Epilogue
“How are you doing?” Ana dropped her head onto Alex’s shoulder.
“Been better,” Alex said, smiling.
The two of them were sitting side by side on the concrete forecourt, foil blankets wrapped around their shoulders, keeping out the last of the chill night air.
The gas station had become a staging area for the rescue operation.
Lights flashed, radios crackled, uniformed figures scurried here and there.
Ambulances were lined up in a row in front of them, backs open, contents spilling out.
A whirr of news helicopters flying overhead created a constant background hum, like angry mosquitos swooping over again and again.
There was a buzz of nervous energy. Everyone was trying to help. Everyone wanted a part to play.
It was overwhelming. Ever since the police had received an anonymous tip-off, it was all systems go.
The local town was on standby. An emergency response area had been set up outside the hospital.
Parents and school administrators had been flown in on a donated private jet (apparently Mr. Dankman’s kind offer to join them was politely declined).
They were all in town now, just waiting for the motel seven to arrive.
Without a shadow of doubt, Ana knew her mom would be there; probably front and center, anxiously checking each ambulance as it arrived, bothering everyone in uniform for news of her daughter.
It didn’t matter that they had barely spoken in weeks; when Carmen Reyes heard that Ana was in trouble, she would come.
Ana held this thought close as she contemplated what she had to do—it was time for the truth, no more secrets.
It was time to tell her mom what she had done a year ago, in the fire—about Danny’s death.
Whatever came of it, she was finally ready.
Turning away from the chaos, Ana looked out across the all-too-familiar desert. Dawn light was creeping over the distant mountain range. A new day.
Three hundred and sixty-six.
Next to her, Alex shifted, groaning as he adjusted his ankle. The EMT hadn’t taken any chances, and his entire lower leg was wrapped and bundled into an immense plastic splint.
“Does it hurt much?” Ana nodded at his leg.
“I’m good,” Alex said. “It looks worse than it is, and the pain meds are pretty awesome.” His voice sounded tired. She took his hand, their fingers entwining. It felt natural, being here with him. After everything, it felt right.
“Hey, lovers.” Raya walked up and scooched onto the ground next to them. “Did you hear they found the motel? It was burned to the ground.”
Ana wasn’t surprised. “Probably Hunt trying to cover his tracks and destroy any evidence of the Balloon Game, in case he’s caught.
” It wouldn’t work. When the police had first arrived, Ana handed them a small package: a photo of Karl folded around a gray pen with the HT logo, covered in Matt Hunt’s fingerprints.
Between that and Alex’s phone, containing copies of a dozen photos Ana had taken inside the now destroyed bunker, they had all the proof they needed of what Hunt had done to them at the Motel Loba—evidence he couldn’t burn. Checkmate.
“What if they don’t catch him?” Alex’s voice had an edge to it.
They all felt it. The man who had kidnapped and tortured them was still out there somewhere—still free.
The thought was terrifying. At the end of the day, thanks to Ana destroying his laptop, Hunt had failed to save the confessions he had gone to such cruel lengths to obtain.
What would stop him from coming after them again?
“They’ll catch him,” Raya said, projecting a confidence they all needed to hear. “One of the cops told me there’s a huge manhunt underway. They’ve got the whole area on lockdown. No one’s getting away.”
“Wouldn’t want to be driving a red truck today,” Ana added, wondering what else the police might catch in their net.
Two cowboys and a lost basketball player, maybe?
She briefly pictured Ellis, wandering alone down some long desert road, desperately trying to get cell reception so he could call his father.
Raya snorted. “Personally, I’m not staying in another motel anytime soon.
” Her voice sounded different—worn down, as though some of the fight had gone out of her.
Ana looked at her friend. Her face was streaked with dirt, her hair sticking out in clumps.
She was clearly trying to be okay, pushing through, but she wasn’t fooling anyone.
“Raya, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there when Ellis…” Ana didn’t know how to finish the sentence: When Ellis killed you? When he tied you up and dragged you to your death?
Raya shook her head dismissively.
“No. Don’t go there. It was a freaking mess.
We all had to face shit today. There’ll be plenty of time to cry about it later.
” Raya forced a short smile, changing the subject.
“Besides, you’re the dark horse, aren’t you?
The only one to make it into Hunt’s lair.
What was he like? Did he have creepy beer-bottle glasses and a comb-over? ”
“No,” Ana said thoughtfully. “He was kind of ordinary, a basic, boring dad type. Even when he talked. I mean, he was obviously ridiculously smart and all, but he almost seemed…nice. Like he’d be selling cookies at a bake sale or something.”
“Yikes. Somehow that seems worse. If you can’t tell a psycho from their looks, they could be any one of us.” As Raya said it, Caden walked out from behind a police car and lumbered across in front of them, heading for a nurse handing out free Gatorade.
Ana and Alex laughed.
“Stop it!” Raya remonstrated gently. “Caden’s all right. I mean, his heart’s in the right place, even if his head’s not always.”
“You know, gotta give him credit,” Alex said.
“Caden was the only one who figured out that we weren’t really being shot at.
He knew there was something fake about the way Benny died.
I totally missed that. I was sure Benny was dead—there was all that blood, and his eyes were wide open. I still don’t get it.”
“I can help with that,” Ana said quickly.
In the time she’d spent hanging out in the diner, waiting for Ellis to arrive, she’d managed to put together some of the missing pieces of Hunt’s puzzle.
“Benny was a ringer. It was a setup. They faked his death so convincingly that none of us would question if we were actually being shot or not.”
“Benny? Our Benny was in on it? Dang,” Raya said. “I liked Benny. What gave him away?”
“A few things. Benny’s keychain had the letters HT in orange on it.
