“It’s…”
“It’s wha—” He took a moment at the window. “Who the hell are those people Griffin’s with?”
Jenny couldn’t answer. Again, darkness had fallen upon her. She could only imagine what was to come. After seeing the takeover of River’s Edge… Now, Griffin leading them to the Depot. It was happening all over again. Why? Why again? It was too soon. Too soon to face Xavier’s murderers. Too soon to have to deal with them again.
Chapter Seven
“This won’t end well,” Jenny huffed, slogging through the snow behind Danny and Sherman. She yanked her kerchief down. “I’m serious! They’re no good!” Neither Danny nor Sherman reacted to her warning. She couldn’t even be sure her voice reached them up the hill. The appearance of these Second Alliance strangers had Danny consumed by curiosity. Had him trekking home with seemingly endless strength, endless stamina. He kept plowing ahead. Sherman too. And Jenny was falling behind. Again. “Danny! Please! Just listen to me for a second. You can’t go into this blind. You know it’s not a good idea. Let me—”
“Let you what?” Finally, he slowed, but wouldn’t stop. For him, the hill peaked only a few paces away.
“I’m telling you the S.A., er… The Second Alliance is no good!”
“How the hell do you know what they’re called?”
“It’s…” Jenny’s voice faded, she tossed her head back in frustration, hating herself for not telling him earlier, for not sharing what Danny deserved to know. It had been wrong to keep it from him. She should’ve told him where she and her friends had come from and why they had fled. Maybe then Danny could’ve warned Griffin of the Second Alliance and the whole thing could have been avoided. Maybe we were wrong…
“How do you know who they are?” Danny asked again from atop the hill, clearly annoyed with Jenny’s unwillingness to reveal all she knew. “We’ve never seen them before. Not even in as many times as we—” He pulled the kerchief from his mouth and scoffed. “Shit… How the hell didn’t I see it sooner? These are the ones in black, aren’t they? The ones you asked about in that house where we got shot at? The ones that had you so worried?” His tone became aggressive. “Why are they looking for you, Jenny? What did you do to them?”
“What did I do?! What the hell, Danny?!” Anger coursed through her veins—the accusation completely uncalled for. “After all we’ve been through, you’re actually going to stand there and ask me that? What the hell do you think I could’ve done, Danny?!” She took pause from the conversation. The yelling was exhausting. Her strength was dwindling. It took everything inside herself to best that hill. To come even with Danny. To make him look her in the eyes with any more baseless claims.
“Alright, look.” She threw her rifle across her back. “Gimme a sec to explain before this gets any worse than it already is.”
His face read of impatience.
“We didn’t do anything to them. Nothing. And that’s the truth.” Their eyes locked. Hers felt fragile. His were steadfast. “Those assholes are why we had to come to the Depot in the first place. They’re the reason why we had nowhere else to go. What they did…” She broke her gaze from his.
“What, Jenny?” She felt he wanted to grab hold of her and shake the words loose from inside her. “Tell me.”
Still unsure of how to phrase it, Jenny searched herself.
“If you want me to take anything you’re about to say seriously, then you gotta tell me everything. You can’t keep holding back.” He raised his eyebrows. “I’m trying to be patient. I’m trying to understand what’s going on, but I need you to quit playing this back and forth shit. I need the truth, Jenny. Not your opinion. What happened? What the hell is wrong with these people? Why would Griffin be leading them here if he didn’t trust them?”
“They—” Her voice shattered, vibrating her lips into a violent quiver. “I…” The hesitation in her voice wasn’t purposeful. It took everything she had not to completely fall apart in front of Danny. “I’m sorry. I’m trying.” A tear. A gasp—a deep shudder into her lungs.
“You can tell me. You can tell me anything. You should know that.”
“If what I think is about to happen, if Griffin’s already struck a deal, then… it’s already over. The Depot’s done.”
“I still don’t—”
“The whole thing’s a sham!” she snapped. “They’re murderers. That’s their thing. That’s the whole thing. They come in with these ideas. These— Like everything they say is this amazing… I don’t know. They just fucking show up. Then everything changes. At my home before here, before the Depot, they made promises, all sorts of fucking promises for us to agree to work with them. But Matt told me Larry knew they were trouble. That he’d sent them away—”
“The name Larry means nothing to me.”
“You’re right. That doesn’t matter. I—I’m sorry, I’m just…” She swallowed before continuing, slowing her words. “The point is our leader didn’t trust them. He didn’t take the bait. He sent them away for—”
“Then how’d they take over?”
“It was later when Larry left us to try and find his wife. Then… It was like they knew he’d left, because as soon as he was gone, the Second Alliance began attacking us. But—but not like you’d think. We didn’t know it was them. They made it seem like random people, bandits, whatever you want to call it, but our council felt they had no other choice, so…” Jenny closed her eyes. “They agreed to what the S.A. wanted. We fell for it. Just like Griffin did.”
“We don’t know that he agreed to anything yet.”
“I do! Griffin wants power, and the S.A. has it. Plenty of it. They make you think you’re equals, but bit by bit they take complete control. You don’t even realize it’s happening. A few people here and there. Before you know it, everything is theirs. Even…” She choked back the tears. Danny gripped her shoulders, without a doubt realizing the sincerity in her story. “My friend—My friend found out the truth and they—they killed him. Threw him from the scaffolding with a rope around his neck.” Jenny collapsed into Danny’s arms, sobbing, letting everything go, releasing all her hidden pain from where she’d kept it locked away. Now Danny knew. The three from River’s Edge weren’t fugitives but refugees.
“It’s okay.” Danny clutched her tighter into his chest. “It’s okay. I’ll get this sorted out with Griffin. Trust me.”
Pulling her head from his chest, Jenny scoffed. “Griffin? Really? He’s gonna make it all better?” She pushed him, forcing angry, hysterical outbursts of laughter through her sobbing. “They’ve probably promised Griffin all sorts of nonsense to band together. There’s no way he’s gonna give that up. Not a chance! He’s a power-hungry asshole!”
“What’s your deal with him? Griffin’s on our side. He’s one of the good guys. Look at what he’s done for you. For Matt. For Grant. He took you guys in with open arms even with your guys’ bullshit story.”
“Open arms? Ha! Oh, Griffin, my savior!” She gasped for air between sobs. “You’re so fucking blind, Danny. You’ve never noticed how he makes me feel? How I don’t ever want to be around him?”
“I mean, maybe, but you don’t see him that much.”
“That’s how I want it. You just don’t get it. I don’t want him around me because he’s a monster. This—this monster, he raped me, Danny! Took me. Held me down. Threatened my life. Grant’s and Matt’s too if I told anyone. And that’s your friend. That’s who you trust to make it all better. But I don’t!”
Danny looked away.