Page 92 of What Remains

"What's in Alaska?" Seth asked.

For the first time all evening, Cade smiled. It was small, gone almost as quickly as it appeared, but real.

"My woman."

Cara smiled. "What's her name?"

"Eliza."

Just saying her name softened him, smoothing something hard out of his face. The change was immediate, and Josie saw it.

"You love her." It wasn't really a question.

Cade looked down at the rifle resting across his knees. "Yeah," Quiet. Simple. Certain.

"So why Alaska?" Jay asked.

Cade exhaled through his nose. "Her family took her."

The garage grew quiet.

"Took her?" Cara repeated.

He nodded once. "They've got more money than God. The kind of money that made them think rules were suggestions even before the world ended."

Jay frowned. "And now?"

"Now..." A humorless laugh escaped him. "Now they've got enough resources to think they're kings."

Seth leaned back against a bus tire. "So you're going after her."

"There isn't another option."

"Do you know where she is?" Seth asked.

"I've got a pretty good idea."

"And if you're wrong?"

""I'll find another lead," he said without hesitation or blinking. "I'll keep looking until I find her."

No one spoke for several seconds. Something in Cade's voice went beyond stubbornness—not obsession, but conviction. The kind only someone deeply in love could carry across a dead continent on foot.

Josie found herself smiling. "I hope she knows someone's crossing the country for her."

Cade looked toward the garage doors, where snow drifted beneath the cracks. "She probably thinks I gave up." A pause. "I didn't. I won't."

The camping stove hissed in the silence that followed.

As Cade reached for another can of chili, something metallic slipped from beneath the collar of his flannel shirt.

Dog tags.

Josie's eyes caught them immediately. "You were military."

Cade tucked them back beneath his shirt with practiced ease before giving a small nod. "Marine Corps."

Seth looked over. "What'd you do?"