Don't Let Go Read Free Page B

Daisy teased.
    “I’m not exactly rich anymore,” Peter muttered. Which was true. In fact, after bankrolling the group for the past few months, he was down to his last few hundred dollars. It turned out that living off the grid was more expensive than you’d think.
    “What about you, Noa?” Teo called ahead. “Are the bugs chowing down?”
    Noa shook her head, but didn’t turn around. Peter tried to quell a surge of concern. She’d taken the lead but seemed to be struggling, stumbling more frequently than the rest of them. He considered asking if she wanted to take a break, but the last time he had, she’d practically ripped his head off.
    Ever since Pike’s doctors had experimented on her, Noa had developed strange symptoms, especially when it came to sleeping and eating. She’d be awake for days, then crash hard. But last night, when he’d had such a hard time waking her up . . . for a second, he thought she might actually have slipped into a coma. He hadn’t dared tell her that she’d slept for nearly thirty straight hours, losing an entire day. He figured that was a conversation they could save for the road, or maybe avoid altogether.
    Even when she was awake, Noa wasn’t entirely present. She’d stare off into the distance for long stretches, and she barely ate anymore. He’d initially assumed she was grieving the loss of Zeke. But as time passed, she seemed to be getting worse.
    Of course, they were all in rough shape. Peter slapped at another bug on his forearm and groaned. “I gotta rest. My ankle is killing me.”
    “Hang on, we’re almost there,” Teo said. “I recognize that rock.”
    “Easy there, mountain man,” Peter joked. “Soon you’ll be starting fires with sticks.”
    Teo reached out and cuffed him on the arm, making him stumble. Peter jostled him back. They engaged in a silent, friendly shoving match until they rounded the boulder and spotted their SUV parked beside the entrance to a hiking trail.
    Noa stared at the SUV as if it was an unfamiliar animal that had suddenly materialized before her. “This is where we left it?”
    “Well, yeah,” Peter said, trotting around to the back. “Don’t you remember? We parked here to make it look like it belonged to hikers.”
    Noa didn’t reply. He examined her surreptitiously as he cracked the hatch. She appeared genuinely puzzled, which wasn’t a good sign. She’d never mentioned memory issues before; was this new? Peter bit his lip. Out here, they had no choice but to rely on one another. Yet while he and Daisy and Teo became increasingly tightly knit, Noa seemed to be drifting away from them.
    “You want to check this time?” Teo asked as he threw his pack into the cargo compartment.
    Peter sighed. “Why not? I’m already covered in mud.”
    While the others waited, he crawled around the perimeter of the car, checking the tires and undercarriage for tracking devices. As usual, he didn’t find anything. They’d spent hours speculating on how Charles Pike’s minions seemed to find them no matter how far and fast they ran; a few states back, Peter had suggested that maybe they’d bugged the car. So they’d switched out vehicles. But two nights later, the mercenaries had shown up again.
    There was another possible answer, but it was almost too awful to contemplate: that one of them was a mole.
    As he got back to his feet and dusted himself off, Peter shoved the thought away. They’d been together 24-7 for over three months. Noa certainly wouldn’t sell herself out, and Teo and Daisy would never risk each other. He watched as they stole a kiss in the backseat. They were good kids; a little rough around the edges, but definitely trustworthy.
    So how the hell does Pike keep finding us? This last time had been too close—Teo was right, just a few more minutes and they wouldn’t have gotten away. Fortunately, the perimeter alarms that he’d set up had alerted them. But those had been left behind, and there wasn’t enough