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"Madison," he tried to say, but his lips wouldn’t for Spots swam before his eyes Barber hadn’t meant to kill him, or at least not until after he’d tortured the truth out of hi next to hiraffe went in "What the … ? It looks … it looks like your chest is on fire" Then she clapped her ht not find that reassuring Madison had the ability to spot raffe, apparently
"Don’t worry, now Let’s just see" She pulled aside his jacket and lifted his sweatshirt to exaain, louder Meaning, We’ve got to get the hell out of here!
She ran her cold hands up his chest until she found the wound and pushed her fingertips into it He nearly screa, a reverse pressure, and iain she pressed her hands against his skin, scrunching up her face as if it was as hard on her as on hiidity and he could s his saliva again She was drawing thethe "Yuck This is bad nasty, whatever it is I’ rid of this At least it’s not…Who did this? Where did you come from?" She didn’t really seem to expect an answer
Madison stood, hands on hips, and looked up the slope She seeround "I thought maybe you dropped out of the sky, but looks like you rolled down froed to croak, "Madison Warren Barber’s here We’ve got to go before he sees us" By now, Barberback over the ridge in ti at the side of the road
"Warren Barber!" Madison had met Warren Barber before--at Second Sister--when she’d put hiarden
At least she didn’t ask ato put you in the truck Nothings broken, is it?"
Du hiainst what Barber would do if he came over that hill
Madison disappeared from his field of view The truck door slammed, and she was back with a paint-spattered canvas tarp Sliding her hands under his are of the canvas, she dragged hiate was down, but the opening see to get hiainst the truck Then she climbed into the truckbed, leaned dorapped her arms around his chest, and hauled him backward into the bed He landed flat on top of her, but she wriggled out from underneath hied his extre hiain
The truck jounced on its failing springs as she jumped down from the bed, then cliine came to life Rain pattered on the canvas over his head He didn’t knohere he was going, he didn’t knohere Warren Barber was, and he didn’t know if he’d survive the day
Chapter Fifteen Along Came a Spider
Jason didn’t remember much about the next several days He felt dry and hot one minute, and cold and sweaty the next He wrestled with dreaory Leicester had inflicted on him at the Havens
He dreamed he was back in the woods and Warren Barber spun out cords froiant cocoon He injected poison into hi helpless in his web, saying, "I’ll be back, and then you’ll talk"
He dreaether at Jason’s stupidity and the deft way she’d played hiical powerhouse, but he’d always considered hiht Everyone had warned hinored them His only hope was that no one would ever find out what an idiot he’d been
He burned with fever, eer
He’d wake, startled by the sound of his own voice reverberating in his ears, and he wondered what he’d said, how much he had revealed
Madison was there, a lot of the time She didn’t suck out any more poison Instead, she forced liquids and cups of soup into hiripped her hands, in a rare moment of lucidity "Maddie Don’t tell anyone about this Not Seph Not anybody Please"
"You are crazy, you know that?" She pressed the back of her hand to his forehead, feeling for fever "He needs to knohat happened I’o to town and call hiled to sit up, flailing wildly under the quilt "You call hiht now"
She lifted an eyebrow "You gonna hitchhike, or what? Now lay down before I club you for a fool You need soic to treat you"
"I’roped for an argument "Look, Maddie, if you call hier One little thing he asked me to do, and I blew it He’ll never trust ain I’d rather you just shot ainst his forehead for e
"Besides, if you call hi down here Meanwhile, everything falls apart up there"
"Well," shetroubled, "we’ll see If you take a turn for the worse…"