THE CLEARING (22 page)

Chapter Thirty Nine

*

The entrance to the Ringwood Perimeter was much like our own, with a basic brick guards’ hut and a smooth tarmac road. I didn’t pay it too much attention for up ahead I saw Pa striding towards me, his face crumpled and tired.

‘Pa!’

He lifted me off my feet and squeezed me close. ‘Riley, thank God,’ he said. ‘Thank God you’re okay.’

I hadn’t realised how much I’d been missing Pa. It felt so good to know he was safe, yet the relief meant all my pent-up emotions now threatened to spill out. It would have been a luxury to cry, but I took a breath and managed to keep my tears contained.

As we hugged, Luc filled him, Eddie and Rita in on all that had happened.

‘Grey?’ Pa said, letting me go. ‘You’ve got Grey?’

‘How the hell did you manage that?’ Eddie said.

‘It was Riley’s idea,’ Luc said.

Denzil walked over with Grey still slung across his shoulder.

‘Pa,’ I said, ‘this is Denzil.’

‘Denzil, the one who saved you when you went AWOL?’

‘Yeah,’ I replied.

Pa stuck out his hand and Denzil shook it.

‘I owe you,’ Pa said.

‘Got someone here for you,’ Denzil said, heaving Grey off his shoulder.

‘He doesn’t look too good,’ Rita said, stepping forward and lifting up one of Grey’s eyelids. He was completely out of it, his chest and throat making a hideous rattling sound.

‘Definitely needs medical attention,’ Denzil replied. ‘Sooner rather than later.’

‘Can you put him in that truck,’ Pa said, pointing to one of the vehicles.

‘Sure,’ Denzil said.

‘We’ll get the medic to take a look at him in a sec.’

‘I can’t believe you guys got Grey,’ Eddie said, shaking his head in admiration. ‘And you saved our asses. We thought we might be toast for a while back there.’

‘The bomb,’ I said. ‘I heard an explosion …’

‘Denzil couldn’t diffuse it,’ Luc replied. ‘He took it out of range.’

‘What? He carried it?’ I said.

Luc nodded.

‘Does he want a job?’ Eddie asked.

‘Funny you should say that,’ Luc replied with a smirk.

‘Where’s Connor?’ Pa asked.

No one spoke for a second.

‘He didn’t make it,’ I said.

‘I’m sorry, Riley.’ Pa took my hand and kissed the top of my head.

‘Is everyone else okay?’ I said, changing the subject. I couldn’t let myself think of Connor yet. ‘Was anyone in the perimeter hurt?’

‘Three guards dead, six injured.’

I glanced over to the man who had spoken.

‘Lloyd Trassic.’ The man held his hand out and took a step towards me. ‘Thank you for everything,’ he said. ‘You saved our perimeter, Miss Culpepper, Luc.’

‘And Denzil,’ I replied as our friend returned.

‘Grey’s cuffed and I took the liberty of locking the truck,’ Denzil said, tossing the keys to Pa who caught them and nodded his thanks. Denzil shook Trassic’s hand.

‘Thank you doesn’t begin to cover it,’ Trassic said. ‘Without you, we’d have been overrun in minutes. Please stay the rest of the night. Or longer if you’d like.’

‘Thanks, but we’d better get back,’ Pa said. ‘This thing still isn’t over. Lloyd, you’d better start reinforcing your defences. None of us were properly prepared for a full-on assault like the one Grey planned.’

‘But it’s over now,’ Trassic said. ‘Surely . . . I overheard you captured Grey. We could execute the man and finish it all.’

‘Not as simple as that,’ Luc said. ‘I wish it was, but there’s a second-in-command. Someone who’d make you wish Grey was back in charge.’

The engine thrummed steadily. Luc and I sat quiet in the back of the truck while Pa drove us home. Denzil was travelling with Eddie and Rita, Grey was in the medic truck and Pa had sent a couple of guards to let Charlie Duke know it was safe for him to fly the copter back.

Luc tapped my shoulder. ‘You don’t believe it, do you? What FJ said . . . about Skye.’

I barely heard his words. I felt like my whole body wanted to shut down; I was physically exhausted but my mind wouldn’t let me rest.

‘Riley . . .’

‘I don’t know.’ I lowered my face and stared into my lap.

‘He just said it to wind you up. You know that, right?’

‘What if it wasn’t to wind me up? What if he really does know who killed her?’

‘How? How could he possibly know?’

‘But he must because . . .’

‘. . . No, Riley. Don’t you see? This is what he wants. He wants you to be torn up by this. He wants you to wonder and drive yourself crazy.’

‘I know that, but . . .’

‘. . . He was just saying it because he had nothing left to bargain with.’ Luc took hold of my shoulders and turned me to face him; lifted my chin and made me look at him. ‘It was just a bit of off-the-cuff desperation,’ he said. ‘He wants you to go and find him so he can set a trap for you; get his revenge. FJ is sick. He’s a poor twisted boy whose mind’s been warped by Grey. You need to put it and him out of your mind.’

‘Just listen a minute,’ I said, trying to stop the torrent of words pouring from his mouth. ‘Listen.’

He stopped talking and stared at me, his eyes boring into mine with a look I couldn’t fathom.

I took a breath as I tried to marshal my thoughts. ‘He must know something,’ I said, ‘because he’d never met me before tonight and so how would he know about Skye being killed? How could he possibly have known that information? I never even told him I had a sister.’

‘Fred and Jessie,’ Luc said. ‘They could have told Grey’s people about Skye, back when they were busy betraying us.’

‘Why would they have done that? Getting their kids back was their priority, not talking about me and Skye.’

‘Okay,’ Luc replied. ‘Why don’t we ask them? Fred and Jessie will give us an honest answer.’

‘Not when we inform them we had to let their son go,’ I replied. ‘They won’t want to tell us anything after we give them that piece of news.’

‘We didn’t have a choice,’ Luc said. ‘They’ll realise that. Eventually.’

‘Maybe.’

I turned away from Luc and stared out of the window into the darkness, traces of my reflection staring back at me. I wasn’t so stupid that I didn’t realise FJ was the type of person who would take great pleasure in making things up to mess with my mind. But . . . a deeper part of me really believed what FJ had said about knowing Skye’s killer. And I already knew I was going to take the bait and follow it through until I got the answers I’d been searching for.

Either way, FJ and I had unfinished business to attend to.

* * * * *

Book 3 in the
Outside Series

Coming later in 2013

Click here to be notified about new releases

Other titles by Shalini Boland

Outside (Outside Series, Book 1)

Hidden (Marchwood Vampire Series, Book 1)

Thicker Than Blood (Marchwood Vampire Series, Book 2)

A Shirtful of Frogs – a ww2 timeslip adventure

~

About The Author

Shalini Boland lives in Dorset, England with her husband and two noisy sons where she writes novels (in between doing the school runs and hanging out endless baskets of washing).

~

Connect with Shalini Online:

Twitter

http://twitter.com/ShaliniBoland

Blog

http://www.shaliniboland.co.uk/

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/ShaliniBolandAuthor