“It’s already uploaded to the cloud,” Caleb continues, and then he does something dramatic with his phone. Pushes buttons. “And I just sent it as an attachment to my best friend, who’s the son of a state senator.”
Frank’s entire body shakes—a specific tremor that means he’s feeling murderous. Oh shit, oh shit, ohshit.
Caleb’s playing with fire he doesn’t understand. Frank’s killed people. I’m not supposed to know that, but Ido, and Caleb has no fucking idea what he just walked into?—
“It’ll never see the light of day!” I scream, helping to pull Z through the window as he dives for it. “We just want to take Zedekiah with us. He’ll be gone in six months anyway. This is awin. One less mouth to feed.”
As if Frank ever gave two shits about feeding Z anyway.
Z lands on the ground beside me, gasping, bleeding. Safe.
I’m waving my arms like I’m directing a plane to land, screaming at Caleb with my whole body:RUN. FUCKING RUN NOW.
And thank God—thank God—Caleb’s survival instincts finally kick in, because he turns and fuckingsprintsout the front of the trailer.
Frank is an animal. So he chases.
Fuck!
I sprint around the front of the trailer, Z stumbling beside me, and Caleb’s already booking it toward us, eyeswild with terror, and something else—something fierce and unbroken.
He’s not just running away.
He’s running around the outside of the trailer backto me.
I can’t believe I ever called this boy a coward. I can’t believe I ever thought he wouldn’t fight for what matters.
He just stood up to Frank O’Brian in a way grown men don’t.
In a wayInever could.
“Run!” I scream, even though it’s clear Caleb’s already sprinting at top speed.
He catches up to me, and I’m already running too, grabbing his hand, pulling him into the woods where we have the advantage.
“Who the hell is this?” Z gasps as he joins us, and we leap over roots and rocks, Frank’s curses getting fainter behind us. Too winded or too high to follow us any further into the dark woods.
We don’t stop running until we’re deep in the trees, until the sounds of the trailer park fade completely, until we hit the sweetgum tree and I know we’re safe.
I double over, hands on my knees, gasping for breath. Z collapses against a tree trunk. Caleb’s bent over too, hands on his thighs, breathing hard.
And then I’m laughing.
Hysterical, terrified, relieved laughter that bubbles up from somewhere deep in my chest.
“You’re fucking insane,” I gasp at Caleb. “You’re absolutely fuckinginsane. Do you have any idea—” Ican’t finish. Can’t explain what he just did. What he risked. “You could’ve died. He could’vekilledyou.”
I throw my arms around him, then pull back and run my hands over his body, like I have to make sure that he’s all in one piece.
And then Caleb’s doing the same thing to me—his hands running down my arms, checking my shoulders, tilting my face to look at it in the dim light.
“I’m fine,” I tell him. “You’re the one who just?—”
But he’s not listening. He’s checking. Making sure. His hands are shaking slightly as they move over me, systematic, like he’s following some internal checklist.
Caleb straightens up, and in the dying light, his eyes find mine. “Yeah,” he says simply. “But he didn’t.”
“That’s not—you can’t just—” I’m shaking. When did I start shaking? “You stupid, idiotic Boy Scout. You don’t threaten Frank O’Brian. Youdon’t. Nobody does that. Not even?—”