ChapterTwenty-One
The way Sunny stared up at the hole above them made Davis’s meager breakfast curdle in his stomach. Her wheels spun, and he had a feeling he wouldn’t like what she stopped on. Maybe if he could distract her, he could come up with his own plan for escape.
“Did your camera charge?” That was one thing to guarantee a shift in her attention.
She turned her gaze to him, her forehead scrunching in an adorable look of confusion before clearing in recognition. Just what had she been calculating that had her that deep in thought? As she dug through her pack, Davis peered up at the sky.
“Please, please, please.” She chanted while she unplugged it from the travel battery charger and pressed the power button.
The little screen flashed, and he suddenly wished it hadn’t charged. Whatever her camera had caught, he didn’t want to watch it. Didn’t want her to watch it. They’d been so focused on escaping and surviving, it had been easy to forget what had started their flight of horror.
“Yes.” Her sharp exclamation made him flinch.
He hid it by shifting to sit next to her. The camera trembled in her hands as she cued up the last video.
“The last video is two hours long. I had just swapped a new battery not thirty minutes before I reached your camp.” She sighed and looked at him, relief streaming from her gaze. “There has to be evidence on here that can be used, right?”
“I don’t know.” He swallowed, hoping what he said next worked. “Does it matter right now? Will it help our situation any?”
“No, but I have to know. It probably doesn’t make sense, but I have to know at least one thing is in our favor.” She ran her finger over the screen.
“Do you really want to witness what happened again? Right now?” He certainly didn’t.
“No.” She shook her head, adding emphasis to her statement and confusing him.
“Then why not wait?”
“Because… because I don’t want to be the person who shies away from the difficult.” She sniffed and speared him with a fiery look of stubbornness. “I have to watch, have to know there is hope that the truth of Justin’s murder will be known. If I know that, I’ll push that much harder, risk that much more. His death can’t go unpunished. It can’t.”
“I get that.”
She pressed play, then fast forwarded through the first bit. When the equipment at the mine site came into view, his pulse picked up like it was on 4x speed too. The footage started down the trail he’d walked a hundred times or more, and she switched the playback to normal speed. He held his breath.
“I can’t wait to see the shocked look on his face when he sees me just walk out of the woods.” Sunny’s excited voice sounded from the camera’s speaker.
She sucked in a breath beside Davis, her hand shaking as she covered her mouth. He scooted so his hip pressed to hers, wrapped one arm behind her back, and cradled her hand holding the camera with his other. She leaned against him, making the next few moments easier to bear.
A door slammed in the footage. The willows rushed past and opened into the camp’s clearing, with Justin standing, alive and whole. Gun shots, then Sunny’s scream on the video filled the cavern, chasing skittering chills across his skin. He never should’ve let her watch this.
“Did you hear that?” She cued the footage back.
“I never want to hear that again.”
“No, listen.” She pressed play and tipped her head.
Tires splashed.
A door slammed.
Voices.
She stopped it right before Justin’s murder and cued it back again. This time she turned the volume up all the way, lifted the speaker right next to their heads, and cupped her hands around the camera to amplify the sound. Davis stared into her eyes as he concentrated on the voices.
“Zhang says you’re causing too much trouble.” He’d recognize the shooter’s partner’s cold voice anywhere.
“Sorry, man, we can’t have you snooping, not when we’re this close to launching.” The shooter spoke in a casual, friendly tone.
Sunny stopped the video and lowered the camera. “Launching what?”