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THE COFFEE WAS cold. Adele took a sip and pulled a face, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the tepid trickle down her throat. She pushed the mug away with a grimace and it toppled off the counter into the sink, the coffee splashing up the sides of the porcelain. The rim of the mug chipped when it met the metal plug hole, a ceramic shard skittering down the drain.

Ainslie crouched in front of the fire, carefully balancing a pan on the grate to heat up her hot chocolate after getting distracted by the phone call. Pouring it back into her mug without spilling a single drop, she turned around on her haunches with the cup cradled in her hands. The heat turned her cheeks pink, the steam wavering in the air when she sat down with a heavy thump and sloshed hot cocoa over the side.

"How will we know if he's really gone?" she asked. "What if it's a trap?"

"It might be," Adele said. She wouldn't put anything past Creighton anymore. "We need to be very careful."

"We're not going anywhere until we know he's gone," Caleb said.

"But how will we know? It's not like he's going to swing by and say oh, by the way, I'm heading to London for a few days so you'll have to be a threatening dick to yourselves for a while," Ainslie said with a scoff, scowling at the floor. She stretched out her feet, wiggling her toes in a pair of thick socks she had borrowed from Adele.

"We'll wait a while and then I'll go and check," Adele said. She hopped onto the counter to let Caleb enjoy the armchair for once without her draped over him.

"That's not safe," he said.

"I'll be careful," she said, "and that's the only way, anyway. I won't put myself at risk. I'll be safe. We need to know he's gone."

"Can't you just ring Jade and ask?" Ainslie asked.

"He took her phone, and you heard me tell him to stay away from her. Look, it's fine. I know how to be safe. I won't do anything stupid. I'll go over in an hour or two to check that he's gone."

Both Caleb and Ainslie grimaced, sharing a glance until Adele slipped off the counter and swatted Caleb's knee, pulling his attention back to her. He took her hands, holding her gaze in a way that she couldn't tear herself away from.

"Don't do it." His voice was deep and low, his hands steady. "If he's there, he'll hurt you. I can't let him hurt you. Please don't go."

"We have to know," she said, shaking her head. "It's the only way we can make sure we can find Reed safely." She squeezed his hands and gave him her best attempt at an encouraging smile. It was getting a little easier the closer she got to a solution.

"You'd better not get caught, Adele," Ainslie said, a new severity in her voice. "Seriously. If there's the slightest hint of anything fishy, you come straight back. We're not losing you. We can't." She pulled her knees up to her chest, curling her toes against the kitchen floor, and she looked at Caleb again before her determined eyes flickered back to Adele. "I don't think you should go. Caleb's right."

Adele frowned. She dropped onto the chair, squeezing into the gap next to Caleb. "I have to," she said. "I can't exactly ring back to check what he's doing; we can't ask your mum to go and check in on them. Do either of you have another solution?" She stared at Ainslie and then Caleb. "Because I'd really love to hear another idea but I can't think of anything else. I want to find Reed as much as you two do – this is how we'll do it."

"We can't afford to lose you," Ainslie said quietly, wrapping both arms around her legs. Her hot chocolate went ignored again, shunted off to the side. "If he sees you, you're dead. We all heard what he said yesterday. I don't think he's messing around, and if he doesn't kill you, he'll kill Jade. Or the baby."

"Then I'll wait longer. I can stay up late," Adele said. "I can go and check at three or four in the morning. If he's not there then, he's probably gone to London. If we wait too long, he'll come back and he'll be even more furious."

"We don't have a lot of time," Caleb said. "We have to move now."

"We do. And Ains, it's going to be ok. I promise you, we're going to be ok."

Ainslie shook her head. Her stubbornness melted to a look of utter despair. "You can't promise that."

Adele let out a long sigh, sinking deeper into the chair. Caleb's hand rested at the nape of her neck, his fingers idly playing with the baby hairs that curled out of her stubborn ponytail.

"No, I can't," she said, "but I can promise that I won't do anything to put you, or any of us, in harm's away any more than necessary. I won't do anything we don't have to do and I will never make you do anything at all. I can promise you that, Ains."

Ainslie stood, shuffling across the kitchen before she dropped down to hug Adele, gripping her so tightly that it almost hurt.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you too, Ains. We're strong. The three of us together, we can beat anything they throw at us. We have everything we need, because we have you and your incredible brain."

"We're going to be ok," Ainslie whispered trying to convince herself as she held onto Adele. "We're going to be ok."

"I'll do what I can to make sure of it."

The shrill ring of Ainslie's phone interrupted the moment. Ainlie jerked away, the colour fleeing her cheeks. Her jaw dropped, her feet rooted to the ground when she reached for the phone and turned the screen towards Adele.

"It's a private number."

"Give it here." Adele grabbed the phone and swiped right without a moment's hesitation, launching herself out of the armchair. "Hello?"

