“You will,” Church says, and then he pauses, like he’s thinking about telling me something. “Sleep well and keep each other safe.”
He hangs up before I get a chance to say goodbye, and I exhale, blowing hair up and out of my face before I sit up. Spencer’s been with his dad all week, as per his bargain for the help in the elections, so he hasn’t been able to talk much. And I’ve gotten all of three texts from Ranger which is worrying me.
“Come on, Chuck, cheer up,” Micah says, turning and mimicking my pose so that he’s laying side by side with me. “I’m really enjoying this chance to see how the other half lives.”
“The other half, huh?” I say with a skeptical brow raised in his direction.
“It’s quaint, the life of a peasant,” he says, trying to keep a straight face, but his lips twitch and give him way. I shove Micah in the shoulder and stick my tongue out, sitting up next to Tobias.
“You’ll see how quaint a peasant can get if you keep pushing it.”
My phone buzzes in my hand, and I look down to see a surprise text from Church.
I forgot to say, I love you, I read, just before Tobias slips the phone from my hand.
“I love you?” he asks, quirking a brow. “You guys are saying I love you to each other now?”
My cheeks flame, but I shrug nonchalantly, pretending I’m too cool to care.
“Yeah, I mean, I love you guys, too. No big deal.”
“You love us?” they repeat, exchanging a long look before turning back to me.
“Get her?” Tobias asks, and Micah nods.
“Get her.”
They grab me before I can make a run for the bathroom, and they don’t let go until Spencer’s knocking on our bedroom door the next morning.There are no gifts the boys could get me that could top their declaration about wanting to be together. I mean, they try like hell though, and I’m not one to turn down gifts, especially when they come in the form of designer shoes and handbags that Monica would almost literally kill for.
She’ll be here for dinner later, but for now, I’m just enjoying a brief reprieve from my parents and Mr. Dave, hiding out in the living room while the adults disappear into their respective bedrooms for a break from the festivities.
It’s pretty obvious we have things to talk about, too. I knew it the second I saw Spencer’s face this morning.
“We went into the tunnels,” he says, leaning forward on the couch next to Micah and balancing his elbows on his knees. He breaks the ice before I get a chance to even realize I’m about to be dropped into cold water.
“You did what?” I ask, wishing he wasn’t too cute to strangle. “You meaning who, exactly? When? And why the fuck wouldn’t you tell me about it?”
“Spencer and I went in,” Church says, looking sorry after the fact. “But Ranger was with us on video chat the whole time, in case something went wrong.”
“I don’t care, I’m still pissed,” I say, but then again, I’m also curious as hell. “Did you find anything down there?”
“Nothing but more tunnels,” Spencer says with a roll of his turquoise eyes. “Whatever Jack was talking about, hidden churches or what the fuck ever, we have no idea. We never even saw anyone else when we were down there.”
“They might just use the tunnels for transportation. Could’ve been coincidence that you just didn’t stumble into anybody else.” Tobias looks to Church for confirmation, but he just shakes his head, like he doesn’t have this answer yet either.
We’re close though, oh so freaking close.
“I learned a little bit more about my dad,” Ranger says finally, speaking up and then sighing like he’s exhausted. “From my mother, of all people. She got drunk and weird, and then started telling me that she’d left my dad once, briefly, when Jenica was like, eleven, and I was two. We stayed with her weird relatives in Spain who have ties to the Catholic church. She had us baptized while we were there, and she said when she decided to go back, and he found out, that Eric flipped and beat her.”
“Holy shit.” The words escape my mouth before I can stop them, and I cringe in apology to Ranger. He’s staring down at his hands though, like he’s daydreaming about beating his father up.
“Anyway, I know it sounds stupid, but you know how into rituals and shit these cults are. I figured maybe we were looking at our reason, why my father hasn’t invited me into the Fellowship, or why Jenica died. It’s a stretch, but I figure we should at least consider it.”
“It could very well be,” Church says with a shrug of his shoulder. “You have to be extreme to consider blood sacrifice a normal part of growing up, so it is possible that they saw the baptism as problematic.”
