Page 48 of Crew Princess
Her eyes bulged out, and she paled, but it worked.
The words tumbled out of her, “Iknowaplaceyoucanhideandtheywon’tfindyou.Imean,ifyoudon’tmindjumpingintowater.Iswearit’ssafe.”
She said all of that. Yeah. One word. No breath.
Z and I shared a look, our eyebrows raised.
He grunted, a slight grin tugging at his lips. “I don’t know if I should be impressed or weirded out.” He thought about it. “I think I’m turned on.”
Cross had turned back. “Guys, what’s going on?”
She jumped onto the trail with us, waving her hands. “Okay. Yeah. If you guys don’t mind jumping into water—I swear it’s safe—then follow me. You can hide there, and it’ll be totally safe. I promise. I mean, it’ll be cold, but I think you’ll all live. I hope, anyway.”
“Who are you?” Cross barked.
Jordan raised his phone to peer at her too, frowning.
“Um… Let’s do that later. I just, um… Just trust me. I was here yesterday with my parents, so I know where this water hole is—”
“A water hole?!” Zellman surged ahead.
She gave a nervous laugh that ended on a sigh. “We’re running out of time.”
I turned to Cross and Jordan. “I can’t get arrested.”
“We haven’t done anything wrong,” Zellman grumbled. “I mean, why are we even running? Jordan got jumped. Whatever. You know what I mean.”
Cross started toward the girl. “Underage drinking and partying. If they raided a District Weekend party, they don’t care. We have to go with the girl.” His eyes flicked to mine. “You’re right.”
Zellman groaned. “Great.”
Jordan’s head lifted up. “Shut the fuck up, Z. You’re not the one hurt or on probation.”
The girl’s eyes got big, her eyebrows crawling up her forehead. “One of you is on probation? Whaaaat?”
Zellman scowled at her. “No.”
Jordan rolled his eyes.
Cross said, “No one’s on probation.”
I took a step toward her, gentling my voice. “Look, we have to go if we’re going to go.”
I prayed she wouldn’t back out and suddenly dash off to the side, or worse, start yelling for the cops. Because she could’ve. She’d said it herself. She was a book nerd, and she looked the part.
I didn’t care for stereotypes, but while she was gorgeous in the face, it was a fresh face. No makeup. She was wearing a long-sleeve hoodie over jean shorts and sneakers. Her speaking skills didn’t give off the smoothest and most sophisticated feel. We were the criminals, and now she knew it.
“Oh, God.” Her voice matched her hands, shaky. “Okay. Yeah. Okay. I can’t believe I’m doing this. Okay.” She turned and motioned for us to follow. “It’s over here.”
Cross nodded to me.
I needed to take point with her. She was a girl. I was a girl. She needed to be handled with care, or she could bolt.
I moved up next to her and asked quietly, picking up the pace, “So, you were here yesterday?”
She was leading in the opposite way of the road, back toward the police. She almost tripped over a log. I grabbed her arm, steadying her, and she managed a smile at me. “Thanks. Crap. I suck at this stuff. I shouldn’t have come.”
“But you were,” I insisted. We were out of options besides dropping Jordan and making a dash ourselves. And that wouldn’t happen.
