Page 74 of Cruel Love

“Who are these people?” he asks, dry-heaving.

“I don’t know,” I answer.

The van starts and quickly speeds off. I try to orientate myself to feel which direction we’re headed. East? No, north…

“Dante…” Lucy says. “Are you okay?”

“I’m all right, Luce,” he replies, catching his breath.

I smirk. “Nice moves back there, Lucy.”

“Thank you,” she says.

“Fox…” Dante growls. “If we get out of this, I’m gonna kill you.”

I chuckle. “Yeah, I know.”

Chapter 22

Boxcar

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” Lilah asks. “Satellite shows nothing here.”

I stare ahead through the woods, biting my tongue a little too hard but my love of snark wins out in the end. “Wouldn’t be much of a secret hideout if you could see it, would it?” I answer. “It’s here. Just can’t remember how far in…”

She lets out an impatient breath but says nothing else as she quickens her stride up ahead. Archer glances over his shoulder at me and shows an apologetic shrug that I instantly brush off. She’s not annoying me. I’m not even particularly mad at her at the moment. I just prefer to suffer silently.

I can’t believe I agreed to come back here. I probably shouldn’t have. Breaking into this house changed my life and not in good ways. One could argue that I never would have met Caleb if I didn’t, and I yield to that argument, but I also never would have gotten caught. I never would have been dragged into the desert to commit treason against my country. I wouldn’t have gotten so obsessed with any of this.

And yet, here I am, walking right back into the belly of the beast instead of being at home with my pregnant wife.

I am not a smart man.

“It should be just up ahead,” I say.

Lilah’s red head flicks back. “What? You recognize a bush or something?”

“Actually, yeah.” I point to the left. “I stopped to take a leak on that tree.”

She rolls her eyes.

“Children, behave,” Archer says, his voice low.

“You know,” Lilah spins around to walk backward while speaking, “I call shenanigans.”

“Shenanigans?” I repeat.

“I think you’re taking us on one long goose chase,” she says.

I exhale. “Yeah, sure.”

“Lilah…” Archer tilts his head.

“He didn’t deny it,” she says. “Come on, Archer. Isn’t it a little weird to you that in all the time you spent hanging out with Snake Eyes you never heard about this place either?”

“Wait…” I pause, staring up at Archer. “You hung out with Snake Eyes?”

He flexes his jaw. “It’s complicated.”

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