The air smelled like the Harrisons’; there were pine trees everywhere. But these were nothing like the well-fed, ruddy-faced trees of New Hampshire. These trees were thinner and wind-whipped to the point of trembling together as one, their branches intertwined like a thousand cold hands in prayer.

I reached for my tablet to check my location: southern Georgia. But before I could make any connections, I heard him.

“You’re so sexy when you’re focused.”

No one had a voice so disruptively man-made as Trey’s. He was the living equivalent of a paved hiking trail. The crows on the wire gave a collective wince.

Cal stepped under the streetlight, her tablet in hand.

I watched from my pocket of the woods, which came up against a field of grain, and was careful not to move. Everything was like this, either tree or field, except for the sunbaked asphalt of a parking lot across the street, which wound its way up a small hill and around a bend.

“This is it,” she said. “The entrance must be up there.”

Her knuckles were white around the tablet, and she held it in the air in front of her as if to line up a picture. I thought about reaching out to her mind, but I couldn’t give myself away. Not yet.

Trey stumbled out of the woods after her, tripping as he pulled burrs from his shoes.

“Did you have to wear neon sneakers?” Cal asked, glaring back at him. “I told you this was an incognito kind of thing.”

“That’s all I have,” Trey answered, trademark pout in his voice.

Her shoulders tightened as soon as he spoke, and I knew it: she hated him. I could feel it boiling off her skin from here. Which was further proof that I was right—she was up to something. Something she didn’t want me to be a part of.

Too damn bad, I thought. Here I am.

“His room is on the first floor,” Cal whispered as she approached the squat brick building.

“Are you sure he’ll be in there? Don’t nursing homes have, like, activities?”

Cal shushed him and held up one finger as she sent her mind out, listening.

“You’re lucky you’re hot, you know? If you weren’t, I wouldn’t be so cool with all the shushing.”

“Just be quiet,” she hissed, and Trey complied. We were all silent for a moment until she nodded. “Yeah, he’s in there. His room is all the way at the end of the hall. Are you ready?”

But when she turned back to Trey, it was too late.

I’d gotten my hand around his wrist just the second before, so all she caught was his faint outline as I triggered my tablet and shot him straight back down to Hell.

“Hey there, partner,” I said, dog tag necklace outstretched. “Lose something?”

SILAS