The other men littered the floor around us. Riley was noticeably absent.
I spotted Sam a few feet away from Connor. I dropped the gun, scrabbled to Sam’s side, and gave him a shake. He tensed, groaned. “Sorry,” I said. “Are you okay?”
His eyes fluttered open. “Goddamn it, Anna, you could have been killed.” He coughed. “You can’t be so damn reckless—”
I kissed him. When I pulled back, I said, “Shut up, all right? You need your energy.”
A genuine smile played across his face and I fell for him all over again.
“I think he’s delirious,” Cas said.
“Don’t die on me,” I ordered.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said right before he passed out.
We managed to reach floor B1 by taking the stairs. Nick carried Sam slung over one shoulder. Cas held on to Dad the same way. Nick had tried to check Dad for a pulse earlier, rationalizing that leaving him would be easier for all of us, especially if he was dead. But I wouldn’t let him. Because I didn’t want to know if he was okay or not. Because I wasn’t going to leave him there, anyway.
We’d just started for the ground floor when the door on B1 pulled open.
Cas had a gun trained on the person before whoever it was even made it over the threshold.
Trev stared back at us.
Nick deposited Sam on the floor and slammed Trev up against the wall. “You try to stop us from walking out of here and I’ll kill you.”
Trev held up his hands. “I won’t, but you should know that Riley is waiting in the lobby for you, and he’s summoned more men. I can help you get out.”
“And we should trust you?” I asked.
“You’re a traitor, dude,” Cas added.
Trev looked crestfallen. “I was never one of you. I was always undercover.”
Cas readjusted Dad on his shoulder. “You conned us.”
“I thought I was doing my job. I thought…” He blinked, regret pinching the corners of his eyes. “I hacked into the files here, and I think you were right. I started out like the rest of you, but somewhere along the line they made me think I was on their side. I thought I was working to save someone I loved. That’s what they told me. Being undercover was never supposed to last this long. I was as much a prisoner in that lab as you were.”
“Whose side are you on now?” I asked.
“No one’s. But I can help you get out of here.”
Nick released Trev and gave him a shove. “I’m not following you anywhere.”
“You’ll be stopped the second you enter the lobby.” He took a step, then paused. “Through this door”—he motioned behind him—“is a hallway that will lead to a parking garage. There’s a car there you can take.”
The boys looked doubtful.
I tugged at the hem of my shirt, the urge to move overwhelming. I wanted to get out of there. I wanted to look every inch of Sam over to make sure he was all right. And the longer I stood there listening to them argue, the longer it’d take me to get to Sam.
“We don’t have anything to lose at this point,” I said. “And for what it’s worth, I believe him.”
Nick snorted, but he hefted Sam over his shoulder again. “Fine, we’ll go. But if you screw us over again, I swear to God…”
Trev raised his eyebrows. “Let me guess: You’ll kill me?”
“Consider that a promise,” I answered and meant it. Trev shot me a look threaded with dejection, and I did the best I could to ignore it. “Show us the way.”
The car Trev led us to was a nondescript, smoky-gray sedan with tinted windows. The keys hung in the ignition, waiting.
With Trev’s help, we put Dad in the backseat and placed Sam next to him. Nick got behind the wheel and I went around to the other side, Cas on my heels.
“Wait.” Trev dug in his pants pocket and pulled out a black flash drive. “I don’t know if you want the information or not, but everyone’s files are on that drive. From start to finish. It might shed some light on the blank spots in your memories. I figure you deserve that much.”
“Thanks,” I said and took the offering.
Cas slapped Trev on the back, the hard sound of the contact echoing through the parking garage. “You’re still a dick.”
I went to duck inside, but Trev stopped me. All my senses went on alert. It said volumes about how quickly my relationship with him had shifted. I hated it. I hated what he’d done.
“Yeah?”
A bruise colored the skin around his left eye. He looked so tired and forlorn. “All those years… I wanted you to know…”
“Come on!” Nick growled.
