of her seat squeaked.
Lynn tore her forgotten left hand from the steering wheel and gripped her tomahawk. Her hand felt numb. She couldn’t see a damn thing.
“Here’s the candle. Light it.” Dani sniffed.
The pool of dread in Lynn’s stomach sloshed uneasily. When something bumped her arm, she jumped, but she took the candle from Dani instead of braining her with the tomahawk. Progress.
“We can look at the map, and you can tell me all the markers you remember. I can find it.”
“Right.” Lynn sighed. She peered into the darkness, at the form beside her, but didn’t have the emotional tools to reenter this conversation and come to a different result—one that wouldn’t leave her with an acidy rock in her gut. “Sounds like a great plan.”
CHAPTER 8
THE FLAME’S FLICKERING LIGHT CAST deep shadows across Dani’s face as she studied the map.
Lynn studied Dani instead. Dani had taken her shoes off again and had stretched her legs out on the concrete floor. Her feet were a mess of blisters—both popped and unpopped—but Dani paid them no heed. Her entire focus was on the map.
“So I just follow the 95 north, then take the second exit once it curves east?” Dani looked up at her.
Lynn nodded. It would have been easier to pinpoint the location of the body if the map had extended that far north, but it didn’t. “I think it was the second one, yes. I found him in a white building, right off the exit. It used to be a place where they sold cars. It took me two days to get from Richard’s body to where you were hunting elephant.” She traced the 95 down the map. “Two full days, one night.”
“Any other landmarks?” Dani squinted at the map as if the missing part would mysteriously appear if she only focused hard enough.
“Um… not really.” She racked her brain. “The road to the car shop was one of those overhead ones, so the exit sloped up. There’s a railway parallel to the 95. It was on my left when I took off, so it should be on your right. I think the station was right at the exit. Go up, then right so you’re crossing the tracks, and then it’s on the right again. Big white building, huge parking lot. Across the road from the building is a driveway into a yard. The house is white with an orange slate roof, I think. Once you reach the house, go left into the yard. It’s overgrown, but there is a little stone path about ten feet in. Take it. Somewhere there, on the right, you’ll find the grave covered with stones.”
“Okay.” Dani inhaled as if to sigh but seemed to restrain herself. She sat up and nodded. “Okay.”
Lynn could almost feel the worry radiate off her. “Confident?”
Dani tensed a moment, then shrugged. “Sure. It’s just one road, one exit, and there it is, right?”
“Right.” There was a little bit more to it than that, but why bring that up now? She had told Dani all she remembered; that was all she could do.
“When, um… are you leaving?” Dani looked up at her through her lashes.
Lynn shrugged. “Soon, I guess.”
“Okay.” Dani inspected her. “I think I owe you some food for the road.”
“Owe me? Why?”
“For telling me where Richard is, I guess. And half of it was meant for you. Maybe it helps.” She shrugged.
Lynn watched her. Was Dani trying to get her to reconsider? Even if she was, Lynn wasn’t prideful enough to say no to free food. “Okay, thanks.”