Unforsaken Read Online Free Page A

him on that phone.
    It was a windowless office, and there was no way anyone could be monitoring incoming calls for the entire library. I used my own cell phone and made sure that when the bill came, I was the one who paid it. That was easy enough to get past Prairie once I convinced her that I was old enough to learn about personal finances. Gram had never used a bank, but kept her money locked in an old desk drawer in her bedroom. I had never even had a bank account, and Prairie was happy for me to take on the responsibility.
    No one bothered Kaz on Wednesday afternoons. With the office door closed, no one even remembered he was there. We talked for only half an hour at a time—caution had become a habit for both of us—and we never, ever talked aboutthe future, because we both knew that it would be a pointless conversation.
    After Prairie left for work, I took a long, hot shower and blow-dried my hair. I tried to read a book for a while but I couldn’t focus on the story. I dusted and vacuumed, and at noon I fixed myself a sandwich. Then all I had to do was watch the minutes crawl by until one-thirty.
    Finally it was time. I took my phone and a glass of iced tea out onto the balcony, where I had a great view of the pool. By the time I dialed the number, I couldn’t keep a smile off my face.
    But when Kaz answered, it was clear something was very wrong. I heard a clatter and a sharp intake of breath, and when he spoke, I knew something terrible had happened.
    “Hailey, hang up —they know!”
    I was so shocked I couldn’t answer for a second, my heart hammering. I gripped the phone tightly. “What, Kaz? What happened?”
    “There was an exterminator here all week—no one thought to check—they’ve gotten to the phones—Hailey, I had to sneak in here and if they find me—”
    “An exterminator?” I interrupted, trying to make sense of what he was saying. “But how would they—”
    “Think about it, Hailey—think about what they do. If they believe I’ve talked to you, they will find a way to go through every single outgoing and incoming call, for every line in this whole building. I’m going to hang up now and—” His voice cracked. “And we can’t talk anymore.”
    I knew he was right. If they’d found Kaz, they’d use him any way they could to get to me and Prairie. But I couldn’t accept it, couldn’t accept the thought of never hearing his voice again. Now that I’d lost Jess and Charlotte, Kaz was all I had left—the only person in the world who cared about me besides Prairie and Chub—and the idea that this was the last time we’d speak, this was goodbye—
    “But how will I, how will we , I mean, they can’t just …”
    “I’ve got to go . Hailey. Don’t you understand—we have to. There’s no other choice.”
    There was a crash and then an unfamiliar voice, a man speaking in clipped tones without emotion.
    “We found him. Room 421. Start trace—”
    The phone smashed into the cradle as Kaz hung up.
    He hadn’t been quick enough—because I’d kept him on the phone.
    Everything was wrong, and it was my fault.

F OR SEVERAL LONG MOMENTS I didn’t move. I disconnected and stared at my phone—just a few ounces of plastic and metal, and yet I had used it to destroy every bit of security, of safety, that Prairie and I had worked so hard to create, and to bring danger straight to Kaz.
    If only I’d hung up when he told me to …
    If only I’d hung up …
    But even that might not have been enough. We had hoped that they would never find us. We had wanted to keep Anna and Kaz completely out of it. When Prairie and Chub and I had driven north from Chicago a month ago, we had hoped that they would be forgotten, that the people searching for us would never find the humble bungalow in the middle of Chicago where we’d once taken shelter.
    But somehow they’d found Kaz. And they were smartenough to know that Anna and Kaz would never admit to being in contact with us. So they’d