Zak snorts. “Are you doing group chats now? I thought…” He stops because he is this close to insulting at least one of us. I know what he means because me and Nia huddled around the same phone isn’t a sight he’s used to. But a lot has happened since yesterday.

“We need your driving skills…and your secrecy,” I say. Zak is quiet for a while, then he says, “This is another Amy thing, isn’t it?”

“Sort of,” Nia replies. “Are you coming?”

“This is very odd,” he says. “Listen for the honk.”

Fifteen minutes later, Zak is out front, and Nia shouts goodbye before Mum can ask where we’re going.

We quickly stuff what we need in the trunk, and, when Zak sees, he says, “What is that for?”

“We’ll explain everything,” I say. “Please just drive.”

Mum comes to the front window with a strange look on her face, because this isn’t how she expected us to spend the first day of the school break.

“She’s going to ask questions,” Nia says.

“I’m going to ask questions,” says Zak. “What’s happened to you two? Are you…friends now?”

“We have a common enemy,” Nia says and then, when she sees my face, “but yes, you could say that.”

I check my phone, then tap a zip code into Zak’s GPS. We have it all planned. Last night we searched Google Maps for hours, looking for anything that stood out from our road trip with the Pearces. I fell asleep before Nia did, but, this morning, she woke me with a smile that said it worked.

“Where are we going?” Zak asks.

“I’m not sure. But we’ll know when we get there.”

He looks at Nia through the rearview mirror and says, “How the hell did he convince you to get involved?”

“Amy’s mum is a psychopath,” my sister tells him. “She kidnapped Aaron just to show us what she’d do if Tom didn’t stop digging.”

“What the fuck?”

“We should probably tell you about Logan,” I say.

87

“So you were right,” Zak says.

I was, but, just like when Nia said it, I’m not pleased. I didn’t want to be right. I want Amy to be happy and Logan to be with his real family and Will to be alive.

The thought of losing Aaron terrifies me, so I can only imagine how Will’s death could twist a family inside out.

“I recognize this,” Nia says. “It’s not far. Look out for where we parked.”

“There,” I say, and Zak pulls in so fast we all jolt.

We don’t get out right away. We sit in silence, because we’re scared and excited and uncertain.