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Dad snaps his seatbelt on. “It could be anyone.”

“Yes, it could, but my gut says it’s them.” I say as Dad’s phone rings.

He answers without looking. “Yeah?”

“They’re here,” Douglas Boone says.

After double checking the address for the rental on my map, I start up the engine. Ivy texted the directions to me. It should be relatively easy to find the house in a town this small.

“And you know this how?” my dad asks.

“Picked up some food at the diner. People here are friendly. Apparently there’s a little community?—”

“And they wanted to know if we were joining them since we’re out of towners?” I interrupt.

Douglas chuckles. “Something like that.”

“Is there any way to approach for a closer look?” I ask as I pull out of the gas station.

“Not without someone seeing us,” Douglas says. “I asked a local if this little community was friendly and they said yes. Anytime they’ve gone up to see if they need a hand with their construction, someone is always there to greet them and say they have everything covered.”

I glance at my dad.

So someone is always watching. There’s always a back way, but it’s been over ten years since I’ve been here. The forests that I remember running through and playing in when I was a kid won’t be the same. Maybe they’d have cut some of the trees back, or maybe things are exactly the same. But we can’t risk just driving up and giving ourselves away so soon.

“Fine. We’ll talk it over,” my dad says and hangs up.

“How much do you think is still the same?” I ask him as I make the drive to the rental.

As expected, it doesn’t take long to find the quiet suburban side road. The sky is darkening as night sets in. It’s nearly 7 now and I’m ready to get out of the car, not just to stretch my legs, but to just get out.

He shrugs. “Hard to know for sure unless we check it out. Probably a lot. They want you though and they have Aerin. They know we’re coming, and they’ll be prepared for us. I don’t think there’s going to be an easy way of getting her back.”

“I thought you’d say something like that.” I muffle a yawn as I park in front of an ordinary family style home.

There are familiar cars parked already in the driveway and on the road. Looks like we’re the last to arrive.

We all packed a small bag each, not intending to be here for long, so we grab our bags from the trunk of the car and head inside the house.

Ivy and the others are in the dining room. They have bags of snacks and sodas laid out, and they already have a map of Karson spread over the table.

After greeting everyone and dumping our bags beside the front door, we join them in the dining room.

“There aren’t enough rooms for everyone, so a couple of us are going to have to crash on the two couches,” Ivy says.

“This house was all we could find that wasn’t too close to the Raleighs,” Douglas explains.

I shrug. “We won’t be here for long. I don’t mind taking the couch.”

“You need to stop being so amenable,” my dad says on his way to sit beside Ivy.

“Because I should be more like you?” I ask.

He stops and looks at me.

I’m not sure why I said it. It wasn’t intended as an accusation or an insult, but I think that must be how he takes it.

He walked out on me and the rest of the pack without a word. And to this day, I still don’t know why. He has never said why. Maybe Ivy knows. I sure don’t.

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