Page 110 of Their Wicked Secrets: Untouched, Vol 5 of 6

“A little.”

If I didn’t think it would have been more of a hazard than good, I would have let her wear my letterman’s jacket. But it swallowed her whole, and if she needed to get away from someone, it could have been used against her.

“Should we head out?” I look at Eli, Jack, and Luke.

“We do have school in the morning.” Jack picks up Harper’s hand and kisses her knuckles. Yeah, that fucker just wants to get home so she’s safely tucked in his bed. Not that I blame him.

I can’t wait for the weekend when she’s in my bed with all of us. We should have another game to keep our minds off the impending doom. Fuck, tomorrow night or the night of the dance is when Zach will strike.

Ashley walks toward us with Emma and Hannah in tow. They’ve mostly avoided us tonight. She glances over her shoulder at where Zach sits on a picnic table just like me, but with Sidney between his legs.

Sidney smiles up at him, but his attention is on Harper. When he notices me glaring at him. He winks.

“Is something burning?” Harper asks.

The pile of wood bursts into flames.

Some girls scream, and then it’s chaos as people move away from the fire. Ashley turns and directs Hannah and Emma to help those too drunk to move away from the fire. I grab Harper into my arms and slide off the other side of the table.

Unlike the rest of the students, I don’t run.

Now that Harper is safe from the flames, I study the other students to see who’s hanging around. Who isn’t concerned.

“We should go help.” Harper tugs at my sleeve.

“No, little nympho. You stay with me.”

Zach’s table is empty, but he’s standing on the other side like I am. He smirks as my eyes meet his. Did he do this? For what purpose?

The distant sirens of fire trucks roar to life. Adults who were hanging out at the fair hurry our way. Eli helps a girl who fell to get back up. She stumbles a little, and he wraps her arm around his neck to get her to safety.

The ground isn’t prepared for a fire of this magnitude. The wood was stacked on dirt, but it’s been dry and the grass nearby is definitely a fire hazard. One spark could cause an even bigger problem. Jack helps a guy who had a little too much to drink.

Luke’s making sure no one else is caught where the flames might do damage.

Harper trembles against me. The chaos has died down, and the vice principal walks over to where I stand.

“What happened?” she asks. Vice Principal Tanya Adams looks over the remaining scene. The flames reach into the sky and most of the students are in the parking lot, having been shepherded there by Luke, Eli, and Jack or the cheerleaders.

“Not sure. It wasn’t us.” I draw Harper closer and turn to meet Ms. Adams’ gaze. If we’d done it, we wouldn’t admit to it, but we also wouldn’t completely deny responsibility. I can smell the fumes of an accelerant coming off the blaze. “We do a lot of things, but we don’t do shit that would hurt people.”

She nods thoughtfully. Her gaze goes across the fire. Of all the adults at the school, she seems the most in tune with the student body.

“You have issues with Gray?”

I haven’t taken my gaze off Zach. He’s still smirking with his arms crossed, enjoying the fire.

“He’s made some threats.” I shrug. “Nothing major.”

What I don’t need is an overzealous administrator to take him out of the game before he makes his move. He does seem really smug. What’s that about?

“Did you see anything?” she asks, because she has to. We won’t tell her anything, but it’s part of her job to ask.

“No, ma’am.”

She sighs. “I’m going to see if anyone else did.”

She glances at the crowd in the parking lot. “Thank your friends for their quick thinking.”