Page 125 of The Lie Maker

Dad wasn’t around, either.

I looked down the street and saw the Beemer still at the curb, lights flashing. I started running. As I got closer, I could see Dad sitting behind the wheel, alone.

I got in next to him, panting.

“I didn’t see him,” I said. “They said he left right away. And I didn’t find anything online that would tell us where he lives.”

Dad appeared unconcerned. “It’s okay,” he said. “He’s in the trunk.”

Sixty-Five

Lana sniffed.

Gwen shot her an exasperated look. “I swear to God.”

“If you untied me I could blow my nose,” she said.

“Cayden, wipe her nose.”

Cayden looked as though he’d been asked to clean up after a sick dog. “No way.”

“I’m stuffed up,” Lana said. “And it’s worse, being out here in the woods. All kinds of pollen in the air. I have some pills and some spray in my purse.”

Gwen snapped her fingers like she was getting a waiter’s attention. “Cayden, find her meds.”

He’d already been through the bag once to get her cell. He opened it up, started rummaging inside.

“I don’t see it,” he said. “There’s enough shit in here to stock a Walgreens.”

“I could find it if you bring it over to me,” Lana said. “The pills are in a little blister pack. I might have tucked them into one of the side pockets.”

Cayden carried the purse over to Gwen and dropped it in her lap. “You find it.”

Gwen glanced into the bag, saw several tissues, and decided there was no way she was sticking her hand in there.

“Untie her,” Gwen said, then gave Lana a menacing glare. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Cayden went around the back of Lana’s chair and, with the pruner he was going to use to cut off her finger, snipped the plastic zip tie around her wrists. “There,” he said.

Lana brought her hands around in front of her, flexed her fingers, and rubbed her wrists, which had welts on them from the bindings. But Gwen wasn’t ready to hand over the purse yet. Something she’d spotted inside had caught her interest.

“Hello, what’s this?” she said.

She still wasn’t about to reach in. She waved Cayden over, pointed into the bag, and said, “You see that?”

“See what?”

“That thing that looks like a key chain?”

He reached into the bag and brought out the item. It was about the size of a plastic lighter, with some kind of opening at one end.

Cayden examined it.

“It’s pepper spray,” he said.

Gwen made a tsk tsk sound.

“You’re a very bad girl,” Gwen said. “That’s what you were going for, isn’t it?”