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After severalholes into our heads, I pulled back It was a how quickly I felt rejuvenated Cole, on the other hand, looked like hell Whatever he’d been through in the past two days, it wasn’t good

And yet as he stared at e I didn’t understand

"Cole, why aren’t you speaking English?"

He shook his head and said soelsk"

"You can’t speak English," I said skeptically, guessing at the n explanation

Cole nodded

I glanced at Jack, who shrugged at me in an I-have-no-idea kind of way

I looked back at Cole "Uh, yes, you can What happened to you?"

He watched my mouth as I spoke, and then looked atHe’d obviously understoodabout?

I looked back at Jack "We have to get hi enough to go tell Christopher we can take it from here?"

"Yeah" I ss in at least a double bound"

Jack smiled, the relief that I was alive--at least for now--evident in his eyes "Okay, I’ll get Cole to the car"

We split up so I could tell Christopher that ould take the strange foreign guy with us, but Cole started to follow lanced at Jack and then looked at me warily

"It will be okay," I said, and then I realized that I was co hate only hours before It was as ifeo with Jack"

I could tell that he understood s toward hiet him out of here

"Okay Co that I would take Cole with ot to the car, Cole didn’t let et more than two yards away from him Even in the car he sat in the backseat but leaned forward so his head was resting on the side of my backrest

So one eye on the road, one eye on me, and a third narrowed and on Cole

I turned in my seat so I could face hi that would help hi vet ikke hva som skjedde"

I looked at Jack to see if he had any clue what that oing to ask you questions, and you just nod for yes and shake your head for no"

Cole nodded Jack rolled his eyes "He understands Just speak English!"

"Shh," I said, putting ht now" I turned to see Cole staring at my hand I dropped it "Do you knoho I am?"

He nodded

"Do you knohat happened to you?"

He closed his eyes for an extended blink, then opened them and shook his head He looked so sad, but I knew from all the ways he’d betrayed

I told et to the bottom of this, but I would not be taken in

"Okay, Cole You’re okay now You understand English Noe just need to get you to speak it Repeat after me My name is Cole Stockton"

"My name is Cole Stockton" He said it with a thick accent, but at least he said it

By the ti in full sentences It took hi inside his head to click; and even when he spoke English, he still did it with an accent The accent sounded Scandinavian, and I re Norwegian?

Jack pulled over about a block before he reachedback to your house"

"Why?" I asked

He shrugged "Obviously, so has happened to Cole Souy with black eyes We don’t knohere the band is I just don’t feel verysafe"

"What do you suggest? We can’t go to your house"

Cole leaned forward even e"

Jack and I both looked at hie?" Jack said

"Yes," Cole said "To board"

Jack shook his head at e and board "We’ll figure out why Sir Cole is talking like a knight later Right now, let’s find a hotel"

"Hotel?" Cole said with a questioning expression

Jack ignored him and turned the car back toward the center of town He pulled over when he saw an ATM and got out of the car

When he returned, he said, "I drained h for at least a couple of nights I want to avoid using ency credit cards"

"I don’t want you to waste your ?"

"I’m sure," Jack said

"What do we do after we find a hotel?" I asked

"We sleep We get you feeling better Then tomorroe’ll continue on withour plan"

"What plan?" Cole said

I narrowedhis ," I said

We ended up at the Silver King Lodge It was the largest hotel in the area, which o unnoticed Jack checked us in using his cash I stayed out of sight of the front desk It wasn’t as if h for anyone to notice that the uys, but I didn’t want to take any chances I could just iine that phone call to my dad

While Jack checked us in, I texted Jules to see if she could cover forover at her house She responded and said she would and then asked if I was okay I told her yes and thanked her, then I texted my dad so he wouldn’t worry aboutconfused but followingI did, much like a child would a parent Once we had our roo behind us, and shut the door Cole sat down on one of the beds and then flopped onto his back, rubbing his eyes