"Adele?"

She frowned. "Jade? Why're you ringing Ainslie's phone? Why's your number private?"

"I'm on the home phone. I lost my mobile and I don't know your number off by heart." Jade sniffed. "I got Ainslie's number from her mother."

Adele's frown deepened. She tucked herself against the back door, one arm folded beneath her chest. "Why're you calling?"

Jade sniffed again. "I need help," she said. "I need you."

"What? What're you on about Jade? You know I can't come over. Creighton will kill me if I come anywhere near you or Fiona. If he sees me, I'm dead. I can't help you anymore."

Ainslie's eyes were huge. She shook her head at Adele. "It's a trap," she whispered.

Fiona started to wail in the background, the bloodcurdling cry of an angry baby. Jade tried to shush her, her voice slipping out of focus as she tended to her screaming daughter. She coughed, sniffing again.

"Jade? I can't do anything," Adele said. "My hands are tied."

"He's not here," Jade said. Her voice was thick." Creighton's not here."

"He isn't? Creighton's not there?" She turned to Ainslie and Caleb, who were hanging off her every word. Ainslie's eyes brightened; Adele gave her a thumbs up and asked Jade, "Where is he?"

"I ... he said he had to go. He got a call and he packed a bag and he-" She broke herself off to soothe Fiona, trying to stop her screams. "He said he'd be back in a few days. I need you, Adele."

"Why? What's going on?"

Jade began to cry, breaking down on the other end of the line as her baby continued to wail. "I need a break," she sobbed. "I can't do this. I need a break. I need you."

Adele's heart clenched to hear the utter despair in her sister's voice. Her brain whirred as she weighed up her options and she found herself shoved back into a corner, caught between a rock and a hard place. "I ... I don't know what I can do, Jade."

"I need you," Jade said again, sniffling as she cried and failed to stop her daughter's tears. "I need your help. I can't take this, I really can't."

"Ok, ok, shit," she muttered, feeling as though she was being torn in two by her family and her pack. "Shit, ok, I'll come over. Just calm down, Jade. Pull yourself together. I'll be over. Just don't do anything." She hung up and passed the phone back to Ainslie, whose joy had turned to utter confusion.

"You're leaving?" she asked, the crease in her forehead deepening. "But Creighton's gone! You just said he's gone! We need to go, Adele, this is our shot."

Adele slumped against the fridge and pushed her hands through her hair, forcing it out of its tie. The bobble sprung free, dropping to the floor. Her face contorted, and she clamped a hand over her forehead. "I have to go to Jade," she said. "She's having some kind of breakdown. God, for fuck's sake! We'll get Reed but I need to go to Jade."

"No!" Ainslie lunged forwards. "You're not going there, Adele. This is our chance. Creighton's gone. He fell for the bait. We have to go now and find Reed."

Caleb stood too. He sided with Ainslie, his hands clasped in front of himself. "Creighton's gone," he said. "This is what we wanted. This is what we need."

"We can't waste any time, Adele," Ainslie said. "You just said that yourself – you said we can't hang around. We know Creighton fell for it so now we go." She shook her head, her eyes welling up. "You can't go to Jade. We need you more."

"I have to go to her, Ains. I told her I'd be there. She sounded like a fucking mess. I don't think I've ever heard her cry before. She needs me."

"We need you." Ainslie folded her arms to stop her hands from shaking and she stood as tall as she could, her shoulder level with Caleb's elbow. "This is the chance we've been waiting for. You can't leave us now."

"I need to keep her on my good side. And she's my family, Ains."

"Reed is our family!" she cried out. "He's my cousin and he's Caleb's brother and he's in danger. If we don't get to him, he's going to die."

Caleb put his arm around her shoulders to comfort her, but he kept his eyes on Adele. "Go," he said to her. Ainslie ripped herself away from him, indignance flashing in her eyes.

"What the hell, Caleb? No! She can't go. We need to go. We need to go to the quarry."

He looked down at her, tearing his gaze away from Adele. "We will," he said, reaching out to Ainslie again. "We will go to Reed. Adele will go to Jade."

Adele stared at him. "What? No. You can't go without me. I can't let you do that."

"Then come with us," Ainslie said. "If you won't let us go alone then you have to come with us."

"It's not safe."

"Creighton's gone," she said. "It's as safe as it's ever going to be." Glancing up at Caleb, she held his gaze for a moment. "We're going with or without you."

"Go to her," Caleb said. "We will go to the quarry and you will go to your sister. Then you come to us."

Adele hesitated, faltering on the brink of her uncertainty. "I don't know. I don't think it's a good idea. But..."

"You have to go to Jade," Ainslie said, reading the anguish in Adele's eyes. "I get it. It's rubbish and it's the world's worst timing but I get it, so you need to let us go. I have my phone; I can drive the quadbike. We know where we're going."

