Erased by Jennifer Rush Read Free Book Online Page A

hesitation.” Sam leaned forward, closer to me. I was still staring at the phone. He set his hand on my knee beneath the table and squeezed.
    “It’ll be fine,” he promised.
    When Trev gave us the flash drive, he’d included a document titled IN CASE OF EMERGENCY. It was a text file with a phone number, nothing else. That was the number we were calling now.
    I punched it in, brought the phone to my ear. I could barely hear the ringing on the other end over the fierce beating of my heart. Trev had once been my best friend. Talking to him had been easier than talking to anyone else. And now I felt like I might vomit at the thought of hearing his voice. Or maybe it was that I worried it
wouldn’t
be him. If the Branch ever found out what he’d given us, they’d either wipe his memory or kill him.
    As angry as I was with him, he didn’t deserve either of those punishments.
    Cas fidgeted across from me and accidentally bumped the table. Coffee sloshed over the rim of his cup and puddled on the table.
    “Sorry,” he muttered at the same time the line picked up and Trev said, “Hello?”
    I looked over at Sam, nodded. He started the timer on his watch. Cas sopped up the coffee mess with a wad of napkins.
    “Anna?” Trev said, his voice hitching.
    I squeezed my eyes shut. “Yeah. It’s me.”
Take charge of the conversation. You only have two minutes.
“I need a favor.”
    He didn’t say anything for what felt like much longer than two minutes. Finally, a breath, another pause, then, “What kind of favor?”
    “Dani is alive and the Branch has her and I want to know where I might find her.”
    “What?” There was shuffling through the line, the creak of a door and it closing a second later. “How do you know she’s alive?”
    “We saw her on the security footage at a grocery store.”
    “And the Branch, how—”
    “They attacked her in the alley there. Riley and another agent.”
    Trev cursed. Wind whistled through the receiver. There was a dinging noise, like the sound a car made when the door was open. “Give me an hour. You in Michigan?”
    Sam shook his head. He must have heard Trev through the line.
    “No,” I said.
    “Sam tell you to say that?” I didn’t answer. “Meet me at the wind turbine field in Hart in two hours.”
    “We are not meeting him,” Sam said.
    “Anna,” Trev said. “Don’t use this number again. Okay? It’s only good for a one-time use. Meet me. I’ll see what I can dig up.”
    “We are
not
meeting him,” Sam repeated. We locked eyes. He shook his head again.
    “All right,” I said to Trev. “Two hours.”
    “I’ll be there.”
    The line went dead.
    Sam’s hands curled into fists. “Damn it, Anna! We are not meeting him.”
    “That’s fine.” I stood. “You don’t have to. Just like I told Nick: I can do this alone.”
    Sam rose to his feet next to me. There were only two inches between us. I could smell the leftover mint on his breath, could practically feel the heat in his voice. “You really think we’d let you go alone?”
    No. I didn’t. Which was why I was making a stand now. I needed this, and I was willing to risk a lot to get it.
    “I don’t know,” I answered. “Maybe.”
    Cas snorted. “She’s totally baiting us.”
    The corners of Sam’s eyes pinched tighter. He knew it, too. “Fine,” he said. “Since this is your mission, I’ll let you brief Nick.”
    He turned and walked out the door. I watched him go. Across from me, Cas practically vibrated with laughter. “Nick is going to love this plan.”
    I grumbled to myself as I plodded outside.

    Nick took the news like we all thought he would, with an air of disgruntled arrogance. He now sat in the backseat, silent as we headed for Hart, Michigan. The GPS said we were over two hours out, but Sam kept the speedometer just above seventy-five the whole waythere. Thankfully the freeways were clear of snow and ice, otherwise we’d be late.
    We could see the wind turbines long before