11. The Reconnaissance
The Reconnaissance
Harper
Caden helps me out of the car and kisses me breathless before we turn to Jack, Eli, and Luke. Luke’s here? My brow furrows.
“What about Penny?” She’ll be left alone with Luke’s father, and who knows what he’ll do to her.
“At her friend’s.” Luke steps close and chucks me under the chin. “She’s safe. She knows the deal now.”
True. Part of my heart aches for Penny and what she’s been through. She’s been a pawn for both her parents. At least, that’s what she told us. It’s possible that she’s just saying that to gain our trust.
Fuck, now I’m thinking like the horsemen, that everyone is a potential enemy. I shake it off and look around the abandoned area. There’s a chain across the road with danger and no trespassing signs on it.
I swallow. This is where my dad disappeared. This is where he may have died.
Realizing why we’re here, I shake my head. “Mom never told us what to look for.”
When I shiver, Jack wraps his arms around me, rubbing my arms. Caden’s sweatshirt is plenty warm for the evening, but I lean into Jack, enjoying his hug.
“We know, kitten.” Eli pauses in front of me with his flood light off. “We’re hoping something might spark a memory for you. Maybe the sign is something between your parents that you don’t know you know.”
I drag in a breath and turn to look into the dark. “Is it safe?”
“Probably not, princess.” Luke smirks and holds his hand out for me. “But we’ll keep you safe.”
I slip out of Jack’s arms and tug Caden’s sweatshirt sleeve out of the way to take Luke’s hand.
“Don’t let go,” Luke says softly as we follow Eli down a path to the actual pit of the quarry.
When we join Eli near the edge, it’s like a huge canyon in the earth. There are levels to the sides, like giant steps down, and water at one end of the bottom. We pause to take it in.
“This is too big.” I shake my head, keeping my voice low. Where would we even begin to search and how could we do that tonight?
“That’s what she said,” Jack says under his breath behind me.
“Yeah, but she likes it big.” Caden’s low voice sends a shiver through me.
Clearing my throat, I continue like I didn’t hear them, “We can’t possibly search everywhere tonight.”
“Not the plan, sweetheart.” Jack comes up on my side, and Caden closes in behind me.
“Then what’s the plan?” I turn to Jack. The moonlight helps with the darkness, reflecting off the white stone, but the silence is eerie even with the occasional croak of a frog. My body is tense, ready for something to jump out at us.
“Our fathers met here. There are only a few places where they would have been able to reach,” Caden says.
Eli turns and walks along the edge of the crater, leaving space between him and the cliff. “And even fewer they could have driven to.”
We fall in step behind him. Luke keeps me close to him, on the inside, away from the edge. We’re only a few feet away from a long drop. Shivers race through me.
I don’t want to think about how my dad might have had an accident out here. It seems easy to just tumble off into nothingness. Luke squeezes my hand.
“My father would have wanted a way to see everything, but have an escape available if he needed it,” Luke says and draws me in closer to him.
He wraps his arm around my waist but keeps my hand locked with his.
“My dad taught me how he thinks over the years. It’s the one thing that might help us out of this mess. ”
“Isn’t this acres of land though?” This quarry was in use fifty years ago.
It’s been closed a long time, but they kept a close eye on it so kids wouldn’t hurt themselves here, and teenagers were discouraged from sneaking in here until it’s not really a thing anymore.
Everyone knows about the old quarry, but no one goes to explore it.
Maybe my parents explored it when they were younger.
Maybe I’m walking in their footsteps. It fills that hollow ache in my chest from my mom’s absence.
I don’t know when she’ll contact me next or what she’s running from.
But she would have taken me with her if she thought she couldn’t come back here.
“A lot of that acreage is what you see before you,” Eli explains and gestures to the huge hole in the ground. The moonlight bounces off the white stone, revealing everything. It would be hard to hide down there, unless it was an overcast night.
No one has their flood lights on. Eli uses a small flashlight to check the ground as he walks. My heartbeat falls in line with our footfalls. It’s quiet except for our steps and the chirps of frogs.
“They used to do patrols around here.” Jack tosses a rock into the void. It takes a few seconds before we hear it skitter down the rest of the way. I swallow. It’s a long fucking way down. Jack continues, “Checking for parked cars and teenagers trying to throw a party or explore.”
“They aren’t going to check tonight?” I glance back the way we came. What happens if I get taken to jail? My mom isn’t around. Will she answer if I call? I’m technically eighteen, but who would I call to help me out? Bob and Fran?
“Hey.” Luke’s voice is soothing. I turn to meet his eyes, unable to distinguish the color in the dark. “Nothing’s going to happen. We’ve got you.”
I drag in a breath. Trusting Death seems to be my life now. Loving Death felt impossible in the beginning. Even after we started having sex, but those moments kept building up until I understood who he really was. I rest my head on his shoulder.
“They’re not coming tonight.” Caden’s voice is a low rumble. “I made sure to pay the right person to give us time to explore.”
We’re quiet as we move farther down the path, if anyone could call this a path. I feel like I did when I followed Mom into the forest. Except then I didn’t know what to expect at the end or even why we were there.
“There’s a spot up ahead that doesn’t get cell service.” Eli points to a clearing past a hill of stones that looks haphazardly placed.
“How do you know?”
“This isn’t our first time to the quarry, sweetheart.” Jack’s white teeth shine in the moonlight as he flashes me a grin. “We used to party out here before Caden’s parents took off more often.”
