“Kate wants Richard’s body back, yes. I realized pretty quickly that me going was the only choice to get it; you’d deadlocked all other options. I didn’t want to go out here alone and risk dying, but if you had spotted the rest of the group following us, you might not have told me where Richard’s body is. You stuck around long enough to tell me that, at least.”
Lynn’s brain had seized to function. Deep down, she’d probably known already that Kate and Dani had seen through her plan to get away, but to know that the group had strategized to get what they needed without her even realizing stumped her. They had suspected she was going to try to escape and that when she did, the location of Richard’s body would be lost to them. Instead of locking her up and trying to get the information through force, they had trusted Dani to play along and manipulate Lynn into either taking her to the body or to get its location from her before she escaped. Dani had managed both while always making Lynn feel as if she was in control of the situation—as if Lynn’s own plan of playing Dani was working. “You played me.”
Dani’s jaw set. “You left me to die.”
Touché. Lynn swallowed. “But if they knew, why would they send you into a situation that will get you killed? It doesn’t make sense.”
Dani stopped abruptly and turned to her. The mask fell away some to reveal smoldering, seething anger.
Lynn took a subconscious step back.
“You keep saying that, but you don’t know that!” She shook her head. “You can’t see the future. You can’t tell what’s going to happen! Maybe something will try to grab him—or me—on the way back. Maybe the odds are higher because of him, but I am a hunter, Lynn! I’m not some… kid. I’m not you at age twelve without parents! I might not be used to walking long distances or sleeping outdoors, but I know how to handle myself.”
Lynn opened her mouth to speak.
“Besides, I’d be in danger if I went with you too! You know damn well that you can die out here like this—” She snapped her fingers in Lynn’s face. “So all this bullshit about how you want to save me from certain death is—” She frowned, fumbled for a word. “Bullshit!”
Lynn swallowed. “Based on experience, I think the odds are really high.”
Dani searched her features. “Between a two-day journey from Richard’s grave to the Homestead and forever in the Wilds with you, which one has the highest odds of me ending up dead?”
Lynn’s heart plummeted. Her cheeks grew even hotter. She hadn’t considered her proposition like that. Lynn knew she was going to die in the Wilds, even if she kept postponing the inevitable by surviving another day. Yes, the odds of Dani dying with Richard’s body acting as lure were high, but the odds of her dying if she went with Lynn were a hundred percent. “I’m still alive.”
Dani nodded. “You are. But you could be dead before sundown. Or tomorrow. Or next month.”
Lynn had to agree. “Yes.”
“And say you got killed before me, then what would happen to me? Do I go back to the Homestead? Do I try to find another group?” She left a pause. “Do I become you and drag someone else from their home?”
The words felt like a slap across the face. Lynn widened her stance and steadied herself enough to speak. “You’re making me sound like some sort of predator.”
Dani squinted. “You are.” She raised the tip of her spear to Lynn’s chest. “You’re the worst of all predators: you’re a predator who thinks they’re a victim.”
Lynn’s ears rang as if the words had been shouted, not hissed. She tried to process them, felt them chafing against everything she’d ever considered herself to be. Instantly, defensive mechanisms arose to counter the accusations; she wasn’t a predator, she cared about people, she was a good person. But Dani wasn’t done yet.
“You’re not a victim.” Dani poked the tip of the spear sharply against the leather covering Lynn’s chest. “I’m sorry your parents died. I’m sorry you’ve been alone. My parents are dead too, most likely. I don’t have family either, but that hasn’t stopped me from making friends. I’ve built my new family from the ground up. They care about me, and I care about them. There are ways to survive without only taking and never giving anything in return.” Dani withdrew the spear and glared at her. With her chin jutting out and her squinted eyes, she looked every bit the proud hunter she was—the hunter Lynn had failed to see in her.
Lynn took a shuddering breath and tried to find a buoy in the onslaught. She opened her mouth in the hopes a defense would form in the chaos that was her brainpan.
“Walk away, Lynn.” Dani pointed the way she’d come, then dropped her hand. “That’s what you’re good at.”
Lynn froze.
Dani turned and walked off. She squared her shoulders, tilted her head up, and gripped the spear tightly.
Skeever hurried to catch up, but she ignored him. He looked back at Lynn, his tail stuck between his legs.
Lynn was too crushed to register him or anything other than a hollow pit of darkness inside of her. It spread like burning acid from her stomach all the way to her fingertips, toes, and most of all her head. Dani’s words reverberated inside of her skull, etching themselves into her very soul. Panic rushed up. It turned her body from ice-cold to glowing hot in a matter of seconds. She opened her mouth to call Dani back or to explain more, but Dani’s dismissal had been absolute.
Skeever trotted back and pressed against her.
For a second, Lynn was unable to formulate a natural response to his attention seeking. Then she dropped to a knee and wrapped him in her arms. Selfish. She was hugging him to make him feel better just as much as to make herself feel better.
He bucked against her as he tried to lick her face and then chew her wrist, but she restrained him and inhaled his scent. His love and familiarity strengthened her enough to watch Dani as she navigated around the upturned cars and heat cracks in the road. Watching her walk away hurt in a way that had nothing to do with her blasted ego or her guilt.
This was not how it should have gone. Lynn had planned her escape. She’d had it all thought out. Changing her mind and coming back for Dani had been noble—she’d been trying to save her! But Dani didn’t need saving—or maybe she did and she just didn’t know it? She groaned in frustration and dropped her head to Skeever’s back. Her head hurt. Her soul hurt. Her heart hurt. She felt as if she’d just wrestled a tiger and lost.
Lynn questioned every single one of her actions and thoughts. Who was right about her? Lynn herself or Dani and the Homesteaders? They didn’t know her better than she did, did they? But they’d seen right through her plan—and Dani had played her perfectly; she’d tried to keep Lynn with her, but when it became obvious Lynn would leave, she’d made her tell Dani everything she needed to know.
Then a thought hit her: Dani could have gone back to the Homestead to gather the group after Lynn left. She would have been much safer then. Why hadn’t she? Lynn didn’t buy the story about Kate not taking her back for a second now. Did she really believe she would be able to get Richard’s body alone? That she had enough skills to survive whatever came her way? And if so, was that boastful stupidity or reality?
Dani got farther and farther away.
Was she really that good? She’d utterly failed to convey that level of skill with the wolves. Had she been playing that? Lynn couldn’t imagine Dani would have stood by and let Lynn get killed. Even if she’d wanted to, Lynn hadn’t yet told her where Richard’s body was, so Dani had still needed her.
Lynn closed her eyes for a few seconds. She tried to get her thoughts to slow down. It was impossible to keep up with the unending stream of images and conversations up for review, and they didn’t get her answers. Get a grip! She couldn’t sit here in the middle of the road, clutch a dog, and hope that reality would start to make sense on its own.