Chapter 9: Delinquents

Even though we’d spent all day Sunday hunting for our mysterious vampire, we’d come up empty. Whoever I’d sensed on Saturday was either gone or hiding. Despite the nagging in my gut, I let myself believe that the vampire had simply been passing through town. Thought I wasn’t going to let my guard down.

“Ready for our daily torture?” Jax came out of his room. “I still can’t believe we’re back in high school.” He scowled. “I know more than those people they call teachers.”

I laughed and slapped him on the back. “Maybe that should be your next career, then.”

“If anything, I’d be a college professor. Surround myself with all those hot co-eds.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Great, now that you figured out what you want to be when you grow up, I’m off to pick up Chloe.” I snatched my keys from the entryway table and walked out to my truck.

Nerves and excitement warred inside of me at seeing Chloe again. Would she be just as excited to see me? I slowed as I neared her house. Abby came speeding down the road, oblivious to her surroundings. I pulled into Chloe’s driveway to find her waiting on the porch. She was so incredibly beautiful. The mere sight of her had my unease disappearing and my heart melting.

Chloe bounded down the steps and hopped into my truck without a moment’s hesitation. “Hey,” she said.

“You’re a morning person, aren’t you?” I glanced at her, smiling faintly.

She sighed and hooked her seat belt. “No, actually I’m not,” she said. “Guess I had something to look forward to this morning.” She turned her face away, but I hadn’t missed the blush spreading across her cheeks.

“Just this morning?”

She furrowed her brows.

“I’ve been waiting all weekend for this,” I said.

Let her make of that what she will. Hopefully, she’d give me another hint that she was as excited about today as I was, or that she’d thought of me while we’d been apart.

I backed out of the driveway. “So, did you do anything fun this weekend?”

“Hung out with Abby and Rachel and Marc on Saturday. We went swimming at Bushnell Falls. Oh, and Marc invited you and me to double date with him and Abby sometime.” She waved her hand dismissively, but her heart raced.

What was that all about? Honestly, I hadn’t expected her to even mention Marc’s ludicrous idea, especially considering Chloe had blown him off when he suggested a double date.

I grunted. “That’s not going to happen.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

“When I take you out, it will be just the two of us.”

Her jaw dropped.

Good, she’d picked up on my intentional choice of words. And the fact that she didn’t immediately reject me was good, too.

“Did anything… strange happen when you were with Marc?” My tone was cautious.

“No.” But she drew the word out a bit too long, and I gave her a knowing look.

I’d been there, so I knew nothing strange had happened under my watch, but did something happen after they’d left? Or maybe she’d been around him yesterday, too. The thought of her spending an entire weekend with him had anger sparking in my chest. I wanted her to be with me.

“No,” she said again, firmer.

I had no idea if she was lying, though I didn’t know why she would. “Hmm.” I nodded. “Good.”

“How was your weekend?” she asked.

“Fine. Jax and I went for a hike.” I turned off Adirondack Street onto Route 73. Time to ask the question that had been nagging at me since I woke up this morning. “Want to do something fun today?”

She jerked her head toward me. “Yeah? What did you have in mind? After school, right?”

I had to stop myself from laughing or whooping with joy at how eager she was to spend time with me. Maybe this would be a lot easier than I’d anticipated.

“Actually, I thought we could do it now.”

“What about school? We can’t skip.”

I laughed. Add rule follower to her long list of desirable traits. “Why not?” I glanced at her. “You can’t tell me you’ve never skipped a class before.”

I frowned. Crap. I hadn’t meant that to sound like I was making fun of her. I opened my mouth to apologize, but she spoke before I could.

“So, where are we going then?” she asked.

“Roaring Brook Falls.” I sped up and passed the entrance to the school. “We can hike that trail I mentioned the other night, get a closer look at the waterfall.”

She was silent.

“Is that okay? Would you rather do something else?” I asked, my tone hesitant.

“No, it’s a great idea.” She grinned. “Although, I should let someone know where I’m going. You might be some sort of crazed serial killer who’s dragging me far away from town so no one will hear me scream. I mean, serial killers are the ultimate planners, you know.”

My heart stopped, then slammed against my ribcage. She didn’t honestly think that, did she? Or worse—had she figured out I was actually a killer? Just because I’d killed in the past didn’t mean I was going to harm her. I’d never hurt her, and I needed her to know that.

