Sam decided Coop had a special gift for the understatement. She shook her head. Once he’d made it to back to the highway and turned right, she looked back. No one was following them, and there was nothing but road and farm field ahead.
“Are we safe?”
Coop’s eyes flicked up to the rear view mirror. “For now. Jennings will be more concerned with Reed. They’ll come back for us eventually.”
“Jennings,” she growled. How she’d misjudged him.
“Apparently far more involved with Reed and his machinations than I’d realized. I thought it was all about Amy, but guess I was wrong.”
That brought Sam back to her questions. “And how often are you usually wrong?”
He slid his eyes to her. “Not often. What gives?”
“You mentioned my mother.”
“In order to infiltrate the compound, I had to have my illusionist Gift and mark removed.”
Sam nodded, but didn’t see how that was related. “I know.”
“That wasn’t all I wanted to accomplish,” he continued, as if she hadn’t said anything. “We can’t defeat the Hunters alone. My parents are right. The longstanding feud between the Gifted has to be put aside. We have to learn to trust each other—memory-bringers don’t steal memories and illusionists won’t use their Gift against the memory-bringers. The Hunters are picking off both of us, trying to find ways to take away our abilities. Wipe us out.”
He wasn’t telling her anything new. But she sensed that Coop was actually going to give her information, not stall and redirect, and she wasn’t about to interrupt.
“I studied memory-bringer culture. Without my Gifted mark, it was easier to talk with people, and I learned about the elder system. That led me to your uncle. He’s one of the elders who’s a diplomat of sorts with illusionists and memory-bringers and I figured if any elder would be willing to listen to my plan, it’d be him. He’s pretty progressive.”
That she understood. “But my mother?”
“I wrote to your uncle about who I was, what I was going to do, and how I wanted to help.”
Even with her uncle being progressive, reaching out and offering to work together had been a huge risk. With the mistrust between the Gifted, it was rare to consider anything like what Coop was suggesting—willingly sharing his information with the memory-bringers. If the two groups had worked peaceably together to accomplish something, it hadn’t been in her lifetime.
Sam gestured for him to continue. “Go on.”
“That’s where your mom came in. She wrote back and said she’d be coordinating—that I should direct all communication to her. I even met with her once to discuss it all.” He chuckled. “You look exactly like her.”
A suspicious feeling worked its way into her stomach. Her mother didn’t work with her uncle. Her mother despised her uncle: He had the Gift, she didn’t. He was an elder, she wasn’t. Even if she had somehow managed to get along with her brother for more than five minutes, her mother didn’t work for his office.
Which meant there was little reason why she would be working with Coop.
“I kept her informed about what was happening at the compound—”
“Wait.” Sam pointed her finger at him. “If you knew what was happening at the compound, why didn’t you warn her about Amy? Didn’t you know?”
“Let me finish.”
Something in Sam’s gut fizzled with warning.
“Your mom never mentioned you.”
Her stomach turned over, and heat swept over her body. The bad feeling expanded to her chest. Your mom never mentioned you. It wasn’t uncommon for her mother to ignore her or pretend she didn’t exist. But in this situation? With her mother’s motives already in question?
“I didn’t even know you existed until later, at the compound, when I saw you again. The resemblance is unmistakable. Later, I overheard Reed and Jennings talking about you, and the name clicked. I’d researched your grandma. You were named after her.”
“Uh-huh.”
Coop continued, “I told your mom about Amy and how she’d given up her own parents to the Hunters. Your mom didn’t seem to think it was an issue, even when I warned her that Amy would give up more people—that just taking Amy in meant that she would sneak around for information to pass on to the Hunters. But your mom thought she could turn Amy’s betrayal into a way to unite the memory-bringer community against the Hunters.”
“At my expense. I was the one Amy gave up.”
“Yes,” Coop confirmed, weariness in his voice. “Your mom knew when we were coming. She never told me to watch out for you. If I’d known—if I’d had any idea, I never would have gone along with it.”
Her mind reeled as she struggled to pull everything together. “I-I don’t understand.” Her mother had let her be taken. But for what reason? Managing the Hunters and their influence was her uncle’s job, not hers. Sam couldn’t figure out how her mother had taken over this operation with Coop. Did her uncle even know what was going on?
