She's Got a Way (5 page)

He smiled, and her stomach did a weird jumpy thing she hadn't felt in a long, long time. “Right. Well, you have a good trip home, then.”

Gabi felt her eyebrows pull together. He was calling her bluff. Well, she'd show him. She'd call his right back. She'd head on down the road, and she wouldn't come back till dark. See what he and the girls thought of
that.

“Okay.” She put the key in the ignition. “Good luck. You'll need it.”

“Gotcha.” He slapped the side of the van, then turned to head toward the admin building. “Don't get lost.”

Gabi turned the key. Oh, she'd get lost, all right. She'd take this van right to a hotel with power and Wi-Fi and food, and she'd stay
there,
dammit.

Except that the van wasn't starting.

She was only bluffing, but the damn van was not
starting.

She turned the key, turned it back … turned it again. An ominous click-click-click was the only sound she heard. Where was the beautiful purr of the engine?

“Problem?” Luke emerged from the doorway, and was it her imagination, or was he biting his cheek?

Gabi popped the hood and got out, like she had a clue what she'd do once she got to the front of the van. She propped the hood up on its lever, then scanned the engine compartment.

Then she closed her eyes in abject frustration.

“Where's the battery, Luke?”

“In the camp safe.”

“What?”

“Oliver said we had strict instructions not to let your little hotwiring artist take off with the school van. Again. So I disabled it.”

Gabi crossed her arms. “You disabled
me
.”

He shrugged. “Side benefit.”

“Luke, seriously. You can't hold us hostage here.”

“Not hostage. Just helping. Running these roads at night looking for runaway teens is nobody's idea of fun. If you need the battery, just ask. We'll put it back in.”

“I need the battery.”

“Nah. You don't, really.” He smiled, locking the admin cottage door. “Nothing's open in town after six. There's nowhere to go.” He turned toward the pathway. “Have a nice night, Gabi. Make sure those girls don't have anything edible in that tent when you're done, or I guarantee you'll have visitors.”

Gabi shivered as he walked away, then crossed her arms over her stomach.

If the girls had any food in that tent, she'd leave
them
out as bear bait.

 

Chapter 4

“Gabi, what's that noise?” Waverly's panicked voice came from somewhere near Gabi's feet. It was two in the morning, and not one of them had fallen asleep yet. Gabi'd spent a full four hours fuming over Priscilla's directive to have Luke and Oliver disable the van once they'd arrived, and by the time the girls had finally constructed a canvas and pole structure that resembled a tent, it'd been well after dark.

By the time they'd pulled the sleeping bags out of the van, the moon had been high in the sky. And by the time they'd put their elementary spatial reasoning skills to work and figured out how to
fit
five sleeping bags in the space, Gabi had been ready to go sleep in the van.

It had practically killed her to sit there and watch the girls struggle to figure out the tent. As they'd argued and clanked poles and screeched when the whole thing came crashing down—multiple times—she'd checked her watch, checked the sky, checked the perimeter of the clearing for glowing eyes, sure that a message had to have gone out into the wilderness by now announcing the arrival of fresh meat.

After five long tries, though, the girls had finally pushed up the poles and braced themselves for the tent to come falling down again … but it hadn't. Gabi's eyes had widened as she'd watched the four of them, all with their hands out in front of them, ready to catch poles and canvas. And when Sam had given her pole a gentle push and nothing bad had happened, a whoop had gone up, and Gabi'd smiled in relief.

But now it was dead-dark, the mosquitoes had discovered every single hole in this godforsaken tent, and it sounded like the entire wild kingdom had gathered just outside the platform to investigate.

“I'm sure it's nothing, Waverly. Go to sleep.”

Suddenly Waverly leaped out of her sleeping bag and crawled over Sam, making Sam curse loudly.

“Well, it might be nothing, but it's got a nose, and it just poked right through that hole.” Her voice was half whisper, half screech, and Gabi pulled out her flashlight to shine it in the direction of Waverly's pillow.

Two brown eyes and a masked face froze in the light, and crafty black paws closed around a chocolate bar.

