AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jo leans close and kisses my shoulder. When I turn my head toward her, she kisses my cheek.
“Scared?” she asks. “We can turn back.”
“Nope. I’m going for it. You? Are you scared?” I’d never want her to be fearful. Nothing is worth that.
“Nope. Although it’s not fair, if we’re caught, I assume I’ll have immunity because Slater’s my dad. Famous last words, though.” She tosses her head and laughs.
“I love you,” I say. Those words don’t seem odd coming out of my mouth anymore. I know she won’t say them back, but that’s not why I say them. I simply say them because they’re true.
Although she doesn’t say the words I long to hear, she answers with another kiss. Right between my shoulder blades. That’s good enough.
“Shit!” she says.
I don’t know if I’ve ever heard her sound so mad.
“What?”
“Look to your left.”
There, over the lake, is a drone. It was hard to make out in the dim moonlight, but now that I’m looking for it, I can not only see it, but I can hear its low hum.
“Should we turn around?” I ask.
“Probably. They’re certainly not going to let us get as far as the southern barracks before they intervene.”
As I turn around, I get a better glimpse of the drone.
“Funny. It doesn’t look the same as the drone that caught us kissing weeks ago.”
Jo stiffens behind me.
“Nope. That one was like a black mini-helicopter. This one is gunmetal gray and has four rotors.” Her arms, already snug around my waist, grip me tighter. “And no one’s saying anything over a speaker.”
“What if this isn’t the army?” I whisper. “What if these aren’t… friendly?”
Something on the drone tips slightly, like a camera moving to get a better angle.
“I think we’d better run.” We both say the last word at the same time.
We’re more than halfway to the southern barracks. It would be foolish to run back to our dorms. I decide to press forward. At a gallop.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jo
Although Chance and I have been on the go-slow plan, I’ve always assumed we couldn’t stay on the slow track forever. To that end, I’ve been keeping track of the drone flight patterns, figuring that one day we’d desperately want to know when it was safe to get down and dirty in the woods.
It was child’s play to hack into their activity logs and track their movements. That’s why I didn’t worry we’d be interrupted when we danced in the clearing the other night. It’s why Chance and I met in the woods tonight after midnight. I knew the drones don’t fly at night. Why would they?
It’s after midnight. These aren’t friendlies.
I hang on tight as Chance takes off at a gallop. It’s a good thing I’ve been riding him daily for these last few weeks. If this were my first time on his back, I’d have fallen off by now.
His hooves are pounding on the dirt, his hair is flying in my face, and he’s striding so hard he’s already panting from the effort.
The drone is directly to our left, the red eye of the camera pointing at us, not even trying to hide.
“Shit,” I say, my throat parched and constricted with fear.
