Page 19

“Clothes,” I told him.

“Why?”

“Team building, duh.”

Bella frowned. “How is stealing clothes team building?”

“Everybody contributes, my purple-pigtailed future felon.”

“That doesn’t make it team building.”

“Don’t challenge the curriculum, Bella.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. Smart kid. Annoying as shit, though.

I pointed towards the counselors’ cabin. “Mr. D’Angelo is currently helping unload breakfast supplies. That gives you approximately fifteen minutes to enter the cabin, locate every article of clothing belonging to him, and bring it to me.”

“Then what?” Mason asked.

I turned dramatically towards the lake, and the kids all followed my gaze.

Trevor, who had been sitting quietly at the far end of the picnic table, actually looked up while Mason grinned. “No fucking way.”

“Yes fucking way.”

“We’re throwing his clothes in the lake?”

“I didn’t say that, did I? That would be so uncivilized,” I huffed.

“You looked at the lake,” Mason continued.

“Coincidence, dear boy.”

“You smiled with an evil look in your eye while petting that dead tarantula.”

“Sprigey is a wood spider, and she’s not dead. She’s sleeping peacefully.”

All the children stared at me.

“Fuck all of you.”

They laughed, and I hiked a thumb towards the cabin.

“Go, you fucking ingrates, before I chuck all y’all in the lake.”

They scattered. Sneakers kicked dirt across the path as they ran, and I watched them disappear inside. Trevor didn’t move so I glanced over at him.

“You’re not participating in my carefully-designed, educational experience?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Hmm, not as dumb as your fashion sense suggested then.”

He shrugged. “You’re mad at him.”

My smile tightened at how smart the little brat actually was. “No.”

“You are,” Trevor insisted.