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“Not by a long shot.” He shook his head. “Michael says Hunter’s lonely. I actually think he feels bad for the kid.”
“You know Hunter held a gun to his head. He came here to kill him.”
Chris shrugged. “Guys bond over weird stuff, I guess.” He leaned in again and sighed. “Jesus, Becca, it’s impossible to get you to talk about yourself. I didn’t even mean the Elemental stuff. Are you okay?”
She stared across into his blue eyes, just now wide with emotion.
And then she realized he was talking about what had happened at Homecoming.
“Yeah,” she said, and she hated that her voice was rough. “I wasn’t going to say anything. It was—you stopped them.” Her shoulders felt tight, braced against the wood of the swing. “I didn’t think it would do any good. I figured everyone would be talking about me again, and I just—I didn’t want to go through that.” She gave a little laugh, and was surprised when a tear rolled off her cheek to land on her finger.
irens were getting closer. She was so mad she almost couldn’t see straight. “The Merricks are terrorizing the other families? Didn’t you ever think to check your facts? You’ve been gone for years. You shouldn’t be here now. You’re helping nothing.” Her voice broke again, and she started to lower the gun. “You’re hurting everyone, just like before.”
“Becca.” His voice softened. “Becca, please.”
She started to waver. She had no idea what was true anymore.
She tightened her grip on the gun. It suddenly felt like it was falling, slipping out of her hands.
No, that was her. Falling because of the earthquake.
CHAPTER 40
“Holy shit! It worked!” Chris had his hands pressed to the concrete. The floor had started to move.
A lot.
“It worked!” he said again, bracing his hands against the floor. He recognized his brother’s power. He knew it. He knew it.
“Yeah,” Nick said, and it sounded like he was speaking through clenched teeth. “This feels great.”
The floor shook harder. Nick swore, and his voice vibrated with the rocking of the earth. “I’m g-going to k-kill Michael.”
Steel started to whine and creak from pressure, and Chris heard bolts pop somewhere across the room. Metal sheeting ripped from a wall or the ceiling and rattled onto the concrete floor, a deafening sound.
Chris had a moment of panic. Were they underground? Was this a basement?
“Air!” cried Nick. “New air. Check the door.”
Chris scrambled across the floor, terrified that any moment a sheet of metal was going to come crashing down on his head, and he’d be as incapacitated as Nick. The trembling floor kept throwing him off, and it took him too long to find it.
But when he did, it was open. He had to fight with the hinges to convince it to let him through, but suddenly he was outside the freezer, in a small corridor. They were in a basement. A flight of stairs sat just to his left.
Stairs. How was he going to get Nick out of here?
“Go,” Nick yelled. “He has to be close. Don’t try to drag me. I can’t—”
Crash. More metal sheeting.
“Nick!” Chris yelled. “Nick, are you all—”
“Go, Chris. I’m fine.” His voice sounded weak. “Just hurry.”
Chris hurried.
Hunter had her hand and they were running.
Or he was running. Becca kept falling. Cars were veering all over the place on the main road, and they narrowly missed getting creamed in the parking lot. She lost track of her father entirely.