“I’m not going to kill you, Chloe,” I said, a venomous edge to my tone that I immediately regretted.

“It was a joke,” she mumbled.

“There’s nothing funny about death,” I retorted.

“Don’t I know it.”

We fell silent, and I stewed over what just happened. Why on earth would she make a joke about me killing her? Had Marc done something to her? Messed with her mind to make her think something so horrifying? I was going to kill him. Better yet, I’d let Jax loose on him.

“Do you know where Bushnell Falls is?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said cautiously. “Why?” No way she’d seen me on Saturday. Had she?

“Seems to be a popular spot. Abby’s been meeting Marc there, and she says other kids hang out there, too. Have you had the chance to go yet?”

Okay, what was her sudden obsession with Bushnell Falls? What else happened that I wasn’t aware of? Or was she trying to find an excuse to spend more time with me?

“Are you asking me to take you there?” My words were calculated, my tone guarded.

“And there it is.” She shook her head with amusement.

“There what is?”

“A question for an answer. That’s our thing, right? Answering questions with more questions.”

“I guess it is.” I smirked, and some of the tension eased from my body. “So, do you want me to take you there?”

She shrugged. Not exactly the reaction I’d expected, or hoped for, but one way or another, before today was over, I’d make sure Chloe knew I’d spend every second of every day with her if that’s what she wanted.

“No. I was just curious. It’s pretty cool. You should check it out sometime,” she said. “So, I did some research for our history paper. There’s not much information about Benjamin Payne.”

“I’m not surprised. Back then, they didn’t exactly keep very accurate records of things. We’ll have to use the library archives for most of our research.”

“I did stumble upon something interesting, though.”

Unease spread through me. Something about the tone of her voice set my nerves on edge. She studied my profile, but I kept my face was stone-still and remained silent, waiting for her to tell me about whatever she’d found. I wasn’t going to give away anything, not until I knew what she’d learned.

“There was a photograph of a man named Sean Halstead. Are you related to him?” she asked.

I clenched my jaw, my pulse pounding hard. How the hell had she found a picture of Sean? I could either use this as my opening to tell her everything, or I could pretend to be clueless. I probably wouldn’t ever get another perfect opportunity like this, but selfishly, I wanted the day with her, to be able to just be with her and pretend I was something I wasn’t.

So, I shrugged, then eased the truck to a slow speed and pulled off the road. “We’ll have to walk this trail a bit to get to the path that leads to the waterfall.” I shut off the engine. “Ready?”

Because I sure as hell wasn’t, and I had a sinking feeling I never would be. I didn’t want to lose her before I ever had her, but I also couldn’t keep lying. The only way to move forward was to be honest, but would that honesty cost me what was now the most important thing in the world to me?

“Let’s go.” Chloe yanked open the door and got out of the truck.

I met her near the front end. “C’mon.” I took the lead, then stopped until she fell into step beside me. I’d have to be conscious of how slowly she moved compared to me.

I shoved my hands in my pockets so I wouldn’t try to touch her, and I kept my pace slow and steady. The trail was lined with trees, offering quite a bit of shade, which was a blessing for me. The less direct sunlight I was exposed to, the better.

“So, do you move a lot?” she asked suddenly.

“What?”

“The other day you said you liked to read about the history of the towns you live in. Made it seem like you move around a lot.”

I couldn’t believe she’d remembered I’d said that. In the grand scheme, that was a rather insignificant detail for her to focus on. “Yes, I’ve lived a lot of different places.”

“What’s been your favorite place to live?”

“Here.” I grinned.

She laughed. “You’ve been here less than a week. You can’t possibly know this is your favorite place to live. It could turn out to be awful. The weather could be terrible. Or the crime rate could be crazy high.”

“It’s not so much the place as it is the people.”

Her heart fluttered, and I bit back a groan at the sound. I loved how her heart gave away her true feelings.

“That sounds like something my mom used to say.” When we came to the fork in the trail, she asked, “Which way?”

“We should probably go to the base of the falls today. It will take too long to get the top, but we can come back this weekend, if you want.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, but I didn’t regret my invitation. I’d spend every day with her if I could get away with doing so.

Her eyes widened, and she was silent for several beats. Had I gone too far? Did she not want to spend more time with me?

“Yeah, that would be cool,” she said after a moment.

I forced myself not to grin like a moron.