The Odds - Jeff Strand Page 0,22

the dead woman and go back home. I’ll be in touch.”

“What are you going to do with her?”

“Would you believe me if I said we were going to give her a respectful burial?”

“No.”

“Then don’t worry about it. You could have saved her but you didn’t, so I hope you’ll be more attentive to the small details next time.” Rick honestly wasn’t sure which fate would’ve been worse for the poor woman. Suffocating in a shallow grave, or being rescued from a nightmarish demise only to discover that she wasn’t safe, after all. A bullet to the head was obviously preferable to suffocation, but having hope stolen away like that would be unbearably cruel.

“I’m going to kill you,” said Ethan.

“That’s fine,” said Rick. “Go home.”

8

Ethan was trembling as he got back into his car. It could’ve been from the cold, the anger, the horror, or all three.

He couldn’t just keep playing along. What would the next round bring? A bomb for him to defuse before it blew up an elementary school? He’d failed a challenge already, and it was only the second one. They certainly weren’t going to get easier or have lower stakes.

And what was he supposed to do when he got home? Keep a poker face? Tell Jenny that everything was perfectly okay, as his whole body shook and he tried not to burst into tears? At some point she’d demand that he give her the truth or she’d take the kids and leave, and Ethan had now been given absolute proof that they would kill people for this game.

He’d take it one problem at a time. Jenny first.

How closely were they spying on him? His phone conversation seemed to indicate that Rick didn’t know that he’d found the woman and was too late to save her. But that was outdoors in a large state park. It didn’t mean there weren’t hidden cameras or microphones around his house. If they saw him whisper into Jenny’s ear, they’d know he’d broken the rule. If they took a shower together, they’d be suspicious (or they might very well have a webcam in the shower). If he told her in the backyard, they might see her expression of horror and disbelief.

There had to be a way around it.

When could he tell her about the game without them knowing?

He had an idea. Probably not something he could make work when he got home, but later, if he could get Jenny to trust him.

He desperately needed her to trust him.

Half an hour after abandoning the dead woman, Ethan pulled into his driveway. If he was lucky, Jenny would be asleep. He’d sleep on the couch. In the morning, he’d say that it wasn’t something they should discuss while he hurried to get ready for work. And then he’d have a reprieve until tomorrow afternoon. Technically this afternoon. His alarm was going to go off in an hour and a half.

Ethan was not lucky.

Jenny sat on the couch, eyes red and puffy from crying. Another trio of emotions flashed across her face: relief that he was home and safe, anger that he’d left, and confusion that he was wet and covered in mud.

“Where were you?” she asked, not getting up.

“A park.”

“A park?”

Ethan nodded.

“What were you doing at a park all night? Why are you all dirty? Ethan, I need to know what’s going on. We can’t continue like this.”

“I was working,” he said.

“You were working,” Jenny said, not phrasing it as a question.

“I have another job,” he said. “Nothing illegal, I promise. Manual labor. Just to bridge the gap.” He almost sat down next to her, but there was no sense adding “wet muddy clothes on the couch” to his list of infractions. “I lied to you about Vegas. I won big, yes, but I also lost big. I tried to hide it. I got a tip on this job that I thought I could do without you finding out, but I never imagined they’d call me at all hours of the night and demand that I get right out there.”

“What kind of work?”

“Construction. I’m a contractor when they need somebody at the last minute. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was just embarrassed to be doing that kind of work. I didn’t want you to think less of me for degrading myself like that.”

Ethan looked directly into Jenny’s eyes as he spoke.

Her father had been a construction worker, as had both of her grandfathers. Ethan had been a factory worker when they met,