Page 30 of Hollow Moon

All Knox could do was howl deep in his throat.

“You want me to keep trying to monitor her?” Jonah asked. “Or should I help with the setup?”

Knox felt as though the decision would literally tear him in two. But he knew he had to make it quickly

“We’d better all work together,” he said, knowing that if Maggie died in there, he would never forgive himself. But he also knew he’d end up dead if he simply rushed into the house to try and save her. And if the other Decorah men tried to join him, they’d get shot, too.

“What’s the plan?” he asked.

“We were in the middle of working that out.”

“Christ, you mean you’re just bullshitting me?”

“No,” Cole answered. “We have small explosive charges that will sound like gunfire. We have to set them out on one side of the stable.”

“Okay. Do it.”

Brand and Cole ran back to the car. Knox and Zack cautiously moved into position near the stable—making sure none of the drug guys saw them.

When the other Decorah agents returned, Jonah kept watch while the rest of them distributed the charges in the woods. They were designed to go off with a series of cell phone signals.

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Up in the bedroom, Maggie blinked as she tried to focus on her surroundings. She thought the drug had put her to sleep for a few minutes, but she couldn’t be sure of that—or anything else.

Raising her gaze, she saw that Campbell was watching her with a curious expression on his face.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Sick,” she managed to say, wondering if she was pronouncing the word correctly because it was hard to think and hard to make her mouth work properly.

“It’s supposed to make you feel good.”

She grunted.

“Do you feel good?”

“No.”

His voice sharpened. “Are you lying to me?”

She wasn’t even sure of the answer. She had never liked the feeling of being drunk. And she’d stayed away from drugs. Now she felt dizzy and at the same time euphoric. Was that supposed to be good? It certainly wasn’t her definition. She could just picture some poor jerks high on this stuff wandering around the streets, getting hit by a car or falling off a highway overpass.

“Tell me about the guy.”

“Huh?” Probably he was talking about Knox. No way was she going to give away anything about him.

“We were going to talk about your friend,” Campbell pressed.

“What friend?” She was feeling way outside the orbit of Saturn, trying to claw her way back to earth, but she knew she had one main mission—to keep her brother from finding out about Knox.

“You sound like you’re on a two-day bender.”

“Your fault,” she answered slurring her words more than necessary.

“If you don’t tell me what you know, I’ll kill him.”

“Who?”

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