Page 71 of Our Little Secret

Zuri’s brown eyes widened. “Uh. Yeah. Earlier.”

“Where is she? Is she still here?” Brooke released her grip, tried to gather her ever-fraying wits.

“I don’t know.” Zuri stared at Brooke as if she were an escapee from a mental hospital. She rubbed her arm and glowered. “I haven’t seen her for a while.”

“You!” The woman chaperone was still blocked by several couples, but she yelled loudly. “You stop right there!”

Brooke ignored her. “What about Nick?” she asked her daughter’s friend. “Is she with Nick Paszek?”

Nodding, Zuri backed up a step. “The last I saw.”

“And they didn’t leave?”

“I don’t know,” Zuri said. But one of the boys with her, the short kid with an acne problem, glanced to an exit near the restrooms, double doors that opened to an inner courtyard.

Brooke didn’t miss a beat.

She headed in the direction of the doorway. The door was propped open to let in a little air. No chaperone was posted nearby.

“Brooke!” Neal was closer now, but she kept plowing through the throng until she reached the door and shot through to a darkened courtyard. There, on a bench, huddled under a sapling devoid of leaves, was a couple, faces pressed together, bodies tight.

She recognized her daughter instantly. “Marilee!” she said, and the couple jumped away from each other as if electrocuted. “What the hell is going on here?”

From the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of two other couples who were startled by her voice.

“Mom!” Marilee turned wide, mortified eyes on her mother. “What the fu—what are you doing here?”

“Oh, um, hi, Mrs. Harmon.” Nick shot to his feet and blinked wildly, as if he wanted to be anywhere but in this secluded courtyard.

“The better question is what’re you doing out here?” Brooke replied.

Marilee’s initial shock and dismay turned to anger. “Oh God, Dad too?” She got to her feet and stared past her mother as Neal caught up. “I can’t believe this!” She looked as if she hoped to disappear, to just vanish into thin air.

Too bad.

To his credit, Nick said, “Uh, maybe we should go back inside.” The other couples were slinking to the gym door.

“Let’s go!” Brooke said to her daughter.

“What? No!” Marilee was having none of it. She sidled even closer to Nick.

“Right now!” Brooke wasn’t backing down, though her heart was slowing and a sense of relief that she’d found her daughter alive and unharmed was coming over her. Thank God!

“Are you crazy?” Marilee asked, then, “Dad?”

“It’s okay, honey,” Neal said.

But Marilee was shaking her head violently. “It’s definitely not okay! What’re you two doing here?”

“Your mom had a feeling something was wrong.”

“A feeling?” their daughter repeated. “Crap, Mom, really?”

It was more than a feeling, but what could she say? And then she spied a security guard approaching from the far entrance and her throat clamped shut. She recognized his frame, the way he walked in a straight line toward them.

Gideon.

No. Oh no!

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