Eustace snorted. “Fuck you.”
Then he marched down the mountain, disappearing into the trees.
I waited quite a long time to make sure that he wasn’t going to come back.
I gave it a solid ten minutes before I rushed to the side of the mountain where she disappeared, fully expecting to see her broken body over the ledge.
What I saw when I got there were two really big eyes that were staring at me pleadingly.
“Are you okay?” I rushed out.
“This branch is going to break,” she told me. “It’s already pulled halfway out of the ground.”
I surveyed the branch and saw that she was right.
The tree she was holding on to wasn’t going to hold with her weight on it.
I caught her shirt and pulled, but we only managed to get her even more unbalanced.
“You’re going to have to stay,” I said. “I’m going to let go and use my phone to call someone.”
Or I would have, had a foot not slammed down onto my hand when I reached back for it. “No.”
I cried out in pain and looked up to find the douchebag kid back, a gun in his hand.
My stomach sank.
Thirty-One
When in doubt, look intelligent.
—Odin to Black
Odin
Life was weird.
On one hand, I was fucking happy.
Ecstatic, even.
On the other, I was so damn busy that I couldn’t see straight.
I’d taken over Pendelton’s practice.
In doing so, I’d also taken over all of his past appointments.
And it was a nut house.
But that wouldn’t last forever.
Eventually we’d catch up, and I’d have some time to myself again.
Time to spend with Wendy and Coco.
For the first time in a month, I was getting out at a normal time.
Which was fucking great because the school called me just as I was leaving the office.
