I don’t recognize the screeching voice as Kayla’s until I look at her. And I barely recognize her. The subdued, sleepy passenger is gone. This new Kayla has color in her cheeks and looks ready to hit someone.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Brecken asks.

Kayla scoffs. “Don’t act like you don’t know. You have his book, so you have the rest of it. Now where’s my stuff?”

“I have no idea how the hell his book got in there!” Brecken steps back, hands raised like he’s discovered a bomb in his bag.

“So, someone else put my book in your bag?” Josh asks calmly.

Brecken is spluttering. “How the hell would I—”

“Did you take my wallet?” Harper asks.

“Or my phone?” I chime in.

Kayla snatches at his bag. “Where’s my stuff?”

Brecken pulls it back instinctively, but then flings it at her. It hits her square in the chest, and she stumbles but grabs it.

“Screw all of you!” Brecken’s eyes have gone dark with anger, his mouth twisted in a feral smile. He looks at each of us in turn. “I don’t need your crappy phone or your pretentious book or whatever shit you’re looking for.” He gestures at Kayla vaguely.

She pays no attention, just flings the bag back into the cargo area and starts rooting through it frantically. I hear a flurry of zippers and rustling. Brecken’s eyes flick toward her and his jaw tenses, but he doesn’t move to stop her.

“Have at it,” he says. “Because you’re not going to find whatever it is you’re looking for. None of you.”

“We already found Josh’s book,” I say.

He gestures at us again. “Who the hell says one of you didn’t plant it in there?”

“Why would anyone do that?” Harper asks.

“We already know you’re willing to steal,” Josh says evenly.

“That’s bullshit. That was a no-win situation,” he fires back. “And even if I was a thief, what the hell would I want with your weird-ass book?”

“It doesn’t make any sense,” I say, and it really doesn’t. There isn’t a reason to plant Josh’s book somewhere else. Or to steal Harper’s wallet and no one else’s. If someone nabbed it at the gas station, why not take others? They don’t know how much cash we have.

“He’s a liar,” Kayla says, but her rooting has clearly produced nothing. She keeps going.

Brecken throws up his hands. “Okay, why would I let you check my bag to begin with if I’m the thief? Why wouldn’t I keep my mouth shut?”

We don’t say anything. It’s a good point. That doesn’t make sense.

Brecken leans in, challenging us with a look. “If I knew Josh’s book was in here, why would I let you find it?”