Forager (9781771275606) (27 page)

“
So,” she said, bringing my attention back to her. “You’re
either here to case the place or to try and free the girl. You’re
obviously not here to join up. You don’t have the look of a
Banished.”

She hadn’t asked me a question, but she sat their staring at
me like I was supposed to say something. Was she expecting me to
admit I was trying to gather information?

“
Did you come for the girl?” she asked.

I sat there quietly, not quite making eye contact, staring to
the right of her face.

She studied me with her intense green eyes. I was a bug under
her magnifying glass. She shook her head. “No, you’re not here on a
rescue mission. That means you’re a spy. Not a very good one, and
way too young, but still, a spy.”

I opened my mouth to protest. Me, a spy? A spy was someone in
a book or a movie. I was just trying to help Chane, but as I
thought about it, a spy was exactly what the mayor and Frank had
made me.

She smiled at me like she’d read my mind. Then, she lifted her
chin off of her fingers and sat back in her chair. She looked up at
the man with the gun. “Mike, is our young spy alone?”

“
I didn’t see anyone else, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a look
around. I brought him here as soon as I found him.”

Rasp looked at me. “Are you alone?’

Her eyes locked on mine as she read my expression. I tried to
keep my face as calm as possible. If they didn’t know about Josh,
there was a chance he might be able help. Sitting there, I tried to
keep my hands from shaking. I wasn’t sure if she was as good as
Sawyer at figuring out what I was thinking, but I didn’t want to
let my body or my mouth give her any more clues.

She nodded. “Mike, you better search the grounds. He’s not
alone.”

Closing my eyes, I let my head drop.

Mike asked, “Are you sure?”

“
I am now,” she answered.

I wanted to kick myself. She had been bluffing, and I had
given Josh away with my reaction.

She waved Mike out of the room and chuckled as the door shut.
“You’re too young to play this game. Why not save yourself the
aggravation and just tell me the answers?”

There didn’t seem to be much point in refusing. If she was
going to figure everything out anyway, I should try and use it to
my advantage. “How about a deal? I’ll answer your questions if you
answer mine.”

“
Fine, but I go first. Let’s start with a question I can’t
figure out by simply studying you. How did you find us?”

I thought about lying, but I figured she was too observant for
that. Keeping the details sparse, I told her about Sawyer, about
foraging for the alternator, and how her guards shot at me. I
faltered when I tried to recall how many days ago it
happened.

“
That was yesterday morning,” Rasp said.

I shook my head. It couldn’t have been. I put the last day in
rewind. Josh and I leaving town, sleeping, the Infirmary, rushing
into the surgery room, the night spent finding the medicine,
hearing the news about Sawyer’s leg, giving the alternator to
Charlie, riding into town, and finally mounted on Fred, desperately
fleeing the smoking guns.

“
You must have had a busy couple of days.” She pursed her lips
in thoughtfulness.

“
You could say that,” I answered.

She held her hands out palms up. “It’s your
question.”

What did I most want to know? I could have asked her anything,
from how many Scavengers were in her band, to the state of their
stores, but there was only one question I really wanted answered.
“How did you kidnap Chane?”

Her face turned solemn. “We didn’t kidnap her, she came to
us.”

“
You’re…” I almost said
lying
. Too many loose ends suddenly
knotted together. Chane’s desire to go somewhere new, her
disappearance the day after the attack, the way she was so unafraid
when she was mounted behind Rasp. Even her comment to her father,
“Just give them what they want and they’ll let me go,” now made
sense.

I was a fool. I should have figured it out. It didn’t matter
that no one else had. This was Chane, the girl I thought I
knew.

My shock turned to anger. How could she do this to me, to the
town, to her family? I saw her movements like scenes from a
movie—sneaking out of her mom’s house, meeting with the Scavengers,
planning the ransom. The only thing I didn’t understand was how
she’d found the Scavengers in the first place.

Rasp let me think. Her green eyes watched as understanding
flooded my brain.

“
She set the whole thing up, didn’t she?” I asked.

“
Yes, after so many of ours were wounded and killed in the
attack, her coming was a stroke of luck. I don’t deny we made the
most of it. Unfortunately, her idiot brother ruined everything when
he shot me.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
I overreacted. My demands were too high. No town has that much
to spare. It’s no wonder they sent you.”

I was about to ask what she was planning, when we were
interrupted by a knock.

“
Come,” Rasp called.

Mike, the man with the shotgun, led Josh through the door.
Josh stepped toward my chair, cocked his fist, and did his best to
make the right side of my jawbone meet the left. The impact of the
punch knocked both me and the chair to the ground. Pain exploded in
my face.

“
You idiot, you told her I was out there!
Now they have both of us
and
the horses!”

With slightly unfocused eyes, I saw Rasp stand from her desk
and point a pistol at Josh. “You, you’re the one that shot
me!”

Mike stood at the door. The shotgun in his hand swayed between
my crumpled form and Josh.

My hazy head made it hard to focus, but this situation was one
step away from going as far bad as it could. Crawling to my feet, I
stood in front of Josh. I didn’t like having Rasp’s pistol pointed
at my back, Mike’s shotgun at my front, and Josh’s cocked fists in
my face. Of the three, I figured Josh was the most
dangerous.

“
Calm down, Josh. I didn’t tell her anything. She figured it
out on her own.” The short speech hurt. My jaw was already
swelling.

“
It’s true. He never spoke a word about you. You’re lucky he
didn’t. I’d have gone out there personally and shot you where you
stood,” Rasp said in a voice cold enough to freeze the
sun.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly turned around so everyone
stood in my circle of vision. “Can we all just calm down a bit
here?”
Keeping my movements slow and
precise, I picked up the overturned chair.
I didn’t want anyone thinking I might
use it as a weapon.

