His voice was gleeful. “Do you think he was disappointed when he died and you weren’t there?”
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” she spat.
Edward’s resulting laughter was cruel. “Like you killed Gerald? And all of the others? The grim reaper of thermophiles, leading them straight to their deaths.”
“Don’t put this on me. YOU turned them. YOU did this. I didn’t have a—”
“There’s always a choice,” Edward interrupted. A lump formed in her throat. “You don’t see it yet. But you will. Guess I’ll have to see how far your justification can go.”
A child called out in the background. “Uncle Eddie?”
Edward’s voice dropped. “Oops. Gotta go. See you soon.”
The line went dead, leaving Ruby standing in the dim hotel room, her hands trembling, her heart racing.
CHAPTER TWENTY
DRIVING THROUGH RURALTexas, the landscape was vast and unending. Stretches of dry, browned fields rolled past as the car hummed along the highway. The sun beat down harshly, even through the dusty windows, casting a bleached light over everything.
“Where to next?” Anticipation made Ruby’s fingers twitch against the wheel.
“South a bit. Lucas said a fire had been reported shortly after an Edward sighting. We’re going in blind this time, no clue how many thermies, if any, were left,” Jonah replied, his eyes scanning the road ahead. The app on his phone urged her right, down a dirt road.
The vehicle was much more spacious without the camera equipment, leaving Kavya room to lay out in the backseat. A few hours prior, she had climbed into the back without a word and immediately fallen asleep.
The countryside opened up to a single-story red brick house, its structure standing oddly solitary among the sparse landscape. It looked almost staged—a farmhouse without the farm, lacking any land, barn, or livestock. Only a fenced backyard with dirt roads traced around the property, leaving an uncomfortable isolation that made Ruby’s stomach tighten.
They parked in front of the house, Kavya waking at the sudden jolt of the brakes. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “We’re here?”
“I think so.” Jonah opened his door and reached for the gun in his holster. “Wait here while Ruby and I clear the house.”
Kavya nodded and Ruby and Jonah made their way up the walkway to the porch. The silence was unnatural, no voices, vehicles, or vultures. As Jonah grabbed the doorknob, Ruby put her hand on his arm, stopping him.
“Don’t go busting in. I think there may be a kid involved. And if…” She swallowed. “If the kid is alive, we don’t want to scare them.”
He stiffened. “How do you know?”
She paused, debating. If she told Jonah about the phone call, would he believe her? Or would it make him suspicious of her? With the number of agents now working for Edward, the vastness of his network of traitors, could she trust Jonah not to tell the TCA? The last thing she wanted was to be further sidelined.
“There’s toys in the backyard. I saw them on the drive up.”
He nodded, accepting the lie, and attempted to quietly open the screen door. They both winced as it groaned in response. The wooden interior door, painted with a white paint that chipped at the corners, was locked.
“Should we go around the back?”
Ruby shook her head. “If someone’s here, they definitely heard the screen door. Might as well just go in.”
She drove her heel beside the door knob. The door splintered around her sneaker. She pulled it out, wincing as she plucked a shard of wood from the fabric.
They crept into the house, Ruby leading the way, Jonah following with his gun drawn. Ruby gestured toward the kitchen and Jonah nodded, splitting off to investigate the living room. Cookware and other utensils lined the laminate countertops—clean, but worn with years of use. A pot of macaroni and cheesesat on the stovetop. Ruby touched the edge of the pan. Still warm.
Making her way toward the dining room, she jolted, stopped in her tracks by the picture on the fridge. A young couple, maybe mid-twenties, stood around a red-headed girl sitting in front of a birthday cake with seven small candles. In the image, the girl grinned, revealing a couple of missing teeth and a single dimple.
Her gut tightened. The kid looked so much like—
She shook her head, briskly making her way out of the kitchen and back toward Jonah, who was on the bottom stair, pointing toward the second floor.
She pointed toward the backyard. He nodded. Gravity pulled at her, urging her to stop, but she shoved against it, moving forward anyway. The sun beat down harshly as she reached the fence, and there, mingling with the dirt and dust, were remains—charred, practically reduced to ash.
