Page 54 of Her Crew

“I don’t hear any water. Just all these goddamn bugs buzzing around.” He smacks his arm and kills the biggest mosquito I’ve ever seen.

Maybe it’s wishful thinking or sad, pathetic hope, but I swear I heard running water. The sound was distant, almost mistakable as wind rustling through the trees, but I cling to that sound and listen for it again. Another forest symphony greets my ears.

I’m desperate to hear that water again, and I strain until it feels like my ears will bleed. If I can pinpoint the sound of water, that’s where we’re most likely to find her. It sounds insane, considering her irrational distaste for showers and water in general, but Tegan said she used to go to the drainage pipe when she was scared. If there were ever a time when she would be scared, this is it. She’d head toward the sound of rushing water.

I close my eyes again and sift through the sounds until I catch that distant roar. It’s so faint that I truly might be imagining it, but it’s all the hope I have. Clinging to it, I open my eyes and face Tye.

“Follow me,” I say.

He doesn’t question me as I rush into the woods. The further we walk, the more certain I am that the water is real, and as we draw closer, Tye hears it too. It sounds like a waterfall.

Tegan’s words replay in my mind. “I love waterfalls.”

Despite my aching legs and the mosquitos driving me absolutely fucking nuts, the sound of that water propels me forward. Tye and I just keep picking up speed until the rushing sound gets loud enough that we know the waterfall is just past this line of trees.

“Do you really think she’s here?” Tye asks, and I hear the lack of confidence in every word.

Hell, I’m not even confident. This is a hunch—pure desperation to find my lost little pup.

“I hope she is,” I say.

The trees grow sparse, then disappear as the waterfall comes into view. It’s magnificent, and I can see why Tegan took comfort in something so powerful. Despite the anxiety rocketing through me, the scene calms me. Water rushes over the rocks, barreling toward a large basin about fifty feet below. The trees are sparse near the falls, but they thicken and crowd the furthest edge of the lake, blocking most of it from view as it narrows and goes deeper into the forest. I step closer to the edge and scan the rocks beneath the falls.

But I don’t see Tegan.

My eyes scan the edges of the pool beneath the rushing water, but she isn’t there either. Moonlight catches on every dewy blade of grass, every moss-covered rock, but not the girl. She isn’t here.

“Maybe she kept walking,” Tye offers. “I mean . . . I think you were right. She had to have come this way. It’s the only thing that makes sense. If she followed the roads out of the park, we’d have seen her on our way in.”

I stuff my hands into my pockets and peer out at the water. “There could be any number of waterfalls in this park. She could have run to any of them.”

“So what are you saying? We should give up?”

I pin him with a glare. “The fuck? No! I will never give up on her.” I turn back to the water. “Never.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” He cups the sides of his mouth and yells her name into the darkness.

I’d join him, but this feels so hopeless. Even if she’s out there, the falls swallow our voices. She’d never hear us calling for her. Despite that, I take a deep breath and shout her name.

But only the roar of the water answers me.

Chapter 31

Tegan

The moon reflects off the water shimmering in my palm. I bring the cool liquid to my mouth and let it soak into my sandpaper tongue. This time, I swallow it. I can’t help it. I’m thirsty and hungry, but I don’t know the first thing about water sanitation or foraging for food. At least water buys me some time.

My heart hammers against my chest as I freeze when I think I hear a voice, but I can’t tell over the rushing water in the distance. My ears are probably playing tricks on me. Fear and desperation will do such a thing, and I’m in one hell of a terrifying, desperate situation. It was probably just that bear coming back to finish me off.

With a sigh, I shuffle back to the shadowy area I found a little further down the lake, but as soon as I’m tucked within the darkness, I hear it again. This time, it’s unmistakable. That was definitely someone shouting.

Hope fills my heart, but I close my eyes and temper the excitement. Then I take a deep breath and head toward the voice. I pick my way through the woods along the edge of the water until I’m right beneath the falls.

“Tegan!” someone shouts from above, but the water swallows most of his voice.

“Pup!” comes another voice. That’s Alec for sure.

I grip the side of the cliff and begin to climb the side of the falls. Maybe this is all in my head, but if I run into the arms of no one, at least no one will be here to see me embarrass myself.