Brielle meets her eyes and just shrugs. “Real talk,” she says. “Sorry. But you know who is a killer?”

Beat.

“Warden,” Brielle says. “And probably Brandon and Evan, too. And if we don’t keep moving, we’re going to be their next victims.”

Chapter 101

IT TURNS OUT BRIELLE is from the same part of Oregon as Warden. It turns out she knows a little bit more about Warden than Dawn. And it turns out Warden wasn’t exactly truthful when he was telling Dawn his Origin Story.

“It was in the news,” Brielle tells Dawn. “All over the place. I can’t believe they let him into this program.”

Dawn frowns, confused. “What do you mean?” she asks. “I thought he just…stole a truck, or something?”

Brielle makes a face. “He’s dangerous,” she says. “Like, violent, but you know that. Pretty much the whole county wanted him thrown in jail.” She shrugs. “Rich family, though. They talked the judge out of it. Sent him here instead of jail, and now here we are.”

Dawn takes a moment to digest this. “Okay,” she says. “But what did he do?”

Brielle meets her eyes. “He attacked some guy,” she tells Dawn. “Warden and his friends. Beat him nearly unconscious and left him by the side of the ocean.” She shakes her head again. “The guy drowned when the tide came in. Warden’s friends went to jail.”

Brielle shrugs again.

“Rich family,” she says again.

There’s no time to process this new nugget of information. Not with Warden at large and Amber and Lucas both getting closer to death with every minute that passes.

(Assuming they’re not dead already.)

Dawn and Brielle stop talking. They focus on covering ground. It’s easy now, in the daylight, with decent visibility and the top of the ridge more or less a straight line, albeit a line with plenty of ups and downs, over boulders and small rises, and down into narrow valleys.

They move slowly, and it’s not just because of Dawn’s ankle. Warden and the others are out here somewhere, and Dawn knows the last thing she and Brielle need is to stumble upon them accidentally. Ideally, she and Brielle will be able to just dodge the others completely, find a way to sneak past them and continue down to headquarters without Warden or anyone else even realizing they’re there. It sounds like the easiest solution to the Warden problem, and given the latest developments, it honestly might be the only solution.

There’s no way Dawn and Brielle are going to overpower three big teenage boys (plus Kyla, wherever she stands).