Chapter 8: Conspire

“What do we know about her, and what’s the plan?”

Chase Pine was appropriately named. Jack and Chase had been best friends for as long as Jack could remember, and as fast as Chase was, any time they raced (which had been more frequently when they were younger) Chase was always the one chasing Jack from behind—trying to catch up. It was all right, though; Chase was a good guy to have around when things got tough.

That hadn’t happened much over their first eighteen years, but the arrival of this girl from seemingly out of nowhere was possibly going to change that.

Sitting in a booth at the diner, Jack kept his voice low as he answered Chase. There weren’t a lot of people around, but there were a few, and there was no reason for anyone to hear what they were talking about. In the booth next to Chase was their third wheel, Bridgette Shade, Bridge for short. For years, when girls were gross, Bridge had been the only one either of them could tolerate. Then, when girls became suddenly un-gross, she had already become one of the guys. Despite the petite brunette’s strong desire to become more than a friend a few years ago, she stayed in her lane, choosing to be Jack’s friend over not being in his life at all. Now, she dunked a curly fry in a blob of ketchup and popped it into her mouth, content to be just a friend.

Bridge could definitely handle herself when it came to the food, too. She ate all the time, like all of them did, and was still built like a track star.

“Her name is Everly Harrison,” Jack said, his voice just above a whisper.

“Harrison?” Bridge’s eyes widened. “That name sounds familiar. Wait! Isn’t that--?”

“Yeah,” Jack cut her off before she could say more. It wasn’t necessary. Chase looked confused, but then, Chase always looked confused. “You remember a few years ago, ten or eleven, when that woman… vanished?”

“Oh, right.” Chase slowly nodded and then took a bite of his burger. Never one to let food in his mouth deter him from speaking, he said, “They related?”

“Her daughter.” Jack took a deep breath and blew it out slowly.

‘How did you find out?” Bridge asked.

Shrugging, he said, “Mom did a little recon.” His mother had volunteered to help after he’d come home from the store the day before all out of sorts. Jack still hadn’t quite figured out what it was about Everly that had him so on edge. Even with this information, it didn’t make sense. Of course, he didn’t want anything bad to happen to her—or anyone—but he wasn’t the village leader yet. That job still belonged to his father. Until he was in charge, he really shouldn’t be so concerned, especially over something that didn’t even affect Lichtown.

“What did your mom do?” Chase asked, picking up his soda and slurping a drink through the straw. “Visit the hair salon?”

Nodding, Jack said, “That’s all it takes. Plenty of ladies in there were willing to talk about the handsome park ranger and his daughter who had moved back to Cook after all of these years, especially since he’s still single, and no one has any idea what happened to his poor wife.”

Shaking her head, Bridge said, “I bet half of those women were married.”

“Probably more.” Jack shrugged. He’d never understand the reason why people sat around and talked about other people who had nothing to do with them just for the fun of it.

While they were doing exactly that at the moment—talking about someone else—there was a reason for it.

A good reason.

“So what are they doing back here?” Chase asked. “You’d think he’d want to run so far away from here, he’d never even step foot in Montana again.”

“I’m guessing he’s looking for some sort of closure,” Jack said, looking down at his half-eaten burger and fries. He normally could easily put back twice as much food as was on his plate and then some, but ever since he’d ran into Everly, things had been different. He just couldn’t get his mind off of her, and it was troublesome.

“What’s he going to do for a job?” Bridge asked, wiping her hands on a napkin. She’d managed to finish her food before either one of the guys, quite the feat.

“He took his old job back,” Jack replied. “Park Ranger.”

“Shut up!” Chase said. “That’s dumb.”

“I told you, I think he’s looking for something—anything—to tell him what happened that day.”

“Well, he’s not going to find it,” Bridge muttered. “And the girl?”

“What about her?” Again, Jack felt his body attempting to suck in air that didn’t seem to settle into his lungs quite as it should.

“Do you think she has any idea?”

“No. None,” Jack answered quickly. Very few, if any, of the people in Cook had any idea regarding the truth of the two villages in the woods nearby. Lichtown and Nachtown just seemed like odd little settlements to them. Nachtown wasn’t even close enough to send their children to Cook schools, thank goodness. If they had been, that would’ve made the situation even more strained. While Lichtown kids were mostly homeschooled, all three of the Grey kids went to the local high school. Bridge was homeschooled. Her parents didn’t trust her in a world that was fairly foreign to them; they rarely left the village. But Chase and a couple of the other kids from their village went to school.

Keeping secrets wasn’t hard when an entire way of life, possibly their existence, was at stake if anyone said or did anything to give away the truth about the two quaint villages. While most of them had some means of tampering with people’s thoughts and perceptions, even without that, Jack had never met anyone who didn’t completely understand the importance of keeping information hidden. He’d never been to Nachtown, but he had to assume the residents there had that much in common with Lichtown citizens.

That was just about all those evil dogs had in common with his village.

“What do you think we should do?” Chase asked. He wiped his mouth, signaling he was done. Even though there were a few bites of burger left on his plate. The new situation must’ve been getting to him too.

“Never take our eyes off of her. Convince her that she’s not wanted here. Get her to leave.” Jack said all three of the statements as if it should be the easiest thing in the world.

He knew none of it would be simple, especially the part where he tried to make Everly Harrison think that she shouldn’t be there when all he wanted was for her to be with him.

It was a stupid thought, and he pushed it away.

“Man, who would’ve thought. How lucky are those bastards at Nachtown? The one thing in the universe they crave more than anything, and one just shows up at the border of their forest.” Bridge shook her head in disbelief.

“Do you think they know she’s here?” Chase asked Jack.

He shook his head. “Not yet. But they will. They’ll smell her. Eventually.”

If there was one thing about a Nachtwolf, they could always smell a reifes blut. The fact that she was also a Schicht.

As if she was reading his mind, Bridget asked, “What was her mom’s maiden name? Was it one we should be familiar with?”

Jack nodded. “Yeah, I’d say so. Her name was Chelsea Schicht.”