When Devils Sing(100)
A prolonged moment later, Reid caught up to them, and they ran the short distance back to the BMW.
“We should be in the clear,” Isaiah whispered once inside the car. “I don’t think he saw us.”
“Yeah,” Reid agreed. He collapsed in the back seat, running his fingers through his soaked brown hair, pulling at the roots. Once his breathing leveled, he said, “I know what happened to Dawson.”
Both Neera and Isaiah turned to look at Reid. Adrenaline still pumped through his veins, tilting the world around him. “What?”
“He was … they were…” Reid’s words trailed off as he inhaled a sharp breath. “We were almost right. Dawson was meant to be Wiley’s right-hand man. Extra muscle for my community’s … I don’t even know what to call it.”
“I don’t understand,” Isaiah said slowly. “What does that mean exactly?”
“According to Dawson’s journal, he was being trained to do what we just saw. The dirty work for my family, for Lake Clearwater. Trained to kidnap—trained to kill.” His voice came out hollow as he shut his eyes tight. “But he clearly didn’t realize what he’d gotten himself into. He wrote that he was scared, that he wanted out. He was trying to figure out what to do.”
Realization dawned on Isaiah. “That’s why they took him. Dawson knew too much—he knew everything. If he couldn’t be a weapon, he was a liability.”
“This is huge,” Neera said, brown eyes darting between them.
Isaiah’s thoughts raced. “Did Dawson name names? Say specifics? Anything?”
“It’s all in the journal,” Reid said, patting his chest where the shape of the journal sat beneath his raincoat. “But we need to get out of here first.”
Yards away, Wiley Calhoun stepped out the front door of the cabin, then shut it with his foot, gas canisters still in hand. He dumped his supplies in his truck bed then climbed behind the wheel. The trio all crouched low in Isaiah’s car, despite being hidden within.
Isaiah expected him to leave, but Wiley sat there instead—watching.
Several long minutes passed before black smoke began to billow from the opened window in Dawson’s room. Through the heavy rain, he could just barely see a flicker of orange dancing along the room, igniting everything in its wake. Then from every window and door came the smoke. It wasn’t long before the roof of the cabin began to cave in on itself, while the wall panels curled and slid off the sides and onto the ground. Piece by piece, the home contorted and melted beneath the heat of the fire, transforming into a monstrous pile of rain-soaked rubble.
Once there was nothing home-shaped left of the cabin, Wiley flicked on the truck’s headlights, turned around, and disappeared down the gravel drive.
“Where’re we going next?” Neera asked, her voice desperate. “Did he say anything about where my mom could be? Where Sam is? Anything?”
“Yeah, he named one place,” Reid said. “Blind Bucks.”
SAM
23 HOURS
SAM WAS HELD captive where the sunlight couldn’t reach.
They kept her in the dark to disorient her—to weaken her. She was ashamed by how effective it was. Chained to a chilly aluminum floor, she had never felt more powerless.
In her isolation, all Sam could do was replay memories in her head. Her thoughts were stuck on an infinite loop of fear and regret as she thought of her final moments with Neera. She should’ve stayed that morning. She should’ve never left her side. Would she ever see Neera again? Or her brother? She thought of Ben and his dimpled cheeks and how she was going to leave him all alone in this world.
“I don’t want to die,” Sam confessed into the dark.
To which the dark answered back, “It didn’t have to be this way.”
Sam gasped, eyes straining. “Jack?”
“Howdy, Red.” A few feet away, a single flame appeared, illuminating the devil’s bottomless black gaze. “Turns out, the only thing worse than making a deal with the devil is not honoring the terms of said deal.”
If Sam had the energy, she would’ve laughed. “Rot in hell.”
The tiny flame danced across Jack’s stubbled face, casting him in an inhuman shadow. He merely smiled and said, “I never wanted it to end this way for you, Red. I mean that.”
In the blink of an eye, Jack was gone and Sam was left in the all-consuming dark.
Sam didn’t know how much time passed before blinding light spilled into the room. The light revealed a narrow meat cooler filled with bodies. Instead of Jack beside her, she found twelve people chained up and gagged.
Including Dawson, Kiran, and townsfolk, blinking against the light.
Dawson? She tugged against the chains, overwhelmed with relief to see him alive, yet desperate to help him, to free the people in the room, but Sam was just as trapped as they were.
She opened her mouth to call out Dawson’s name, only then realizing she was also gagged. The two could only stare at each other, their eyes speaking for them.
“Rise ’n’ shine, folks,” came the boom of her daddy’s voice from the doorway. “We’re relocatin’.”
CHAPTER 42NEERA
22 HOURS