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23

“Do you want me to get an Uber?” Noah asked. He pulled his phone out.

Maddie shook her head. “I’ve got it.”

Edan sent the address, and an Uber pulled up a few minutes later. Maddie jumped into the front seat, and I got in back with Dorsey and Noah.

Maddie dug through her wallet, eventually producing several twenties. She put them in the cupholder. The driver, a young white guy who was wearing at least half a bottle of cologne, looked from the money to her.

“That’s a thank-you in advance for getting us there as fast as possible,” she said.

“Ooo-kayyy,” he said, pulling out onto the road. “I can do that.”

He hit the gas, and I quickly reached down to buckle my seat belt. My phone buzzed with another message. It was from Priya this time.

Edan replied a moment later.

“We are going to nail those bastards!” Maddie said excitedly.

The driver glanced at her uneasily, and then at us in the rearview mirror. “So are you guys, like . . . visiting, or—”

“Yep,” Dorsey said. “We’re tourists. Seeing . . . you know, the . . . nice weather.”

The driver squinted and hit the gas as a light changed. “Right.”

Patrick texted.

Priya wrote.

We sat in silence for the next ten minutes, our driver really picking up speed as we moved away from downtown. I glanced at the map on the phone mounted on the dashboard. We were only about five minutes away.

Priya texted.

A message from Edan popped up.

“We’re going to need you to drop us off a bit before you actually get there,” Maddie said to the driver. “I’ll let you know when.” He nodded.

Another message from Edan popped up.

“Maybe they’ll get eaten,” Dorsey said cheerfully.

“Maybe we’ll get eaten,” Noah mumbled. Dorsey gave him a confused look. “Our packs are in the van,” Noah explained.

“The rest of the team has theirs,” Maddie said. “And we’ll grab them if we get the opportunity.”

The driver turned, the salvage yard coming into view at the end of the road.

“You can stop here,” Maddie said, and he hit the brakes. We climbed out with a “thanks,” and he did a quick U-turn and sped away.

Maddie ran onto the grass, gesturing for us to follow her. We ran toward the salvage yard, which was a massive stretch of junk cars behind a wooden building.

There wasn’t much around to cover us, but maybe the building out front shielded us from view. I could see several trucks on the other side of the yard.

I heard Priya yell suddenly. I weaved in between the cars, Noah’s footsteps pounding right behind me.

I heard an engine rumble, and I looked right to see an eighteen-wheeler peeling out from the back of the yard, its rear doors swinging open. Laila ran right beside it, hot on the heels of a man who was desperately reaching for the passenger’s door. The truck slowed, and he managed to hop in, narrowly escaping Laila’s grasp.

Our van shot across the yard. I could see Patrick in the driver’s seat, Priya beside him. Edan was running from the other side of the yard, headed for us.

The truck blew past us and took the turn onto the road so quickly that the end swung out, the back door flying open again. The cab swerved dangerously, and for a moment, the whole truck looked in danger of toppling over. The driver managed to stay upright, but not before three scrab pens tumbled out. They bounced onto the road. One flew open. The scrabs ripped open the other two damaged pens.

I heard heavy breathing as Laila and Edan skidded to a stop next to us. They both had their weapons packs, machetes poised. Laila tossed me her machete, and then grabbed an ax from her pack and took off running.

Patrick slowed as he neared us, but Maddie waved him on.

“Go, go!” she yelled, pointing at the truck. “Follow them! We’ve got the scrabs!”

Edan tossed Maddie a weapon and took off after a scrab that was lumbering toward the salvage yard. I glanced at Dorsey and Laila, who had already killed their scrab, and at Maddie and Noah, who had theirs cornered. Laila moved to help them.

I sprinted after Edan, weaving in between the cars. The scrab smashed into a car, slowing from the force of the impact. Edan was gaining on it, and it turned and snarled at him.

The scrab lunged at Edan, swiping its claws alarmingly close to his face. Edan took a step back as he swung his machete, his foot catching on a discarded car part behind him. He stumbled. The scrab swung again, and I couldn’t tell if he’d made contact that time. My heart stopped.

I darted in between them, grabbing Edan’s arm with one hand and driving my machete into the scrab’s neck with the other. It collapsed into the car and then slumped to the ground.

And then I was falling too. Edan and I hit the ground with a thump, and I landed on top of him, catching myself before our heads crashed together. I straightened, my hands going to his chest to look for blood.

“Did the scrab get you?” I asked, frantically grabbing for his arms. I held both wrists, examining them for scratches.

“No, Clara, I’m fine,” he said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

I let out a relieved breath, and then glanced back at the scrab behind me. It was motionless, blood pooling on the ground under its neck. Definitely dead.

I returned my attention to Edan and released his arms. “Jesus. I thought it got you.”

