Dead of Summer - Page 109

“I can’t believe you’re still snippy,” I tell him with a sniff, my strides lengthening like I’m trying to put distance between us. I’m not, of course. Not really. And it’s not like Kayde would ever let me, anyway.

Sure enough, his steps eat up any distance I could even attempt to create, and he slings an arm over my shoulders with a soft sound in his chest. “I can’t believe you demanded to come out here with me,” he murmurs, pressing his cheek to mine as he shakes his head. “Seriously, Summer. This is ridiculous. Can’t you just?—”

“I totally saw the ropes and the handcuffs,” I reply crisply. “You’re just upset I didn’t fall for your ‘invitation’ for a little after dinner dessert so you could tie me up in your cabin and do this alone.”

He doesn’t even deny it. But maybe that’s one thing I like most about Kayde. He doesn’t lie to me. Especially not anymore, since I can see through the Lassie face and he’s committed to making me believe in his honesty. Or so he says. But he also doesn’t deny or dismiss what he’s done; doesn’t look for reasons for his actions or try to explain them away.

He just takes responsibility for his choices and owns up to them. It’s…refreshing, I suppose. In some ways more than others. Tonight, I can’t help the touch of irritation at his dazzling grin and the way he really does seem to think his plan was a good one.

“I’m not upset,” Kayde assures me. “Maybe just a little miffed, but nowhere near upset. You should let me do this for you, sweetheart. Let me take care of whatever’s going on so you don’t have to get your hands dirty or tarnish those pretty morals of yours.”

Of yours, because obviously, he doesn’t share any of the same morals he’s convinced I have in spades. The only problem is, sometimes I’m not so set on them. Not so attached to them when it comes to Kayde existing in my space.

“I want to know. I want to see,” I murmur, unable to stop myself. When he wraps an arm around my shoulders again and slows our steps just a touch, I let him.

“Be a little more mindful of how you step,” he advises, gesturing at the ground in front of us. “Look at where you’re walking versus where I am. I’m not trying to up your stalk game, but even you can do better than crashing through the woods like a bear.”

“A bear is probably quieter,” I admit with a scoff, though I try to match the way he walks, mindfully, as if I really am searching for the best place to put my feet amongst the grass and leaves.

Unfortunately, it’s harder than it looks, and Kayde really is just better at the whole thing than I am. I spend the next few minutes at it, and it takes longer than it should for me to realize that Kayde isn’t saying anything.

Normally, he would be. Especially now, I think, when he’s trying to teach me something that he deems important. Like better ax murderer skills that I have no intention of ever needing. “You should teach Melody this,” I mutter, half without thinking. “She seems like she might need to be able to do the stalking-thing at some point down the road, or whatever.”

“What makes you think I haven’t?” Kayde chuckles, though there’s something distracted and distant in his voice. I glance up at him, eyes narrowing, only to see that he isn’t looking at me. He really must be thinking of something else, and I wonder if he’s even really heard my question.

But somehow, when his arm tightens just a little bit around my shoulders and he pulls me to a stop to press his forehead to mine, I don’t have it in me to ask. We’re further away from the camp than we ever go for walks, that’s for sure, and the breeze ruffles thick bunches of leaves in the trees that block our view of the night sky.

It’s mostly dark here, except for the slivers of moonlight that fight their way to the ground between the trees.

Is he going to kiss me? It feels too creepy to be romantic, I think, but a shiver runs down my spine at the light touch of his fingers on my arms. “Just don’t freak out. Okay?” he murmurs, and even in the near darkness, I can feel his gaze on mine in warning.

“Freak out?” I breathe, my voice at the same volume as his.

“And trust me.”

That’s the harder part. Or, well, it should be anyway, but I’m not doing so well at keeping up my boundaries when it comes to my psychopath. Or my better judgment. My fingers come up to grip his shirt, and Kayde shifts just a bit, his stance almost aloof as he looks up with a crooked grin slashed across his lips. “Are you just going to follow us and hide behind trees?” he asks, his voice raised enough that anyone around us could hear him. “Or are you going to come out and say hello?”

His words cause my pulse to ratchet up a few notches, and I reach up to grip his shirt, hands tightening in the fabric. It’s hard not to freak out about the implication of us not being alone. And for a few tense seconds, I’m hoping that for once, Kayde is wrong. That there isn’t someone in the trees around us watching and waiting for us to do…something.

But then footsteps sound in the dead leaves, and a stick snaps just as movement from my right side catches my eyes. I whirl around enough to watch the man, eyes narrowed as he hops up onto a large, downed log and falls into a comfortable crouch.

“Well, I wasn’t going to say anything.” The man looks to be maybe twenty, at most. His dark hair curls around his ears, and his grin is just as wide as Kayde’s, but full of authentic amusement. I can’t see his eyes in the darkness, but he certainly doesn’t look upset from where I’m standing.

He looks thrilled.

A quick glance over his body shows me no weapons of any kind, though I don’t know how much to believe my own perceptions of this man. For all I know, he’s hiding a knife in the back of his jeans and just waiting for me to fuck up so he can make his move.

“What are you doing here?” I pull away from Kayde, forcing myself to unclench my fingers from his shirt. He murmurs what might be a warning or encouragement, but the blood rushing in my ears and my focus on the man at the edge of the small clearing drowns out anything else. “Why are you so close to Camp Crestview?”

“Oh! Crestview!” The man claps his hands together, suddenly looking relieved. “I’ve been trying all day to remember what it was called. I kept wanting to call it Crestlake, but I knew that wasn’t right. Thank you so much?—”

“Still not answering my question,” I snap, with Kayde’s presence a solid weight at my back. Hopefully, if something were to happen, Kayde could stop him. But then again, in a perfect scenario, Kayde being here will keep this man from doing anything at all.

The man tilts his head to the side, and his eyes narrow shrewdly in the light from Kayde’s flashlight. “What do you think I’m doing here, Summer?” he asks, in a voice that has me fighting back a shiver.

“Pretty sure she didn’t tell you her name.” There’s a warning in Kayde’s voice, even though he sounds casual and not at all uneasy.

“Yeah,” the man agrees with a nod. “She probably didn’t. But you say it so much that it would be impossible not to know. Are you glaring at me because you think I’m rude, Kayde? Oh, you didn’t tell me yours. But I didn’t need her to tell me who you are.”