The next thirty seconds were a blur of screeches and confusion as Gabi and the four girls slithered out of their sleeping bags and made for the tent flaps, running out into the clearing. They'd almost made it when Waverly accidentally tripped Eve, who went flying into a tent pole. As Gabi closed her eyes and cringed, the entire tent crashed to the ground, and five little raccoons skittered back into the woods.

Gabi scanned the clearing with her flashlight, hoping her heart rate wasn't going to send her to the nearest ER. After she'd assured herself that there weren't any more four-legged creatures lurking, she turned the light on the girls, who were huddled near the collapsed tent, their eyes wide as they slapped mosquitoes.

“Who. Had. Chocolate. In the tent?” Gabi ground the words out between clenched teeth.

No one raised a hand. Shocking.

She pointed to the tent. “Waverly and Eve, hold up the edges. Sam and Madison, go get the backpacks.”

“Are you going to search us?” Madison crossed her arms. “At two o'clock in the morning?”

“Are you concerned that I might?”

She tightened her arms. “No.”

“Then go get the backpacks.” Gabi pointed with the flashlight, then jumped when she saw another light appear on the pathway.

Great.
This would be Luke.

“Everything all right down here?” He came closer, and in the flashlight-lit darkness, his hair looked rumpled, his eyes sleepy, his T-shirt just thrown on. Gabi swallowed hard, not wanting to like the sight even half as much as she did.

“We're fine, thank you,” Gabi answered.

“Engineering flaw?” He raised his eyebrows as his flashlight swept the pile of canvas.

“No,” Madison growled. “The tent was fine until Eve knocked it over.”

“Waverly tripped me!” Eve shot back.

“I was trying to get away from the raccoons!” Waverly screeched. “I'm sorry!”

Gabi saw Luke smile as he turned to her. “Got a visit from the welcome wagon, did you?”

“Something like that.”

He turned back to the girls. “Somebody forget what I told you about coons and food?” Nobody answered, and Gabi could tell he expected just that. “Well, now you know I wasn't joking. Gonna be tough putting this tent back up in the pitch-dark.” He clicked off his flashlight and turned toward the path. “Good night, then.”

“He's not going to help us?” Madison glared at Luke's retreating form.

“Obviously not,” Gabi answered. “Why should he? Is
he
the one who brought chocolate into the tent? Did you guys think he was kidding about that? Did you think
I
was?”

The girls were silent, Gabi was dead tired and sick of slapping mosquitoes, and there was no way she had the energy to supervise putting up this damn tent again right now.

“Get your bags, girls.” She sighed, wishing she had a voodoo doll of Priscilla Pritchard. Right now she'd poke it square in the eyes. “Looks like we're sleeping in the van.”

Sam eyed Madison, glaring, and suddenly Gabi knew exactly who'd brought chocolate into the tent.

Maybe, in the light of morning, she'd have a remote clue what to do about it.

*   *   *

“I see you survived the night.” Luke smiled over his coffee mug as Gabi stumbled into the dining hall the next morning, four grumbling girls at her heels. He was leaning against the service counter in a soft gray T-shirt and dark charcoal khaki shorts, and Gabi fought not to compare him to the guy on that coffee commercial she loved. “How'd everybody sleep?”

She reached deep to pull out a fake smile. “Just fine, thank you.”

“Comfortable van?”

“Not a bit, but at least we were safe from the stinging hovercrafts you people call mosquitoes.”

“Yeah, they're bad this year.”

“You think? How much blood does the average child
lose
here at Camp Echo?”

“They generally pack bug spray.”

“Ah.” She nodded, kicking herself for forgetting it. “Maybe you could give me back my battery today so I could go buy some?”

“Maybe.” He picked up his coffee mug and took a sip. Gabi found herself uncomfortably drawn to this early-morning version of Luke, all freshly showered and relaxed.

Showered.

He
obviously had running water.

“Luke, seriously. You can't hold the van hostage.”

He shrugged, smiling. “Can if I have orders from your boss, who is now—apparently—somehow also
my
boss. And you know her far better than I do, so I would imagine the orders don't really surprise you, as much as they're probably pissing you off.”

