“Yeah. She can’t drive a stick, so she took off on foot with Hector in the middle of the night.”
“Jesus Christ.” Ripper shook his head, clearly appalled by the thought of Kenzie wandering the streets of Portland alone after dark. By then, most of the population had died, but there’d still been plenty of dangerous survivors cruising the city, looking for an opportunity to score. Pride battled with horror in his eyes. “And she’s afraid of the dark.”
“She is, but she went anyway. Kenz found the sub-q fluids, and on the way back home, she came across Sahdev. He’d been jumped by two men, and she scared them off with her gun, then invited Sahdev back to the compound.”
“And he was able to save you, but it was too late for Miles,” Ripper guessed.
Holy hell. I did not want to have this conversation. I stared at the ground, rallying my courage. How do you tell a man that you killed one of his closest friends?
“What is it?” Ripper asked slowly.
“Damn it,” I whispered. “I’d hoped that Kenzie would have told you what went down.”
“I asked her, but she said that it hurt too much to talk about Miles’s death, that she’d tell me later,” Ripper said. “What am I missing?”
I wrapped both arms around my waist and faced Ripper. “What you’re missing is that Miles was dead by the time Kenzie and Sahdev got back to the compound. He was dead because… because… I shot him.” I choked out the last words.
Ripper doubled over, as if he’d been punched in the gut. When he lifted his head, instead of rage, I saw compassion in his expression.
“End-stage flu mania,” he guessed. “Miles got violent.”
“He came after me with a knife.” My shoulders hunched, and I rocked back and forth, remembering the worst night of my life. “There was no reasoning with him. The Miles I knew was gone. I was sick and losing the fight to hold on to consciousness. I couldn’t let Kenzie come home to face him. He would’ve killed her, or forced her to kill him. I couldn’t let that happen…couldn’t risk her dying…couldn’t make her live with shooting her cousin…so…I shot him. He was my friend, and I shot him.”
Ripper nodded. “Would’ve done the same thing under the circumstances. To protect Mac, I would’ve shot Miles. Not your fault, man.”
“Not my fault,” I repeated, remorse twisting my guts into knots. “I’m going to live with it for the rest of my life. With what I did. What I saw.”
“Guilt and regret are old friends of mine.” Ripper clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Listen, sometimes the only option is a bad one. You did what you had to do. Yeah, you’re gonna live with it, but it’ll get easier over time.”
“It wasn’t fair. Miles didn’t deserve to go out like that.”
Ripper squeezed my shoulder, then released it and sat back. “Life ain’t fair. Not many get what they deserve. It’s past time for you to learn that.”
I nodded. A year ago, the biggest problem facing me was deciding whether to go to Cabo or Cancun for spring break. Now life or death issues assailed us from every side.
The headlights of approaching vehicles swept over the ranch house, and gravel crunched beneath their tires. The black pickup parked in front of the house again. Through the tinted windows of the silver pickup, I spied the shadowy outline of a man riding in the front next to the driver. Looks like Dwight and Darryl caught up with whoever was driving the mystery car. Poor sap. I wouldn’t want to find myself at the tender mercies of the Wilcox Brigade. The second pickup pulled into the garage. The garage door rattled down, and the two men disappeared from sight.
Lights switched on inside the house, and a man shouted so loudly that I jumped. The Wilcox Brigade now had two prisoners. I wouldn’t want to trade places with either of them. Things settled down after a while, and Ripper and I resumed our surveillance of the ranch.
Just before 2 a.m., the two-way radio crackled.
“Yeah?” Ripper said in a low voice.
“Hannah and Kenzie and Sahdev, they’re missing.”
A block of ice lodged in my chest. “What do you mean they’re missing?” I hissed.
Ripper raised a hand, silencing me.
“Around eleven, Hector took off after a rabbit. The three of them piled into the jeep to try to chase him down. I waited till midnight, then I went looking for them. I found the jeep abandoned on the side of the road a few miles from here. No sign of Hannah or Kenzie or Sahdev.”
“Was that Sahdev in the pickup?” I started to rise to my feet. With a warning frown, Ripper pushed me back down. I grabbed his arm. “I didn’t see Kenzie and Hannah in the back seat. Did you?”
“What did Kyle say?” Panic sharpened Levi’s voice. “Does the Wilcox Brigade have them? I can load up on weapons and be there in less than an hour.”
“Shut up, both of you,” Ripper demanded, pulling away from my grip. “We’re not going off half cocked. That’s the surest way to get somebody killed. If they’re even there.”
I clamped my jaw shut, and Levi fell silent.
“A couple of hours ago, Dwight and Darryl were smoking on the porch,” Ripper continued, filling Levi in on what we witnessed. “They saw a car’s headlights and took off in two pickups. Sounds like they boxed in the jeep and took Sahdev prisoner. When the trucks returned, one of them had a passenger in the front seat.”
“What about Hannah and Kenzie?” Levi interrupted.
“You heard what Kyle said,” Ripper assured him. “We didn’t see anybody in the back seat. Doesn’t necessarily mean they weren’t there, but neither of us saw people sitting behind the driver.”
“What does that mean?” Levi asked, his voice shrill. “Do you think Dwight and Darryl might have killed them? Kept Sahdev alive because he’s a doctor?”
“Get real,” Ripper scoffed. “If Dwight and Darryl came across two attractive young women, do you think there’s a chance in hell they would kill them?”
“No way,” I agreed. “If Dwight and Darryl saw Kenzie and Hannah, they’d think they’d struck pay dirt. They’d bring them back to the ranch.”
“Think about it. In that scenario, we got two members of the brigade bringing back three prisoners,” Ripper said. “Wouldn’t make sense for one man to keep an eye on three people. They’d split them up. One man would bring Sahdev—they’d probably figure that a man posed the greater threat—and the other would bring Mac and Hannah.”
Ripper’s words made sense, and hope sprung to life in my chest. “The black pickup parked in front of the house, and nobody was in it but the driver,” I pointed out.
“That’s right,” Ripper agreed.
“So odds are Dwight and Darryl never laid eyes on Kenzie and Hannah. That means that most likely they got away without being seen.” Relief flooded through my veins.
“The jeep was backed up into a grove of trees,” Levi said. “The girls could have climbed out the back and run.”
“Sounds plausible,” Ripper said. “Did you check the back of the jeep to see if the go bags are missing?”