Autumn in the Dark Meadows (The Autumn Series) (14 page)

A weight dropped inside me as Grey’s list grew.  Taken one at a time, it didn’t seem suspicious, but when he stacked it up.  Sam and Grey could be right.

“Sam had the same concern earlier, but I dismissed it.” I took a deep breath to steady myself.

Grey was silent.

“Karl,” I said with a bad taste in my mouth.  “It’s always Karl.”  I’d hoped to be free of him when we left Los Angeles, but I had a feeling we weren’t so lucky.

“I think we should investigate that water main before we start getting too reactionary.”

“Have you told any of this to Daniel?” I asked.

“No, not yet.  But I think his suspicions have been roused as well.  He’s planning to walk over to McCarran Airport and begin digging out the runway.  Luckily, he left the plane inside a hanger, so he thinks it’s okay.  He’ll just need to dig it out, and clear enough runway space to take off from.”

“All right.  Tonight then.  Find me, and I’ll help however I can,” I promised.

He nodded and quietly left.  I watched him disappear down the hall and felt emptiness close in around me.

What if he chose to leave?  I couldn’t imagine life in Hoover without him.  I thought I’d been ignoring him for the past several weeks, but really, I obsessed over any moment I might see him.  He couldn’t leave.  I needed him too much.  We all did.  Especially if Karl was closing in on us again.

I released a heavy sigh and pulled out the cell phone hidden in my pocket, hoping for another text from Sarah, expecting to find nothing.  I was shocked when I saw a new message.  I hadn’t heard it ring or buzz, or even felt a vibration.  I eagerly opened it.

“thank god u finally wrote back!  i’m still with the front at their hq in the marina.  how do I get away from them?  i’m scared.”

My heart sank, knowing that feeling of sheer terror in Karl’s presence.  I typed out a response, hoping it would find a way to her.

“i will come get u soon.  promise!”  I hit the send button, then waited.  My phone beeped.  No signal.  Where had I been to have enough signal to receive her message?  I’d have to just wait and hope I walked through the area again, or found another one, so she might get my text.

I stowed the phone back in my pocket and found my way into the main casino area at the center of the Egyptian, and immediately ran into Ben.

“You want to get out of here?” he asked, surprising me out of my trance.

“Huh?” I asked.

“Me and Shad just pulled lookout duty.  I saw you over here sulking and figured you might wanna get out with us.”

“Lookout for what?”

“Horses.  Can’t afford to lose them.  Plus, I know you’ve been worried about Snicket.  Figured you’d want to help hunt her down.  We’re taking a few binoculars to the top of the Mesosphere and see if we can see any horses still in the area.  We’ll radio their locations to a team on horseback on the ground so they can round them up.  Sam’s going with that bunch.  I asked her to come with us, but she’s not a big fan of heights.  So we got an extra pair of binoculars, if you want to be our third.”  He handed me a pair of old black binoculars.

“I’d love to, even if I was your second choice,” I added dryly, trying not to be annoyed he’d asked Sam first.  “When are we leaving?”

“Right now,” Shad said, appearing behind him.  “Come on, let’s ditch this place.  I can’t stand another moment here.”  I knew exactly what he meant.

The Mesosphere was a few miles away at the other end of the Strip, past several very large sand dunes we couldn’t skirt around.  By the time we got halfway my legs were like jelly, and I began to dread the long trek up the stairs inside the massive tower, not to mention the walk back.  The sun was high, and though it was only April, it was hot on our backs and bright in our eyes.  The wind calmed considerably and only appeared in the distance to swirl the sand up into mini tornados.

I panted as Shad pulled me to the crest of the dune.  “How high is that thing?” I wondered as the Mesosphere came into view.

“Twice as high as the Space Needle,” Ben said, not missing a beat. “There’s a roller coaster up there that hangs you off the edge. I always wanted to try it, but my Dad had a fit.”

Shad stared up at the mammoth building.  “I wouldn’t hang off that thing if you paid me.  Hell, I’m not too thrilled about having to stand up there with the binoculars, to be honest.”

“Afraid of heights?” I asked.

“Heights, no.”  He took another few steps and then said, “Falling... kinda.”

“I thought you were a tough guy, Shad,” I teased.

“Don’t let my robust exterior fool you,” he quipped.

