The Drop by Jeff Ross Read Free Book Online Page A

aren’t you out going up and down the mountain looking for him? He’s your responsibility,” I said.
    â€œYou three took the snowmobiles, remember?” This was true.
    â€œSo what’s the plan, Sam?” I said.
    Water was boiling in a pot on the stove. Sam turned and dumped in some spaghetti, sending hot water splashing to the floor. “Eventually someone will come for us,” he said, not looking at us. I thought, That’s it? That’s your plan? Eventually someone will come ?
    â€œThat’s it?” Hope said what I was thinking. She was shaking. “We wait for help? That’s your answer.”
    Sam stirred the pasta. “What do you want me to do?” he said, turning to her.
    â€œWe have to find out who took Bryce,” Hope yelled. “Someone took him over the drop.”
    Sam squinted at her. “Why would you say that?”
    â€œWe found tracks out there. The only place they could have gone was over the drop.”
    â€œWhat kind of tracks?”
    â€œYeti,” I said. “Snowmobile, what else? You do know how rich Bryce’s family is, right?
    Sam looked at me and shook his head. “Sure, but I never really thought about it.”
    â€œWell, think about it now,” Hope said. “His dad is really, really rich, and really, really rich people’s kids sometimes get kidnapped.”
    Sam smiled at her. “You guys have some great imaginations.”
    â€œDo you have another explanation?” Hope said.
    Sam put some pasta sauce in a pot and turned the heat up. He didn’t answer Hope’s question. And it didn’t seem he ever would.
    Sam Jenkins might have been great back in the day. He might even have been the best snowboarder that ever lived. But now he was just an instructor who had no idea what to do when trouble hit. Another celebrity who had become so full of himself that other people stopped meaning anything to him.
    It was up to us to save Bryce.

chapter eleven
    In the morning, as the sun first poked into the sky, I woke Hope up by prodding her in the side with a stick of kindling.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” she said.
    â€œGet up. We’re going over the drop.”
    â€œHuh?” she muttered sleepily.
    I gently poked her again.
    â€œStop that. It’s annoying,” she said.
    â€œWe’re going to get Sam to show us where it isn’t a huge drop, and then we’re going over.” I was already fully dressed in my snowboarding gear. “We have to get going.” She threw her legs over the side of the bed. “And we have to take our boards.”
    â€œWhy?” she asked.
    â€œDo you want to jump off a cliff on a snowmobile?”
    â€œWhoever took Bryce did.”
    â€œYeah, but they likely knew exactly where to go. We’ll be guessing.”
    â€œBut Sam knows,” she said. “He told us he did.”
    â€œAnd you trust Sam?” I whispered.
    She suddenly had a look of determination in her eyes. “Well, we’re going to have to,” she said. “At least a little.”
    â€œGood,” I said. “Because I think you should go first.
    Her mouth turned up into a little smile. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
    We packed our bags with some food from the cupboard, mostly just energy bars and cereal, and hooked our snowboards onto the racks on the back of the snowmobiles. I went inside for one more stop in the bathroom. By the time I came out, Hope had somehow convinced Sam to show us where it would be safe to go over. He still didn’t offer to go himself.
    Sam drove one snowmobile with Dave on the back. Hope drove the other. The safety bar on the back of the snowmobile was covered by our boards, so I had to wrap my arms around Hope’s waist to hang on. I was surprised by how thin she felt. She gunned the engine, and we shot forward. Then she let off the gas, and I was flung forward, my nose sinking into the hair