But Natty didn’t wait for a hint, she did this roll-her-eyes-and-shake-her-head-sighing thing that made it clear she knew she wasn’t invited to this little party. “I’ll just . . .” She pointed to our tent. “I’ll be in here. See you later.” She slipped inside and left the two of us alone outside.
Tyler’s grin grew as he rocked back on his heels. “She seems nice,” he said, and I wondered when he’d possibly come to that conclusion. During the two seconds he’d glimpsed her waiting for me inside our tent when he’d first dropped me off, after we’d first been reunited? Or just now, during their awkward, barely-two-seconds-longer run-in?
Still grinning, he shoved his hands in his pockets and lifted his shoulders. I swear, his smile could literally melt the sun, which was the lamest compliment ever, but was so totally true it didn’t even matter. He was that hot. “I . . .” He nodded his head in the direction we’d just come from. “I was supposed to . . .” What I initially thought was nervous, and somewhat cute, stammering was getting uncomfortable.
I frowned. “What? You were supposed to what?”
“Griffin,” he finally blurted out. “She wanted me to come get you.”
If I could have buried my head, like an ostrich, I would have. I was part embarrassed that I thought he’d been looking all awkward because of me, which I still sort of hoped was the case, and part mad because Griffin was the real reason he was here.
“Griffin?” I parroted numbly.
He nodded, stuffing his hands deeper into his pockets. “Yeah. She’s waiting for us. For you.”
Not exactly the way I imagined my evening unfolding after finding Tyler on my front step, but . . .
I tried not to sound too disappointed when I exhaled. “Fine. Lead the way.”
Tyler bumped my shoulder as he fell into step beside me, seemingly relieved that I understood. I kept telling myself this was what I’d been waiting for—to spend time, even just a few seconds at a time, with him . . . regardless of the reason.
He took me to Griffin, who was waiting for us in a place where there were none of the giant spotlights and it was dark all around. Simon was there too, as was Nyla.
“What’s going on?” I asked Simon.
But it was Griffin who answered. “I have a job for you. All of you.”
I looked to Simon, and then Tyler, before asking, “Job? What kind of job? And why us?”
“Not Tyler,” Griffin answered. “He stays here. With me. But I need the three of you to go on a recruiting mission.”
“Seriously? You want us to recruit for you?” I shot Simon a skeptical look, then shrugged at Griffin. “Why would we do that? You’ve held us hostage for days and now you want us to run errands for you?”
Then she exhaled. “I’m giving you a chance to prove you can be useful. Earn yourself some freedoms around camp.” When I started to argue, to tell her I didn’t need to prove anything, she just lifted her hand to stop me. “I’ve already explained this to Simon and Nyla, but we believe the No-Suchers know about this kid too. I don’t want to send one of my teams, but I will if I have to. The last thing we want is for the Daylight Division to get to this kid before we do. You have no idea what they do to those like us.”
But she was wrong; I knew exactly what they’d do. And the very mention of the No-Suchers, and their Daylight Division, made my blood run cold. The thought of saving this kid from their clutches made me feel like some sort of hero.
And if I could get Griffin to loosen the leash she had me on in the process, then all the better.
“You don’t have to do it,” Tyler said, easing up alongside me as he gripped my arm. “She’s right, there are other teams who can do this. It’s dangerous.” His breath tickled my cheek, and even though it was dark, I had no trouble seeing the earnestness in his green eyes as they searched mine.
Griffin cleared her throat. “But I’d be grateful if you did. And I’d go out of my way to make things easier on you here at camp if you did.”
“Natty too?” I asked, thinking of the way she’d been followed just hours earlier.
Griffin held my gaze. After several long seconds, she nodded. “All of you.”
I looked to Simon, and then to Nyla. “What do you think?”
“I think I’d rather have you stay here, at camp.” Simon answered me but glared at Griffin. “But it’s been made clear that’s not an option. From what we’ve heard, we have a big enough head start that I think we can get there and back by dawn, no problem.” I wondered what I’d missed, and whether Tyler knew what had transpired between Griffin and Simon before we got here.
I chewed the inside of my lip, turning to Griffin once more. “And we’ll have more freedom?” I just wanted her confirmation one more time. When she nodded, I took a deep breath. “Fine, then. I’m in too.”
“How much farther?” I had to yell to be heard from the backseat. The bandanna Nyla had given me to tie my hair back barely contained it, and the wind whipped stray pieces around my cheeks as we flew along the road in the open-air Jeep.
With her smooth head, Nyla didn’t have to worry about pesky hair flying around, stinging her face. She hollered over her shoulder while she drove, “Little town called Delta, about two hours from here.”
I checked my watch; that would put us there sometime around 2:30 in the morning, plenty of time to get back to camp before sunup, just as Simon had predicted.
“What makes Griffin think this kid we’re going after is one of us? How exactly does she get her intel?” I was fascinated by the process. By the way they did things in this Returned world I lived in now.
I assumed there was some kind of shared superhighway of information, like all those crazy files my dad had kept on everyone who’d disappeared, including where they’d lived, where they’d last been seen, their favorite music, and if they’d ever returned at all.
Pretty much everything there was to know about them.