Luna rubs her stomach in panicked circles. “Are you OK?” For a terrifying handful of seconds, the baby is still. Then he nudges, as if to say he’s still there.
“Clover?” she says. “Clover, are you all right?”
No reply. Luna can’t turn around far enough to see if she’s OK, so she quickly gets out of the car and steps into the rain, pulling the passenger door open. Clover has been rolled into the passenger footwell, curled up with her face in her knees.
“Clover?”
A whimper lets her know that she’s conscious.
“Are you hurt?”
“I hurt my knee.”
“Let me see.”
She looks over Clover, determining with relief that she’s fine, other than a few bumps from jerking forward. The seat belt caught her.
Suddenly, a bright light shines on them both. Luna turns to see a car heading straight for them, coming to a screeching halt at the side of the road. In seconds, a man has stepped out and is striding toward them.
He’s tall and rakish, with greasy black hair to his jaw, a tattoo of a panther on his neck, a missing front tooth. A grin.
“You’re Luna Stay?”
She frowns, confused by the shift to a smile. “Yes?”
He steps forward and eyes her coldly. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
II
Luna tries to conceal her terror. A stint in juvenile detention taught her this—you show fear, you give away your power.
“Brodie,” she says, reading his name badge. “Do I know you?”
He narrows his eyes. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”
“Very modest of you to think I’m here for you,” she says. “Is that why you put broken glass in my food? So very brave of you.”
He spits on the ground. “Look, I’m not here to start a fight.”
“You could have fooled me,” she says, her nerves jangling. “Or maybe the car chase was meant to kill us outright.”
He steps forward, his hand raised, and she jumps back.
“Back off,” she says loudly. “Or I’ll scream.”
His face softens. “Look, I’m not the one you should be worried about.”
She laughs. It sounds insane. “No?”
He glances behind her. “They know you’re here. I came to warn you.”
She frowns. “Who knows I’m here?”
“All of them. As soon as you boarded that ferry, they were waiting for you.” He shakes his head. “You didn’t think to change your name?”
“What are you talking about?” she hisses. “Who was waiting for me?”
He looks at her up and down. “Are you really Luna? Saffy’s sister?”
The mention of Saffy feels like a slap. “What do you know about Saffy?”
Another glance behind her. “They say your ma tied you to a tree and cut out your heart. When they said you were here, I had to come and see for myself.”
“Do ‘they’ know where Saffy is?”
He turns to walk away. “You’d better go,” he says. “You’re fucking mad, coming back here.”
A sudden memory of Brodie and Saffy together clangs in her mind, and she takes three quick steps toward him, her eyes blazing. “Did you kill Saffy?”