Trev moved in closer, his head down as if the words he was about to say were too raw and true to face. “You really were the bright spot of that lab. I wanted you to know that. Whatever I said or did, it was real, even if my identity wasn’t.”
“You were my best friend.” I let all the tension flood out of my shoulders. “I can’t ever look at you the same. Ever.”
“I know.”
I wrapped him in a hug, catching him off guard. He stumbled backward before leaning into me and squeezing. “Take care of yourself,” I said.
“You, too. They won’t stop coming after you, you know.”
Now that Connor was dead, I wasn’t sure who “they” were, if Trev meant Riley, or someone higher up. At the moment, I didn’t really care. I tipped my head in a silent good-bye before sliding in the back beside Sam and taking his limp hand in mine.
“I’ll open the exit door,” Trev called, “and you’ll be on your own.”
“Sounds swell to me,” Nick muttered, turning the engine over.
Trev punched in a code at the exit. The garage door rattled as it rose, gliding up its metal brackets. I held my breath, because while I wanted to believe in Trev, I half expected Riley to be waiting on the other side.
Daylight spilled in through the opening, gleaming off the polished hood of our borrowed sedan. Nick pulled the car up the slight concrete incline and merged into traffic.
Dad woke up with a wince ten miles later. He had one gunshot wound to the back. His skin was the color of egg whites and his eyes were ringed in black.
“Take me to a hospital,” he grumbled, and we didn’t argue. Nick found one in minutes.
“Do you want us to stay?” I asked as Cas went in search of a wheelchair.
Dad shook his head. “Get as far from here as you can.”
“But—”
“Anna.” He regarded me in a way that was more fatherly than ever before. “Go. Please.”
Cas appeared with the wheelchair. With the boys’ help, I got Dad out of the car and into the chair, though it took a lot of effort on everyone’s part. We were all damaged in some way.
“What’s the story?” Cas said. “Homeless man?”
Nick shoved up the sleeves of his shirt. “We found him that way?”
“I’ll do it,” I said, taking control of the chair. “You guys will be here when I get back?”
Cas grinned, showing his dimples. “We’re not going anywhere.”
The automatic doors opened with a whoosh, and it reminded me instantly of the entrance door to the lab in our old farmhouse. I wondered what would happen to it now. Where would Dad live? And what of my belongings? I couldn’t think of anything I’d miss. My sketches, maybe. That was about it.
“Excuse me,” I called out. “This man has been injured.” I figured injured was better than shot. I didn’t want them questioning me, too.
A woman behind the desk pushed a button on the elaborate call center and said, “The nurses are on their way.”
I came around to the front of the chair and took Dad’s hand in mine. “You’ll be okay?”
He inclined his head. “I’ll be fine. You go on now.”
“Will I ever see you again?”
“Do you really want to? After everything I did…”
“I want to. You’re all I know. You’ll always be my dad.”
He shook his head, avoiding looking at me, and I wondered if he felt like crying, too. “I never thought I’d hear you say that. Not after you found out the truth.”
A nurse rushed up, claiming the chair. “What happened?”
“He’s hurt. I… ah…”
“She found me lying in the street like this,” Dad said. “If it weren’t for this young lady, I might be dead.”
“Let’s get him to the ER.” Another nurse punched the door’s auto-open button. The wide door swung in, revealing the bustling ER beyond.
Dad winked as the nurses rolled him away.
Outside, I slid into the waiting car, next to Sam. His eyes were open a slit.
“You’re awake. Thank God. I don’t suppose I can talk you into seeing a doctor, too?”
“Cas can fix me,” he croaked.
Cas snorted. “I don’t know, dude. That could be dangerous. You might end up with fewer organs than when you started.”
As Nick pulled away from the curb, Sam threaded his fingers with mine. I smiled a real smile that touched every corner of my soul. Because the boys were back by my side. Because we’d made it. We were free.
35
THE BRITTLE GRASS CRUNCHED BENEATH me as I sat in front of the headstones in the middle of Port Cadia Cemetery. Leaves had collected at the bases of the massive stones and in the lone pot of dead flowers.
