I stared at the words on my screen longer than I should have. Read them twice. Three times. Let them sink in.
Jealous?
Did I even want Maddox to like me? Besides, despite leaving a slightly more memorable impression today, I still wasn’t sure he thought about me at all. Hell, I wasn’t sure what my purpose was toying with Maddox Corvo.
Keegan and I chatted about random shit for a few more minutes, mostly what was going on in her life, before we signed off. I shut my laptop and set it on my desk, my gaze drifting to the window. The moon was bright tonight, casting an eerie yet beautiful glow against the twinkling night sky. The woods whispered in the dark, branches swaying in the wind, leavesbrushing against one another, shadows stretching and shifting between tree trunks, a darkness that felt less empty and more…aware. Watchful.
I stepped closer to the glass, and for a hair-raising second, I thought I saw something. Or someone. A flash of eyes. My breath hitched as a shape formed near the tree line, taller than the surrounding shadows, too solid to be smoke, too still to be wind. My pulse spiked, as if my body recognized danger before my mind could catch up.
What the?—
I leaned in, pressing my palm lightly against the cool glass, but nothing moved. The figure didn’t step forward or take shape, but I couldn’t shake the feeling someone was out there in the woods, watching me. I had half a mind to open my window and scream at the creep I was certain lingered in the trees.
But what did I really have to fear? My mother was downstairs. Only an idiot would break into this house.
Screw it.
No perv was going to mess with me in my home. I was done living in fear.
Shoving away from the window, I stalked downstairs, flinging the front door open and not bothering to shut it behind me. I stormed barefoot across the grass, the blades slipping between my toes, but I had one sole purpose…the woods on the side of the house. My eyes went straight to where I swore I saw something, scanning the area.
“Hello!” I called out, halting in the middle of the yard, close enough I could run back to the house if I needed. “Hello! I know you’re out there.” I stared longer, my gaze darting through the trees, but nothing stirred, nothing but the wind. I forced my breathing to slow, willing my imagination to stand down.
Fuck.I ran a hand through my wild hair. “Fine. Be a pussy. Don’t show yourself.” I flipped off the trees. If I thoughtbaiting them would draw them out, I was wrong. Cicadas droned somewhere in the distance, the faint rustle of branches answering the silence.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe it was just a shadow. Maybe my mind was spiraling because of what Paisley and Atlas told me about those missing girls. Maybe I couldn’t stop thinking my life was an ongoing ID television show.
I shook my head and went back inside, but as I turned off the light and climbed into bed, I couldn’t lose the feeling that something out there had been watching me long before I started looking back. Those comforting thoughts followed me into sleep like a second shadow I couldn’t outrun. Maybe the smart thing would be to tell Mom about the missing girls. Then, at least if I disappeared, I knew she would find me and hunt those assholes down.
That would be one way to catch kidnappers. Dangle them with bait.
Not that Mom would ever go for it, but if she didn’t know…
The thoughts my mind toyed with in the middle of the night were frightening.
10
MADDOX
The woods were cooler at night, but a bit of summer warmth still clung in the air. I shoved a low branch aside, feeling it scrape against my shirt before snapping back into place. The bark was rough under my palm, still damp from earlier rain. Trucking through the woods at night wasn’t the fucking highlight of my day. Not even close. Shockingly, that title belonged to the new girl. I certainly hadn’t expected her to put me on my ass; the memory of hitting the ground flashed through my mind along with the weight of her pressing into me. The bolt of lust struck me hard and took me unaware.
I’d never met a girl like her, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.
Confused, mostly.
How could I feel anything when I was hung up on someone else?
“What the fuck are we doing out here again?” I climbed over a fallen log, pine needles crunching beneath my shoes. “We can’t see crap.” Our earlier search had been foiled by the new girl.
“Looking for shit,” Mason muttered beside me, swatting at a low-hanging branch hard enough that it whipped back and nearly caught me in the face.
I snorted, kicking at a cluster of dead leaves scattered across our path. “Helpful. Like dead bodies or like a trailer full of girls locked in cages? It’s not as if Rusty left a breadcrumb trail behind for us to follow.”
“We got a lead on one of the guards,” my twin said, voice low as he scanned the tree line ahead. “A possible hideout. That’s all I know.”
We’d been in these woods earlier, before football practice, but Hales’s interference had thrown the timeline off. The sun had still been high then, but now, looking for footprints was nearly impossible. What were the chances that she would be in the woods?
I paused, tilting my head as an owl hooted somewhere to our right. “This is a bad idea.”
