The man behind the wheel turned around. “I’m glad you got out safe and sound,” he said to me. “Everything is going to be fine now.”

“Who are you?” I asked.

He smiled briefly, and the smile was so wrong for a time like this.

“My name is Tom Riley,” he said. “But you can just call me Riley.”

31

NICK

I LIMPED OUT THE BACK DOOR AND hurried to the garden, my shoulder and abdomen on fire. I’d been sliced twice with a kitchen knife, and though I didn’t think anything vital had been hit, the pain still slowed me down.

The gate leading from the backyard hung open. I powered through, gasping, and stopped.

I made a circle. Nothing moved. No one was there.

Elizabeth was gone.

I growled out a curse as sirens wailed up the street. I couldn’t stay there.

Cop cars screeched to a halt out front. I’d left enough of the Branch agents alive to keep the police busy for a while.

With blood running down my face and from a wound on my leg, walking on the streets would draw too much attention, so I cut through a few neighboring yards until I reached the line of woods that would eventually thin out to a church.

I’d made this same trek two days before. It was always good to have an escape plan. But I wasn’t so sure I’d make it this time. My leg kept folding beneath me, and I had to rest for a second until the feeling came back to it.

I was leaving obvious tracks in the woods, too, but I didn’t have time to cover them.

A half mile from the church, I leaned against a tree and strained to listen. No sirens here. No dogs barking. That was a good sign.

I bent over and sucked in air. It never seemed like enough. My chest was burning, my leg was pounding, and my vision kept winking out.

The church parking lot was empty save for a small white car and a truck. I found an unlocked back door that led to the church’s basement and stumbled inside, blinking against the dusky light.

There were kids’ toys everywhere, spilling from toy boxes and piled in baskets along the wall. The carpet was dark green, thankfully, so it hid the blood still dripping from my wounds.

I followed a hallway to a lounge, and then another to a storage room and plopped down on an old wingback chair shoved between stacks of boxes.

I dug out the cell phone to call Trev, but he didn’t pick up. Trev was closest, but I needed more help than one guy could give. Looked like Sam was going to get his wish. I needed the others right now. I hated to admit it—I liked to think I could manage just fine on my own—but I was clearly in over my head.

The Branch was here. And I bet Riley wasn’t far behind.

With a blood-crusted finger, I pounded in Sam’s number. Anna picked up. “Where’s the dog?” she said, opening with our code.

I inhaled, biting down the urge to cry. I did not cry. I wasn’t going to start now.

“Nick?” she said.

My voice wavered as I managed to get out, “I need your help.”

She immediately went on alert. “What’s wrong?”

“The Branch… they have Elizabeth and I might have been shot. I’m not sure yet.”

“Where are you now?”

“In a church about two miles from Elizabeth’s house.”

“Are you safe for now?”

“For now.”

“I’m calling Trev—”

“I just did. He didn’t pick up.”

“Then I’ll keep trying him until he does.” She shouted for Sam, then Cas, before coming back on the line. “We’re on our way, okay? Sit tight.”

“Hurry. Please.”

“We’ll be there in a few hours, if we have to speed the whole way there.” Her voice hardened. “And then I’m going to kill whoever hurt you.”

I heard the back door open sometime later and realized I wasn’t hidden very well. I didn’t have enough energy to burrow in somewhere now, so if it was Riley here to finish me off, he wouldn’t have a hard time finding me.

There had been a total of eight Branch agents in Aggie’s house, and I’d taken them all out. But not without some major damage. After looking at my leg, I was confident I had only been grazed by a bullet, not shot, but the longer I sat there, the worse I felt. My wounds were growing hotter by the second and pounded in time with my heart.

“Nick?” Trev called.

Not Riley then.

“In here,” I replied.

The door opened, and light washed through. I shielded my eyes.

“Jesus Christ,” he said.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to say that in a church.”

He chuckled and came closer. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to hell for a dozen other things already.”

“Like turning on us?”

“‘Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.’”

“I’m sorry I brought it up.”

“Can you walk?”

“I think so.”

He helped me to my feet and put my arm around his shoulders. He was a few inches shorter than I was, which made it a lot easier to walk using him for support.

“We got a problem,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“I think Elizabeth’s mother is working with Riley.”

“Really?”

“She was at the house when I got there, right when the Branch agents swept in.” I winced, and held my breath for a beat as a new twinge of pain subsided. “And when I saw a picture of her at Elizabeth’s house earlier today, I thought she looked familiar, but the memory was one that just appeared, you know? Not a flashback, just a memory that resurfaced, like it’d never been gone. I knew I’d seen her before, I just couldn’t place where until now.”