Read Online Kristen by Lisi Harrison - Free Book Online

her way to safety, refusing to completely buy Skye’s story and double-refusing to accept that
Skye
would be crowned heroine of the night.
    Ugh.
Kristen was surfing a wave of j-barf.
    “Here they come,” Skye whisper-shouted. “There’s a break in the fence by that rock. We can fit under so they don’t see us hop the barrier.”
    “Are you
sure
?” Kristen challenged, hoping to expose her as a fraud.
    “How do you think I get in here every night?” the alpha whisper-shot back.
    “Point!” Kristen could practically hear Alicia say.
    Skye checked over her shoulder then lifted the torn metal like a curtain. “Non-members first,” she insisted with a sacrificing smile. “You’ll be in a lot more trouble than I will if you get caught.”
    “How cool is she?” Jax mumbled to his boys as they belly-crawled through the dirt like soldiers at boot camp.
    Kristen fake-coughed, hoping to drown out Dune’s response. It worked, but his brow-lift plus thumbs-up said it all.
    Everyone but Skye and Kristen had made it through when they heard the stealth hum of a golf cart.
    “Come awn!” urged the survivors from the safe side. “Hurry!”
    Knowing this was her only chance to out alpha-Skye, Kristen did the honorable thing and took a step back.
    “This was
my
mission,” she said loud enough to remind everyone. “If anyone goes down for this, it should be me. You go first.”
    “But it’s
my
rescue, so
you
should go first!”
    Circles of light danced around them like morbidly obese fireflies. “Who’s there?” called a security guard, frantically waving his flashlight.
    “Hurry!” Kristen said. The bottoms of her feet were tingling, anxious to get moving. Anxious to show the others what years of soccer drills could do for a girl. “There’s time for both of us to make it if you go
now
,” she whisper-shouted. “Go.” She gently shoved Skye onto the ground and foot-nudged her toward the opening in the fence . . . not because she had dreamed of doing that from the moment they met. It was to save her, of course.
    “Ow!” Skye whined, mostly for the sake of the boys, who were watching the mini catfight as if it were the Super Bowl.
    The lights were getting closer and the jingle of keys was getting louder. “Stop!” shout-coughed a man who was fighting a losing battle with bronchitis.
    Kristen was too afraid to turn around, but she could tell by the sound of his voice that she still had a few seconds before he could grab her arm or ID her face. She crouched down, preparing to crawl, but Skye was still under the fence. “Go!”
    “I can’t,” Skye panicked. “My scarf is stuck.”
    “Hurry!” Ripple called.
    “Let’s go!” Dune urged.
    “I’m trying,” Skye grunted.
    Kristen frantically ran her hands along the metal diamonds, searching for the snag. “I don’t feel anything.”
    “You
don’t
?” Skye’s devious smirk was suddenly illuminated by the security guard’s flashlight. “Ooops.” She slid under the fence like a greased sardine. “My bad.”
    “What?!”
Kristen was about to accuse Skye of sabotage, but she was yanked to her feet with such force that the words fell out of her mouth and landed in the dirt. Just like the rest of her night.

THE PINEWOOD
    THE GREGORYS’ CONDO
    Wednesday, July 22
    12:07 A.M.
    Marsha Gregory yanked open the front door before Dwight, the security guard, had a chance to ring the bell. She was wearing a red paisley pajama set and beige Ugg slippers, and her mousy brown bob was pulled into a tiny ponytail. Her creamy skin was soft with night cream, making her hard green eyes look like two sharp rocks in an otherwise glistening stream.
    “Who is
this
?” She glared at Dwight’s bushy mustache with contempt and pulled her daughter inside. “I thought you said you were sleeping at Ripple’s house? Why are you covered in mud? Where’s your bike? Is your scholarship in jeopardy?”
    Even though being escorted home in a security car that smelled like