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I look all around, but there’s no sign of anyone else here with us.
“She’s not…guys, I don’t see anything,” I confess.
“How is she not here?” Ciaran asks. “Could she have walked back up? Is that possible?”
“We need help,” Alastair says, looking dejected. “If she’s dead, we can’t stay quiet. Our lives are over.”
“If this was anyone else….”
My words feel loud between us as we swim back to the edge and get dressed. We’d play dumb if this wasn’t Noor. No one else is worth losing our shot to play professional hockey.
Our paths are all different, but the ultimate goal is the same.
“We can’t go back to the party,” Ci mutters. “I’ll kill Alexa in front of everyone if she touches me again. I can’t deal with her hands on my body. I wish I’d never gotten involved with her.”
“Wishes and shit get you the same amount of grief. One is simply messier,” Alastair says. “We need to call her parents.”
“They’re going to kill us,” I sigh, shoving my wet feet into my shoes. I pocket my socks and the three of us begin to walk up the path together.
We’re walking away from a possible crime scene as we leave behind what could be Noor’s grave. God, this is all so fucked up.
People continue to party in the distance, and we hide from anyone we come across as we hurry. The freshman will clean up for us later, we don’t actually need to stay. We’ve ingrained safety into our classmates’ brains, they can keep each other from going where they shouldn’t.
I know what we should do, but Noor is too important to shoot the shit with our classmates and pretend she isn’t.
My mind is such a jumbled mess by the time we get to the parking lot, I don’t notice the blacked out windows of the SUV waiting for us until the doors open. Noor’s grandfather grabs my wet hair and shoves a shotgun under my chin as I gape at him with wide eyes, fear making my knees nearly buckle.
“Where is she?” he hisses. “You took her out of her bed, pendajo.”
“Dad, we can’t kill them yet.” Noor’s new adopted father stands tall with his tattoos standing out on his arms, his jaw ticking with anger as he glares at us. “There will be no mercy for this, guys. We are going to fuck you up.”
“Nacio. Less talking, more kidnapping, please.” Mrs. Denton crosses her arms over her chest as she watches her husband.
“Who the fuck are you?” Alastair gasps, struggling as another of her husbands yanks on his arms. The sound of zip ties being pulled tightly on our wrists is loud enough to make me flinch.
“Your worst damn nightmare, kid,” Mrs. Denton sneers. “Liliana is setting up the murder room now.”
“Fuck!” I yell, accidentally allowing a gag to be shoved into my mouth.
“Much better, Elijah, thanks.” The shotgun is removed from my chin as Noor’s grandfather purses his lips. “In the trunk. Walk before I let my sons-in-law take their fear out on you. Just because you weren’t on our cameras doesn’t mean you’re not involved.”
My shoulders slump, knowing he won’t care if we are innocent of kidnapping Noor. The three of us walk dejectedly as we’re pushed along by Noor’s dads and Mrs. Denton sighs.
“You’re making this very easy for us, boys. I can practically smell the guilt from here.”
“I think one of them may have shit themselves,” Elijah mutters. I still have trouble keeping their names straight, but Noor’s grandfather just used it. “We should have gotten rid of them before this.”
This is how we die. My best friends and I huddle together in the trunk as the door is slammed shut. I’m the only one who is gagged, probably because I have a big fucking mouth.
The lurch of the SUV as it moves forward knocks us all over, and Mr. Denton snorts in derision as he drives.
“Jared, could we not die, please?”
“Sorry, Rachelle. I’m having a hard time right now.”
“Start talking, boys. We have a drive ahead of us.”
“We didn’t take her,” Ciaran rasps. “I swear it. The only people who had to participate tonight were those currently enrolled in the school. Noor got her GED.”