“I’m slightly offended that you thought one scrab could take me out.”

“I didn’t—”

“It wasn’t even a very big scrab, it was kind of slow, actually, so I don’t—”

“I just saw you lose your balance, and I got—”

“I’m just saying, I think you might have forgotten how great I am. At scrab fighting, I mean.” A smile spread across his face.

I laughed quietly. “I could never forget how great you are, Edan.”

His smile changed, softening a little, and I felt his fingers brush my hand. I was still on top of him, a fact that hadn’t escaped my notice for even a second. I didn’t want to move. I wanted him to keep looking at me the way he was now, like every problem we had no longer mattered. I wanted to kiss him.

I leaned down and pressed my lips to his. He took in a breath, his arms circling around me.

Kissing him wasn’t how I expected. For me, kissing a boy for the first time was sort of like those seconds before a scrab burst up from the ground. When you could feel the rumbling, and you were full of nerves and excitement and a little bit of fear.

This wasn’t like that. This was all the heart-pounding excitement without the sinking feeling that it could go wrong at any second. I didn’t need to spend so much time debating whether Edan was the right choice. I could have just kissed him.

When I pulled away, he sat up, his arms holding firm around my waist. We were so close I could feel his breath against my mouth.

“I’m sorry that I . . .” I tried to find the words. My brain was buzzing, and he’d just put his thumb at the edge of my lip. It was distracting.

“Can you hold that thought for a second?” he asked quietly, and I was smiling as I nodded and he kissed me again.

When we pulled away for the second time, I had my fingers tangled in his hair and his heart was thumping wildly next to mine.

“I was going to say I’m sorry that it took me so long,” I whispered.

He shook his head. “You don’t have to apologize for that.”

“I was lying when I said I was fine with you dating Hannah. I just said that because I felt awkward, and I thought . . .” He brushed my hair away from my face, making me lose my train of thought for a moment. “I thought I wasn’t ready to date again, or I thought maybe I would ruin everything, because apparently I’m a disaster at relationships and kind of a mess in general.”

“What, in our time together, gave you the impression that I’m not a total mess?”

I laughed softly, and he leaned forward like he was going to kiss me again. He stopped suddenly, pulling back a little to meet my gaze.

“Are you ready to . . . ?” He trailed off. “I didn’t mean to be an ass after that night in Lubbock. I was just kind of embarrassed, and I started to think that maybe I’d read the signals wrong and I . . .” His cheeks went a little pink. “I didn’t mean to rush you. I’ll wait, if you’re—”

“No,” I said quickly. “I don’t want to wait. I just want to—” I cut myself off by kissing him again, and he smiled against my lips and pulled me closer.

“Oh, they’re over here!” I heard Dorsey yell suddenly. “Making out next to a dead scrab, which is a weird choice, honestly.”

We both laughed and pulled away, turning to find Dorsey. He stood behind a nearby pickup truck, peering over the top so he could see us.

“Andrew, get lost!” Edan called.

He grinned, and then turned and bounded away.

“He does actually have a point, though,” I said, glancing over at the bloody scrab.

“Yeah, he does, we should get out of here.”

We both got to our feet, and I pulled my machete from the scrab’s neck, slipped it into its sheath, and put it back into my weapons pack.

Edan took my hand as we walked out of the yard and back to the team. They were near the road, and Maddie was on her phone. Probably with 911. She turned and smiled at me when she saw our interlocked fingers.

“Shit,” Noah said into his phone.

“What?” Laila asked.

“Patrick says they lost the truck. But they’ve given the police a description and the last location.”

Maddie let out a long sigh, and then lowered her phone. “Clara, you and Edan need to start walking. Now.”

“What?” I asked, confused.

“We are not taking the risk that the Dallas police see you’re a minor and decide to drive you home.”

“It wasn’t a problem with the Lubbock police,” I said, though I gripped Edan’s hand a little tighter.

“Your parents weren’t twenty minutes away in Lubbock,” Maddie said. “Do you really want to risk them running your name through the system?”

“Good point.”

She pointed down the road. “There was a gas station that way.” She looked at Noah. “Can Patrick come pick them up?”

“Eventually, but they’re headed to the police station now.”

“We’ll get an Uber,” Edan said. He pulled gently on my hand.

“Text us updates,” I said, looking at Maddie over my shoulder. She nodded, waving me away. Edan and I took off at a brisk pace, only slowing once we’d put a bit of distance between us and the team.

Once we’d slowed, I looked down at our fingers, laced together, and let out a quiet laugh.

“What?” he asked.

“We just lost track of five hundred scrabs, but I still feel really happy.”

A smile spread across his face, and he leaned over and brushed a quick kiss to my lips. “Me too.”

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