The Lair

CHAPTER SIX

Carter

My eyes were heavy as I drove down the mountain. The road was sharp and winding, the pavement slick. Driving should have taken my full attention. Instead, I was damn near nodding off. Maybe Lily was right. If I couldn’t stay awake behind the wheel maybe the Elites were doing too much. But what was the alternative? Send untrained, untested Greens out to gather supplies and do patrols? Christ, it’d be like sending lambs to the slaughter. And if I wouldn’t send Lily out into the field—and she at least had combat experience—then I sure as hell couldn’t ask anyone else to go.

I briefly considered pulling over on the side of the road and taking a combat nap, but Taylor was still up on the mountain fiddling with the Romex wire and his solar panels. I’d left a couple of other Elites up there with him, so at least someone had his back, but I knew Taylor. He’d stay up there working away until I either brought him what he needed or he ran out of food. Either way, I figured I needed to do it quickly.

I was headed down the mountain, past Base Camp, toward Elderton. Since I didn’t want to surprise anyone, I picked up the satellite phone and buzzed Stu, who was heading up the supply raid in Elderton.

“Yo,” Stu said.

“How’s the raid going?” I asked.

There was a moment’s hesitation on his end. “It’s great. It’s going great. I can totally handle this.”

Maybe sleep deprivation was making me punchy, but he sounded a touch paranoid. I rubbed at my eyes, which were starting to feel like they were lined with sand paper. “Yeah. I’m sure you can.”

“Excellent. ’Cause I got this. Nothing’s going to happen.”

“Right.” Nothing happened on most food raids. They were pretty routine. The thing with the Tick attacking the guy before Lily, McKenna, and I arrived, that was the outlier. You had to be cautious, sure, but it was nothing a group of Elites couldn’t handle. “No, I’m sure you’re doing great. I just wanted to let you know I’m heading into town, too. I didn’t want to surprise anyone.”

“You don’t have to come check up on me. I’ve got this.”

“I’m not checking up on you. Taylor realized we’re going to need another inverter on the solar panels. He says he saw at least a dozen houses with solar panels when we did that first sweep of the town back in the fall. I know there are a lot of other towns where I could pick one up, but I figured I could get in and out of Elderton quickly, since you guys have already done a sweep today.”

“Oh, okay.” Stu sounded relieved. “I just didn’t want you to think I couldn’t take care of her.”

“Take care of who?”

Suddenly I was wide awake. Instinctively, I slammed on the brake and the car started skidding across the road. It spun to a stop just as Stu answered. I knew what he was going to say before he even spoke.

“Lily. She’s doing great, by the way. A little jumpy, but she’s handling it.”

I sat there for a moment, heart thundering in my chest, vision darkening around the edges, sucking in one breath after another. Finally, my voice was calm enough to ask, “Lily came on the supply raid with you?”

“Yeah.” Despite my attempt to sound calm, something in my tone must have tipped my hand because Stu sounded nervous. “She said you guys had talked about it. I never would have let her come if I’d known you hadn’t approved it.” Then Stu muttered a string of curses.

And now I looked like an idiot who’d been duped by his girlfriend, Lily looked like the bitch who went behind my back, and Stu felt like he’d betrayed me. Damn it!

“No, it’s fine,” I lied. Goddamn it! What the hell was she thinking? “We did talk about it. I just—” Jesus, I hated lying, but what choice did I have? “I didn’t think we’d settled it.”

“You sure this is okay?” Stu asked.

No. It wasn’t okay. It was pretty effin’ far from okay. Because Lily was in danger. Far more danger than Stu knew. “Just keep an eye on her, okay?”

“Yeah. Of course.”

I slipped the Hummer back into gear and eased my foot onto the gas. I glanced down at the paper map open on the seat next to me and did some quick calculations. “I’ll be there in less than twenty. Give me the address again.” I wrote it right on the map as I drove. “Probably more like fifteen minutes. And don’t let her out of your sight until I’m there.”