Tourmaline clutched the dashboard as they whipped out of the bar parking lot. "Wrong way."
Virginia ignored her.
"It's the other way, Virginia," Tourmaline snapped. Her phone buzzed from the center console, where she'd dropped it. Probably another text from Anna May or Allen, asking whether she was okay, whether she'd made it home. She'd told them she was sick, but Anna May had already texted asking whether that was Virginia Campbell's truck she'd left in, so there was sure to be a reckoning. It didn't matter, though. Anna May, Dalton, and Allen were all excused from Wayne's game, and at this point Tourmaline didn't care what happened to Virginia.
The moon crawled out of the tree line. Virginia kept on behind Jason and the conscript, passing by several places where she could have turned around. As if following them.
"What are we doing?" Tourmaline demanded. "I need to get home. I'll take care of the money tomorrow."
Virginia's jaw tightened and she glanced in the rearview. "I think someone is following us."
Tourmaline's heartbeat dove. Wayne. Mouth dry, she twisted in the seat and squinted out the back window. High beams blinded her. "Are you sure?" She tried to sound as skeptical as possible. Not afraid.
"I'm pretty sure they followed us out of the bar. Watch." Virginia went faster.
The headlights behind them sagged for a brief moment before surging forward. Catching up. Pursuing. Tourmaline's chin hit the back of the seat. Shit. What now?
"You're paranoid," she said firmly, turning forward.
Virginia stopped at a four-way intersection and glanced back. "But what if I'm not paranoid?"
Frozen there, at a crossroads under a June moon above the Roanoke Valley, Tourmaline pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to think. She just needed to shake Wayne and get home. To safety. Was Dad even home? Shit. He wasn't. It was Saturday night. He was at the clubhouse.
A car pulled out of the black from the intersecting road and sped ahead of them, heading in the direction Jason and the conscript had disappeared.
It took a slow second. Tourmaline blinked, Wayne forgotten. Her stomach clenched as she stared at the license plate disappearing into the dark like a roach scuttling out of a tiny hole in a wall she'd long patched. This could not be happening. Was he following Jason and Cash? Following Wardens? "Keep up with that car," she seethed.
"What car? Ahead of us?"
Tourmaline waved. "Just go. Come on."
Virginia obeyed.
Tourmaline took a deep breath, steadying the heartbeat throbbing in her head. For a second she could smell the Old Spice and French fries of the interior. She remembered the view from the backseat. The chattering radio she strained to decipher. Virginia was going to get her show, after all.
"Who is that?" Virginia asked tightly.
"No one you'd know."
"I'm not asking to be polite."
"Yeah, well, if you won't know, why does it matter?"
Virginia straightened and looked in the rearview again. Shadows pinched worried lines across her forehead. "Screw you and your bullshit." The truck slowed.
"Don't you fucking dare." Tourmaline yanked Virginia's arm off the steering wheel, making the truck swerve wildly and Virginia slap at her hands. "You want a look into the Wardens? This is it. This is the shit I don't want anyone to know." They had to keep going. Jason wouldn't recognize who was behind him, and the Wardens had to know.
"Who's in the car, Harris?" Virginia yelled.
Tourmaline spoke through clenched teeth. "It was a state detective's car."
Virginia slammed on the brakes, hurtling Tourmaline into the dashboard. "What the hell are we doing following a state detective?" she screeched. "I can't do this."
"He's following Jason," Tourmaline yelled. "And Jason needs to know. That's what we're doing."
Virginia twisted over her shoulder, looking away from the road. "I can't. I can't," she said in something startlingly close to a whine.
"Just keep driving," Tourmaline pleaded. "I have to know if it's him. This isn't a coincidence."
State Detective Alvarez had found out she'd been at the scene, met her at school one day before the trial, and told her he could help her mother. She'd gone with him because she hadn't known better. She'd done exactly what he wanted, telling someone she thought cared about her mom—burning down everything and everyone she loved in a wide swath of destruction. And she hadn't realized she'd been played—that it'd been wrong—until it was too late. The creature on Tourmaline's shoulders came sharply into focus, snickering in her ear as its wet, sulfur-tinged smell tickled her memories and delighted in her agony. She had done this. She had caused this. "My mom is in a maximum-security prison for fifteen years because of ... him. He's not here to make sure we're all holding up. He wants something."
Virginia looked in the rearview again, for so long that Tourmaline wanted to tell her to look at the road before they wrecked. "Shit," Virginia breathed, gaze finally flicking forward.
The surge that pinned Tourmaline against the seat seemed as good as words.
The road twisted into a series of switchbacks. With no dump points, they were all stuck in a slow, winding descent.
"He's hanging back from the bikes," Virginia said softly as they spun. "Maybe it's just the same car. Not the same person."
"No. He's hanging back because he knows where they're going."
Virginia kept one eye on the rearview as she spun the truck along behind the others—one link in the loose chain of disaster floating down the mountain. "What's the plan here, Harris?"
Tourmaline hit the button for the window and leaned against the door, dragging in deep breaths of the lush night air to combat the tightness in her chest. "Let's pretend there's someone following us. Can you lose them if I tell you where to drive?"
Virginia snorted and sat straighter in the seat. "We'll find out."
"There's an old logging road up here," Tourmaline said. "Get out of sight before you make the turn." She took another deep breath, pulling hair out of her mouth as it thrashed in the wind.
Virginia slammed on the brakes, the tires screeched. She laughed, wild and unearthly, mid-wrestle with the truck as the frame shuddered, eager to spin. "Who knew I'd be doing this with you?" Virginia hollered, hair whipping in the fierce wind.
"I should have put on my seat belt!" Tourmaline yelled back, bracing herself between the door and dash.
The truck slid nearly to a stop on the road.
"Yes," Virginia said primly. "You should have."
Tourmaline yanked the seat belt across her lap.
Virginia slammed it into second gear and hit the gas, engine roaring. They sped around the curve.
"Right there. Right there." Tourmaline jabbed her finger into the dark. "You're going to miss it. Turn, dammit."
