Page 63 of No Place Left to Hide

Still watching the forest, I throw one leg over the guardrail as someone steps up on the other side of the metal. I turn, expecting Jena, and look straight into a pink fluorescent skull.

I scream.

Without a word, he shoves me backward over the guardrail.

Twenty-Three

Before

September 2nd

I throw the boat into neutral and start the motor. It whirs to life and drowns out some of Claire’s incessant nagging, but a wave jostles the boat and I grab the wheel to keep from toppling over. The night sky tilts above me. I shake it off.

Claire leans forward from the dock and grabs the edge of the boat. I watch her cast a wary glance at the lake before she turns back to me. “Brooke, seriously. This isn’t cool. At least let Jena off the boat before you take it out.”

I glance at Jena over my shoulder. She’s stretched across the bench, lying face down. Her hand trails along the boat deck. “She’s fine. She’s passed out. And when she wakes up, she’ll be far away from your bitch ass.”

“You’re going to crash,” Claire says, louder now. “Risk yourself, but don’t fuck with other people’s safety. She can’t get off the boat. She has no choice in this.”

I wrench the boat into reverse and glare at her. “You’re so dramatic. I’m not going to crash. I’m getting us both away fromyou.”

Claire looks me straight in the eye. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? I took things too far tonight, and I’ll happily apologize to Jena and Felix too. I shouldn’t have crashed your party. Obviously, I didn’t plant anything in your house. I was just messing with you, and I wanted to ruin your night, but I don’t want you to die in a fiery boat crash, so can you please cut it out? I mean it. I’ll leave and I won’t come back if you get out of this boat right now.”

I stare at her, desperately trying to see the angle here. She always has an angle, and I can’t remember the last time she apologized to me aboutanything. Clare holds my stare and I almost give in. She looks uncharacteristically…scared?

Then her face hardens. “Brooke, don’t be a fucking idiot. Give me the damn keys.”

There she is.

I wrench the boat into gear and press the throttle. I can almost taste the fresh air and freedom of the open lake. The boat lurches away from the dock, and when the bow is a foot shy of clearing the corner, Claire takes two steps back and launches herself into the air. She lands hard on the bow on the other side of the plexiglass windshield.

“What thefuck!” I shout, cutting the throttle.

The engine stops but the boat doesn’t, slowly coasting further out into the lake.

Claire grabs onto the seat in front of her and uses it to push to her feet. “Please, at least let me drive. You don’t even have your boater’s license, and it’s dangerous at night. This lake is full of sandbars—”

I throw up my hands. “Just stop! You’re not better than me just because you have a stupid boating license. I go out on the lake with my dad all the time. I know what I’m doing!”

“No the fuck you don’t. Give me the keys.”

She takes a step toward me, and I throw my hand over the ignition, covering the key and the little orange floating key chain with my palm. The plastic digs into my palm, but I ignore it and reach for the throttle with my other hand. I throw it into reverse and punch it. Claire goes flying back into a seat.

“Brooke, stop!” Claire screams. “It’s not a car!”

I watch her frantically turn toward the receding dock, and in my mind, one vital piece of information reappears.

Claire Heck can’t swim.

Twenty-Four

Now

My scream cuts off midfall. This time, I roll head over foot, and when I finally slam into the ground, I can’t make my lungs expand. Pain fissures through my spine, my bones, and the back of my head.

I lie flat on my back, staring up into the tree canopy, gasping like a fish on land. Just when I start to think I’m going to pass out from lack of oxygen, my lungs start working again. I take what might be the most painful breath of my life and cough it back out. It feels like my lungs are made of bruises.

How in the ever-loving hell did he get all the way up to the road before I did?

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