Page 84 of The Wrong Quarterback

Fuck.

I had no money, and I had no phone. So it was really fun to step outside the now seemingly empty building and realize I had no idea where I was…and that it was night. First chance I got, I was going to go find out what the real police station looked like in town—because this wasn’t fucking it.

My stomach twisted as I blinked, trying to get my bearings. I’d lost an entire day—at least. I had no idea where I was, and I was more tired than I could ever remember being.

Which would make this walk fun.

I forced myself to move, barely noticing the trash on the broken sidewalk or the lack of streetlights in this part of town. There were certainly a lot of empty, run-down warehouses. I guess if the third trial was hiding a dead body, I’d have a possible location to dump it.

Fucking hell.

I must have walked a mile before I heard the sound of an engine revving, headlights cutting through the darkness. I squinted, turning my head just as a truck screeched to a halt beside me, the headlights blinding for a split second.

As my eyes adjusted, I recognized the familiar outline of an army-green Jeep Gladiator. I exhaled, relief flooding me as I saw Jace sitting behind the wheel, Matty next to him in the passenger seat.

Jace threw the truck in park so violently, the whole Jeep shook. He jumped out and jogged over, throwing his arms around my shoulder and squeezing.

“Fucking hell. Where the fuck have you been? We thought you died!” he growled, still holding me tight. Matty was out of the Jeep, too, and suddenly I was in some sort of group hug.

“As endearing as this is, can we fucking get back? I haven’t slept in—what time is it? What day is it?” I asked.

“It’s eleven p.m. on Sunday,” Jace said, still not letting me go.

“Crap,” I growled, shaking my head. A part of me had been hoping I’d just overestimated the time I’d been gone. I couldn’t believe they’d kept me for almost an entire day. “Have you seen Casey? Is she okay? Is she worried?”

Matty threw up his hands. “We didn’t exactly have time to go check on your girlfriend since we’ve been looking for you all day!”

I stalked over to Jace’s truck and jumped in. “Let’s go. I need to see her.”

Jace and Matty stared at me incredulously.

“I got arrested after the party for our little adventure in the graveyard. They took me to a fake police building and interrogated me for almost twenty-four hours before someone from the Sphinx came in, undid my handcuffs, and told me I’d passed the second test. Can we go now?”

Jace and Matty were still blinking at me. But I didn’t have time for that. As crazy as my story was, all I cared about at the moment was making it back to Casey. It had been almost an entire day since I’d last seen her. Completely unacceptable.

“Well, I guess when you put it like that,” Jace said slowly, finally walking over and getting into the driver’s seat. It took Matty a little longer, his mouth had been so wide with shock, it had taken him a moment to scoop his bottom lip off the ground and get ahold of himself. Neither of them had gotten any Sphinx trials yet, and here I was with two already. Lucky me.

We started driving, each of them peppering me with a million questions that I answered tiredly. They’d covered for me this morning by saying I had a stomach bug—which usually would be code for “Hungover” for a college coach. But since I’d never done anything like that before, Coach didn’t make a big deal of it.Matty and Jace had then spent the rest of the day trying to find me.

“Howdidyou even find me?” I asked, suddenly realizing in my exhaustion how unlikely it was that they’d just happened to be driving in this part of town as I was walking down the sidewalk.

Jace had a very smug look on his face after that question.

“Oh, well, with your friendship bracelet,” he said nonchalantly.

Matty made a pained sound in the backseat. “They arenotfriendship bracelets.”

Jace smirked. “They’retotallyfriendship bracelets.”

I glanced at the leather band that I’d forgotten Jace had even given me. We’d gotten them freshman year, and I considered it my lucky charm at this point. I never took it off.

“What does my…band have to do with this?”

“It has a tracker in there,” he said proudly. “Because best friends stalk each other.”

I gaped at him and then looked back at Matty who just looked resigned at this point.

“What do you mean it has a tracker?”

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