I thought it was for the ‘Happy Travels Bus Co.’ But when I was in the bunker, I saw the exact same logo—HT for Hunt Tech.
Why would Benny have a company keychain unless he was working for Hunt?
Also, when we were on the line and Benny was about to go, he promised that we would be all right, all of us.
I swear he was trying to let us know it wasn’t real, to warn us. ”
“Oh, yeah, and what was with that fake accent?” Raya said. “New Joy-sey meets Fla-ri-dah? I’m guessing he’s a gig actor who’s not too good at his day job.”
They all laughed. Even though Benny was a fake, somehow it was still a relief knowing that he hadn’t died. One less thing to be sad about.
It felt oddly natural—the three of them sitting on the ground together, hanging out and talking. Almost as if it was just a regular school day. Not the day they had died. The day everything had been lost, and then found again.
Ana glanced from Alex to Raya, drinking in their faces, the closeness.
This was everything, and she’d come so close to losing it all.
It was a ridiculous thing to say, but she almost felt lucky.
Not everyone got a second chance—she knew that better than most people.
But here it was—a do-over, and this time, she would not lose sight of what mattered most in the world. She would not lose them again.
“I love you guys,” she said quietly.
“Okay, much though I love you back, I’m not into threesomes,” Raya said, climbing to her feet.
“I’m going to find myself an air-conditioned ambulance and get the heck out of this overheated hellhole.
Catch you later.” She winked and walked away, heading after Caden.
“Wait up, Big C. Don’t suppose you have any spare smokes kicking around? ”
One of the ambulances started up, slowly reversing out of the line, and pulling away.
Probably Jade and Jax’s ride. The two of them had barely spoken since waking up at the diner.
Nothing like a near-murder experience to test your relationship.
A hollowness had crept into the space between them—a crack in their veneer.
Hopefully it would heal and The Jade and Jax Show would be back in full swing, posted for all to see.
Maybe the damage didn’t run too deep. But even as she thought it, Ana pictured Jade’s face at the diner—the empty look in her eyes as though something was disconnected inside her—broken.
Whatever came next for them, it was going to be a long road ahead.
Ana watched the ambulance go, lights flashing as it pulled away from the gas station heading into town. It would be their turn to leave soon—to ride away and leave all this behind. To see her mom and Alex’s abuela. To pick up and start over—again.
“Okay?” Alex asked, rubbing her shoulder.
“Yup. All good. Considering.” Ana stretched. She was feeling a bit numb from sitting in one position for so long. A deep, pervasive tiredness was settling over her as the adrenaline wore off. She would sleep for a week, given half a chance.
“Ana…there’s something I wanted to ask you when we were alone.” Alex sounded a little on edge. “On the line, you knew we weren’t going to die, didn’t you? I just…why didn’t you tell me?”
She had been wondering when this would come up. It had been one of the hardest things she’d had to do in a very bad day—letting Alex believe that they were going to die.
“Alex, I’m so sorry.” Ana looked away, avoiding his eyes.
She would never forget the look on his face as they crossed the line—if only she could have spared him that.
“I wanted to tell you more than anything, there was just no way to do it without Ellis finding out too. In the bunker there was a video feed from inside the diner on the laptop. I knew everyone was alive, and if we could just cross the line, we’d be okay.
But Ellis was dangerous—he could have hurt you, or worse.
I had to let him think he’d won. If there had been any other way, I would have told you.
I’m so sorry for putting you through that. ”
“It’s okay,” Alex said, pulling her close. “It wasn’t on you. I get it. To be honest, I thought you were pulling a Romeo and Juliet. Leading us to our death. I’m sorry—I underestimated you.”
“That’s the theme of the day.” Ana laughed. But as she said it, another thought occurred to her. There had been another theme, an undercurrent that had carried them through everything.
The truth will set you free.
The final step in Hunt’s cruel, psychotic game.
He had brought them here to torture them into confessing their parts in the fire and clear Karl’s name.
But his plan had failed, the confessions had been destroyed by Ana, and rather than clearing his son’s name, he had revealed himself to be the very thing his son was accused of—a monster.
Even if the truth about Karl’s role in the fire eventually came out, the Hunt family name would now forever be tainted with evil.
But, ironically, for the survivors, after everything that they had been through, after confessing their guilt and accepting their fate—in some strange way, the truth had actually set them free. Each of them had been given something that Danny, Maia, and Karl never had—a second chance.
Ana nestled her head into Alex’s shoulder, looking out across the desert.
The first rays of dawn light clipped the top of the distant mountains and cut through the sky, turning the world gold and purple. The lightness inside her soared for a moment. A new day was beginning—a brilliant day filled with color and life and love.
She glanced up at Alex, his face touched by the golden light, his soft brown eyes catching glimmers of the sunrise, sparkling. They had time. They had a future. Wherever it would take them; whatever came next. She could breathe again, deeply—freely.
Closing her eyes, she felt the first rays of light on her face, the warmth of a new beginning. Her skin tingled, every sense felt alive. It was as if some powerful force was hugging her, holding her close, letting her know everything was going to be okay.
But she knew it wasn’t the universe or some god that she was feeling.
She knew exactly who it was. She could sense him all around her now—in the wind, in the sun, in her heart.
For so long she had missed him. For so long she had been shut down, held back with the weight of guilt and grief.
But after all this time, after everything, in the dawn light sitting on the cracked, gas-stained concrete in the middle of nowhere—he had found her at last.
He was here with her.
Her brother. Danny.
A year ago, she had grabbed her schoolbag off the kitchen table and run out of the door and out of the life she knew, forever. Since then, she had been lost, somewhere dark and lonely. But it was finally over. She wasn’t alone anymore.
At long last, it was time to go home.