Unleashed by Nancy Holder Read Free Book Online Page A

when I was four. He’s just trying to make me sound like a loser to lessen your attraction to me.” He shot her a grin and pressed down on the gas. “He wants me to be your androgynous best friend.” The car shot through the trees and flew around the corner. “Just FYI, Kat, I’m not androgynous.”
    “My name’s not Kat,” she replied, hiding her own smile.
    “It is now. Okay, you can get cell coverage here. Go for it.”
    Even though she knew it was rude, Katelyn texted Kimi for the rest of the ride. Kimi had been waiting to hear from her, so she was texting back at what was an ungodly hour in California. Katelyn glanced up every now and then to steal a glance at Trick. He didn’t seem to mind being ignored. He just kept driving like a maniac through the dense woods and heavy rain; she half expected to wind up in a ditch. Then as they began to climb upward, Trick gave the car more gas. Trees bowed above them, creating a tunnel of total darkness. Still the rain came down. The beams of the Mustang’s headlights cast blurs of yellow on thick trunks, which Trick dodged with ease, and strobed against the raindrops.
    “Brace for impact,” he said.
    Katelyn turned to ask what he was talking about right as they shot out of the tree tunnel. Then, pressing through the rain, they crested a plateau and Katelyn caught her breath. Below them, a Victorian village spread out like a miniature Charles Dickens town beneath a Christmas tree. Intricate brick-and-wood structures were topped with gables and chimneys. Baskets decorated with orange and red flowers hung from curved lampposts. The streets were narrow and cobbled. Rain fell in buckets.
    It was nothing like she’d thought it would be. No tractors parked on the street or broken-down trailers. “Is this a theme park?” she asked, only half joking.
    “There’s the school.”
    She followed his hand as he slowed and joined a parade of cars and trucks—lots of trucks—feeding from another road down a steep hill. There was honking and waving. Two yellow buses pulled up beside a large wooden building with wraparound porches on both floors. A pitched roof folded in angles among overhanging turrets and dormer windows. On top of the building an LED sign spelled out W-O-L-F-C-O-U-N-T-R-Y .
    “Crap, I forgot my hoopskirt,” she moaned, mostly to make his smile bigger.
    Score.
    “Does this bustle make my butt look big?” he said, playing along.
    The parade wound down the side of the village. The overabundance of cute was cut by a low gray self-storage building and a ramshackle convenience store. She couldn’t wait to tell Kimi that they had been 90 percent wrong about Banjo Land—which was a relief.
    “We’ll park in the senior lot and then I’ll walk you to the admin office,” he said. “But then I’ve got to leave you. I’m keeping my head down around the principal.”
    “Because of the court thing.”
    He nodded. “Completely unjust, but it’s adding to my aura of mystery. Hey,” he said, his voice suddenly urgent and somber. “I have to talk to you about something.”
    She waited. His green eyes seemed to grow darker, the planes and hollows of his face to accentuate. She held her breath, waiting to hear what he had to say, mesmerized by his good looks.
    “Just before you got here, a friend of mine was killed.”
    The girl in the forest. Of course he would have known her. Everyone knew everyone else here. “My grandfather told me,” she said. “I’m so sorry.” She meant it.
    His expression didn’t change. “What, exactly, did he say?”
    “That she was killed. She was in the forest alone.”
    He glanced back at the road as he maneuvered into the parking lot. The space between them seemed to fill with tension. She wondered if he had been close to the girl. If she’d been his girlfriend.
    “There are a lot of urban legends in a small place like this.” He grimaced, revealing deep dimples on either side of his mouth. “Not urban, sorry. I guess