The inside of the tent was as much a mess as the outside. Amid their filthy clothes and sleeping bags, everything smelled like mildew and body odor. I found beer cans, food wrappers, condoms, a stack of water-stained papers, a dead cell phone, and most ironically, a small dog-eared copy of the Bible. I also pawed through what looked like the contents of a wallet—credit cards, driver’s license, some cash, all held together with a rubber band. I slid the license out and peered at it beneath the light. The man in the photo was the Preacher’s brother, and if the license wasn’t a fake, that meant his name was Abel Trent Faulkner and he was thirty-eight years old, five feet eight inches tall, hailing from Susanville, California, which was on the eastern side of the state, near the Nevada border.
Maggie’s bag was buried under a bedroll. I dug through it, hastily finding the Percocet rolling around loose in the bottom among crumpled cigarette packs, boxes of black hair dye, spare change, lottery scratchers, her silver flask, and bottle of personal lubricant. I shoved the medication into the front pocket of my pants.
“What do you think you’re doing?” a voice asked.
I jumped, then relaxed. It was just Archie. He towered in the tent entrance, his large face staring right at me. He looked sweaty and flushed, like he had when we’d first started out on the trail that morning after I’d told him to put his gun away.
“Nothing,” I said.
“Doesn’t look like nothing.”
“I was looking for medicine for Rose.”
“Not the money?”
“No.”
“You sure about that, Gibby?”
“Very sure. You know, funny thing, money’s really not all that important to me at the moment. In fact, it never was.” I went to push past him, but he grabbed my arm.
“It should be important.” He spat the words in my face.
“Four people are dead, Arch.”
His eyes blazed, a wild look, as if fueled by some inner furnace of will. “That’s why it matters. Dunc, Mr. Howe, they didn’t die for nothing. I’m going to make damn sure of that. You hear me? This, everything’s that happened, it’s going to mean something. I swear to God.”
“Fine.” I wrenched free and pushed past him, dragging one of the sleeping bags with me. “Do what the hell you want. You will anyway.”
Back with Rose, I laid the sleeping bag over her, and when no one was looking, I slipped two Percocets out and put them in her mouth. I whispered for her to swallow them dry. She did, rewarding me with a grateful smile. It wasn’t long before she drifted into a heavy sleep.
I watched her for a bit, the rise and fall of her chest, the brown-gold glow of her cheeks, and did my best to focus on all the ways I loved her and not that she’d been stupid enough to follow Archie into harm’s way. She didn’t deserve to be hurt for that. After all, she wasn’t the one who’d shot Fleur. That was Archie. Although if Maggie had intentionally shot Rose before fleeing—and I was beginning to think she had—it was possible there was more to the situation that I didn’t know.
After a few minutes, I got up and walked over to where Clay, Shelby, and Avery stood on the other side of the fire, their hands held to the flames for warmth. I glanced back to look for Archie, but he must’ve still been in the tent. Or somewhere else I couldn’t see.
“We need to get out of here,” I told them, keeping my voice low.
Clay looked up. “Daybreak, right? That’s what we said.”
“What time is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, maybe we should go now.”
“You think?”
I nodded. “Someone has to come with me, though. It’s probably an hour hike back to the staging area where we parked. Maybe less. The trail’s sketchy, but we’ve got the headlamps, and it’ll be light by the time we get there either way. We’ll be able to drive right out.”
Avery bit her lip at my words.
“What is it?” I asked her.
“I don’t have the car keys,” she said. “Do you?”
—
Fuck. We spent the next five minutes searching Rose and Mr. Howe, combing through their pockets. No keys on either of them.
Finally, I gave up. “This is pointless. They’re not here. They’re back up at Grizzly Falls.”
“Maybe we could just flag someone down on the road,” Shelby suggested.
“No one’s going to come down that road,” I said. “It’s a dead end. Access for this trail only. We need the keys.”
She sighed. “Then we’ll have to get them in the morning. I can’t climb up there again, Ben. Not now.”
Archie, who’d returned from wherever the hell he’d been, sauntered over to the fire, looking more flushed than ever. “Keys aren’t going to do you any good.”
“Why’s that?” Avery snapped. “And can you put the fucking gun down?”
“No, I cannot put the fucking gun down. That bitch is out there. You know that, don’t you? You want to get yourselves killed?”
“Who’re you talking about? Maggie? I saw her leave,” I said.
“Doesn’t mean she’s not out there. Waiting for us. So she can get that money. I know she wants it. She probably wants this asshole, too.” He jerked his head toward where the Preacher’s brother—Abel Faulkner, I supposed—lay.
“She shot his brother, Arch. I don’t think she’s coming back for him.”
“Yeah, well, maybe these two planned it that way all along. Only now they don’t have any way out of here. You go down to that parking lot and I bet she’s waiting for you. Waiting to take that car. She’ll kill us for it.”
“You sound paranoid,” I said.
He sneered. “Do I?”
Shelby looked at me, alarmed. “Did that woman really have a gun?”
I paused. “Yes.”
“Well, are there other ways out of here?”
“Only through the original trail, the one heading south. It leads all the way down to Junction City. But that’s over ten miles away—it’s not an easy trail, either.”
“So what are we going to do?”
“We’re going to get the keys like we planned.”
Clay shook his head. “I don’t want to get shot. We should just walk out the long way. The ten miles or whatever. I don’t want to fuck around with any of this.”
My chest went tight. “Rose can’t wait that long.”
“Then find the money,” Avery said.
“What did you say?”
She shrugged. “If that woman’s really out there, it’s your one bargaining chip.”
Was she serious? “We don’t know where it is! We don’t even know that it’s here! You guys just assumed it was!”
“Calm down,” Shelby told me. “Stop yelling.”
“I’m not yelling!”
“Yes, you are,” Clay said.
“Jesus,” I said. “Forget it. This is stupid. Let’s just wait until morning. Get some sleep. We’ll figure it out then.”
“You know, you’re not in charge anymore,” Shelby said peevishly. “You don’t get to tell us what to do.”
“Yeah. That’s becoming pretty goddamn clear.”
“I’m not sleeping,” Archie growled. “I’m going to find that bitch.”
I threw my hands in the air. “Everyone do whatever the hell you want. I’m not in charge. I’m not anything. Just don’t get yourselves killed, okay?”
30.
I HELD ROSE in my arms for the rest of the night. There wasn’t much left of it, but it was the best and only thing I could think to do.
“Ben,” she whispered at one point, her voice foggy with codeine.
I pressed my ear to her lips. “What is it?”
“Thank you for taking care of me.”
“I’ll always take care of you. You know that, don’t you?”
She gave a faint smile. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Does she make you happy?”
“Does who make me happy?”
“Avery,” she said.
“Avery?”
“It’s okay, Ben. I’m not mad. I told you that this summer. I want you to be happy. I want that more than anything.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “I am happy. With you.”