Matthew reached the gate and stopped to unlock it. She stepped behind a tree. The kid threw the gate open, then glanced over his shoulder. His look was petulant, like a child who sees candy he knows he can't have.

It wasn't his family making him run, she thought with a grin. It was his hormones. He headed out and turned right. She pressed the two-way, telling Jake, then followed the teenager out the gate.

Matthew's long strides had taken him a good way down the street. She crossed to the other side then broke into a run, closing the distance between them. The slow beat of the music began to fade, and silence closed in, broken only by the occasional roar of a car engine or the blast of a horn. The teenager strode on, looking neither right nor left. She swiped at the sweat dripping from her chin and studied the street ahead. They were in the Heights—a ritzy and very expensive section of Lyndhurst nestled into the western edge of the mountains that ringed the town. Below them, lights blazed, a neon sea of brightness that outshone the stars. Matthew could have been heading toward any one of those lights, but her gaze stopped at the docks. Ocean Road led down to there. And that's where he's going, she thought.

The two-way buzzed softly. “Nik, I'm in the car. Where are you?

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