Page 103 of Hide And Seek

“Yeah, it really sucks,” Jasmine murmured. “I know you guys were pretty close.”

Rhys went quiet, one hand rubbing at his forehead. Then he looked at us again. “You two have been really helpful. But if you’d rather not risk it anymore, you don’t have to keep bringing me food. I can grab stuff from the Snack Shed when everyone else is asleep.”

Jasmine waved a hand. “It’s fine. You can’t survive on candy and chips,” she said. Then she pulled a face. “Sorry, is there any chance I could use your bathroom?”

“Yeah, sure.” Rhys gestured to the door on the other side of the cabin. “Right through there.”

Jasmine slipped past us and headed into the bathroom, the door clicking shut behind her. I stayed where I was, half-turned toward the exit, still clutching the granola bar.

Rhys closed the space between us, and my heart began to pound as he reached for my free hand, his fingers curling around mine. I forced myself not to flinch or pull away.

“This is so fucked up,” he muttered. “I really thought I was right about Brad and Olivia.”

“Yeah,” I murmured. “Me too.”

“At least you’re still okay,” he said softly.

His other hand lifted, fingers sliding into my hair, guiding me toward him. My breath caught as he leaned in, his lips brushing close enough that I could feel the warmth of them.

I turned my head before he could kiss me, and he pulled back, a faint crease forming between his brows. “What’s wrong?”

I swallowed, forcing my expression to stay neutral even as my heart hammered painfully hard. I couldn’t exactly say, ‘I don’t want to kiss you because I think you might be a murderer,’but I had to think of something to explain my reluctance. Fast.

“It’s just…” I glanced toward the bathroom door. “Jasmine could come out any second. Then she’d see.”

“So?” he said, a hint of confusion slipping into his voice. “Why don’t we just tell her about us?”

“I just…” I shook my head slightly. “I don’t think it’s a good idea right now. There’s already so much going on, and I don’t want to make things more complicated. So maybe we should just wait until this is all over before we tell people.”

Rhys studied my face for a second. Then he nodded slowly. “That’s fair,” he said, hand slipping from mine. “We can wait.”

“Thanks,” I murmured.

He stepped back slightly, exhaling through his nose. “So what’s the plan for today?” he asked. “More searches?”

I shook my head. “No plans. We’ll probably just sit around hoping someone in the outside world finally notices that we didn’t come home even though camp was shut down early.”

“Ah. Right.”

The toilet flushed a second later, and Jasmine finally emerged, wiping her wet hands on her jeans.

“Thanks for that,” she said, flashing Rhys a faint smile. “We should head back now, but we’ll come by with more food later this afternoon. It’ll be way easier for us to slip away then, because everyone will be so distracted with the raft-building.”

Rhys lifted a brow. “Raft-building?”

“Oh, right. We didn’t tell you that part yet.” Jasmine snapped her fingers. “Logan had a brainwave this morning, and it might actually work.”

“Oh. What is it?”

“You know how all the kayaks were destroyed?” she said. “So we couldn’t send someone down the river?”

Rhys nodded, and she went on.

“We’re going to gather up a whole bunch of stuff and build a raft. Or at least… an attempt at one. Then we’re going to sendLogan down the river on it. He should be fine, because he’s a qualified kayaking and rafting instructor. He’s even done white-water rafting a few times.”

Rhys nodded slowly. “That’s a good idea. The killer can’t sabotage something like that.”

“Exactly. The whole group will be there from start to finish, so he won’t be able to sneak up and poke holes in the raft, or whatever. Because there’ll always be multiple people watching.”