“It might be the glee with which you are
holding
the van that makes me
more
angry.”

“Oh, believe me, Gabi. There's no glee here.” He handed her a mug. “Little grouchy before your morning coffee?”

She glared at him. “Yes. That's what this is—a coffee issue.”

He handed her a jug of creamer, amusement making the edges of his eyes crinkle. They were like dark, sooty emeralds—a color he'd probably hated as a kid, but girls had probably loved.

Gabi tamped down her irritation. He'd made her coffee, for goodness' sake. She could at least try to be civil.

“Thank you for the coffee.”

“Ladies?” Luke turned to Gabi's charges, who were milling uncomfortably near the door. “Piper's got pancakes and bacon ready. Juice and milk are here on the service counter. Grab a plate, fill 'er up, and eat. Kitchen's only open for a half hour, then closed till noon.”

Sam and Eve came toward the counter, but Madison hung back, which meant Waverly did, too. Gabi raised her eyebrows in their direction.

“Girls? Did you hear him?”

“I heard him.” Madison crossed her arms delicately. “Just not a fan of pancakes and bacon.”

“No problem.” Luke shrugged. “Don't eat.”

“But—don't you have other options? Yogurt? Fruit?”

“Nope.”

Madison huffed dramatically. “I can feel my arteries screaming already.”

“Your arteries are fifteen. They'll survive a slice of bacon.” Luke raised his eyebrows at Gabi and motioned to the counter. “You going to eat?”

Gabi wasn't the least bit hungry, but well-drilled manners prevented her from saying so. The last thing she wanted to do was insult Piper's cooking on the second day here. After all, the woman could turn out to be the only ally Gabi might
have
this summer.

“Coffee first.” She took a sip as she sat down on a rickety wooden stool propped near the counter, then sighed without meaning to. “Oh, God. This is good.”

Gabi studied Luke over the top of her mug, noticing that his stubble was a little lighter than yesterday, but not fully gone. Either he needed a new razor, or he preferred the shadowy look. Her eyes locked onto his biceps, then slid to his pecs, outlined under the soft T-shirt.

She wondered if he was married. Then she closed her eyes.

Seriously.

When she opened them, he was looking straight at her, an amused expression on his face. She felt her cheeks flush as he raised his eyebrows again.

“Going forward, as long as you don't have any food in that tent, the coons shouldn't bother you. You'll get used to them sniffing and scratching around. Skunks, too.”

Gabi pictured the girls' backpacks, currently sitting in the van. She knew darn well that most of them were probably brimming with whatever they'd been able to collect from the dining hall and vending machine before the van had left Briarwood yesterday.

“And by food, I mean anything that can be eaten. One granola bar could send a family of raccoons on a search-and-destroy mission through your entire tent. And anything a bear can smell, a bear could decide to eat.”

Gabi shivered, despite herself. “Of course. Obviously. Right.”

“Happy to use my voice of doom to remind the girls of this, if you want.”

“I have a perfectly good voice of doom, but thank you.”

He smiled. “Has
your
voice of doom ever cleaned up after a raccoon raid? What they did to the tent last night was nothing.”

“No.” She tipped her head, conceding. “Mine has not.”

“Then mine will be scarier.”

“Fine.” Gabi waved a careless, exhausted hand. “You be doom.” Then she sighed, leaning her chin on her hand.

“Hey, Gabi?”

She lifted her eyes to his. “What?”

“I'm not kidding about the bears.”

 

Chapter 5

“Craft project?” Eve's eyebrows almost touched her purple-streaked hair an hour later. “You can't be serious.”

“I'm dead serious.” Gabi handed out plastic bags. “We're at camp. We're going to do camp … stuff.”

Madison sighed. “We're going to die of boredom.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Gabi tossed a bag her way. “But you never know. This craft project could be epic.”

All four of them groaned and rolled their eyes.

If she'd known ahead of time that Camp Echo was completely devoid of both staff and programs, she would have at least headed to the library to check out a stack of books that could have helped her survive being a pretend camp counselor. As it was, she was limited to what she could remember from her own summer camp days … and they'd been a scary-long time ago.