Page 83 of Top Shelf

The silence stretches between us as we walk. My mind’s already turning toward next week’s practice, toward film breakdowns and what the hell we need to tighten before the next game. We can’t afford another loss like tonight. Not if we want to set the tone for the rest of the season.

Lucian kicks a stone down the sidewalk ahead of us while Silas walks on my other side, his hood still up and head down. We are each lost in our thoughts until Silas throws out his arm, stopping me in my tracks.

“What—” I start to ask, but he raises a hand in a motion to shut up, and my words die in my throat.

That’s when I hear it. A sound so soft, so broken, that I can’t initially place it.

It almost sounds like…a whimper.

“What is that?” Lucian questions, glancing around, having evidently heard it too.

“A wounded animal?” I suggest.

Lucian’s nose wrinkles. “Or someone drunk off their ass. Come on, let’s go.”

He’s already stepping forward along the path; however, Silas veers off the sidewalk, moving toward the shadowed side of one of the darkened houses.

“For fuck’s sake,” Lucian groans, the two of us sharing a loaded look before reluctantly following after Silas. Where one of us goes, the rest follow. That’s the way it’s always been, even if that means we have to help some freshman who drank too much and got lost on his way back to his dorm.

The house we approach is sunken in shadow, its windowsdark, porch sagging under the weight of too many seasons gone by. Mail clogs the box. The hedges have grown wild, curling like claws along the broken fence. A half-toppled garbage can lies sideways in the yard, forgotten. The house is clearly abandoned, and something about the place gives me the heebie-jeebies. I can’t quite put my finger on it. There’s just a feeling in the air, like nothing good happens here.

So when I see her, curled in on herself near the side of the house, half-hidden behind a hedge and a slanting gutter, I’m somehow both not surprised and completely floored.

It takes my brain a moment to catch up to what I’m seeing. She looks like a ghost. A girl in a black dress that’s torn up one side, hiked nearly to her hip, dirt and leaves clinging to the fabric. One heel lies discarded a few feet away. The other miraculously still on her foot. Her knees are scraped raw, blood tracking down her shin. Her palms are caked with grime that has also lodged under her fingernails. There’s a cut on her temple. A deep bruise is already blooming across her cheekbone.

My stomach fucking drops.

Beside me, Lucian makes a noise like a cat being drowned. It takesa lotto shake him, but even in the low lighting, I can tell the color has drained from his face. He stares unblinking at the girl, seeming frozen to the spot where he stands, with an expression of horror and disgust on his face.

“Is she—” I croak.

Silas, already at her side, drops to a crouch before gently taking her hand and feeling for a pulse. Lifting his head, he nods, and in relief, air flies out of my lungs.

“Thank God,” I sigh.

“Tell that to her in the morning when she’s going to wish she were dead.”

There’s a flatness to Lucian’s tone that I’ve never heard fromhim. I’m used to his anger, his rage, but I’ve never heard him sound so dead. So robotic, like he’s here, but he’s not really here.

Clapping him on the shoulder, I wait until he turns his head to face me. “Let’s just worry about right now, yeah? We need to make sure she’s unharmed and get her somewhere safe.”

There’s a hollowness in his eyes that I hate the look of. It’s…terrifying, and Lucian is already volatile on a good day.

“Sure.”

Again, that flat tone that twists my insides tighter. He is not okay, but I don’t have the capacity to help him right now. We need to helpher.

Giving his shoulder a final squeeze, I leave him standing there and approach Silas. “Is she conscious?”

He shakes his head, giving me a long, meaningful stare that I can just about make out in the dark.

“Drugged?”

He nods.

Bending down, I give her shoulder a gentle yet firm shake. “Hey. Hey, can you hear me?”

Her eyes flutter but don’t open.