EPPINGTON: THE GUARDED SECRET by Tanya Taylor (red queen free ebook TXT) 📗

or insanity, he couldn’t seem to control himself. The whole time I stood near the door with my head lowered and only glanced up occasionally to see what Rob was doing.

When he was done and heading back my way, I started toward the door.

“Hello…” I heard someone say. Reluctantly, I looked back. My heart was in my mouth as I considered the grim possibility that we’d been found out and that might’ve been the end of the line for Rob and me. I thought about how close I was to the door and that there was a good chance I might not be so unlucky and could escape. But then I thought of Rob and the possibility that he might not be as fortunate since he was about a good five feet behind me. Any of those dogs could’ve easily gotten to him before they got to me.

“Your change...” Dale said to Rob, who I knew breathed an inner sigh of relief.

In no time, we were out of there and I don’t remember us saying anything to Sam until we were way down the street.

9

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“You numbskull!” I blasted Rob when we turned the bend where the distillery was.

“What did I do?” he asked as we all hopped off our bikes.

“You actually couldn’t leave the muffins, could you?”

“I’m hungry. Why couldn’t I get some?”

“Muffins, guys?” Sam intervened. “You’re really bickering over muffins? We have more serious things to think about.”

“I wish you’d get that into his thick skull!” I barked.

“They’re not all for me,” Rob said. “I bought one for each of us.”

After that I felt bad, realizing he didn’t take the risk just for himself, but for us too. I still wished he wouldn’t have, but it was water under the bridge now.

“Let’s just go inside, okay?” I started wheeling my bike towards the back door.

Stepping inside that diner was more terrifying for me, by far, than being at the police station. The dogs had pretty much taken over the place and although they acted like humans, I was very aware that they were still canines with extremely sharp teeth. How Rob could possibly have managed to think about his stomach in a situation like that was beyond me.

We’d come across a red and blue flyer attached to the lamppost near the distillery announcing a general meeting for the following night and that it was mandatory that everyone in our neighborhood be in attendance. The venue was one of the school campuses.

Sam had ripped the flyer off the pole and brought it inside with us.

“What do you make of this?” she asked after we sat down on the floor. “They’re really taking control of this entire town, aren’t they?”

“Seems so,” I replied.

I took that opportunity to tell the guys about how my visit to the police station went.

“It’s obvious they’re taking over on a large scale,” Rob said, afterwards. “If they’re now in law enforcement, what else can they get their hands on that’s more powerful?”

“The government,” I replied. “I have a strong feeling that’s what they ultimately want—to take over the government.”

“From the looks of things, I’d say they’ve already infiltrated,” Sam chimed in. “Why don’t we just get on our bikes and roll on outta here?”

Rob shook his head. “We’d need a car for that—the bikes won’t do.”

“We can take the boat!” Sam suggested. “Before you know it, we’ll be clear across the lake to Crescent.”

“Too risky,” I said.

“But it’s right there!” Rob indicated. “I think we should take the chance. Suppose the people there are not under this crazy spell?”

I knew he had a valid point, but I also considered the possible flip side of that equation. I leaned forward. “Listen to me, guys. I feel like taking off in the dinghy should be a last resort if we can’t find out more about what’s going on while we’re here. The reason I say that is: number one—we could easily be spotted in the lake. And what if they—the dogs—decide to come after us? There’s no guarantee we’d get away. Number two: What if we actually took that chance and got away only to find out that Crescent is in the exact same situation that we’re in now? What’re we gonna do? Stay over there and try to find somewhere to hide out? Whereas if we stay here, at least we’ve got this place. And if we decide to come back since we do have this place, who’s to say they won’t nab us even before we get ashore? It’s too risky guys. Just too risky.”

“I see what you mean,” Sam replied.

“Me too.” Rob sighed. Moments later, he said, “But what if we managed to get over there without being spotted and the people there are normal?”

Sam cleared her throat. “That’s a possibility, Rob, but Hewey painted a picture for us that it’s just too risky to take the chance...and I tend to agree.”

Rob looked a little disappointed. He did always have an adventurous side to him—we all did. That’s part of the reason we’d been hanging out together for so long.

“Let’s keep the lake as a last resort, okay, bud, considering the dinghy’s still there?” I said.

“Okay.” He nodded. “We could’ve taken one of our folks’ cars if any of us knew how to drive. So, that’s out of the question.”

Mom had been behind me for months to take the time out of my busy schedule with friends to let Dad teach me how to drive. I didn’t see the rush and kept putting it off for later. I surely lived to regret that one. Rob was right—taking a car might’ve been a breeze if one of us were able to drive it.

“Let’s just focus on finding out what’s really going on around here, so that if we’re able to get outside help, they won’t be clueless as to how to handle it,” I said. “The more information we can gather, the better.”

They were both in agreement.

Rob got up