Page 54 of Their Wicked Secrets: Untouched, Vol 5 of 6

Ahead of me is another field. There’s no way for me to know which way she went. No obvious drag marks scar the ground. She’s light enough someone could easily carry her.

Fuck. I walk back, keeping an eye on when my phone comes back into service. As soon as it does, I call Nico.

“Either the trees are too thick, or someone’s jamming it, or we’re just too far away from a tower.” I turn. “There’s a path, but it goes both directions.”

“Fuck,” he says softly.

“Yeah.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.” For the first time, I don’t have a plan. Nothing comes to me. “Give me five minutes.”

I take my AirPods out and listen to the wind through the trees. The soft trill of a bird. Some squirrels fighting in the bushes. This is just another puzzle I have to solve. There’s no reason for the girls to be out here.

If they came alone, they might be meeting someone. Why wouldn’t Harper tell us?

Her phone was off at the high school. Did she turn it off on purpose or did someone turn it off for her? I grab my hair and pull.

The cameras around the school would tell me if she and Kenz left with anyone else.

Jack would have it up in seconds. I should be able to do this on my own, but my friends are more than friends. They help me figure this shit out. They give me the space I need and the information that helps.

I stare into the space she vanished. Who would know that this place exists? Our friend maybe. The last time Harper went traipsing into the woods was with her mother.

The soft whisper of a female’s voice reaches my ear. I narrow my eyes on the trees, trying to find movement. I put one AirPod back in.

“You there?” I say quietly.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Nico says.

“I hear something. Going quiet.”

Nico waits as I walk forward. I pause right before the spot that my phone cuts out. The wind catches a voice and carries it to me again, but I can’t tell what direction. If it’s the girls, they would have to come back this way to get to the car.

I step back into the tree line and hide behind a large oak. When I hear leaves crunching under feet, I wait.

“When do we cross over to being traced again?” Harper asks.

My heart pounds. She’s here. She’s not under duress that I can tell from her voice.

“It’s when we get to the larger trail,” Kenz says. Their feet stop. “It’s a little more this way.”

“How did you learn to read a map?” There’s amusement in Harper’s voice.

“My mom made me learn a while ago, but she had to brush up my skills before she told me about this.” Kenz laughs. “I never thought I’d need this unless the actual apocalypse was happening.”

“The last things we need are zombies. High school boys are bad enough as it is.” Harper chuckles, and the twist in my gut eases.

“She’s okay?” Nico says in my ear.

If I say anything, they’ll realize I’m here. Obviously I’ll let them know, but knowing Harper’s okay, I want to see if she’ll give me anything else that she might leave out when telling us later. Not that I don’t trust her, but sometimes we forget things.

“We’re still safe here.” Kenz stops walking through the leaves. “Are you okay, H.? You didn’t tell me about your mom.”

“We have no idea what’s bugged and what’s not.” Harper sighs. “If I tell you something, who knows who else I’m telling at the same time.”

“More spy shit.”