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I dogged her heels, glancing back to see a figure appear in the entrance that I’d left hanging wide open. They didn’t continue after us, though, just stayed there.
“This way,” Raina called, steering us toward a patch of dune grass. The stalks were probably three or four feet tall, so we crouched as soon as we reached them to duck out of sight. But at least we didn’t have to outright sprint once the foliage concealed us.
“Keep going,” I encouraged as I glanced over my shoulder yet again. I still didn’t see anyone following us, but I didn’t want to linger to find out if they’d called the police or not, either.
In front of me, the girl steadily shimmied through some reeds. I batted them out of my face and kept bear-crawling after her until we reached a clearing that led to a white picket fence bordering another property.
“Come on,” I whispered, moving in front of her to take the lead. “Javonte Witt’s house is only a few minutes this way. I have my truck parked there.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” she panted, already holding onto her side and wheezing.
Still in a crouch, I zipped toward the fence, then hugged the beachside once I reached it. I glanced back once to make sure she was still with me, and when she nodded to let me know she was keeping up, I started to jog a lot more freely the rest of the way to Javonte’s.
The beach behind his fenced backyard was clear and undisturbed. Returning to the gate I had slipped out of last night to walk down to the water, I paused to check on my accomplice.
She was breathing hard, her face glistening with sweat, and she was still holding her side with one hand while reaching for the fence’s brick wall to brace herself with the other.
“Break,” she gasped unsteadily. “Can we take a break?”
“Of course. I don’t think anyone’s following us.” Letting go of the gate handle, I returned to the beach to peer down the sand and make sure we didn’t have any pursuers.
“Yeah, I think we’re good,” I assured, turning back to find her plopping down onto the ground and sitting with her back to the wall.
Bobbing her head, she sent me a thumbs-up to let me know she’d heard. Then, she drew her legs up toward her chest, clutched her middle, and bent forward to rest her brow on her knees.
“Oh my God,” she groaned in misery. “I’m never drinking again.”
“You okay?” I wondered, coming over to sit a few feet from her. Bracing my back against the bricks as well, I rested my forearms on my own knees and squinted at her in worry.
“Ask me again in two minutes,” she managed to answer as she remained just as she was.
“Gotcha.” Letting my head fall back, I closed my eyes and withdrew a long breath.
A minute passed before the girl beside me groaned. “Sothathappened.”
I chuckled and glanced over. “Yes, it did.”
“I’ve never broken into a complete stranger’s house before.”
“Trust me, me neither.”
She nodded. “It was…different than I’d imagined it would be.”
I blurted out a laugh over her blasé attitude. And then I couldn’t seem to stop.
At first, she blinked at me as if I were insane, but then she broke and smiled before she started to laugh with me.
“That had to be the strangest, most bizarre night of my life,” she confessed.
With a nod, I wiped tears of mirth from my eyes and finally started to settle down. “You could say that again.”
“And then we tied it up with trespassing.”
“Thanks for the reminder.” I glanced over to find her watching me with a thoughtful expression. When she said nothing else, I whispered, “What?”
She shook her head. “I just—I can’t believe how cool you’re being about all this. I mean, I heard you were super nice, but this…”
I furrowed my brow in confusion and shook my head. “What did I do that was so nice?”
