I leaned down and gave her a proper kiss, one with tongue and a decent amount of groping.
She looked breathless as I pulled away, and I dropped my hand and twined my fingers through hers. “I’m only a genius if we don’t get caught.”
The lust cleared from her face in a split second. “Oh, fuck. Right. The cops are probably already on their way, and we just left footprints in the snow for them to follow.”
Together, we took off into the night like the criminals we’d become.
Chapter 23Aly
Inow had the answer to the question, “How fun is it to run through the woods at night during winter?”
About as much fun as having Hannibal Lecter for a gynecologist.
My feet were soaked through because of the snow, I had so many scratches on my face from low-hanging branches that it was going to look like I’d picked a fight with a shredder, and even though it was sub-zero, I was sweating from exertion. I was both hot and freezing at the same time, and between my litany of physical discomforts and the fear and adrenaline pumping through my veins, I was so uncomfortable and wound up that I was ready to burst into tears. I wanted a hot shower, homemade chicken soup, and all the blankets in my house wrapped around me while I made a nest on my couch.
Josh looked even more miserable than I was. I couldn’t stop glancing at him in the moonlight, worried he might suddenly collapse. I’d rounded the corner of the house just in time to watch him ping-pong through the pergola, and though he swore he hadn’t hit his head, I was still wary. I knew from treating people that sometimes, in a fall like that, it all happened so fast you couldn’t be sure of everything that got hit until the bruises showed up.
Thank fuck he’d made it out of the house before getting caught. I’d tried to play it cool while he was in there, but internally, I’d been freaking out. The thought of Josh trapped inside Brad’s mansion while two of Brad’s victims lay somewhere far below made me sick to my stomach.
I didn’t know the full horror of what Josh had been through with his father, but between Tyler’s revelations and Josh’s cryptic comments, it was safe to say that having a serial killer for a parent was the stuff of nightmares. Knowing there were bodies nearby might have retraumatized Josh, and the surreptitious glances I kept sneaking at him were as much about his mental health as they were about his physical well-being.
How he’d had the wherewithal to think of setting off the alarm after everything he’d just been through was beyond me, and it made me look at him with a whole new level of admiration. Not only was my boyfriend funny and kind and hot, but he was also smart as hell. I’d never been so attracted to anyone in my life, and if not for the genuine fear of cops barreling through the woods after us, I would have dragged him to a stop, dropped to my knees in front of him, and showed him just how much I appreciated him.
He looked over at me, his face shaded because of his hat, hiding his expression from view. “The meeting point should be just beyond the next rise,” he said, keeping his voice low.
I followed suit. “Do you think they’re still waiting for us?”
Junior’s voice crackled through our earbuds, making us both jump. “We…here…are you…at?”
Josh and I shared a look and picked up the pace as we started climbing the hill. The van must have been just inside radio range.
“Can you hear us?” I asked, voice barely above a whisper.
“Not…can you…me?”
I blew out a frustrated breath and kept climbing. The snow was deep, and though the surface had frozen, it was soft underneath, and Josh and I kept punching through it and nearly stumbling. My legs protested every step. I was starting to lose feeling in my toes, which was the first sign of frostbite. We needed to get to the van and get the fuck out of there.
“How about now?” Josh asked.
“Better,” Junior said. “Can you hear me?”
If not for the fear of being overheard, I would have whooped in celebration. “Loud and clear.”
“There’s cops all over the place,” Junior said. “You set off the fucking alarm?”
“We’ll explain later,” I said. “Where are you?”
“Parked near the meeting spot. We had to get the van out of there because of what you two idiots did, so I hopped in one of the lookout cars. When you reach the road, turn right and look for a black SUV down an unlit dirt drive.”
I cringed. The plan had called for stealth and secrecy, but now any neighbors who’d seen the van at Brad’s before his parents turned up would think it was suspicious and tell the cops. At least the van hadn’t been there when Brad’s folks arrived. Junior had inherited his father’s talent for bullshitting, but I doubted that it worked on elitist snobs.
No, this situation wasn’t ideal, but in my opinion, it was still better to have cops crawling all over the area than to give Brad’s parents a chance to cover more of his crimes.
“Where are you two?” Junior asked.
I bit off a curse as my foot plunged through the snow again. “We’re coming over the –”
Josh grabbed my arm and yanked me down. “Cop car.”
A fresh wave of adrenaline punched through me as a searchlight swung over our heads, lighting up the forest like the Fourth of July. Josh and I dropped against the side of the hill, and I sent up a small prayer of thanks that we’d been just shy of the top and still able to hide. A few yards further, and we would have been caught in the open.
The beam swept across the forest once before coming back for a second, slower pass. I flattened against the snow, rocks and fallen branches digging into me, my clothes soaking through. I didn’t even breathe because I was so scared that I’d miss some warning sound that might tell us someone had gotten out of the car and was heading our way.
Josh gripped my hand, and I turned just enough to meet his eyes. Gone was the soulful brown I was used to. They were nearly black now, with a steely edge that spoke of determination. He hadn’t taken my hand to reassure me; he’d grabbed it so he could haul me to my feet at the slightest provocation.
I was right there with him. We were not getting caught. If that meant fleeing back through the woods, so be it. I suddenly had enough adrenaline coursing through my veins that I felt like I could run a marathon.
The spotlight cut through the trees again, even slower this time, painting the night in blinding white. A crunching sound reached my ears, and my pulse skyrocketed. Josh squeezed my hand, his fingers practically trembling with the need to flee.
“Wait,” I whispered, recognizing the sound for what it was: tires crunching over the salt-caked pavement as the car rolled past. We must have been closer to the road than I realized to hear that from where we were.
Josh released a shaky breath as the spotlight moved on, dropping our section of woods back into darkness.
“Fuck,” Junior bit out. “Back up! Back up!”
He must have seen the beam and realized the cops were heading their way next.
Josh and I stayed where we were, frozen in place as we listened helplessly to the noises coming through our earbuds.
“Turn!” Junior yelled.
Whatever the response was, we couldn’t hear it.
“I don’t care about your fucking paint job,” Junior said. “Back into the fucking trees if you have to.”
A scraping sound came over the line loud enough to make me wince. Goodbye, paint job.