Something Wilder

Axl spun out in a tornado of dust before righting his truck again and barreling after them. A gunshot sounded, and another, and dirt ahead of the Jeep exploded with the pellets.

“They’re shooting at us!” Nicole screeched.

Leo reached for Lily, protectively cupping her head with his arms and pulling her into his chest. “They actually brought a gun?”

“I’ve got Terry’s bag!” Walter yelled above the chaos. He pulled the handgun out, waving it. “Guys! Want me to shoot back?”

“NO!” everyone shouted in unison, and Leo reached over the back seat, carefully easing the gun away from Walter. Lily pressed her hands to her face, struggling to not throw up.

Leo’s cool hand came around her neck, and she put aside the way she wanted to punch him in the stomach and let herself be coaxed down. Resting her forehead on his thigh, she focused on breathing, on ignoring the violent jostling of the Jeep and the horn behind them and the reality that this road probably ended in half a mile and they’d be staring down the barrel of a shotgun all because of a photo Leo stole from a bar.

He gently smoothed hair from her face before reaching to the back of her neck, massaging. She wanted to scream with how good it felt.

Leo’s voice came from beside her ear. “It’s going to be okay.”

“I’m so mad at you.”

“Breathe now. Be mad later.”

“I will.”

She felt pressure on the top of her head and realized he’d placed a kiss there. Lily instinctively clutched at his thigh as another gunshot whipped past.

“These idiots are terrible shots,” Nicole said. “How hard is it to hit a car?”

Bradley yelled for everyone to hold on, and Nicole whooped loudly just as the Jeep took a sharp right turn, bouncing across a field, jostling them around for what felt like an eternity until the wheels jerked over a bump and finally hit smooth asphalt again. “We’re losing them!” he yelled over his shoulder.

There was the screaming of metal and road, and Lily bolted up as everyone cheered, looking back to where Axl’s truck had landed in a ditch and rolled limply to the side. Bradley slowed the Jeep to a reasonable speed as Axl and his friend jumped out, half-heartedly chasing them for several paces before stopping in the middle of the road to shout.

Walter stretched forward to lean his head out of Lily’s passenger-side window. “He’ll send you a check for the picture frame!” he yelled back to them.

Axl and his friend got smaller and smaller in the distance, and Bradley eased up on the Jeep’s accelerator.

“Holy shit, that was insane,” Leo said, running his hands through his hair. “Wouldn’t it have been better for him to—I don’t know—stay and turn off the water?”

“I’ve seen those restrooms,” Nic said. “You probably did him a favor.”

“I can’t believe you dated him,” Leo murmured, dark eyes cutting to Lily with a heated depth.

“I never said I dated him.”

He smirked and she smacked his shoulder, but the eye contact lingered. He was so jealous.

Jesus, why did she like it so much?

Walter continued to look out the back window. “Do you think we should go check on them?”

“They were literally shooting at us thirty seconds ago,” Nicole reminded him incredulously.

“Cell service works out here,” Lily assured Walter. “They’ll be able to call for help.” She watched as the truck got smaller and smaller behind them, finally disappearing from sight. Lily leaned between the front seats, pointing ahead for Bradley. “Keep on this road,” she told him. “Another ten miles or so, and you’ll take a left turn just after we pass a canyon on the right.”

He sent her a salute, meeting her eyes in the mirror before blinking forward. He was glowing, and Lily would wager he’d never been this happy. When she looked over to Leo, his head was tilted back, eyes closed as the wind passed in warm bursts over his face.

Breathe now. Be mad later, he’d said.

It was what she promised herself she would do even as he reached out and soothingly covered her anxiously tapping fingers, pulling her hand onto his thigh.

“Goddamn, I’m so glad I’m here,” he said.

Chapter Sixteen

BY THE TIME they arrived at their campsite for the night, the air was electric. They had a map, they had Duke’s clue for the next step, and Lily knew where they needed to go. Leo’s chest and limbs were buoyant, and everyone tumbled from the Jeep, energized.

Leo and Bradley unloaded the packs and tents. Nicole and Lily worked to dig out a safe campfire spot while Walter went off in search of anything resembling firewood. When the fire finally crackled in the fading sun, they gathered around a flat rock nearby and laid out all of the materials, planning their route deeper into the Maze the next morning. Lily traced their path with the tip of a pen, indicating how long each section should take, where they’d stop to rest, and where they’d camp before making the final push into the more treacherous caverns. With luck they’d find what they all desperately hoped was still hidden there.