“Let’s go,” I whispered to her, placing my hand behind my back and extending it toward her. I flexed my fingers to signal I wanted her to take my hand, and she responded by slipping her hand into mine. Just as we were about to leave, Graham boasted to the group.
“Tonight, we are excited to introduce our first-ever camp-wide scavenger hunt! This is a fun chance for team building, as we will divide you into groups. Each group will have a team captain to lead them through their course. Throughout the camp, clues will guide you to the final prize! Only one group will win!”
What the fuck?
In all the years we had been coming to this camp, we had never done something like this, not even on the last night.
The crowd erupted in cheers, with kids clapping and parents laughing as if it were all some big joke. But my stomach tightened.
We were being pushed straight into the woods. An eerie feeling of walking into the unknown cycled through me. We should’ve left earlier. We shouldn’t be here.
Mackenzie’s nails dug into my hand, sharp enough to draw blood. I glanced at her. Her face was pale, her eyes locked on the tree line like she already knew what waited out there.
I wanted to drag her away, but Graham was already herding groups, handing out little lanterns and cheap flashlights. His smile was too broad, too eager, like he couldn’t wait to throw us into the dark.
“Max…” Mackenzie whispered, barely audible over the crowd’s voices.
I leaned close, breathing her in like it might be the last time. “Don’t let go of my hand.”
She nodded, but then Graham came over and said, “I’m going to split you up for a bit.”
“No,” I ordered.
Graham didn’t even flinch at my tone of voice. He just gave me the creepiest smile I had ever seen from him. For a second, I thought his gaze flicked past me, toward the black mouth of the woods, like someone was waiting there.
“Come on, Max, it’s for maybe an hour at most. We need the groups to be with veteran counselors, and Mackenzie knows the woods like the back of her hand. Rhett will keep an eye on her.”
I looked over at the douchebag. He was checking her out and wasn’t being subtle about it. His eyes dragged up her legs, stopping at her hips, and then back up to her chest. When they landed on her face, he smiled.
Rhett pushed off the tree and sauntered over like he’d been waiting for this moment for weeks.
He pulled something from his back pocket—a cheap, plastic tiara, silver with rhinestones that caught the firelight.
He didn’t even hesitate. He reached forward, brushing Mackenzie’s hair back, and set the tiara on her head.
“There,” he said, grinning. “Every queen needs her crown. Fit for our leader.”
Mackenzie laughed; it was an awkward little giggle, but it still made me fucking jealous as hell. My chest went hot with rage. She looked so fucking beautiful, and Rhett was eating it up. He was trying to stake some claim on her right in front of me. I listened to the compliments she received about her crown and nearly gagged when I heard her say, “It does look good, doesn’t it?”
I needed to calm down. But when I watched her laugh with him, touch his arm as he leaned forward, all I could see was red.
No. Fuck this. She wasn’t going with him.
“I don’t feel comfortable separating from my wife. I’m not going to allow this.”
Graham looked over at me with a vicious stare.
“It’s going to be okay, Max. You need to chill out.”
I felt Heather next to me then, and I tensed.
“Ready… partner?” she said with a flirtatious grin, but when I looked at her, her eyes were cold. Over her shoulder, at the edge of the firelight, something pale and tall shifted between the trees. Antlers, or branches. I blinked, and it was gone.
I watched Mackenzie snap her head over, and a look of pure anger flashed in her eyes.
I sighed in frustration. “Fine, let’s go.”
I kept my eyes glued on Mackenzie as we descended into the woods. Her group was a few steps ahead of mine as we made our way into the clearing, but as the trees narrowed, I heard Rhett call out, “Sharp left, everyone!”
