Page 123 of Wicked Promises

I glance at him. “You and your love life, of course.”

He bursts out laughing. “Fuck you, man.”

“Come on. You don’t think you and?—”

He elbows me. “Other people need more immediate help. Like Eli. Or Liam.”

“Truth.”

Liam has a quiet fixation on his neighbor. He never talks about her, though. I think she broke his heart when they were younger. So he’s hopeless. And I don’t know what’s going on with Eli and Riley. They’re just fucking around, I think.

And Theo is miserably obsessed with Amelie’s social outcast sister.

It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

We quit talking and focus on running. We’ve reached the hill, and it’s taken us almost thirty minutes to get here.

I check my watch, which tracks distance, and groan when I see we’ve already run four miles. I’m going to kill him for almost doubling our running distance—but it’s too late to turn back now.

Both of us are breathing hard by the time we make it to the top a few minutes later, and I motion to stop. I bend over, elbows on my thighs, and suck in air.

“That was like a mile-long hill,” I gasp. “Fucking hell.”

There’s a reason I don’t come this way. It’s also the reason Theo’s in better shape than I am—he runs this route alot. Eli and I prefer flatter roads.

“You gonna live?” Theo asks.

I shake my head, tempted to flop over. “Maybe not.”

He slaps my back. “Walk it off.”

And then he takes off, continuing down the road. At a walk, at least. But still.

I catch up to him easily enough, sucking in deep breaths. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”

“That’s the spirit.”

And off we go.

We’re near the bottom of the hill when a car comes up behind us. We scoot to the side, Theo jogging directly in front of me.

I move farther over when the car behind me doesn’t pass us. There’s a whole stretch of road to our left, but… some drivers are weird. Overly cautious.

The vehicle comes up next to us, keeping pace until I glance over at them.

Margo’s foster sister.

She waves at me, frantic, until Theo and I stop. The car shoots ahead of us, then the taillights illuminate. The car rocks to a stop.

“The fuck?” Theo says.

I walk up to the passenger window, my brow furrowing. “Claire?”

“Caleb, I’ve been trying to find you! Margo was in an accident. Lenora asked me to come find you. You weren’t answering your phone…” She covers her mouth with her hand and shakes her head. “I’m sorry.”

My stomach drops into my feet. My phone is safely tucked in my gym bag in the locker room. And Ijustleft Margo not too long ago.

“Is she okay?”