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Gabriel shut up.
“Listen to me,” said Michael, his voice low and rapid and almost shaking. “I didn’t mean for that girl to die. We were at the quarry and the rocks gave. I knew it was happening. I stopped it before anyone else got hurt. But I was angry. Her brother and his friends were chasing us, so I hesitated, just for an instant. I just wanted to slow them down.” He drew a tremulous breath full of emotion. “I didn’t want to hurt her. I never meant to hurt her. I regret it every day.”
Hunter didn’t move.
“Seth Ramsey’s parents came after me,” said Michael. “After all of us. We went to Seth’s house and tried to work it out. But they wanted a fight. My parents weren’t ready. My brothers and I, we didn’t know what we were doing. We were so young. We just wanted them to stop fighting. There was a fire. It just—it was so fast.” His voice broke. “Not everyone got out.”
Becca hadn’t heard this part of the story from Chris. Gabriel had been furious at Michael in the woods. She wondered how much of that fury was directed at himself, for starting the fire that had killed his parents.
“Save it,” said Gabriel, his eyes intent on Hunter. “He won’t pull the trigger.”
A muscle in Hunter’s jaw twitched.
“I didn’t know about your father,” said Michael. “I swear.”
“Hunter,” she whispered, wary of spooking him. “Sometimes accidents really do happen.”
For an instant, she felt hesitation in the air. She honestly thought he’d lower the gun.
Then he swung the barrel around to center on Michael. “I don’t believe in accidents.”
“Why?” she said. “Because otherwise it’s your fault?”
Hunter flinched—then caught himself.
“You didn’t make your dad come back for you,” she said. “You didn’t. It was just—freakish timing, or fate, or—”
o;This is stupid. A lot of people wear crystals. What, are you going to do some magic—”
“Just shut up and take them off. If you’ve got nothing to do with this, then he does.”
Michael looked like he was going to rip them off her wrist if she didn’t concede. She was ready to dig in and fight—but she kept hearing Chris’s words on the soccer field the night before.
Just how much do you know about our local narc?
Hunter had never been anything but kind to her. If anything, he was overprotective. Maybe protection just ran in his family, with his police officer uncle and special forces father. Hunter coming to town at the same time as the Guide was nothing but coincidence. An accident.
I don’t believe in accidents.
His father had been killed in a thunderstorm and a rock slide. Was that a coincidence? An accident?
Becca unchained the rocks and held them out to Michael.
He pulled the chain free, letting them drop into his palm. Quartz and amethyst, from the night she’d choked down too much tequila. Citrine and garnet, from the morning Hunter had picked a fight with Chris.
Michael studied all four, then picked up the clear quartz. “What did he tell you this one was for?”
She tried to remember. “Ah, to make the rest of them work better, I think.”
“More likely to keep track of the rest of them.” He held it up and crushed it in his palm.
“Are you crazy?” she sputtered. “That wasn’t even—”
“He was tracking you, Becca.” Dust trailed out of Michael’s hand and into the grass below. “Give it five minutes. I bet he’ll call—”
Her phone chimed.
Michael smiled, but it was grim. “See?”
