Page 31 of Dead and Gone

The pair turn away, and I dash across the car park. "Good evening," I say.

"Shit!" exclaims Kai as I suddenly emerge from the gloom. "What are you doing here?"

"What areyoudoing here?" Rowan asks as he reaches us. "Are you insane?"

Kai's hand goes into his pocket, clutching the envelope. "The museum still gets the mole, what's the problem?"

"Exceptyoustill possess the mole," I reply. "We watched the so-called exchange."

Dale swears. "They saw."

"Fine. I kept the mole because you asked me to being the thing to you tomorrow. I didn't want to upset Violet Blackwood—nobody does," says Kai.

"But kept the cash?" I arch a brow. "What happened to the decision to stop the blackmail occurring, Kai?"

"Were you in on this all along?" asks Rowan.

Kai darts a look around, startled, as Leif jogs over to join us. "Did you bring the police with you? The curator?"

"Oh, no. I'd rather deal with you personally," I say quietly and step closer. "Hand back the money."

"Don't threaten me," Kai warns, pulling the envelope from his pocket. He slaps it into my hand.

"Can we go?" whines Dale. "I have a bad feeling about the woods after the recent murders."

He's eyeingme. "Because I'm here? You should be more concerned about the vamp hiding up a tree ready to ambush you."

"Wh-what?" asks Dale.

For someone who orchestrated a blackmail plot, he's really not thought everything through.

"What did you argue about a few minutes ago?" I study them. "Did one of you change your mind?"

Dale suddenly becomes fascinated by his shoes.

"The mole is erm… damaged," says Kai.

"That's the real reason we didn't leave the mole in the box. We want to fix it first," mumbles Dale.

"How damaged?" I snap and pull the object from a protesting Dale's hands. "What did you do to it?"

"Yeah, Dale. What did you do?" asks Kai with snark.

"I wasn't lying when I told you that I lost the mole at school." He doesn't look up. "But uh… I found it by a bench outside class later."

"You're lying," says Rowan. "You can't expect us to believe that you lost the mole and miraculously found it again?"

"I'm not!"

Heislying. I run my fingers over the mole's body, intrigued by such an item. There's no obvious damage—all limbs are intact, and there aren't any holes.

Oh. Wrong. Two holes.

"Where are the eyes?" I demand.

Dale shrugs. "Must've fallen out when it went missing."

"Fallenout?" scoffs Rowan.

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