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This is her choice, her life.
“I think she understands the dangers, right Six?”
She meets my eyes. “Yes, I understand the danger. And if I’m being honest, I’d absolutely rather hide away with all of you than find out what the hell could make my brain do this to me. But I think it could be more dangerous not to know.”
“Okay,” I agree, not taking my eyes off hers.
“I’m in,” says Micah.
Lukas playfully rolls his eyes. “You’re always in.” He contemplates Six with an earnest look, tentatively shrugging his shoulders. “But I’m in too if this is what you need.”
All eyes settle on Bennet. There’s a dark look in his eyes as he gazes directly at Six. “We should consider what our first steps need to be.”
Her shoulders visibly relax when she realizes he’s not going to argue.
“This might help us get started.” Jackson walks back into the room holding her beat-up backpack.
Six looks at the bag for a minute and pours the contents onto the table. We had barely gone through them while we were at the hospital, so this is the first time we’re getting a close look.
The clothes smell bad, covered in blood and what looks like oil. The first aid kit looks heavily used, and there are some toiletries you can get anywhere. We’re already pretty well acquainted with the dirty pocket knife and have solved where that came from. Six picks it up, opening and closing it a few times, testing the weight of it in her hand. She holds on to it as she gestures to the phone.
“Is there anything on that?”
Flipping the phone open, I confirm what I already know. “It’s dead. We’ll have to see if we can find a charger, it’s pretty old so none of ours will work.”
“I’ll check with the Coolson’s, I think they might still use an old flip phone.” Jackson heads out through the kitchen to seek out a charger.
“Is that trash?” She asks as I smooth out the ball of paper.
“It’s for a bus ticket…” I squint, trying to read the faded and wrinkled receipt. “…to RDU.”
Bennet looks up. “Raleigh?”
“I think so.” I pull out my phone to confirm RDU is in fact Raleigh-Durham. “Why?”
“My father has been spending a lot of time in Raleigh.”
Well, shit.
Bennet runs his hands over his face, the uncharacteristic movement betraying his level of stress. Returning to the papers in front of him, he shuffles them around, starting from the beginning again.
Six walks over to Bennet’s side. “What are we looking for?”
He shakes his head. “I’m missing something, but I don’t know what.”
“Do you think it’s a coincidence? That your dad is in Raleigh?”
“I think this is an awful lot of coincidences.”
On this, I have to agree. Shit is piling up and not all of it makes sense. Did Six come from Raleigh? Or was it merely a stop on the way here? Is it possible that Jackson Adley is involved in whatever happened to her, too?
Maybe Six is right, and this is deeper than any of us thought.
Jackson bursts back through the door with a cord held high above his head. “Found one!” He plugs the old burner phone in and lays it on a cabinet near the outlet. “It’s probably going to take a while before we can turn it on.”
“Seems like a good time to head into town to pick up the package, any other errands I can run while I’m out?” Lukas closes his laptop and stretches his long-ass body. I’m a pretty tall guy, over six feet. But this dude towers over me.
“I could ride along if that’s cool,” offers Jackson. Micah decides to ride along, saying something about getting Six some egg tarts, whatever those are.
