me the whole time. I leaned down slightly toward him and scratched the other ear, whispering to him like we were sharing a secret, no longer caring at all what the other random strangers on this train thought. “That was such a good boy.”
* * *
Every now and then, I would get a feeling about something. It wasn’t even anything close to psychic powers—which I wasn’t entirely certain I believed in, despite the fact that I’d watched a lot of Little Medium marathons with Teri and Kat. It was more like, the phone would ring, and before my mom answered it, I knew it would be my aunt. Or as we walked up to the cast list for Midsummer, I knew suddenly that I was going to be Titania despite the fact that I’d only read for it once. Just very occasionally, and probably completely explained by lucky guesses and coincidences. But they still happened. And even before the doors opened at the Bryant Park station, I had a feeling that Kat wasn’t there.
It didn’t stop me from looking. I walked up and down the platform, even switched to the other side and back again, hoping against hope that every person I saw in a coat with a hood—and there were a lot of them—would be my best friend. But it never was.
She was gone, just like I somehow knew she’d be.
Meanwhile, back in Connecticut…
TERI STARED AT THE MAN with the tire iron. In that moment, she wished she’d never agreed to let Kat leave her phone at her house. She could be watching eighties movies with Ryan Camper right now.
“Where am I?” he repeated, his voice louder. He took a step closer, and Teri took a step back, motioning for the kids to get behind her.
“You’re… at the Stone house,” she said. Her voice came out shaky. “In Stanwich.” He just stared at her. “Connecticut?”
“Why were you in the trunk?” Chris asked.
“Yeah,” Daryl added.
“Connecticut,” the man repeated. He closed his eyes for a long moment.
“Uh-huh,” Teri said, taking a step toward the house. She wasn’t sure what was going on here, but it didn’t seem like anything she wanted to be a part of. This wasn’t a Hertz employee who’d fallen asleep in the trunk by accident. This was something else. The sooner she could get the kids inside, the better.
“Stop right there,” the guy said, his voice coming out sharp. They all froze. He nodded toward the yellow car. “Get in.”
“Oh,” Teri said, grabbing Parker’s hand and taking another step toward the house. “We’d rather not, actually.”
The guy sighed and set down the tire iron. Teri started to breathe a little easier, but then he reached behind him and pulled a gun out of his waistband.
“Cool,” Daryl said.
“Not cool,” Chris snapped. Parker whimpered and gripped Teri’s hand hard.
“I’m not asking,” the guy said, pointing the barrel of the gun at the yellow car. “Let’s go. Now.”
CHAPTER 12
Kat
I walked out onto the street and fell into step with the crowd, heading away from the subway station. I needed to get to Tenth Avenue, and the street in front of me was Fifth. I was already on Forty-Second, and I knew that was the right street for the theater district, so I figured I’d just stay on this street until I got to Tenth.
Buoyed by this plan, I crossed with the rest of the crowd at the crosswalk, even though the light hadn’t changed. None of those people seemed to care, though, so I just put my shoulders back like I was one of them and hurried across the street.
As I walked, I stuck my hands in my pockets, wishing that my gloves had made it into the city with me. When Stevie and I were together and only one of us had gloves, we always split the pair and put the other hand in our pockets.…
I pushed aside thoughts of Stevie. I didn’t want to think about her right now, or I’d get filled with rage all over again. Who cared that Stevie had left me alone? I was going to get to Tenth Avenue, and once I was there, if I didn’t see the theater, I’d just ask someone to google it for me. I’d hoped that this night could have been about the two of us—making sure we’d both get good parts, getting to celebrate Stevie’s birthday at Josephine’s. But if she was only thinking about herself, then so was I. I was going to look out