Monster Mine Read Online Free Page A

were
people who still laughed? “Are you safe there? What’s going
on?”
    “ I’m with Thad and the
halflings.”
    I hissed at the sound of his name.
“That stinking pile of poo. He could have at least called to let us
know you were alive! I mean—”
    “ I need you to come
here.”
    My mouth closed and opened and closed
again. “Well, yeah. I mean, as soon as the guys get back, we’re on
our way. I would stick my head out the window and holler for them,
but ’swangs are probably everywhere out there. We’re in Oregon, and
all these hippies probably make pretty tasty—”
    “ I know I’m asking a lot
for you to come,” she said.
    Was she even hearing me? I had visions
of her tied up and drugged, with someone holding a hastily written
script in front of her face.
    “ I shouldn’t involve you,
but there’s no one here I can trust. I don’t have anyone else, and
I don’t want to be alone.”
    Her tone terrified me. The
longer she spoke, the more I glanced around, peeling back the
shadows for Luke and Hatter. We had to go— now —even if it meant blowing off
Dean and the official “search” for Ollie until winter break ended
in three weeks. Whatever it took. I knew bad things had happened to
Ollie. I’d imagined them in detail every way to Sunday. But this ? She sounded
broken. She didn’t even sound like herself.
    “ Of course,” I said, my
throat tightening with more tears. I forced myself to shove them
aside. I had to be strong. She needed that. “Of course, we’ll be
there, okay? Don’t worry. You won’t be alone. We’ll figure this
out. Do you know where in Anchorage you are?”
    “ Does Luke want to kill
me?”
    My answer choked off in my throat. Her
question wasn’t surprising, given that Luke was an Aultstriver and
Aultstrivers were the huntiest of hunters. I stared hard at the
emblem in the center of the steering wheel, my thoughts churning. I
felt the brush of the SIG at my feet.
    “ I don’t know,” I said
honestly.
    Ollie seemed to process that for a
long moment before asking, “Is he still my Luke?”
    Just then, I looked toward the woods.
Like magic, he and Hatter appeared, trekking through the overgrowth
with their weapons slung across their backs. They weren’t talking.
They moved like two trees that had grown too closely together, each
peeling off in separate directions to get their own bit of sun.
“Um, well . . .”
    “ Never mind. I don’t care.
It doesn’t matter.”
    “ Okay?”
    “ But you’ll come, right?
You promise?”
    “ Yeah, Ollie. I promise.
We’ll be there.”
    “ Okay.” She let out a long
breath. “We’re in some renovated warehouse with all these old
factories outside.” Something rustled in the background. “It’s
close to the mountains. I see an old sign for Chugach State
Park.”
    “ Are you in
danger?”
    Another long pause. I couldn’t guess
her silence’s meaning. “I’ll be fine when you get here.”
    The SUV’s back hatch opened and the
guys started depositing their weapons.
    “ Hey, it’s—” I
started.
    “ Is that them?” she
asked.
    Luke and Hatter didn’t look up from
their task, assuming I was on the phone with someone of a lesser
dead-and-disappeared status, or worse, reporting to
Dean.
    I turned back to the emblem on the
wheel. “Yeah. They’re back. We’ll be on our way. Do you want to
talk to—”
    “ See you.”
    Click .
    “ Were you talking on the
phone?”
    I spun around in my seat. Hatter was
watching me from the back while Luke zipped up the duffel.
“Yeah.”
    “ Dean?”
    “ No.”
    “ Bloody Eve?”
    She’d called a few times, mostly to
check on Luke. I’d acted like I didn’t mind since she was basically
the Barrow base’s leader now and we needed her help in our search
for Ollie, but it still felt like she was trying to move in on my
best friend’s guy. “No, not her . . .”
    My mind was still turning over Ollie’s
strange tone as I scrambled into the backseat, forgetting the