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Back Run, Hide, Fight Back Save as PDF
Chapters (62)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. Map
  5. Newspaper Extract
  6. Survive
  7. One Hundred Miles
  8. So Many and So Fast
  9. Start to Die
  10. Fish in a Barrel
  11. Because of the Blood
  12. Can’t be Real
  13. Waiting to Die
  14. Panic
  15. None of Them
  16. Trapped
  17. Video Game
  18. Like Her Life Depends on It
  19. Before He Sees Us
  20. It’s Your Lucky Day
  21. Just a Shell
  22. The World’s Best Reality Show
  23. How Long
  24. No Matter What Happens
  25. The One Who Decides
  26. What You Need to Do
  27. One Last Time
  28. The Biggest Secret Ever
  29. What They Want Me to Believe
  30. Who He Really Is
  31. People Like You
  32. I Believe She Is Saying
  33. Wake Up
  34. We Told You What Would Happen
  35. Slowly, Slowly
  36. Everything Is Under Control
  37. Come with Me
  38. The Last Thing They’d Expect
  39. They Can’t Shoot All of Us
  40. Go Down Swinging
  41. Not Running Away
  42. If You’re Going to Lie
  43. Every Rattle and Click
  44. Infinitesimal
  45. No Safe Place
  46. I Didn’t Know
  47. Straight to the Source
  48. Nothing but the Breathing
  49. Anything Other Than Killing
  50. You Honestly Believed
  51. Three Inches Away
  52. Not Anymore
  53. Refusing to Crack
  54. On the Trigger
  55. Over
  56. All Too Much
  57. Together, We Can Make a Difference
  58. A Note From the Author
  59. Other Mysteries by April Henry
  60. Honors for April Henry
  61. About the Author
  62. Newsletter Sign-up

“We’ll see about that.”

He starts to close the cupboard door, then worries that won’t leave enough fresh air. He leaves it ajar a careful half inch, then picks up all the wrappers and puts them in the trash. He doesn’t want any of the killers coming in and wondering where the person who ate them went. The papers are so light, as flimsy as his and Moxie’s chances of surviving this.

The door to the workroom doesn’t have a lock. But he won’t go back outside. Instead, he turns off the light and settles himself in the corner behind the door. In his hand, he clutches the knife.

The Biggest Secret Ever

THE BIGGEST SECRET EVER

4:39 P.M.

In Culpeppers’s storeroom, no one is talking. Grace is back to whimpering and rocking. Amina is checking her phone. Javier and Cole both have their eyes closed. Javier’s face is twisted with pain, while Cole looks exhausted, his head tipped back against the wall.

Miranda’s eyes are drawn to her photo thumbtacked to the bulletin board above Cole’s head. She’s one of a couple of dozen sullen faces. After Amina caught Miranda, she grabbed her wrist when she tried to run. Amina isn’t that big, but her grip was like a ring of iron.

And this was where Amina took her. This very same room. When she was here a month ago, Miranda thought it was all going to end. Finally. She would be arrested and her parents would find out about everything. The lying. The stealing. And the rest. She was filled with shame, but also relief. Instead of calling the police, though, Amina snapped Miranda’s photo and then banned her from the store. Back then, Miranda told herself that she was lucky. And she hasn’t gone near Culpeppers since, at least not until today.

Now her head hurts worse than it had when she was trying to get coffee, which was when? She checks her phone: not even an hour ago. Earlier she was freezing, and now sweat is pouring off her. Yesterday, Matthew called off their meeting without explanation. If this whole nightmare hadn’t happened, she would have met him by now. He would have traded her some Oxy for the items she stole, and right about now she would be starting to feel good again.

Last summer, OxyContin started showing up at parties. It was a prescription drug, made in a factory someplace. That meant it was safe.