She made a face. “Sure, why not?”

Activating his turn signal, he grinned over at her. “That’s the spirit!”

She laughed. “Sorry.” Then she sighed. “I’m afraid we’ll find nothing, but also afraid we’ll find something. Which sounds batshit crazy, I know.”

“No, it doesn’t.” He glanced back at Erin, who had followed them onto the side road. “And if we find nothing, we keep looking.”

Mercy drew a breath, bracing herself.

They drove in absolute silence for another twenty minutes, following the curve of the severely rutted road, still covered with snow. This deep in the forest, there wasn’t enough sunshine to melt it and the temps would remain cool for at least another month or so.

“I can’t believe the snow is still here,” Mercy said, reading his mind.

“Could be worse. At least the roads are drivable. Some of the roads in Lassen don’t open until late June.”

They hit a deep hole and the Subaru bounced around. Rafe slipped his hand free of her hold to grip the wheel and wrestle them to the smoother part of the road.

Which still bounced them around.

“Sorry about this,” Rafe gritted out.

“It’s—” Mercy gasped. “Rafe. Look.”

He was looking. “Holy shit,” he murmured.

It was a clearing of sorts. More like a campground. A very large campground. Two tall posts stood on either side of the entrance, a crosspiece spanning the width. It looked like the entrance to a ranch, minus the sign.

Erin pulled into the clearing behind him and Rafe rolled the Subaru to a stop, leaving the engine running as he opened his door, hand on his gun. “Stay here until I tell you that it’s safe, okay? If anything even looks weird, you drive yourself out of here.”

She nodded mutely.

Grabbing his cane, Rafe walked back to Erin’s Range Rover, his senses on high alert. He didn’t hear anything except the sound of their engines, but that didn’t mean they were safe.

Erin jumped to the ground, her hand also on the gun holstered on her belt. “What the actual fuck?”

Rafe just shook his head, almost afraid to hope that they’d found what was left of an old Eden settlement. “Let’s take a look.”

MODOC COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2:55 P.M.

Ephraim glared at the Cadillac. It was no longer stuck in the snow, but he’d wasted precious minutes rocking it free. At least it still drove, just in case he needed it to get away if things went wrong. Wishing he’d stolen a vehicle with four-wheel drive, he shouldered his backpack and gathered his guns.

The Cadillac had fit in perfectly in Granite Bay and the neighborhood around Rafe Sokolov’s Victorian, but it was woefully ill suited to this terrain. Sokolov and Rhee, on the other hand, were probably able to navigate a blizzard of biblical proportions.

Luckily, he didn’t have to walk too far and he knew the area like the back of his hand. Eden had been located here for seven years, after all. He set off, taking a shortcut that would lead him to the former settlement. If he played his cards right and didn’t lose his cool, he could shoot the two cops and Sokolov’s sister, then take Mercy back to Eden in Sokolov’s Subaru.