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Will checks his watch. “Are you expecting anybody?”
“No.”
The gate is almost a mile from the house. It requires an external code, but there’s an intercom beside it.
Nobody called.
I take out my phone and open the security feed.
A lone figure is walking up the road.
Taylor leans over my shoulder. “Is that a kid?”
“Looks like it.”
The setting sun throws the person’s shadow across the dirt. Baggy pants. Oversized jacket. Brown hair hanging to the shoulders. A backpack appears to contain everything they own.
No vehicle waits outside the gate.
“How did they get in?” Arthur asks.
“The pedestrian gate didn’t latch after the delivery this afternoon,” I answer.
Will is already moving toward the house. “I’ll circle around.”
Taylor puts down his beer and follows him.
Nobody reaches my home accidentally. We’re twelve miles from the nearest town, and the final stretch of road climbs straight into the high desert.
I walk around the house as the stranger reaches the top of the hill.
It’s a girl.
Or a young woman.
She sees me and stops.
Even from thirty feet away, I can tell she’s exhausted. Dust covers her oversized clothes. A pair of thick glasses sits on her face, and strands of dull brown hair cling to her cheeks.
Her gaze moves over me before scanning the house, the vehicles, and the surrounding hills.
Not curious.
Checking for danger.
“Can I help you?” I ask.
Her attention returns to me.
“Are you Sean Campbell?”
Every instinct I possess sharpens.
“Who’s asking?”
She grips the strap of her backpack with both hands. “My name is Sage.”
The name hits something buried deep inside me.
