The Perfect Escape (The Perfect Escape #1) - Suzanne Park Page 0,52

her so close, right next right to me, I couldn’t think of anyplace I’d rather be. Not playing video games, not even hanging out with Annie.

I whispered, “Need to re-up on bear hugs?” Kate smiled as I pulled both arms around her again. She leaned into me, tucking herself into my chest. Soon, her shoulders relaxed, and her breath grew slow and heavy. Kate was asleep, safe and sound.

I slowly maneuvered out of my dual-arm-hook hug position, letting her curl into a side-sleep on my bed. She murmured something unintelligible as I pulled my comforter up to her chin. Something about Pringles. Something about sharing them with me. I set my alarm to some ungodly time and turned off the lamp.

Rolling out my sleeping bag on the floor and using one of Lucy’s large freaky Beanie Boo stuffed animals as a pillow, I focused on slowing down my breathing. But my brain kept jumping to the fact that Kate was here. In my room. Sleeping near me. Inhaling the same air as me.

Deep breaths. Sloooow dowwwwn, Nate.

It took a while, but once Kate had fallen into a deeper sleep, and I knew she would be okay for a while, my eyelids finally grew heavy enough to drift away.

Chapter Sixteen

Nate

Guess who showed up at work on the night before the big competition? Pete Haskill Numero Cuatro and two of his bro-magnons, both of whom had resting bitch face. When they locked the door to the outside to make sure no one entered or left, I knew they were here just to see me. Thank God Kate took the night off, just in case I was about to get a royal ass kicking. Since she stealthily slipped out of my house earlier in the week, we’d texted a lot about the competition, but she never ever mentioned the whole middle-of-the-night “sleepover.” And leave it to Pete to be the only one in the world who could get me to stop thinking about Kate being in my bedroom.

He whistled as he glanced around the waiting room. “So, Natey boy, this is where you spend all your time when you aren’t nerding it up at the library? Interesting.”

“It’s a good job. Some of us need jobs. Not everyone has four-car garages to hold our four Teslas.” Smack, take that, moneybags.

“We have only two Teslas. One Bentley. And a Lexus SUV for camping.” Correcting my Tesla count was idiotic, but the fact that he took a Lexus SUV out to the local campgrounds made him the biggest douche in the entire douchiverse.

“How’d you know I worked here?” I couldn’t imagine Jaxon or Zach telling Pete any shit about me.

“A little birdie named Annie mentioned it.” He threw back his head and laughed, cartoon-villain-like.

My stomach rolled. Damn it, Annie.

He continued the torture session. “I bought out the rest of the tickets for the entire night, so it’s just you, and us.” He made a sweeping hand motion, and his amigos stood at attention and gave him one of those smug jock nods. “I just wanted to see if you had time to think about the business proposal.”

I puffed my chest. “I’ve had some time to think about it, yeah.”

“And?”

“I have a pretty good shot at coming into some money soon. So thanks, but no thanks.”

He raised an eyebrow. “How much are we talking?”

“Fifty grand,” I gulped. Sweat beaded on my forehead, thinking about all there was at stake. I was losing my cool. Not that I’d ever played it totally cool with Pete.

He shot a look at his two buddies, who backed up to the door. “It’s higher than what we paid some other skids, but we can go up to fifty large. I’m not sure you get what’s happening here, but I’m not leaving till you say yes.”

My throat constricted, and I couldn’t get any air in. His two bros were positioned by the exit, preventing my escape. There were no windows in the waiting room. The escape room down the hall, absurdly, had no way to escape, with no entry or exit to the outside world. I balled my fists, ready to swing if