I read the names on the headstones over and over again.
CHARLES O’BRIEN
BELOVED HUSBAND AND FATHER
MELANIE O’BRIEN
BELOVED WIFE AND MOTHER
“Hi,” I said to the stillness, feeling weird, but somehow closer to them, my real parents. “It’s Anna. It took me a long time to come back home. But I’m here.” I ran a hand down the raw edge of my father’s headstone, then patted my mother’s. “I wish I could remember you.”
I waited for something to come to me, for some old memory to dislodge itself from the deep hole the Branch had created. But nothing came. I didn’t even know what color my mother’s hair was. Or if my father had my hazel eyes.
Maybe I was expecting too much. Just seeing their final resting place was enough for now. I was here, and they were real, and that was at least a start. I had all the time in the world now to find out whom they had been, or if I had any other remaining family, maybe an aunt or uncle who could help to fill in the blanks.
Sam eased down beside me, still healing from the wounds he’d suffered two weeks earlier. His hair was longer and darker now, nearly matching the black of his thick canvas coat. It was early November and snow fell in soft flakes around us, not yet managing to stick to the ground.
“I found them,” I said.
Sam waved his hand in the air, signaling to the others that the graves had been found. Cas and Nick headed for the car parked outside the wrought-iron fence, leaving us alone.
“Do you think Dani has a gravesite?” I asked.
Sam looked outward, past the cemetery. “I don’t know. We can look into it.”
I nodded, feeling a pang of sadness for her. From what little information we’d found on the flash drive, we knew that she’d died right before Sam was moved to the farmhouse lab. We didn’t know how it happened. Another question left unanswered.
It was still odd to think of her as my sister, because I couldn’t remember a single thing about her. Instead, I thought of her as a long-lost relative I never knew, but who clearly meant a lot to Sam once. She must have been great in some immeasurable way.
“Now what?” I said, picking the leaves from the flowerpot, mentally promising myself I’d come back in the spring with something new. “Where do we go from here?”
I spotted Sam a few feet away from Connor. I dropped the gun, scrabbled to Sam’s side, and gave him a shake. He tensed, groaned. “Sorry,” I said. “Are you okay?”
His eyes fluttered open. “Goddamn it, Anna, you could have been killed.” He coughed. “You can’t be so damn reckless—”
I kissed him. When I pulled back, I said, “Shut up, all right? You need your energy.”
A genuine smile played across his face and I fell for him all over again.
“I think he’s delirious,” Cas said.
“Don’t die on me,” I ordered.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said right before he passed out.
We managed to reach floor B1 by taking the stairs. Nick carried Sam slung over one shoulder. Cas held on to Dad the same way. Nick had tried to check Dad for a pulse earlier, rationalizing that leaving him would be easier for all of us, especially if he was dead. But I wouldn’t let him. Because I didn’t want to know if he was okay or not. Because I wasn’t going to leave him there, anyway.
We’d just started for the ground floor when the door on B1 pulled open.
Cas had a gun trained on the person before whoever it was even made it over the threshold.
Trev stared back at us.
Nick deposited Sam on the floor and slammed Trev up against the wall. “You try to stop us from walking out of here and I’ll kill you.”
Trev held up his hands. “I won’t, but you should know that Riley is waiting in the lobby for you, and he’s summoned more men. I can help you get out.”
“And we should trust you?” I asked.
“You’re a traitor, dude,” Cas added.
Trev looked crestfallen. “I was never one of you. I was always undercover.”
Cas readjusted Dad on his shoulder. “You conned us.”
“I thought I was doing my job. I thought…” He blinked, regret pinching the corners of his eyes. “I hacked into the files here, and I think you were right. I started out like the rest of you, but somewhere along the line they made me think I was on their side. I thought I was working to save someone I loved. That’s what they told me. Being undercover was never supposed to last this long. I was as much a prisoner in that lab as you were.”
“Whose side are you on now?” I asked.
“No one’s. But I can help you get out of here.”
