Page 2 of Split You Open

I reach up and rub my eyes as I try to frantically push back the despair threatening to consume me. There’s no time to fall apart. I have to do something but… what?

“Damn it!” Santi’s strikes the dashboard again, this time repeatedly as if it’s the reason Blair and Rhett are gone. “We’re totally fucked. Fucked, fucked, fuc—” He gasps, his fist freezing halfway into the air. “Wait, you said Ledger’s not at the cabin. If he’s not there, then where did he go?”

I grimace. “He went after Rhett and Blair. He’s the only one who knows where Blair is right now. We have to let him find her.”

Santi sputters, confused. “What? How? I thought you said there’s no way to track them⁠—”

“He’s… tracking Blair,” I hedge carefully. “He put a tracker in her.”

Santi opens his mouth, closes it, scowls, then shakes his head.

“In her?” He repeats. At my nod, his scowl deepens. “He’s a real piece of shit.”

I can’t agree more.

“Then… then we still have a chance to help!” Hope brightens his expression as he leans over the center console. “We’ll go after Ledger. He has his truck, right? They all have trackers, so all we have to do is follow him and we'll find them.”

God, if only it could be that easy…

I shake my head slowly. “I checked before coming, Ledger’s turned off tracking on his phone and truck. I don’t know where he went.”

Santi groans. “Wes, he’s going to kill Blair!”

“No.” I shake my head, confident in this. “He’s not.”

“How can you say that? He put a hit out on her⁠—”

“Whatever reason he had to do that, it wasn’t to kill Blair,” I object sharply.

Santi gapes at me, his eyes widening with horror. After a sharp inhale, he hisses, “You don’t know that.”

“I DO! I FUCKING DO! When it comes to Blair, there’s no one safer than with Ledger!”

Flipping out on Santi isn’t going to help the situation. I suck in a deep breath to calm down.

Okay, I need to focus.

We need to get out of here. I glance out my window into the darkness, searching for Santi’s truck. I spot it a few yards past the tree line, its hazard lights faintly blinking in the dark. Shoving open my door, I climb out to head for the back of my truck. With a grunt, I grab the chains. Hopefully getting his vehicle out of the woods won’t be too difficult.

Santi climbs out of the truck and follows me into the woods without a word. He says nothing, but I can feel Santi’s gaze burning a hole in the side of my face. I’ve never lashed out at him before. No doubt I’ve surprised him.

It’s not until I hook up the back of Santiago’s truck and attach it back to mine that he finally speaks. He grabs my arm before I can climb into the driver’s seat, forcing me to look back at him. There’s a glitter of something feral in his eyes as he glares at me.

“Are you helping Ledger?” His question is spoken soft and without inflection.

I recoil in surprise. “What? Santi⁠—”

“If I find out that you’ve been a part of this scheme to kill Blair, Wesley, I swear to god⁠—”

“Santi, I would never hurt Blair!”

Santi remains eerily still as he studies my face. The air on the back of my neck rises.

“I don’t—” he growls between clenched teeth “—believe you.”

His words are a gut punch that steals my breath away. It hurts almost as much as it did when Ledger pulled his gun on me. My shoulders slump as I stare at Santi. He must realize that I’m withholding information. A sixth sense or something.

Or maybe my guilt is just written all over my fucking face.