Planet Lara: Sanctuary

6. Dead-End Woods-1

CHAPTER SIX

dead-end woods

Catrina’s exhaustion works to my advantage. She believes me, or at least appears to, when I tell her it’s just my friend Eugenia, the philosopher bartender, calling to see how things are going and if I’m OK. I explain that she’s good friends with Benny and Amalie, and they told her about Finan, so she’s just checking in.

Of course, none of that is true, but I will worry about untangling my lies later. After I get back from meeting with Iona.

Alone.

This is stupid. TELL someone. Tell Len. See if someone among his stable of muscle has one of those hunter outfits so he can hide in a tree and watch to make sure Iona’s not going to chop off YOUR arms and staple a note to your sternum.

Do I take my Thalia Island phone? If I do and something happens to me, they’ll at least be able to find my avatar as a starting point. But if I don’t want anyone to know where I am for the next however long, maybe I should leave it behind.

Then again, our bloody cars all have GPS—and I don’t know how to disable it—so going stealth isn’t possible on such short notice.

It’s so hot in here. Why is it so hot? Is our cooling system having its own issues today?

I pluck a hankie from my open desk drawer and dab at my upper lip and forehead. When Harmony bounds back into my office, the fright jerks my torso, sending a painful tweak through the still-healing right half of my abdomen.

I slide my phone into my pocket and make a pointed effort to talk slowly, as if nothing is amiss. “Finish your math. Then get something to eat at the diner and see if Tommy or Dakota need your help with food for the searchers at the community centre. I’ll be back in a bit so we can take Humboldt home. Sound good?”

“Where are you going?”

Slipping past Harmony is going to be trickier than slipping past Catrina.

“I’m going out to the cabin real quick to grab something for Rupert.”

“Can I come? Do you want me to go get it? I brought my bike.”

I point at her math pages—again. She shakes her head—again.

“Harmony, I’ll be back in an hour. Please, can you do your math so we can keep hanging out and your mom doesn’t come in and yell at me for being a bad influence?”

She slumps into her cushioned bamboo chair. “Fiiiiiiiine.”

“Thank youuuuu,” I say, patting her shoulder as I walk past. “Be sure to text me if anything happens with Wes or the police while I’m gone.”

I hold my keys against me as I tiptoe out so they don’t jingle and catch anyone else’s attention—and so I don’t drop them in my trembling, clammy grip. I don’t breathe all the way to Rupert’s car, hoping he’s not pissed if he discovers it missing. The few faces I pass along the way are sympathetic and worried. I offer nods of solidarity—we’re all freaked out and worried about Finan, and everyone knows he and I are a couple, so I accept their concern and will use it as a shield to remind myself we will find him.

I will find him.

Maybe right now.