“Do you really think I can answer that question, Logan?”

“Anyway, it’s not my fault we had to send those bodies back into the river. You wouldn’t let me bring ’em along.”

“Well forgive me for not wanting to ride on a bus with a bunch of dead people.”

“You’re riding with thirty-nine of them right now!” He brought his voice back down. “Look, I know it wasn’t right just rolling those people back into the water, but at the moment we didn’t have much choice. We couldn’t really bring them along, and I would’ve felt just as bad leaving them on the bank. I promise when this is over I’ll see to it that they’re found and receive a proper burial.” He met her eyes. “Just two days, right?”

She said nothing.

“Savannah, for better or worse, I started this, and now I have to finish it. And there’s only one way I can do that.”

“What, win a football game? You really think that’s going to fix this?”

“Mona said—”

“I heard what she said, Cole, but if you believe that winning some stupid game is going to save those boys’ souls—”

He slammed a fist on the dashboard. “Goddamnit! Don’t you get it? I’m partially responsible for what happened to these guys in the first place. They’re my teammates, Savannah! If I had been up-front about the threats made not only against me but against them, too, then none of this would have happened. And as far as believing what Mona said, give me one reason why I shouldn’t. So far everything she’s said has been true; everything she’s done has been real.” He held up his three-fingered hand. “I owe it to her, Savannah. I owe it to all of them. If this doesn’t work, I assure you, theirs aren’t the only souls that are gonna need saving.”

Savannah offered no retort. She stared at the empty, rain-slick road before them. “Two days? That’s what we have?”

“That’s what Mona said. Not a lot of time to explain how these guys survived, where they’ve been for thirty-six hours, and why they have to play—and beat—the Badgers by Monday night.”

“Let’s not forget that no one can know they’re dead.”

“I think we should keep the team together, and keep them away from their parents as much as possible.”

“Agreed. So where do we start?”

“I was afraid you were going to ask that.”

CHAPTER 24

IT took another forty-five minutes to make it back to Savannah’s car. The bus’s stripped transmission, skewed axles, and wobbling wheels had not made for an easy journey.

The question about where to go next was still unanswered.

Cole knew they couldn’t just cruise the bus through the center of town to announce the triumphant return of Killington’s fallen heroes.