Cage’s eyes flitted from person to person. Each one held a gun aimed at either him or Aurora or at least in their general direction.
He was trying to casually make eye contact with Sarah, who stood almost calm at the other end of an assault rifle. She aimed at him not her mother. The subtle tightening of her lips, widening of her eyes, and nearly microscopic shake of her head told him it was best if he didn't let on that he recognized her.
Heart pounding and blood pulsing through his brain, Cage tried to take in every signal. Reaching out with his hand, he linked his fingers around Aurora’s wrist. What would she do if she recognized her daughter and threw herself at Sarah?
He had to stop her from doing anything like that.
More importantly, what would these people do if Aurora burst out that they’d found Sarah?
Whatever had been under the fake rock had not been for them to see.
Cage tried to use that. He raised his hands, Aurora’s wrist still in his grip as he turned slowly, hoping to find a leader. But he didn't see anyone who looked like they were in charge.
“We'll just leave,” he told them. “We didn’t see anything.”
Laughter came from out of the darkness somewhere to his right.
Cage couldn't help it. His head turned to look. He half expected to see Salvador Torres walking out of the desert, laughing and clapping as if Cage had put on a good show.
But it wasn't Salvador Torres at all. It was someone he'd never seen before. He had long dark hair slicked back away from his face, a thin black mustache and bright blue eyes. He wore a clean tank top, black jeans, and cowboy boots. He would have looked ridiculous if something about him hadn’t looked so threatening.
And evil.
Cage thought about the gun still at his side, and now he wished Aurora had one as well. She would be steadier with the gun than most of these fools whose hands shook, or they just held the gun out like on TV. In fact, she was probably doing better than he was right now.
He flicked his eyes to the side for a glance and found her completely expressionless. She had to have seen Sarah. Her daughter was alive and here. Cage held onto that hope. But then he wondered if Aurora had figured out what he did.
People surrounded them with their guns all aimed toward them, in the center of the circle. It was a supremely shitty scenario and one they were unlikely to pull the trigger on because, even if Cage and Aurora died, they would all shoot each other.
For a moment, his thoughts took flight, thinking how he would turn around and go back and tell everyone that he had seen Sarah. She was alive, not dead. Though he had no idea what she was doing here, he felt it had to be connected to the weird volunteering she said she did. But right now, he wasn’t going anywhere.
As he moved his eyes slowly around the group, he tried to listen to what the man was saying.
“It doesn't matter if you saw anything. It's a risk we simply can't take.”
Fuck.
He was going to walk the two of them out into the desert and execute them.
Would the others—who would look as soon as they decided Cage and Aurora had failed to check in—be able to hear the gunshots so far away? He knew his sister would trace his steps and find his body. His brain disconnected, unable to process his own imminent death.
Knowing how it would work, how he would feel if it went the other way. What if it was Joule? He decided he wouldn't let that happen to her. As if he had the final say on how this situation went.
Still his eyes walked around the group again. Many of them were holding their guns just flat out wrong. One young woman had the butt of her rifle jammed against her bicep. Another teenager—probably—struggled to keep the gun lifted at the end of his arm. Neither had fired like this before as both would likely hurt themselves and learn quickly.
If this were an alley, if there were cars, if there was anything he could duck behind for safety, Cage might have considered the option. As it was, all he would be able to do is run and give them a target in which they didn't have to shoot each other to take him down. Though he didn’t trust that any of them could aim, it would only require one or two of them to get a good shot. That many guns and someone would get lucky.
Which would make him extremely unlucky.
Also, while Aurora was in excellent shape, he had not seen her run. Had no idea how fast she could go.
So, at this moment they were still alive, and Sarah was still alive, and he would take that as a small win.
Black Hair wandered into the group, blue eyes sparkling in the moonlight, making Cage wonder if he was high or just excited. Close up, Cage couldn't smell anything but sweat and maybe fear. There was no hint of liquor, no burn or tang that sometimes hinted at other drugs. Maybe the glint in his eyes was just evil.
“Hands down,” he told them as he walked slowly in front of them, passing by the raised guns that stayed raised. The smile still played across his lips. It wasn't the smile of a kid on Christmas, it was the grin of a man who enjoyed torturing others.
This was not good. But Cage did as he was told and put his hands down behind his back. Surviving was step one. He’d learned that a long time ago.
Black Hair pulled out zip-tie handcuffs and as scary as the whole situation was that move allowed Cage's rapid heart rate to settle just a little bit. Cuffing meant they were moving, maybe to somewhere separate to shoot them, but likely not. They were already in the middle of nowhere. There was no reason Cage could see not to kill them right here.
Black Hair motioned to one of the others, handing off a pair of cuffs and saying, “Get them tight.”
Cage, lean and wiry, did his best to twist his hands and keep the cuffs from ratcheting down too far. But Black Hair had no such designs. He yanked to the point where, had Cage not been twisting his wrists, he would have lost his circulation. He could only hope that Aurora knew to do the same or that the timid soul cuffing her wasn't quite as ruthless.
As the zip-ties were tightened down, the guns around him lowered. Black Hair ordered all the others to load the guns into a duffel that he slung over his shoulder.
Once again, Cage’s heart rate dropped just a tad, though it remained insanely high. Behind him, he felt a shove to his back that sent him stumbling forward a couple of jolting steps. He tried not to fall with his hands cuffed behind his back.
It was close, but Cage managed to stay upright. He tried to watch what was happening.
And he saw they were getting pushed further out into the desert and away from everything and everyone he knew.