“Does your charm actually
work
on anyone?” I asked, thinking about Tess.

“Nope,” Ben answered for Shad.

“You’d be surprised,” Shad said, winking at us, and we laughed.

When we reached the base of the Mesosphere, we saw the front windows of the entrance were buried in sand nearly to the top.

Ben suggested we break a window, so we found a metal chair from an outdoor cafe and broke off a leg to use against the thick exterior glass.  We took turns swinging the chair leg like a bat until the window gave, first shattering into a brilliant spider web and then crumbling in on itself in a spectacular implosion.

Once we were inside, it was cool and very dark.  The hotel portion of this casino hadn’t been cleared of bodies, but a path between the lobby and the Observation Deck was, which I was grateful for.

“I don’t suppose the elevator still works?” said Shad, pressing the up button as we passed through a bank of elevators.

“Even if it does, do you wanna trust it after all this time?” I said.  “If we get stuck, it’s not like the maintenance people are going to notice.”

Shad’s shoulders slumped.  “Ah hell, maybe Sam was right to join the riders.”

We found the stairwell that went all the way up.  I stood in the middle and looked up through the zigzagging stairs to the top.  “This is gonna suck.”

We made it halfway when I called for the first break.  I sprawled out over a few steps and let my head rest on the top one.  “Just leave me here,” I said with my eyes shut.

“I’m with Autumn,” said Shad, as he collapsed next to me.  “This was a terrible idea.”

Ben rested just below us and grabbed the walkie talkie from Shad.  After he reported our progress, there was a scuffling on the radio, and then I heard Sam’s voice.

“You guys got anything against thirty flights of steps?”

“It’s not like there’s a bag of Fritos waiting for us at the top this time,” Shad yelled in reply.  Then I saw his face drop, and I looked away, reminded of Vonna’s kindness when she shared her bounty with all of us.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Let’s get going,” I said, reaching for Shad’s hand.

By the time we pushed open the door to the observation deck, my thighs were burning, I felt lightheaded, and I never wanted to see another staircase again.

“Finally,” I said, gusting a sigh of relief as I walked toward the windows around the perimeter of the room.  The glass angled out at the top, and I was tempted to lean into the space to see down to the street.  But I quickly noticed a good portion of the glass was cracked or broken altogether, so I opted to enjoy the view from a few steps back.  The surrounding mountain ranges looked velvety soft, as if someone had draped a blanket over the rocks, dulling the sharp edges.

“Let’s see if we can find Sam and the others first.  They should be at the base of the parking deck,” Ben said, peering through his binoculars.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you without Sam around in a while,” I mentioned as I began my own search.

“Found ‘em,” Ben said, pulling out the walkie.  “Hey, Sam, we made it to the observation deck, and I got your twenty.”

Sam’s voice crackled back across the walkie.  “We’ll standby while you start locating horses.”

“You’re the best, sweetheart!” Ben replied.

“Sweetheart?” I said, sarcastically, before I could stop myself.

Ben’s eyes came away from the pair of binoculars with a wounded expression.

“What?” he asked.

“When did you start calling girls ‘sweetheart?’”

“Shad calls girls ‘sweetheart’ all the time, and you’ve never had a problem with it.”  Ben motioned to Shad, who nodded smugly.

“That’s just Shad.  Anyone else doing it makes it sound like a boyfriend/girlfriend thing.”

“Well, maybe it is,” Ben stated.

I stared at him in shock.  When had this happened?

“I’m gonna go over to the other side to look.  You two have fun with this conversation,” Shad chuckled as he walked off.

I put the binoculars up to my eyes, more to break the hard stare Ben was giving me than to find the horses.

“She’s not as bad as you think you she is,” said Ben.

“I didn’t say she was
bad
,” I stressed.

“It’s an expression,” Ben sighed.

An uncomfortable silence surrounded us, and I continued to pretend to search the landscape below with great concentration.

Ben’s voice finally broke the awkward silence, “Autumn, you have no right to be jealous.”  He paused then said in a quieter voice, “It’s not like
you’ve
ever shown any interest.”

I lowered the binoculars from my eyes and stared at him.  I had no problem with Ben being with another girl, but the more I got to know Sam, the more I thought she needed time to heal from her experience with The Front and her deep, twisted relationship with Karl.