"Really?" Adele's eyebrows lifted. "Are you sure you can get there?"

"It's straight through on the quad. We can cut out the track," Ainslie said.

"I know the way," Caleb added. He knew the forest as well as Adele, if not better, and the terrifying quarry had raised him. "Ainslie's right. Now it is the safest it will be. We can go and you can help Jade, and then you can come to help us."

"I have my phone; you have yours," Ainslie said. "We have to do this."

Adele's shoulders slumped. She knew they were right. She hated herself for her indecision, for feeling the pull towards the sister who had hated her all her life, but she couldn't ignore the desperation in Jade's voice, the hopelessness of her tears.

"Ok," she said at last. "You two can take the quad, and keep your phone on you. Let me know when you're there, let me know everything, ok? And call me if you need help. I can take a shortcut from Buck Pines and be with you in twenty minutes if you need me. Are you sure you don't want to just wait?"

"Yes," Ainslie said. "We're going now. We've already waited long enough."

*

Adele couldn't shake the unease in her gut as she drove away from the cabin, having seen of Ainslie and Caleb on the quad to the quarry, wrapped up in plenty of layers to beat the chill. She kept her phone on vibrate on her lap, ready to respond within a second's delay.

Before she reached Buck Pines, the mobile dinged with a text from Ainslie to say they had made it to the quarry, their first hurdle over, and there was no sign of anyone else in the area. Adele couldn't say the same for herself. It was lunchtime, a handful of people milling around town on their lunch breaks as they popped into the pub or grabbed a bite at the diner.

She kept her eyes on the road as she drove down the high street, heading straight out the other side and up the drive the curled up the ominous hill upon which Keir Manor sat. Creighton's car was nowhere to be seen. He had fallen for her act, and he had wasted no time. Hardly half an hour had passed between her call to him and Jade's call to her. He had taken the bait. Hook, line and sinker.

The front door was unlocked. Adele let herself into the house. It didn't take a detective to figure out where Jade was based on Fiona's crying, the sound coming from the kitchen. She followed the sound, stepping into the ridiculously huge kitchen to find a teary Jade rocking her baby, both of them in tears.

"Hey," she said. "What's up?"

Jade turned to her, her eyes puffy and her cheeks wet, and her relief was evident on her face when she laid eyes on her little sister. "I need a break," she said, choking on her words. "I feel like I'm drowning." Saying the words out loud only seemed to make her feel worse, her face crumpling.

Adele darted across the kitchen and took Fiona, cradling her angry little niece. "That's normal," she said. "You just had a baby. It's a big change. You're doing great, Jade."

Jade shook her head, dropping down to a chair. Her shoulders were shaking. She covered her face with her hands. "I'm not," she said, her voice cracking. "I can't do this. I love her so much. I made her and she's everything, but I can't take it."

Adele adjusted Fiona in her arms, shushing her and rubbing her back, and she felt a pang of guilt when the little girl's tears subsided. That only made Jade cry more.

"She prefers you," she wept. "My baby hates me."

"Oh my God, don't be stupid! Jade, you don't really think that!" she cried out, hushing herself immediately. "She's a baby. Babies cry. Is she hungry?"

"I fed her and I changed her and I held her and she won't stop crying."

"She's probably just tired," Adele said, looking down at Fiona. As she settled, her eyes seemed to grow heavy. "Maybe she can sense that you're upset. God, Jade, when's the last time you slept?"

Jade shrugged helplessly. "I ... I don't know. Before she was born."

"Jesus. Jade, you just need to sleep. You must be fucking exhausted." She sat down opposite her, comforting herself with a cuddle from her niece. "You just need to sleep. You can do this, but you have to look after yourself."

"I don't have time to sleep," Jade said, pointlessly drying her eyes. She covered her face to hide the crumple of her chin and the redness of her eyes. "She always needs me. I can't sleep."

"You can sleep now," Adele said, no nonsense in her tone. "I've got Fiona. She's safe with me; I can feed her and change her if she needs it. You need to sleep." She took a deep breath, rubbing Fiona's back and brushing her cheek over her soft hair. "I had no idea you were struggling so much. You should have told me earlier."

Jade shook her head. "I should be able to do this," she said. "I shouldn't need your help but I do. I'm pathetic."

"No you're not. It's ok if you need help. You shouldn't be ashamed of that. God, Jade. Your whole life has changed. It's ok to feel a bit crap sometimes but you're not a bad mum and Fiona doesn't hate you. You're both shattered and you need to sleep." She nodded at the vast sitting room that adjoined the kitchen through a sweeping arch. "Go and sleep."

Jade wearily stood without another protest, dragging herself to the sofa. She dropped down, pulling up her knees and tucking a cushion under her head, and Adele watched as she almost instantly drifted off when she let herself relax knowing that someone else was in charge.

