If you didn’t know where to look, this place would be a dead end. That’s why I follow Chris and Amy, silently hoping we can trust them. But Nia is done being quiet.

“Where are you taking us?” she asks.

“To your brother,” Chris says without looking back.

“How do you know where he is?” Nia asks, and, this time, he doesn’t answer.

“Amy?” Nia says, and she shivers at the sound of her name but doesn’t reply.

I wonder if this is the first time they’ve spoken since they were friends. I can’t imagine them being close, but, then, we’ve all had lives before this one.

Eventually, we reach a clearing and Chris clears his throat and says, “He’s here.”

For a moment, I think he means Aaron, then, as Jane appears alone and smiling, I realize he means me.

81

“Hello, Tom,” Jane says. “I see you brought company.”

“Where’s Aaron?” I ask.

But she just smirks and says, “All in good time.”

“Where is he?” Nia asks. “What is all this?”

“This,” Jane says, “is what happens when your nosy brother won’t stop digging. This is what happens when he doesn’t get the message.”

I look at Amy, but she’s watching her father with an expression I can’t interpret. At first glance she looks angry, but there’s something else underneath. I thought they were bringing us here to rescue my brother. But Chris is now standing next to his wife like they were both in on it.

“So you figured it out,” Jane says. “Well done for that. But it ends now. You will never take my son.”

“He’s not your son,” I say, and Jane grins with all her teeth.

“Of course he is.”

“I know what you did.”

I’m not sure who I’m talking to, because it’s not just Jane; it’s Amy and her dad as well. They’re all guilty, because how could they not be? They took Logan and turned him into Will, and something that horrible takes a lot of effort.

Jane steps forward. “I will do anything to protect my family.”

“Your family?!” Nia shouts. “What about our family? Where the fuck is my brother?!”

Jane’s mask slips, and I see something else in the corners.

She looks sad, and I wonder if Nia is breaking through. “You really love him, don’t you?” Jane asks.

“Of course I do. I’d do anything for him, including going clean through you. So stop pissing about and tell me where he is.”

“I love my family too,” Jane says. “And I would go clean through anyone if I had to. Tom has started terrorizing my children.”