Chapter 24 #4
“Tell me you didn’t murder Adams,” Rue said. Lenore had been an accident? Okay. He didn’t forgive him and it didn’t make it right, but he could at least see how the accident had occurred. But Adams?
He’d died in a car crash.
“I had to,” Bowie whispered.
“No.” Shit.
“He overheard Eulalie and I talking about the plan. I couldn’t let him live.”
“My mom knew?”
“It was her idea to spread the rumor that Ryker was responsible. She wanted him to feel even a sliver of what you had to go through with all those accusations against you.”
“I did leave Ryder and Uriel to fend for themselves that day,” Rue reminded. “Ryker had nothing to do with Adams. He—”
“Screwed him on Cor Night to get to you,” Bowie growled. “You cried the whole way home. Funny how you seem to have forgotten all the shit he put you through.”
This wasn’t getting them anywhere.
It was just wasting time.
Rue weighed his options. He could try fighting with him, maybe get the knife before Bowie could shove him aside and stab Ryker again. Or, he could lure Bowie away and give Ellery a chance to save him.
The man his mom had apparently seriously wronged.
As hard as it was to choose to leave him, Rue knew Ryker’s best chance at survival was with the other Black Hart.
“Okay,” he tried to sound certain when he spoke. “I’ll go with you, but only if you walk ahead.”
“No way.”
“Go to the door then. I’ll follow. But I’m not letting you hurt Ryker again. That’s nonnegotiable. I’d rather stay here and die with him than allow you to end his life.”
Bowie considered, probably figuring Ryker would die here on his own without medical attention anyway, and nodded once. “All right.”
Rue eased away from Ryker, keeping Bowie in his sights as his friend moved across the lobby.
Halfway to the door, he stopped. “That’s far enough. Follow me.”
Rue hesitated.
“I won’t do anything to him,” he swore. “Let’s go.”
He moved toward Bowie, praying with each step away from Ryker that this wouldn’t be the last time they saw one another.
That his final act toward the man that he loved wouldn’t be abandoning him.
Again.
Bowie shoved the bench blocking the front entrance out of the way on his own, then motioned Rue closer. “I can’t control them. The bears should have moved off, but the fog makes them aggressive, so they could still be around. We have to move quickly and as quietly as possible, okay?”
“Yeah.”
“The fog is almost gone, so we can see the car. But…we might see other things as well. Don’t look. Just keep moving.”
They might see his mother’s dead body. That’s what Bowie was trying to warn him about.
Rue clenched his hands into fists at his sides but nodded anyway. “Let’s just go.”
Ellery couldn’t move until Bowie was out of the building.
Bowie grabbed onto Rue’s wrist, giving him a look that screamed not to try anything funny, then unlocked the door and stepped out into the afternoon air.
There were no signs of the last creature or any bears, and a red car was parked in the nearest parking space. It was nothing to get to it, a quick jog and then they were there, the doors opening with a click of the fob in Bowie’s hand.
They hadn’t seen any bodies on the way, but then, Rue had also opted to take his ex-best friend’s advice and had kept his sights strictly on the vehicle.
He climbed in first, then Bowie got in after and settled into the driver’s seat. The engine roared to life, and he spun the wheel. Within a minute, they were turning onto the road that would lead them down the mountain.
Rue looked back, but he was unable to see into the building and had no way of knowing if Ellery was with Ryker or how the Black Hart was doing. He’d let them get further down, and then—
“I’m sorry, Rue,” Bowie cut through his thoughts.
“I don’t forgive you,” he replied honestly.
Bowie sighed and turned his wrist, clicking some buttons on his multi-slate. “You don’t have to.”
There was a roar from around the other side of the lodge, where the final creature had most likely been feasting on Vance.
“It’s still close enough,” Bowie murmured to himself, hitting another button. His multi-slate started beeping, as if giving a count down.
“What are you doing?!” Rue reached for Bowie’s arm, but it was too late.
With horror, he watched as something exploded inside of the lodge. Chunks of wood flinging outward, the booming sound ringing in his ears before being quickly followed by a second. The flames rose high, fire blocking his view before the trees did as they turned a corner on the road.
“The dead ones inside were still rigged as well,” Bowie reminded. “There’s no way anyone survived that.”
The explosives…
“No.” Rue turned toward the door. He’d break through the glass if he had to. He’d—
Something stabbed him in the back of the shoulder, and he twisted away, reaching to feel a needle protruding from his body.
“It’ll be all right, Rue,” Bowie reassured.
But Rue didn’t believe him.
Things were only all right when Ryker was with him.
He slumped into his seat, the vibrations from the vehicle keeping him awake long enough to hear the third and final bomb go off.
Then, for the second time that day, he slipped into oblivion.