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me want to groan, but I keep my mouth shut. Having
Silas mistakenly shoot me because he thinks I’m a zombie moaning and groaning
back here, is at the very bottom of my bucket list.
    I almost give
myself up to Silas about a hundred times, but I chicken out at the last minute.
The terrain is so rough and bumpy, and to make it worse, the heat vent is
blowing directly on me. It’s blistering hot, and soon I’m a disgusting ball of
sweat beneath all my layers. At one point, Silas opens his window a bit and I
get the tiniest glimpse of cool air, but he still leaves the heat cranked. It
makes me want to jump up and scream at him to turn it off! God, why doesn’t he
lower the heat? He has to be just as hot as I am.
    I lose track of
time, but it feels like a year has passed. Finally, Silas steps on the brakes
far more aggressively than necessary, making me roll forward and smack against
the front seat. I hold my breath, hoping he didn’t feel it. “Alright, Blondie.
You can come out now.” His voice rings through the cab and I freeze, not sure
if I should give up my position or not. “Oh come on, I know you’re there,” he
says with a chuckle as the truck turns a corner and takes off at a much
smoother gait. We must’ve reached the main road at the bottom of the mountain.
I glance out the window and see that it’s still dark, but the first few streaks
of light are starting to pierce the gloom. “Jane?” Silas calls again. I let out
the deep breath I’ve been holding and start to sit up.
    “How long have you
known?” I ask as I scramble into the backseat and shuck off my backpack and
coat to finally gain some sweet relief. Silas starts to laugh.
    “I knew from the
beginning,” he admits, casting me an evil smile in the rear-view mirror. “Why
do you think I made sure to hit every pothole on the way down that godforsaken
mountain?” It’s too much. I reach out and slap him on the arm, making him laugh
harder.
    Even though it’s
better with my coat off, the heat is still blowing full blast on my leg, so I
climb clumsily into the front seat, launching Silas’ backpack into the back
with my own. I slap the heat off, making Silas laugh again. “You did that on
purpose,” I accuse him, and he doesn’t confirm or deny it. “If you knew from
the beginning, why did you make me ride all the way down here on the floor?” I
ask, and he stops laughing.
    “Because, Jane. We
are a team, and you tried to get one over on me,” he says, and I know that he’s
actually kind of pissed off.
    “Why didn’t you
turn me in?” I ask, not really sure what to expect from him. Silas shrugs.
    “For the same
reason. We are a team,” he says, and I feel my anger at him melting away. “You
have just as much right to help out your family and risk your life as any one
of us.” He looks over and sees me grinning at him in the gray morning light.
“Don’t read too much into this, you still have some work to do before you’re Annie
Oakley, but you can handle yourself as well as anyone else.”
    “Thanks,” I tell
him, meaning every syllable. Only Silas would be this chill about me coming
along. Even Ryan would have marched me back up the mountain to the cabin if
he’d been here. I think back over Silas’ explanation and realize he never did
tell me how he knew I was in here. “Did you see me get in, or something?” I
ask, and he shakes his head.
    “No, you actually
kept pretty quiet,” he says as he continues to stare at the road. It almost
appears like he isn’t going to answer, but I am used to Silas by now; he just
needs some more time. “I knew when you didn’t say goodbye to me,” he says,
sounding awkward. I smile, glad that he knows I would’ve said goodbye to him if
I’d had any intention of letting him go out on his own. “I was watching you,
and you said goodbye to your dad for show,” he says with a chuckle. “But then
you hugged Ryan and your mom, and that’s when I knew,” he sounds like a