Scarlet

realized that Wolf was there, dragging her dad to his feet. She let go, panting. One hand went to rub her throbbing hip.
    “Let go of me!” Craning his head, her dad snapped his teeth at the air.
    Ignoring his struggles, Wolf bound his wrists with one hand and stretched the other out toward Scarlet.
    No sooner had her palm sunk onto his than her dad’s screams renewed.
    “He’s one of them! One of them !”
    Wolf yanked Scarlet to her feet and released her, using both arms to restrain her struggling father. Scarlet almost expected to see foam at the corners of her dad’s mouth.
    “The tattoo, Scar! It’s them! It’s them!”
    She pushed her hair off her face. “I know, Dad. Just calm down! I can explain—”
    “You can’t take me back! I’m still looking! I need more time! Please, no more. No more…” He dissolved into sobs.
    Wolf’s eyebrows drew together as he peered at the back of her father’s drooped head, then he grabbed a thin chain around his neck and pulled, snapping it.
    Her dad flinched and, when Wolf released him, sank heavily to the floor.
    Scarlet gawked at the necklace hanging from Wolf’s fist—a small, unfamiliar charm dangling from it. She couldn’t remember her father wearing any jewelry, other than the monogamy band that he’d taken off within days of her mother figuring out the ring hadn’t served its purpose and leaving him.
    “Transmitter,” Wolf said, holding the charm up so that its silver sheen blinked in the light. It was no larger than Scarlet’s pinkie nail. “They’ve been tracking him, and, I would guess, listening in on everything as well.”
    Scarlet’s dad hugged his knees, rocking.
    “Do you think they’re listening right now?” Scarlet asked.
    “Most likely.”
    A firework exploded in her rib cage and she launched forward, grabbing Wolf’s fist in both hands. “There’s nothing here!” she screamed at the charm. “We’re not hiding anything and you have the wrong woman! You’d better bring my grandmother back, and I swear on the house I was born in if you’ve hurt one hair, one wrinkle, one freckle on her body I am going to hunt every last one of you down and snap your necks like the chickens you are, do you understand me? BRING HER BACK!”
    Throat hoarse, she fell back and released Wolf’s hand.
    “Finished?”
    Trembling with anger, Scarlet nodded.
    Wolf dropped the transmitter on the floor, grabbed the hammer, and smashed it with a single, clean strike. Scarlet jumped as metal crunched against the concrete.
    “Do you think they knew he would come here?” Wolf said, standing.
    “They left him in our cornfield.”
    Her father’s voice rose between them, dry and empty. “They told me to find it.”
    “Find what?” Scarlet asked.
    “I don’t know. They didn’t say. Just … that she’s hiding something. Something valuable and secret and they want it.”
    “Wait … you knew?” said Scarlet. “You knew all along that you were bugged and you didn’t try to tell me? Dad, what if I’d said something or done something that made them suspect me? What if they do come after me next?”
    “I didn’t have a choice,” he said. “It was the only way they would let me go. They said I could only have my freedom if I found what your grandmother was hiding. If I found some clue that would help … I had to get out of there, Scar, you don’t know what it was like—”
    “I know they still have her! And I know that you’re coward enough to save your own skin and not worry about what’s happening to her, or what could happen to me.”
    Scarlet held her breath, waiting for him to deny it. To give some twisted excuse like he’d always had, but he stayed perfectly still. Perfectly silent.
    Her skin flushed with anger. “You’re a disgrace to her—to everything she’s ever stood for. She would risk her life to protect either one of us! She would risk her life for a stranger if it was the right thing to do. But all you care about is yourself. I can’t believe you’re her son. I can’t believe you’re my father. ”
    He raised his haunted eyes to her. “You’re wrong, Scarlet. She watched them torture me. Me. And still she kept her secrets.” A spark of defiance flickered over his face. “There’s something your grandmother never told us, Scar, and it’s put both of us in danger. She’s the selfish one.”
    “You don’t know anything about her!”
    “No, you don’t! You’ve been idolizing her since you were four