Adele let out a heavy sigh, her head lolling back as she stared at the ceiling and swallowed down her ever-growing hatred for Creighton. He didn't care that Jade was barely keeping her head above water; he didn't care about his daughter. She was his own flesh and blood, and yet Adele was fairly certain he had never held her.

"You're going to be ok," she whispered to Fiona, who had fallen asleep on her chest. All she had needed was a steady heartbeat beneath her ear, something she couldn't get from her overwrought mother. "I don't know what I can do right now, but I'm going to make sure you're ok. I'm not going to let him hurt you."

Fiona was so small. She wasn't yet two weeks old and having met the world ten days early, she seemed even smaller as she nestled against Adele's chest, scrunched up in her aunt's hands. Her wispy black hair was as soft as silk, her skin barely any lighter than her mother's despite her father's pale tone, and her eyes were as dark as night. She bore no resemblance to Creighton. Adele couldn't help but feel strangely proud of that.

"You're so perfect," she murmured, her lips pressed to Fiona's head. "You may have the world's worst father but you are more than him. You're going to be incredible, Fiona. Look at these tiny hands – you already are."

She closed her eyes and smiled, and she tried not to think too much about what was happening in the middle of the forest. Caleb and Ainslie were alone out there, fighting to find Reed. She wished she was with them, but she couldn't have left Jade. Especially seeing her now. She had tipped herself over the brink of despair, and now she was fast asleep on the sofa. She really had needed a break, desperate for someone else to hold her baby for long enough for her to relax.

The minutes slowly ticked by. She kept one eye on the clock in the kitchen, the one room alone bigger than her entire cabin. As much as she loved her humble home, it was nice to be able to spread out a little more with plenty of space to walk around the island that dominated the centre. When Fiona began to wake, Adele wandered around the kitchen and rubbed her back as though she could keep her away but a thirty-minute nap seemed to be enough. She was about to cry. Adele could see it in the way she blinked and wrinkled her nose.

"Don't cry, Fi," she whispered. "Your mummy's sleeping. She really needs to sleep. You hungry, huh? Let's see what we've got, huh?"

Balancing Fiona in one arm, she opened the fridge and scanned the contents. There was a full baby bottle in the door, a post-it note stuck to the plastic with a handwritten date. It was good for a couple more days. She took it out, running the hot tap with her elbow and holding the bottle under the water to gently heat the milk.

"Ok, here we go," she said a few minutes later, once she had checked that it wasn't too hot, and she carried Fiona through to the sitting room to feed her. Holding the bottle to the grateful baby's lips, her eyes fell on Jade. She was fast asleep, completely still. For half an hour, she hadn't made a sound as she dozed and if it wasn't for the rise and fall of her chest, Adele would have wondered if she had died.

The bottle was half empty when Adele's phone buzzed in her pocket and she jumped, almost dropping the bottle with a mutter of, "Shit. Damn it." She shifted Fiona in her arm, holding the bottle in the same hand to wrestle in her pocket for her mobile. Ainslie was ringing. Her heart lurched into her throat. Answering the call, she tucked the phone between her shoulder and her ear.

"Ains? Everything ok?" She spoke quietly. She didn't want to disturb Jade, who needed to sleep for a week straight.

She didn't need a verbal answer to know that everything wasn't ok. Ainslie was inconsolable on the other end of the line, any words incoherent. The most sickening dread filled Adele, her muscles tensing. Her pulse began to race, nausea rising before Ainslie had even said a word.

"Ainslie, what's going on? What's happened?" she asked, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. "Have you been caught? Are you hurt? Is Caleb hurt?"

"No, no, no," Ainslie said at last, pushing her words through the hiccup in her throat. "We're ok. He's ok." Her sobs swallowed her words, a tearful mumble before she said, "We need you. Right now."

"What happened? Have you found him? Ains, have you found him?"

"He's here," Ainslie said, before she broke down again, sniffing as she tried to control herself. "We need you, Adele. We need you right now." She cried the most heart-breaking tears, her sobs wracking her body. Each one killed Adele a little more when it travelled down the line. She looked down at the baby in her arms, at unconscious Jade. She didn't know what to do.

"Adele," Ainslie said, her voice scratching past the lump in her throat. She tried to speak but her sobs overtook her words, her speech drowned by her tears.

"Talk to me, Ains," Adele said, a sinking feeling in her gut. This was bad. So was the timing. "Calm down and talk to me. You need to stop crying and tell me what's going on."

Ainslie went quiet for a moment as she tried to compose herself, pulling in a deep breath of the icy winter air that was burning her cheeks, but when she let it out, it was followed by another sob.

"He's here. Caleb's with him. I can't get to him. We really need you," she said. "I don't think he's alive."

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only three more chapters to go, and four days before i fly home for christmas!

what're you thinking after that one?