Empty Bodies 3: Deliverance (Empty Bodies Series Book 3) Read Free Page A

them.”
    “Shit,” Gabriel said. “He’s trying to pin this on us so they’ll come after us.”
    “Why would he do that?” Jessica asked. “Why didn’t he just kill you all while he was here?”
    “Because that’s too easy,” Marcus said. “We left him for dead in a warehouse. He doesn’t want us to go easy—especially Will.”
    After a few moments of silence, Jessica continued. “The man on the other end of the radio gave David directions to where they are.”
    This caught Gabriel’s attention. “You know where he went?”
    Jessica nodded.
    “And you remember the directions?” Marcus asked.
    “We take I-40 West to the Waverly Road exit. We head down the road a couple of miles and we should find the place. It’s a farm. I think they said it was called Hopkins Farm.”
      “It’s gotta be the same place Dylan is,” Gabriel said. He looked over to Marcus. “We’ve gotta go there.”
    Marcus put his arms out with his palms up. “With what? A bunch of syringes and scalpels?”
    “So, what? We just stay here and wait for them to come and slaughter us?”
    “I didn’t say that,” Marcus said. “But you said yourself, we’ve gotta be level-headed and have a plan before we just march out of here and go all Rambo on them.”
    “Maybe we should take all this to the rest of the group,” Jessica suggested. “Some of them are from the area, right? So, maybe one of them will have an idea of somewhere we can find some weapons.”
      “Good idea,” Marcus said.
    “We’ve gotta make sure we have a plan that’s not just going in there guns blazing. If we do that, they might hurt the kid,” Jessica said.
    Jessica saw that Gabriel was clearly uncomfortable talking about the boy, and just as he looked like he might get upset, Marcus put his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder.
    “Agreed,” Marcus said. “Nothing is gonna happen to Dylan.”
    ***
    Will
    It was the first time that Will and Holly had been able to be alone together since they’d met. And even though Holly was there with him, Will felt the most alone he ever had in his entire life.
    They lay in bed cuddled up next to each other. Holly’s head was nestled into Will’s bare chest, which she’d wet with tears. He lay on his back, staring at the ceiling and running his hand through her hair. The room still held the slightly humid air of the shower. When they’d first come into the room after Will had pummeled the Empty in the hallway, until its face had looked like tenderized meat, Holly had immediately stripped him down so he could take a shower. Later on, he’d probably be disappointed that this was the first time she’d seen him naked. She had thrown his clothes into a bag and then tossed it into the hallway, and that was the only time they’d opened the door since coming inside the room. He’d allowed her to stay in the bathroom with him while he’d showered, sensing that she was worried he may try to hurt himself if left alone. But he had no interest in hurting himself—only in killing David Ellis. And as he lay on the bed now, facing the ceiling, he continued to see David’s face everywhere he looked. It was as if it were painted as a mural across the popcorn texture above him.
    Holly’s embrace did bring some comfort to him. She obviously didn’t want him to be in pain, and it hurt her to see him like this.
    “Everything’s gonna be okay,” she said, breaking their extended mutual silence.
    “Not until I kill him.”
    She shifted onto her elbow, but continued to rub his chest and his stomach.
    “I know you’re hurting inside. I do. But how are you so sure that killing him is going to make you feel any better?”
    The question was enough to finally draw his attention away from the ceiling to look down to her.
    “Do you want me to just let him stay out there and get off scot-free?”
    “I’m not saying that, but—”
    “But what, Holly? That piece of shit fed my mother to a goddamn monster right in front of me. Do you