The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer Read Free Book Online

doesn’t know?” I asked.
    Diego sighed and dropped his hand. “I don’t know. Let’s think about this while we track them.”
    “We’re going to have to be careful, tracking them in the day. We’re kind of noticeable in the sunlight, you know.”
    He grinned. “Let’s be ninjas.”
    I nodded. “Super-secret ninja club sounds way cooler than the whole BFF thing.”
    “Definitely better.”
    It didn’t take us more than a few seconds to find the point from which the whole gang had left the island. That was the easy
     part. Finding where they’d touched ground on the mainland was a whole other problem. We briefly discussed splitting up, then
     vetoed that idea unanimously. Our logic was really sound—after all, if one of us found something, how would we tell the other?—but
     mostly I just didn’t want to leave him, and I could see he felt the same. Both of us had been without any kind of good companionship
     our whole lives, and it was just too sweet to waste a minute of it.
    There were so many options as to where they could have gone. To the mainland of the peninsula, or to another island, or back
     to the outskirts of Seattle, or north to Canada. Whenever we pulleddown or burned down one of our houses, Riley was always prepared—he always seemed to know exactly where to go next. He must
     have planned ahead for that stuff, but he didn’t let any of us in on the plan.
    They could have been anywhere.
    Ducking in and out of the water to avoid boats and people really slowed us down. We spent all day with no luck, but neither
     of us minded. We were having the most fun we’d ever had.
    It was such a strange day. Instead of sitting miserably in the darkness trying to tune out the mayhem and swallow my disgust
     at my hiding place, I was playing ninja with my new best friend, or maybe something more. We laughed a lot while we moved
     through the patches of shade, throwing rocks at each other like they were Chinese stars.
    Then the sun set, and suddenly I was stressed. Would Riley look for us? Would he assume we were fried? Did he know better?
    We started moving faster. A lot faster. We’d already circled all the nearby islands, so now we concentrated on the mainland.
     About an hour after sundown, I caught a familiar scent, and within seconds we were on their trail. Once we found the path
     of the smell, it was as easy as following a herd of elephants through fresh snow.
    We talked about what to do, more serious now as we ran.
    “I don’t think we should tell Riley,” I said. “Let’s say we spent all day in your cave before we went looking for them.” As
     I spoke, my paranoia started to grow. “Better yet, let’s tell them your cave was filled with water. We couldn’t even talk.”
    “You think Riley’s a bad dude, don’t you?” he asked quietly after a minute. As he spoke, he took my hand.
    “I don’t know. But I’d rather act like he was, just in case.” I hesitated, then said, “You don’t want to think he’s bad.”
    “No,” Diego admitted. “He’s kind of my friend. I mean, not like you’re my friend.” He squeezed my fingers. “But more than
     anyone else. I don’t want to think…” Diego didn’t finish his sentence.
    I squeezed his fingers back. “Maybe he’s totally decent. Our being careful doesn’t change who he is.”
    “True. Okay, the underwater cave story it is. At least at first… I could talk to him about the sun later. I’d rather do it
     during the day, anyway, when I can prove what I’m claiming right away. And just in case he already knows, but there’s some
     good reason why he told us something else, I should tell him when we’re alone. Grab him at dawn, when he’s coming back from
     wherever it is he goes….”
    I noticed a ton of
I
’s rather than
we
’s going on in Diego’s little speech, and it bothered me. But at the same time, I didn’t want much to do with educating Riley.
     I didn’t have the same faith in him Diego did.
    “Ninja