Nick released Trev and gave him a shove. “I’m not following you anywhere.”
“You’ll be stopped the second you enter the lobby.” He took a step, then paused. “Through this door”—he motioned behind him—“is a hallway that will lead to a parking garage. There’s a car there you can take.”
The boys looked doubtful.
I tugged at the hem of my shirt, the urge to move overwhelming. I wanted to get out of there. I wanted to look every inch of Sam over to make sure he was all right. And the longer I stood there listening to them argue, the longer it’d take me to get to Sam.
“We don’t have anything to lose at this point,” I said. “And for what it’s worth, I believe him.”
Nick snorted, but he hefted Sam over his shoulder again. “Fine, we’ll go. But if you screw us over again, I swear to God…”
Trev raised his eyebrows. “Let me guess: You’ll kill me?”
“Consider that a promise,” I answered and meant it. Trev shot me a look threaded with dejection, and I did the best I could to ignore it. “Show us the way.”
The car Trev led us to was a nondescript, smoky-gray sedan with tinted windows. The keys hung in the ignition, waiting.
With Trev’s help, we put Dad in the backseat and placed Sam next to him. Nick got behind the wheel and I went around to the other side, Cas on my heels.
“Wait.” Trev dug in his pants pocket and pulled out a black flash drive. “I don’t know if you want the information or not, but everyone’s files are on that drive. From start to finish. It might shed some light on the blank spots in your memories. I figure you deserve that much.”
“Thanks,” I said and took the offering.
Cas slapped Trev on the back, the hard sound of the contact echoing through the parking garage. “You’re still a dick.”
I went to duck inside, but Trev stopped me. All my senses went on alert. It said volumes about how quickly my relationship with him had shifted. I hated it. I hated what he’d done.
“Yeah?”
A bruise colored the skin around his left eye. He looked so tired and forlorn. “All those years… I wanted you to know…”
“Come on!” Nick growled.
Trev moved in closer, his head down as if the words he was about to say were too raw and true to face. “You really were the bright spot of that lab. I wanted you to know that. Whatever I said or did, it was real, even if my identity wasn’t.”
“You were my best friend.” I let all the tension flood out of my shoulders. “I can’t ever look at you the same. Ever.”
“I know.”
I wrapped him in a hug, catching him off guard. He stumbled backward before leaning into me and squeezing. “Take care of yourself,” I said.
“You, too. They won’t stop coming after you, you know.”
Now that Connor was dead, I wasn’t sure who “they” were, if Trev meant Riley, or someone higher up. At the moment, I didn’t really care. I tipped my head in a silent good-bye before sliding in the back beside Sam and taking his limp hand in mine.
“I’ll open the exit door,” Trev called, “and you’ll be on your own.”
“Sounds swell to me,” Nick muttered, turning the engine over.
Trev punched in a code at the exit. The garage door rattled as it rose, gliding up its metal brackets. I held my breath, because while I wanted to believe in Trev, I half expected Riley to be waiting on the other side.
Daylight spilled in through the opening, gleaming off the polished hood of our borrowed sedan. Nick pulled the car up the slight concrete incline and merged into traffic.
Dad woke up with a wince ten miles later. He had one gunshot wound to the back. His skin was the color of egg whites and his eyes were ringed in black.
“Take me to a hospital,” he grumbled, and we didn’t argue. Nick found one in minutes.
“Do you want us to stay?” I asked as Cas went in search of a wheelchair.
Dad shook his head. “Get as far from here as you can.”
“But—”
“Anna.” He regarded me in a way that was more fatherly than ever before. “Go. Please.”
Cas appeared with the wheelchair. With the boys’ help, I got Dad out of the car and into the chair, though it took a lot of effort on everyone’s part. We were all damaged in some way.
“What’s the story?” Cas said. “Homeless man?”
Nick shoved up the sleeves of his shirt. “We found him that way?”
“I’ll do it,” I said, taking control of the chair. “You guys will be here when I get back?”
