Page 28 of Touchdown

“Fuck sake, son. Do you think we're idiots? There's no need to make you dead when we've got rhinoceros tranquilizers.”

I didn't have to ask Noah. We both already knew they had drugs.

“You think I'm bluffing? Ask your friend if I'm bluffing.”

Noah squeezed my arm. He didn't need to. I'd already decided not to react. But it felt good.

When I kept not saying anything, the silence stretched out. All this time, and we were only hearing the one guy. It was still weird. The first guy, yeah. I was pretty sure I took him out. He dropped like a rock. But the second guy was conscious and swearing from the hit.

Until he wasn't.

Something happened, but what?

Were we really up against just one guy?

A guy who tried to trick us into saying something we shouldn't. That didn't work. So he packed in the psych play in favor of going back to the original plan.

Get those fucking kids out of that fucking tree.

“What happened to the other guy?” I asked Noah. “What's he doing?”

“Which other guy?”

“Wait, what?”

“It isn't just one guy being weird and quiet. It's two. How long can you really knock a guy out cold by throwing a can of peaches at his head?”

Noah was figuring out the same things I was. If nothing else, the two of us were in sync.

“That's what I was just thinking,” I said. “We're weirdly lucky he stayed out this long.”

He puffed out his cheeks. Blew out a thoughtful breath. “Whatever the deal is with that, it won't be going on forever. We wait too long, the others revive, and we're up against three guys again.”

I couldn't think of a thing to say.

“One way or another,” Noah said, “they've got us, haven't they?”

“Never.” I had to speak emphatically, because you always have to speak more emphatically when you know it's a lie.

Noah snuggled up to me but didn't contradict me. There was another, briefer silence.

We got in some good licks, but we're in real trouble here.

Before we surrendered—if we surrendered—we still had this moment.

Wrapping my arms around him, I kissed him squarely on the mouth. A kiss wasn't a lie. It was the truest promise there was.

Chapter 19

Akiss is a moment stolen from time. An all-too-brief moment, because time is jealous of anything that lets us slip through its iron claws.

“We should probably just...” I murmured.

“Hush.” Noah kissed me back. “Hush.”

If I was about to be tranked with some memory wipe drug, if I was about to lose this kiss...

I couldn't stand the thought. I wanted to keep this moment forever.

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