“Where’s Richard?” Ren’s voice trembled just a little, betraying how important the answer was—not just to Ren, but most likely also to Lynn’s survival.
Lynn took a steadying breath. “I had to leave him behind to get Dani here in time for you to save her. If Dani were awake, she would tell you the same thing.”
“She’s not awake, though.” The accusation in the words ruffled Lynn’s feathers.
“I got her here! If you’re not competent enough to—”
The sudden creaking of the chair prepared Lynn for the slap across her cheek. It still jolted her painful body and sent her heart pounding again. She clenched her jaw and carefully reached up with the arm not tied down to rub the sting from her skin. “Feeling better now?” Through her eyelashes, she watched Ren sink back onto the chair.
Ren sucked in a breath, clearly audible in the otherwise silent room. “I-I’ve been trying, I—”
“Trying to do what?”
“To get her to eat, to drink. I—” She cut herself off. “I-I’m going to get Kate.”
Lynn was angry—and worried—enough not to care. “You do that. Maybe I’ll get some real answers then.”
The chair creaked again, but Ren got up slowly this time.
Lynn turned her head to track her progress toward the door. She’d won this round of interrogation—she’d learned much more than Ren had—but what the consequences were, she didn’t know. At least she’d have a few seconds to herself while Ren got Kate. She really needed to gather her thoughts, take stock of her inventory, and make a plan.
CHAPTER 23
WHEN KATE ENTERED, LYNN MET her gaze head-on. Her vision had cleared enough to track her entire progress to the sole chair in the room.
The two intervening weeks had not done Kate a kindness; the bags under her eyes were dark and pronounced, and she’d lost weight. Her machete thumped against the seat of the chair as she lowered herself down onto it. “Where’s Richard?”
As much as Lynn hated to give up any information, perhaps a small token of cooperation would help her get out of this shackle quicker. She hadn’t found a lock on the entire thing—not on the manacle, not on the chain that ran down from it, and not on the hook that secured the chain to a heavy stone block that she was too weak to tip over, let alone drag. She took as deep a breath as her sore ribs would allow. “At a bakery about a day away. I can tell you where.”
Kate didn’t outwardly react. “Did you hurt Dani?”
Lynn’s insides turned to ice. “What? No, of course I didn’t hurt Dani! Why would you even think that?”
“Your threat.”
Threat? “What are you talking about?”
“You threatened to lure us into a trap and get us killed if I sent more people than just Dani with you.”
A flush of heat crept up to Lynn’s cheeks. Now she remembered her heated words during the standoff with Kate. “You didn’t send anyone else.”
“No,” Kate said, “and yet Dani is lying behind that wall, fighting for her life.”
Lynn’s heart thumped painfully against her bruised ribs. “I-I didn’t do that to Dani. Why would I have brought her here if I’d done that? Why risk coming back here without Richard’s body?”
Kate didn’t respond for what felt like an eternity. “I don’t know, Lynn, but I guarantee you I’ll find out.”
Shit! Lynn swallowed down a surge of panic as she realized she was in a lot more trouble than she’d assumed. They didn’t just blame Richard’s death on her, but Dani’s injuries too. Don’t worry, Dani will tell them they’re wrong. But it wasn’t quite so simple: What if they don’t wait for that? Then all of her fears conglomerated. What if she dies? The thought sent her heart racing. Maybe she could fight her way out if the Homesteaders came for her, but what was out there for her if she lost Dani? “Let me prove I didn’t hurt her; let me help. I’ve gotten her to eat and drink before. I can do it again.”
Tense seconds passed. Kate leaned forward on the chair. “I don’t trust you. I’m not going to let you near Dani again.”
Lynn tried to calm herself enough to appear trustworthy. “Kate, I know I can do this. Don’t condemn her to a slow, agonizing death.”
Kate scanned her eyes.
Lynn forced herself to continue breathing.
“You get one shot.” Kate help up a single digit.
Relief coursed through Lynn’s system, and she had to stop herself from exhaling in a sigh. She let her air out slowly through her nostrils instead. “That’s all I need.”
Sweat pearled on her forehead by the time she reached the door to Dani’s room. Her leg muscles burned in a way she had never experienced before, and she had to lean against the wall for support to cross the fifteen feet or so between their rooms.
Kate had stared her down impatiently all the way, hand on the doorknob to Dani’s room, arching a brow as if to ask why she wasn’t moving any faster.
She sent Kate another withering glare. You try pulling off what I did for your sorry ass and see how well you’re walking afterward. At least the manacles had come with a lock after all, and she wasn’t hauling fifty pounds of iron and rock with her.
“Mind yourself in there.” Kate placed her hand on the heft of her machete.
Once more, Lynn wished she had a weapon on her, but she wasn’t even wearing boots. They’d taken everything off her but her breeches and shirt. She chose to ignore Kate; she needed to brace herself for whatever the other side of the door had in store for her.
The curtains were drawn in the room, but there was enough light to make out the basics. For one, the room was occupied not just by Dani, who lay on the bed. Flint sat in a chair someone had pulled up.
He stood as she entered and put his hand on the pistol in his chest holster. After a few tense seconds of glaring, he stepped back and took up vigil by the window. His hand never left the weapon.
Lynn swallowed and let go of the wall. She wavered a little as she crossed the room but managed to stay upright and on course.
The room contained an assortment of knickknacks—mostly odd objects such as teeth, skulls, shiny stones, and shells, offset by an impressive collection of weapons. It was undoubtedly Dani’s room, and it matched her well. Looking around gave her a few seconds of reprieve from the sight she knew would greet her once she finally felt prepared enough to hide her emotions: Dani, on the edge of death.
The moment to confront her fears came when she lowered herself down onto the chair.
Dani looked even sicker than before. Her cheeks had sunken in; her hair stuck to her skull in tangles, and her eyes moved wildly under her eyelids. Even with Dani looking so sick, Lynn couldn’t tear her eyes away from Dani’s face. Seeing it filled her with a whirling mess of joy and nerves.
“Staring at her isn’t going to help.” The tremble to Kate’s voice took the sting out of the words. “There is a lot of food and fluids there.” She pointed at the table by Lynn’s side. “If you can get her to eat any of it, that would be good. If you can get her to calm down, Ren can use maggots on her.”
“Maggots?” Lynn fought a shudder as memories of Richard’s bloated body, crawling with the white buggers, rushed to the forefront of her mind.
“They eat dead flesh. She needs to lie still for the treatment.”
But no pressure. Lynn sighed and ran a shaky hand over her hair. “I guess privacy is out of the question?”
Kate snorted. “Damn right it is.” She hadn’t moved farther than the threshold into the room.