Cas grinned, showing his dimples. “We’re not going anywhere.”
The automatic doors opened with a whoosh, and it reminded me instantly of the entrance door to the lab in our old farmhouse. I wondered what would happen to it now. Where would Dad live? And what of my belongings? I couldn’t think of anything I’d miss. My sketches, maybe. That was about it.
“Excuse me,” I called out. “This man has been injured.” I figured injured was better than shot. I didn’t want them questioning me, too.
A woman behind the desk pushed a button on the elaborate call center and said, “The nurses are on their way.”
I came around to the front of the chair and took Dad’s hand in mine. “You’ll be okay?”
He inclined his head. “I’ll be fine. You go on now.”
“Will I ever see you again?”
“Do you really want to? After everything I did…”
“I want to. You’re all I know. You’ll always be my dad.”
He shook his head, avoiding looking at me, and I wondered if he felt like crying, too. “I never thought I’d hear you say that. Not after you found out the truth.”
A nurse rushed up, claiming the chair. “What happened?”
“He’s hurt. I… ah…”
“She found me lying in the street like this,” Dad said. “If it weren’t for this young lady, I might be dead.”
“Let’s get him to the ER.” Another nurse punched the door’s auto-open button. The wide door swung in, revealing the bustling ER beyond.
Dad winked as the nurses rolled him away.
Outside, I slid into the waiting car, next to Sam. His eyes were open a slit.
“You’re awake. Thank God. I don’t suppose I can talk you into seeing a doctor, too?”
“Cas can fix me,” he croaked.
Cas snorted. “I don’t know, dude. That could be dangerous. You might end up with fewer organs than when you started.”
As Nick pulled away from the curb, Sam threaded his fingers with mine. I smiled a real smile that touched every corner of my soul. Because the boys were back by my side. Because we’d made it. We were free.
35
THE BRITTLE GRASS CRUNCHED BENEATH me as I sat in front of the headstones in the middle of Port Cadia Cemetery. Leaves had collected at the bases of the massive stones and in the lone pot of dead flowers.
I read the names on the headstones over and over again.
CHARLES O’BRIEN
BELOVED HUSBAND AND FATHER
MELANIE O’BRIEN
BELOVED WIFE AND MOTHER
“Hi,” I said to the stillness, feeling weird, but somehow closer to them, my real parents. “It’s Anna. It took me a long time to come back home. But I’m here.” I ran a hand down the raw edge of my father’s headstone, then patted my mother’s. “I wish I could remember you.”
I waited for something to come to me, for some old memory to dislodge itself from the deep hole the Branch had created. But nothing came. I didn’t even know what color my mother’s hair was. Or if my father had my hazel eyes.
Maybe I was expecting too much. Just seeing their final resting place was enough for now. I was here, and they were real, and that was at least a start. I had all the time in the world now to find out whom they had been, or if I had any other remaining family, maybe an aunt or uncle who could help to fill in the blanks.
Sam eased down beside me, still healing from the wounds he’d suffered two weeks earlier. His hair was longer and darker now, nearly matching the black of his thick canvas coat. It was early November and snow fell in soft flakes around us, not yet managing to stick to the ground.
“I found them,” I said.
Sam waved his hand in the air, signaling to the others that the graves had been found. Cas and Nick headed for the car parked outside the wrought-iron fence, leaving us alone.
“Do you think Dani has a gravesite?” I asked.
Sam looked outward, past the cemetery. “I don’t know. We can look into it.”
I nodded, feeling a pang of sadness for her. From what little information we’d found on the flash drive, we knew that she’d died right before Sam was moved to the farmhouse lab. We didn’t know how it happened. Another question left unanswered.
It was still odd to think of her as my sister, because I couldn’t remember a single thing about her. Instead, I thought of her as a long-lost relative I never knew, but who clearly meant a lot to Sam once. She must have been great in some immeasurable way.
“Now what?” I said, picking the leaves from the flowerpot, mentally promising myself I’d come back in the spring with something new. “Where do we go from here?”
