Page 47 of Drowning in Darkness

“Are you going to explain?” I wonder.

“Soon. Just follow my lead and act normal.”

Normal is a relative term, and my frame of reference is anything but.

As we step around the corner of the parking lot, I lift my head to find two people in our car. I freeze, and my heart slams against my bruised ribs.

“Keep going,” she murmurs. To where? Should I sit on the person’s lap? I can’t even tell if they are male or female. “Into the white car.”

This is very cloak and dagger, and I can’t stop the niggling worry that Camryn is leading me into a trap. That is, until I notice the way she favors her left side. Nobody who takes a bullet for you is playing you.

“But the snacks?”

She snorts and climbs inside the driver’s side, while I get in the passenger. I risk a look at the other car, finding two women who look, at first glance, very similar to us.

Camryn nods once, and they exit the gas station in the direction we were traveling. She spends a few minutes connecting the secure phone to the car, then pulls out and goes back down the road we came in on.

“You can speak freely,” she says as she blows out a breath.

I have so many questions competing for headspace, but I’ll go with the most pressing one. “Did they just steal our snacks?”

“Back seat.”

I glance over and sure enough, the bags are there waiting. Well, now that my impending low blood sugar is sorted, I suppose I should ask more obvious questions. “What just happened?”

“The safe house is compromised.”

Her voice is even, but I can sense the undercurrent of rage.

“So who were they?”

“Not the FBI.”

“I gathered.”

“Sometimes you have to bend the rules because the people who are supposed to have your back are more likely to stab you in it.”

Her world must be rocked right now. I want to tell her it gets better, and she has stumbled on the small percentage of shits in the universe. But that’s not true. Money talks in every community, and the FBI is not immune.

“What’s the plan?”

She smiles, but it’s full of grim determination. “To stash you somewhere safe so I’m free to unravel how deep this betrayal goes.”

“That’s a dangerous plan.”

“It’s the only one that will work. I have faith that they’ll never find you, and I can’t concentrate and protect you at the same time.”

“I didn’t mean my safety, Camryn, I meant yours. Not only are you poking the bear, you’re doing it not knowing how many are going to come rushing to its roar.”

She shakes her head. “Don’t worry about me.”

“If you die, I will feel personally responsible. How could I not worry?”

“I was neck-deep in this before we ever met, Stephanie.”

My thoughts scatter to James and the relationship they’ve formed. It’s not a romantic one, but she doesn’t treat him like a criminal. “Is he as bad as he portrays himself?” I ask, too curious not to.

Camryn doesn’t pretend not to understand who I mean. It’s something I appreciate about her in the short time we’ve known each other. She tilts her head but keeps her eyes on the road.