I can feel Caden behind me. His mom might be helping us or is she just helping herself? It’s hard to know with the adults around here.
“We’re here.” Eli pauses in front of a large slab of rock. It’s flat and there’s a piece that juts out above the pit and water, which looks even farther down than before.
“This is where we think they might have met.” Jack scratches the back of his head. “Now we just have to figure out where your father would have hidden to watch, and where he would have stashed something.”
They all move like they have a purpose. Like they’ve already decided who is going which way and who will search what area. Luke draws me with him as we head into a small crop of trees.
From here, it would be easy to view and watch what was happening in the clearing while having some cover to stay hidden.
“My father would have liked that area because it doesn’t leave a lot of spaces for someone to hide or ambush you.” Luke’s voice is soft. He hasn’t said much about his father. There hasn’t been a lot of downtime where we could just talk about his living situation.
I miss sleeping with him.
“How has he been since he’s been home?” I press his hand in mine against my side. The moonlight doesn’t reach in here, blanketing us in darkness. “With Penny?”
Luke blows out a breath and pulls out a flashlight from his pocket. He clicks it on and it’s fucking bright. “Uncomfortable.”
I don’t know how to take that. “Elaborate?”
“He forces us to sit with him at dinner. Then he’ll ask how our day was at school.
How our grades are? Why Penny can’t get good grades like me?
Why she does art instead of going out for cheerleading?
Doesn’t she want to be popular? Every little thing he says is to put her down.
To show her that she will never be as good as me. ”
I don’t know what to say to that. William Foster is an asshole who beats his own child. To know he’s belittling Penny shouldn’t be surprising. But at least he’s not hitting her. “Do you think she’s handling it well?”
Scoffing, he aims the flashlight at the trees. “She was out of there as soon as dinner was over. Tomorrow night is going to be rough. Sidney’s everything our dad wants Penny to be.”
“Not a Sidney fan.” I bump against him and see a dark spot on a tree. But the light moves away from it. “Wait! Go back.”
Luke slowly turns the light in the same direction it had been.
“There!” The spot is in view. I release Luke’s hand to walk toward it, but Luke grabs the back of my jeans, not letting me get an inch away from him. I turn to scowl at him.
“Don’t let go of my hand, princess.” He flashes the flashlight on my chest. At least it’s not in my eyes.
“It’s just over there.” I gesture back to the spot.
He drags me in close to him and turns off the light. “Not an option. We’ve been here during the day. We know this place. You don’t.”
“We’re in a wooded area.” I gesture around us and at the ground. “Are you afraid a frog will get me?”
He shakes his head. “If anything happens to you, I wouldn’t be able to breathe.”
The fire of anger turns to smoke at his soft words. I relax against him.
“Nothing’s going to happen to me, Luke.” I cup his jaw, and he twists to press a kiss to my palm. My heart feels like it’s going to burst.
“It’s bad enough I can’t hold you during the night. Can’t protect you from everything determined to get you. But this is something I can control. So let me, princess.” He touches our foreheads together and takes my hand. “Let me keep you safe.”
I push up on my toes and press my lips to his. Before I can pull away, he buries his hand in my hair to cradle my head and deepens the kiss. I make a little noise in my throat as I surrender to him.
“You know.” Eli’s voice breaks through the fog of desire. “I find I search better with my eyes open.”
Luke sighs against my lips before releasing me. Well, almost. His hand remains in mine.
Luke starts, “We were just discussing—”
Eli laughs.
“With your tongue in her mouth? Come on.” Eli glances around. “I searched my area. Did she notice anything?”
“I noticed a dark spot on a tree that I was going to investigate.” I clear my throat of the lust clogging it. “Luke and I were just going to check it out.”
Eli turns his flashlight on under his chin and arches an eyebrow, giving us a wicked look. “I believe you.”
Rolling my eyes, I tug on Luke’s hand and head in the direction of the tree. He turns the flashlight back on and pulls ahead of me. I wrap myself around his arm, hugging it close to me. My heart skips at his need to protect me.
Eli follows close behind us. “I’m not sure how long the others will take. If anything was in my location, it’s gone by now.”
“It was worth a look.” Luke shrugs and comes to a halt in front of the tree I saw the dark mark on. He shines his light on it, and it’s just some moss growing.
My heart deflates. “Damn.”
“We can come back with your mom, kitten. She won’t stay away forever.” Eli rubs his hand down my back. When I turn to look at him, my gaze catches on a hint of blue.
“Can I have a flashlight?” I hold out my hand, and Eli puts a flashlight into it. Giving him a smile, I direct the light at the blue. It bleeds down the tree like someone threw paint at it.
I draw Luke closer, and he kneels down beside the tree to examine it. As he follows it down, he pushes the grass away from what looks like a carving.
“What is it?” I can’t help asking.
“Someone carved into the wood. Maybe some initials?”
“Why is it blue?” My heart pounds so hard in my chest, and I squeeze Luke’s hand. Is this it? Is this what my dad was talking about?
“Some sort of fungus or growth?” Eli steps next to me. “The bark is off that part, making the tree vulnerable.”
My insides collapse again. I thought it was a sign. Something my father left. But it’s just fungus.
Luke touches the bark. “It looks like initials.”
“What?” I squint to try to see what he’s seeing.
Luke smiles up at me. “It’s S.D. plus J.D.”