“But I was always there, Samara. I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.”
She turned on him with large eyes. “You let Reed punish me.”
“I told you, I needed to get you separated from the others.”
“You said you didn’t even know me.”
“Something about you drew me from the start. And finding out who you were changed everything,” he insisted. “Samara, you’re—”
“No. Just no. Stop the car. Please.”
Coop braked and brought the car to a halt on the side of the road. She stared uncomprehendingly out the windshield, incoherent thoughts of her mother and Coop swirling around her head.
Her car door squeaked open. When Coop’s hand grazed hers, it shocked her. She gripped him tight, meeting his concerned gaze. “We have issues.”
His face was tight and pinched. “I know. I’m sorry. After my sister was captured by the Hunters—” He clenched his jaw and looked away, then continued, “—and presumed dead, I became obsessed with stopping them. I wanted to avenge her. Stop them from doing it to anyone else. But my actions led to you. You weren’t supposed to get hurt.” He reached out and stroked her cheek.
Sam shook her head. “No, I mean—we—my mother doesn’t work for my uncle. My mother isn’t even Gifted.”
Coop pushed up and backed away from the car, rubbing his mouth. He looked a little green. He hadn’t known. No way he’d known.
Everything crashed down on her at once—her mother’s betrayal and deception. The car felt like it was closing in on her. She had to get out. She ran from the car.
“Samara!”
She plunged through the corn stalks, trying to outrun what Coop had told her—and what she’d pieced together. Tears blinded her as she ran. Processing what she’d endured at the compound—and at Jones’s hand—was hard enough. But with her grandma gone somewhere and her mother—
Sam broke. Her whole world felt like it was crumbling around her. She tripped and pitched forward, but a hand latched onto her arm, jerking her upright. Stationary on her feet, she wiped her tears and tried wrenching away.
Coop pulled her into his embrace. “Shh.”
She stood stiffly in his arms. “Why?” She hiccuped.
“If I’d known, I’d do it differently.” He tightened his hold on her. “But I wouldn’t give up you.”
“You don’t know me.”
Coop stroked her hair and pulled her closer. “I know I want you. You and your determination and strength and desire to do what’s right.”
Her emotions swirled around her, making her dizzy, and she fell straight into another memory.
She saw herself lying on the floor, curled protectively in a ball.
“Samara,” she—no, Coop—whispered, pushing back her hair and examining her face. He trailed his fingers down her cheek and nodded to himself. He checked her feet, making sure she had the socks he’d given her.
She did.
He’d hated seeing her walking around
barefoot, knowing how cold she must be. He’d been powerless to help her. Much like he felt powerless now, eyeing the glass of water next to her.
The one that contained a truth serum Reed planned to use to reveal her memories and get her to spill her secrets.
He couldn’t save her from that completely, not without revealing himself—and he’d already come under suspicion for her scavenging—but he could mediate the effects.
And feed her. The hollows beneath her eyes were deepening.
He set down the plate of food he’d pilfered from the cafeteria. Nothing could quite erase the effects of the drug—he’d learned that the hard way when he’d joined the Hunters—but food in her stomach gave her a fighting chance to hold her tongue.
It would have to be enough.
“I’ll find a way to get you out, Samara,” he vowed to her sleeping form. “I should’ve never agreed to this.”
He couldn’t resist touching her one last time before he left, taking care not to be seen—and rewriting the footage of him entering and exiting her cell.
They were back in the car, parked on the side of the road. She looked down to find herself clutching Coop’s hand and carefully released it. “Let’s go.”
“We need to talk to your uncle. See if he knows what’s going on. If he doesn’t… Samara, we might have bigger problems on our hands than I thought. My parents have a cabin in the north. We could stay there until everything’s blown over and settled.”
Whatever her mother had done didn’t matter. Sam needed to get back. Find her grandma, talk to her uncle, and figure out her mother’s role.
“No. Take me home.”
Coop took in the stubborn set of her jaw and her focused concentration on the road. “We’ll have to stop for rest eventually,” he said. “It’s a long drive back.”
“I don’t care.”
“Samara—”
“Drive.”
Elusive Memories (The Hunted #1) Page 20
