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Are you going to help me, or not?
I wrench myself away from that hot little body with an effort. “Follow me.”
“Follow you where?” she huffs. “How can you even see anything out here?”
I hold out my hand with an annoyed sigh. “Just trust me, okay.”
She takes my hand. The move is hesitant, like she might pull it away again.
Instead of directing her toward the glowing lights on the horizon, I make a sharp turn to the left and pull her along with me.
“Campus is that way,” she hisses. “You’re going in the wrong direction.”
“You think the direction that everyone else is going is the right direction?” I ask blandly.
Fallen branches snap and break under heavy footfalls. Evangeline stiffens behind me.
“Fine,” she hisses. “Lead the way.”
The forest is dark enough that it’s impossible to really see what lies ahead of us. I move on instinct through the trees. Evangeline trips. I catch her, but a pile of rocks skitters loudly along the sloped ground as she regains her balance.
“I see something over there.” Nolan’s shout carries on the wind.
We break into a jog. Any faster than that, and the others will definitely be able to hear us. We just need to go a little further.
Evangeline huffs and puffs beside me, only keeping up because I’m gripping her wrist and pulling her along.
“You need to work on your cardio,” I murmur.
“Fuck off,” she snaps. “I don’t run for fun.”
I chuckle, still surprised at just how amusing I find her quick rejoinders. She has to know what will happen if any of the other Havoc Boys catch up to her, but instead of reacting with terror she just seems annoyed. “Are we having fun?”
“Have we ever?” she grumbles, then lets out a curse as her foot catches a branch.
Well, annoyed and out of breath.
Her hand is warm against mine, almost hot with fever. She is practically a little furnace burning next to me in the night air. It’s hard not to be very aware of every line and curve of her body in the moonlight.
Focus, Van Koch. We’re not out of trouble, yet.
Or maybe we’re about to get into a very different kind of trouble.
I pitch my voice low. “I think we had a little fun.”
Her blush is bright enough that I can practically feel it, even though I can’t see her expression in the dark. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t. You just wish you did.”
A shiver works down her arm, but she doesn’t pull it away. A cloud of fog blooms with her heavy exhale. “Stop talking.”
The fear is there, of course. It has to be. But she might be better than anyone else I’ve ever met at hiding it.
It takes longer than it should to reach the creek bed. Despite what Evangeline might think, I can’t see any better than she can in the dark. I’m working off of memory, here.
I still remember when I was a pledge running through these woods. We’re going to use the same trick that I used then. But what I’m looking for is easy to miss.
A dull glint of metal catches my eye. I hurry toward it in long strides, while Evangeline struggles to keep up. The trees part and illuminate a small clearing. Ahead of us is the barred entrance to a storm drain that is mostly hidden by overgrown ivy and other foliage.
