Page 41 of Too Safe

As soon as she says the word, a raindrop hits the bridge of my nose and rolls down the slope. I brush it away in vain. A few seconds later, the rain picks up, and I’m peppered with sprinkles.

“A little rain and the party’s over?”

“This’ll be more than a little rain.” She holds up her phone again. “When the storm gets closer, the ferries have to stop running. It’s not exactly safe to be floating on a hunk of metal in an open body of water when lightning strikes.”

Shit. I hadn’t even considered that. Another chill runs through me.

I hate storms. And I hate how I react to storms even more. I have no intention of being anywhere near the water, let alone near a window, if and when lightning strikes.

“You ready?” Hunter asks, tucking her phone into her back pocket and linking her arm through mine. “You can come to my place if you want. Greedy is having people over, but it won’t be anything like this scene.” She twirls her hand through the air with a flourish.

“What position does your brother play?” I ask, recalling her exchange with Decker.

“Stepbrother,” she corrects for the second time tonight.

Noted.

“He’s quarterback for the South Chapel Sharks.”

She cocks a brow when I tilt my head and look at her blankly.

“As in South Chapel University? Our school’s biggest rival?”

I shrug apologetically, and Hunter laughs.

“Sometimes I forget just how new you are around here. The LCU and SCU football teams take their rivalry to the extreme. Shore Week is coming up, so you’ll get to see it for yourself then.”

I’m only half listening as Hunter goes on about a rivalry that, frankly, I don’t give a shit about. My focus is glued to the stream of partygoers making their mass exodus toward the dock.

All four guys are upstairs, occupied. I saw it for myself.

There’s hardly any time to think it through. But this feels like too big an opportunity to ignore. Is this my chance?

I assumed they wouldn’t let me out of their sight tonight. I’ve run into them each a few times around the house over the last couple of hours, so I guess, in a way, they haven’t.

But the huge number of people crowding the dock right now might give me the perfect opportunity to blend in and quietly disappear.

My phone is in my pocket, but the battery was hovering around 50 percent the last time I checked. I know I can’t very well go back to my uncle’s. That’s the first place they’ll look, assuming they’d come after me. But if the storm will prevent travel by boat tonight…

Fuck. I wish I’d had the idea sooner. I would have had time to make a legitimate plan.

I don’t have my purse. My ID. A phone charger. My meds.

It could spell disaster. But I may not get another opportunity like this…

A boat horn blasts through the night, and as if on cue, the rain intensifies.

“Ah shit,” Hunter mutters, her nose wrinkling as she tilts her chin and gazes up at the sky. “Hopefully, we can snag one of the covered seats.”

Her concern is the rain. Getting wet. Ruining her hair.

What I wouldn’t give to be plagued by worries so insignificant.

“Listen up!” a guy wearing a LCU hoodie hollers from the end of the dock. “The storm’s eight miles away, so these are the last boats out until it passes. All ashore who’s going ashore. Crusade’s orders.”

The noise picks up again as people board the two waiting vessels, calling out to each other and making plans for when they get back to the marina.

I chance a peek back at the mansion, noting the bodies scattered around the decks and the silhouettes of people still dancing in the living room. The scene is still pretty chaotic. I can only hope the guys are distracted enough to assume I’m somewhere in that crowd.

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