The Perfect Escape (The Perfect Escape #1) - Suzanne Park Page 0,63

moseying steps forward. “It’s exactly who we’re looking for.” Her eyes narrowed as she approached us. Closer up, it was hard to miss her glowing skin, perfectly sleek ponytail, and mega-shine lip gloss. How could she look this good out in the wilderness?

Screw her.

The fog made it hard to read the name on her parka. But she kept creeping closer. And closer. Natalie. Her name was Natalie.

Bo staff guy said, “Get their wristbands. Maybe if we hurry we can catch up to that girl, the one with the reward. She said she’d pay us in cash.”

These guys were bounty hunters. But for what? And why?

Our torches had died out, but I lit mine again with a lighter, then tapped Nate’s torch head to set his on fire too.

He laughed. “You had a lighter the whole time?” His torch blazed bigger and brighter.

Natalie took a few steps back when Nate swooshed his fire stick around. Yeah, bitch. That’s right. We have fire.

The guy, on the other hand, laughed maniacally and stepped forward.

I’d seen him use the exact same scare tactics on that reality show. He was the aggressor, trying to steal our attention through intimidation. He’d also made us look away from Natalie. The sneaky alpha bitch ran behind a tree and came back with something concealed in her hand.

Bo staff guy sprinted toward us. Nate instinctively took a swing, making a whoosh sound with his torch, almost putting out the blaze. Mr. Bo Staff took advantage and used his weapon to knock the torch from Nate’s hand. It fell with a clunk between Natalie and me. We both dove for it, but she was faster. Luckily, the fire smothered out when it rolled on the ground. In our rumble, I managed to knock the thing from Natalie’s hand. It fell to my feet, but I didn’t dare bend down to grab it. Instead, I waved my lit torch around like a blindfolded madwoman. “This fire, plus your ridiculous amount of hair gel, and all that bug spray? Bad idea, lady. Back off.”

I tried to keep my eyes only on Natalie but kept glancing over at Nate.

Bo staff guy charged like a bull again. Nate removed himself from danger by doing a quasi-back-roll. Nice.

Bo staff guy swung hard. Nate ducked.

Bo staff guy swung again. Nate ducked again. Why was this guy trying to behead my partner?

Bo staff guy growled and ran full force with the staff held like a bat. Nate disarmed him by jumping out of the way and tackling his midsection. Grabbing the bo staff, Nate pushed the guy down hard with an eye-wincing thud.

Now Nate had a weapon.

The gladiators both staggered and then took off running, disappearing behind the veil of mist. Just like in those scary fucking horror movies.

Once I knew we were out of danger, I squatted down to pick up what Natalie had dropped.

It was a folded paper.

More specifically, it was a folded color printout of a wanted sign, with Nate’s senior class picture front and center. Cleanly designed with beautiful hand lettering, it didn’t look all that sketchy, even though it was. A $5,000 reward for the retrieval of Nate’s wristband. Plus $1,000 extra for his partner’s, a.k.a. mine.

Why?

Nate’s face grew paler the longer he stared at the paper.

“What is this?” I asked.

Nate stammered. “I don’t know what it is. But I know who. That’s Annie’s handwriting.” He handed me the paper but wouldn’t look me in the eyes. I shoved it inside my backpack.

“How many of these flyers do you think there are?”

He plopped down on a nearby weathered, mossy log and held his head in his hands. “I have no idea. But if there are a lot, we’re pretty much fucked.”

Damn it.

Annie.

She messed up my plans when I tried to ask out Nate at the skating rink, and somehow she boomeranged back into my life to wreak more havoc.

Well, Annie, there’s no way you’re going to screw me over again. No fucking