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A body landed hard on top of me.

I jerked awake, and then fell back, hurt. I squirmed to get away. The more awake I became, the more I was sure it was one of the boys.

Maybe Nathan had gotten up to go to the bathroom and thought it would be funny to wake me up by crashing on top of me. I was about to push him off when a hand covered my mouth, holding firm.

I wriggled. I fought to breathe. My nose and throat felt funny. There was too much bleach in the sheets. I swallowed and tried to move my head away from the hand.

It stayed firm over my mouth, whoever it was grunting with the effort as I tried to get away.

I struggled to get out from whoever it was. “Get off of me,” I tried to say through the palm over my mouth.

The hand tightened down, gripping even harder to keep me silent. An arm threaded under my waist, picking me up off the bed. He rolled over with me until we both collapsed to the floor.

I ended up in a heap of blanket, someone covering me.

It was hard to breathe. I scraped at his hand, trying to wedge it off so I could get a fresh breath of air.

But something was happening. An ambush of some sort. Friendly? Was Luke invading with a water gun? Or were we in danger?

Part of my memory returned. We were in a hotel room.

My body went rigid. Was McCoy outside?

Was he inside?

I struggled more as panic set in, trying to find a way to turn around to see what was happening.

“Shhh,” someone whispered close to my ear. The voice wasn’t threatening; more of a request. “Don’t move.”

I couldn’t tell who it was by the whispering, but I thought it was one of the boys. At first, I assumed Victor.

Then I smelled something else. Bubble gum? Fruit? It wasn’t Victor’s scent.

Gabriel?

There was noise outside the hotel room. Walking. Muffled talking. Shuffling. A car started in the distance.

I tried to pick my head up, but whoever was on top of me wasn’t letting me move.

There was a louder voice. A girl’s. She was nearby, near the door to the hotel room.

My senses came alive then and became fully aware. A girl’s voice nearby might mean we were waking up other people in nearby rooms. Or maybe a manager? Who else could it be?

More voices, and then people were walking away.

Silence. Were we alone?

Where was Kota? What about Silas and Nathan and Victor? Where were they?

I struggled to get up, only I was smothered more.

“Don’t move,” the boy on top of me said.

He spoke louder, but it was Luke, not Gabriel. Why did Luke smell like bubblegum? Then I noticed it was a smell coming from his mouth. He’d been chewing some.

Knowing who it was, I calmed a little. If Luke said not to move, I wouldn’t move.

He slowly pushed me under the bed. I sensed his need to keep quiet. I wedged myself in as much as possible. There was little space, and the area was dusty. My skin on my legs met with what I hoped were just dust bunnies and I jumped.

Luke held firm and crawled in beside me.

Footsteps sounded outside. The door opened.

Silence. The light turned on.

“They’re gone,” said Mr. Morris, his voice low, but it was clearly him. There was a pause. “That must have been her leaving with Kota…yeah…uh huh. You’ll have to track him.”

He was talking to someone on a cell phone. How did they find us? Who was he talking to?

I frowned, sad that Mr. Morris seemed to be still heavily involved in tracking us down. He must have thought we’d all left if he came up to the room we’d been in. It’s the only way he’d get so close without us noticing.

Unless they were really moving in to capture us? Her. They wanted me for some reason.

Why were they so interested in finding me now?

After a few moments, Mr. Morris walked away.

Luke stayed still beside me under the bed. I didn’t dare whisper. I worried someone was nearby and would hear.

There was a soft buzzing between us, and I knew it to be Luke’s cell phone since I didn’t have mine. Luke shifted, pulling his phone around, and covered the screen to shield the light.

“Okay,” he said. “We’ve got to move. Hurry.”

I wasn’t sure where to move exactly, but he crawled out from under the bed, and then kicked blankets out of the way so he could pull me out after.

I scrambled to my feet. “What—” I scanned the room. No one was here. The light by the door was on. The bags they’d brought were still here, abandoned.

How did they leave without waking me? What happened?

“Shhh,” he said. He immediately went to a book bag that had been dropped by the door. He placed it on the table, pulling out a wig, glasses and a pair of sweatpants. “Put these on.”

My eyes widened at the wig.

“They’re still out there,” Luke said. “Someone’s watching this hotel room to make sure they don’t come back tonight. If we’re going to leave, we have to be ready.”

“Won’t they see us leaving this room?” I asked.

“Gabriel’s going to distract them at the right moment.” He shoved the wig at me. “Put this on. We’ll leave quickly and look like we came from the room next door.” He pulled out another wig, a shorter one. He wrapped his hair up in a small bun at the top of his head with a ponytail holder. Then he put the wig on, making him look more like he had hair like Kota’s. He pulled hairpins from the bag and carefully pinned the wig so it hooked into his tied-down hair. He found a plaid shirt inside the bag, along with some slacks.

I did as he did, pulling my hair back on my head into a twist before I put the wig on. It was shoulder-length, black hair. I put on the glasses. They weren’t the right fit for my face, and I kept shoving them up with a finger at the bridge.

I put the sweats on over the boxers. I had to let go of the hoodie. Luke took it and put it in the bag he’d just emptied and threw it over his shoulder.

Gabriel. He was here. The others had gone. I had no idea what was going on, but I was trying to catch up. How had I slept through all of it until Luke jumped on top of me? I must have been dead asleep, or the boys had moved super quiet until Luke jumped on me.

r /> The moment we were ready, Luke headed to the door. I tiptoed behind him, stuffing my feet into my shoes.

He held a hand back, looking at me, and did some sign language. “After I open the door, head left to that door and stand there. Don’t look out. Look at the door.”

I nodded. I understood what he was asking me to do. I just wished I knew the full plan and what was going on.

Luke waited for another buzz of his cell phone and then jumped to life, pulling the door open.

I moved ahead of him, toward the door to the left. I turned, not looking out. I waited there, my heart in my throat.

Luke slammed the door shut and then leapt over until he was standing at the door next to the hotel room we’d been at. He fiddled with the door, pretending to shut that one. Then he put an arm around my shoulders, kept me between the wall and himself, and moved toward the stairs.

Questions continued to pile up but I bit them back, knowing it wasn’t the time.

Luke moved quickly through the building to the parking lot on the other side and went directly to a dark town car. He opened the passenger door for me. I got inside. He ran around to the driver’s side, got in and turned the car on.

I turned to him immediately. “Now?” I asked.

“Shhh,” he said. “Not yet.”

I pushed my lips together. Could someone still be listening to us?

I waited on the edge of my seat. Eager.

“Turn your head,” he said. “Look at me.”

I did. The wig was itchy. I reached up, trying to get in between the wig material and my scalp to scratch it. “What?”

“I hate that hair color on you,” a voice said from the back. I jumped, and the wig hair fell into my eyes. I scratched at my face to get it out of the way so I could see who had spoken.

“Shhh,” Luke said.

I leaned over to check the back seat.

Gabriel was down on the floor, crammed in with his legs partially sticking up.

My heart lifted. He was here! We were doing something...I wasn’t sure what, but we were on the move. I wanted to say a lot. There was so much to say. But I couldn’t do it now.

Instead, I reached out to him and caught his knee. I held onto it, because I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t do anything else. I needed to touch him. To connect.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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