Mike looked at Rasp. She gave him a nod and he lowered the
shotgun. Rasp took her own gun and placed it in a holster on her
ankle. I pointed at Josh and gestured to the chair beside
me.

He shook his head. “I ain’t got nothing to say to these
people.”

I rubbed my jaw. “Josh. You’d better sit down. There’s
something you don’t know.”

“
What?” he said, still standing. I motioned to the chair again.
“Fine.” Josh plopped himself into the chair. “What don’t I
know?”

“
Chane wasn’t kidnapped,” I blurted. “She came here on her
own,”

Her burst right back to his feet. “That’s the biggest load of
bull I’ve ever heard.”

Mike leveled his shotgun at Josh. Rasp redrew her
pistol.

“
Josh,” I said calmly, pointing at the armed pair. “You might
want to think about controlling yourself. The way I see it, you’re
lucky you haven’t already been shot.”

Josh’s face turned a shade of purple rivaling his father’s
worst coloring. “It ain’t true! They’re lying! Chane wouldn’t do
that!”

The rest of us stayed quiet. Josh looked at Rasp, then at
Mike, and then to me. We all nodded.

“
No! It ain’t true!”

“
In the interests of time, let’s get Chane up here. Mike, do
you mind?” Rasp asked.

“
What about these two? You gonna be all right?” Mike
asked.

“
I’ll be fine.” Rasp gave her pistol a little
wiggle.

I sat in the chair, nursing my swollen, thick jaw.

Rasp opened her desk drawer, pulled out a broken shard of
mirror and handed it to me. “It’s already starting to
bruise.”

Looking in the mirror, I saw she was right. A big dark blotch
was forming on the right side of my face. I handed the mirror
back.

“
You still look better than him.” Rasp pointed at Josh, who
still bore the marks from our scuffle in town. “Not that I mind
seeing that insolent waste of space bruised. What
happened?”

Josh glared at me with hate. He looked back to Rasp and said,
“I fell off a horse.”

“
I’d say there’s more to the story than that.”

“
Fine. Orphan Boy here pulled me off a horse. I wasn’t
expecting it.”

Rasp smiled. Her eyes turned into solid green crystals. The
smile was so cruel and unforgiving that she looked like a different
person. “I’d have missed a meal to see that.”

We waited in silence after that until someone rapped on the
door. “Come,” Rasp said.

Mike led Chane into the room.

My heart lost a beat. Chane’s deep brown eyes lit with a
curious light when she saw her brother. She looked amazing. Yet all
I saw was betrayal. I turned away. Everything I’d gone through to
help her was for nothing. She’d fooled us all, but me more than the
rest.

Josh stood and pulled his sister into a rough hug. I heard him
whisper, “Are you okay?”

“
I’m fine, Josh. I saw them bring you in. What are you doing
here? And what happened to your face?” She didn’t bother to keep
her voice down.

Josh looked around nervously. “Never mind that. They’re
telling us you’re here on your own, that they didn’t kidnap you. Is
that true?”

Chane’s cheeks flushed red. She tossed her long blond hair
over her right shoulder. Her back stiffened and her shoulders
tightened. “It’s true.” There was defiance and pride in those two
words.

Josh shook his head. His fists clenched. “Why?” The word came
out as more of snarl than a question.

“
I’m tired of Dad always telling me what I
can and can’t do. I wanted to get away from him, from the
town.
It was time to make my own
decisions
and
try something different. Besides, I like it here. These people
aren’t what you think.”

“
Do you know how much trouble you’re going to be in when we get
home?” Josh asked. “Don’t you realize everyone’s worried about you?
We risked our lives coming out here.”

Chane looked past Josh to where I was sitting. I don’t think
she had even noticed me before.

“
Dillon? Why you? I mean…”

Words can be funny things. Combine them with the right tone,
the right expression, and they can make you smile…or cry. I’d never
have doubts again about Chane’s feelings for me.

She knew me, she’d called me by name, but the pureness of her
confusion, and the blank look on her face, finished tearing my
dreams apart.

Swallowing hard, I tried to keep the tears out of my eyes.
She’d endangered our town, and she’d killed my dreams of us being
together. She wasn’t the girl I’d made her out to be. In truth, she
never had been. I was too caught up in her looks to see the cold,
selfish person underneath. I didn’t bother to answer but looked to
Rasp.

With the way she could read people, I’m sure Rasp
understood.

She spoke to Josh. “Are you satisfied that your sister is here
by her own choice?”

Josh bit his bottom lip, closed his eyes, and
nodded.

“
Chane, return to your work.”

I didn’t even watch as she left the room.

“
Mike, take this one,” she pointed at Josh, “and put him to
work while I decide what to do.”

“
I ain’t gonna work for you!” Josh yelled.

“
You can work or you can be hogtied. It makes no difference to
me,” she said.

Her indifference astonished me. She honestly didn’t care what
Josh chose. I think he realized it too, because he said, “Fine,
I’ll work.”

Mike led him out of the room.

Rasp gazed at me, and then at the ceiling. “This has turned
into a mess. It was supposed to be a quick ransom. Now I’ve put
everyone in danger.”

“
How so?” I asked

“
You and that good-for-nothing were sent out here as scouts.
That means your mayor is planning an attack. Normally, I’d pack
everyone up and move on. I can’t do that this time.”

“
Because of the wounded?” I asked.

“
Exactly. I can’t just send Chane back, either. My followers
wouldn’t allow it. They’d rather fight than give her up without
compensation. I could overrule them, but if I did, I’d lose their
respect. It would only be a matter of time before someone tried to
replace me.”