“Ben, you know I...” my voice died.  He couldn’t still be interested in me.  Not after all this time.  “I’m not jealous.  I’m just not sure you two make sense right now,” I managed to say.

His face contorted into irritation, but he quickly hid his expression as he looked out his binoculars again.

“Ben, I’m sorry, I just –”

He cut me off, “Found one!”

“Ben, I’m just saying...”

He pressed the walkie’s button, and began to talk over me.

“Hey, Sam, I found two horses just off the Strip, behind the Big Top.  They’re drinking from the pool.”

I waited until he lifted his finger from the talk button and then said, “Please don’t be so sensitive about this, Ben.  I’m just trying to help.”

“And you’re jealous,” he retorted.

“I’m
not
!  I’m worried you’re moving too quickly with Sam.  She needs some time to sort out her feelings.  You don’t know what she went through.”

Ben let out a very loud and abrupt laugh.  “Ha!  You think
I
don’t know what it was like?  Did you forget I was fighting The Front for months while you were up in your penthouse hiding?  Did you forget I was fending for Rissi by myself?”

His low blow stung me, and my words faltered.  He wasn’t even looking at me.  His binoculars were still pressed against his eyes.

“You know that’s not what I meant,” I started, annoyed my voice sounded small.  I took a deep breath and tried again.  “All I’m trying to say is that her experience was very different from ours, and she’s only just escaped –”

Ben lifted the walkie to his mouth and began to speak as though he hadn’t heard me.  “Got another one over at the Turquoise Coast Casino, sweetheart.  It’s eating from the top of a palm tree.  Looks like the sand’s deep enough to cover most of the trunk.  Careful not to get stuck.”

“You’re being completely immature about this –” I said when he finished.

“Sorry.  Did you say something?” Ben said into the walkie, cutting me off again.

“Nope!  We’re heading to the Turquoise Coast now!” Sam’s voice crackled back.

“You’re being a child.  I’m just looking out for you.  And all I’m trying to tell you is that she went through a lot emotionally –”

“We all did, Autumn.  And we should take happiness where we find it these days.”

“That might be a bit more difficult for Sam.  She didn’t tell the Welcoming Committee everything.”

“Oh, but she told you, her BFF?” Ben said, sarcastically.

“She’s an emotional mess right now, Ben.  For both your sakes, slow down!”  I wanted to tell him about her relationship with Karl, but I couldn’t.  I didn’t know if he’d believe me, for one thing, and it was a serious breach of Sam’s trust for another.

“You don’t like Sam, and you’re trying to keep us from being together, is what you’re doing,” Ben said, tight lipped.  “But thanks for looking out.”

My face fell.  I thought he’d understand.  “Ben, that’s not true!”  I snapped.  “I admit it was jarring to suddenly see her here, and I don’t think I was the only one who felt like that.  But I don’t dislike her.  And it’s only because I want you both happy that I’m telling you to move slowly.  Become friends for a while first.”

“Like you and Grey did?”

I clenched my jaw.  That was it.  That was all the patience I had.

“Forget it.  I’m going to join Shad on the other side,” I said, feeling exhausted.  Ben ignored me as I walked away.

Shad watched warily as I rounded the hall to his side, “Don’t mess up my chi,” he warned.

I smacked him with my binoculars. “Keep that up, and I’m seriously going to throw you both off the top of this thing.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t ever doubt you, Miss Winters.”

We stayed at the top of the Mesosphere all day searching for horses and waiting for the people below to round them up.  I stayed with Shad the entire time.  Occasionally, Shad called out the location of a horse to Ben, who radioed the information down to Sam.  Whenever I spotted a horse, I made Shad talk to Ben.  The lack of air conditioning and the angle of the sun beating down on us created a stifling and sleep-inducing atmosphere.  This only added to my annoyance with Ben.

“I say we take off soon.  We haven’t spotted a horse in an hour,” mumbled Shad, who was half asleep himself against the inner wall.

“I was hoping to find Snicket before we left.”“I was hoping to find Snicket before we left.” She was the first animal I was responsible for, and I loved her.

“We’ll find her.  It just might not be today.  Who knows?  The scouts who went further out into the desert may have rounded her up already and put her back into the corral.”

The thought gave me a little hope Snicket might be safe and waiting for me.  I slid down the wall next to Shad and whispered, “Do you think I was wrong, when I told Ben he was going too fast?”