Read Online Narc by Crissa-Jean Chappell - Free Book Online

Who .
    “Only you can prevent forest fires,” Skully yelled.
    The woman waved a flashlight at us. “I’m calling the police.”
    Skully ran through the backyard. I stumbled in the grass and tried to catch my breath. The Roman candles kept sizzling, beads of colored flame swooping across the pines as if someone had lit them all at once. I remembered buying fireworks with Collin, how we laughed at the warning on the box: Light Fuse and Get Away!!!!
    When I reached the car, there was no sign of Morgan.
    “Stay here,” Skully said, as if talking to a dog. Then she bolted toward the trees.
    I leaned against the bumper, watching everyone flood past: the party girls half-jogging with their shoes flung over their shoulders, the boys tossing bottles into the street. Okay. This sucked beyond all recognition. There was the sound of glass tinkling, then a jolt of pain surging up my arm. I looked down at the ribbons of blood slashed into my skin. The more I stared, the harder it stung.
    “Looks like you got in a ninja fight with a cactus,” said Morgan, sneaking up beside me, “and the cactus won.”
    “Skully was trying to find you,” I explained. “These idiots were throwing bottles all over the place. And I lost my cell phone.”
    “I know,” she said, handing it over.
    A wave of sickness washed over me. Whether I liked it or not, Morgan was my suspect now. She was the last person I’d want to find messing with my phone. I flipped it open. All the numbers were there, blinking back at me.
    Morgan said, “I wouldn’t go dropping it in people’s driveways.”
    “Is that where you found it?” I asked.
    “Buried in the gravel.”
    “It must’ve fallen out of my pocket.” Still, that didn’t make any sense.
    She peeled off her cardigan and dabbed my arm. “Can’t have you bleeding on my fake leather upholstery. Good thing I paid attention in Girl Scouts.”
    Did Morgan pick my pocket? I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was playing me.
    “Thanks,” I muttered.
    Cars squealed down the road, their headlights so bright they seemed solid. The lights merged into spinning discs, blue and red, and I knew that the neighbor wasn’t kidding about calling the cops.
    “Get in the car,” Morgan said, her smile gone. “You’re driving.”
    “I am?”
    I slid into the driver’s seat. “What about Skully?”
    No answer.
    I revved the engine. We rolled backward into the neighbor’s driveway. I jerked the wheel and we spun around as Morgan directed me to.
    “I thought this was a dead-end street,” I said, as we careened over potholes.
    “We’re taking a shortcut,” she said.
    The Explorer rattled across a fallen tree limb. I clenched my teeth as the tires bounced over twigs and rocks. In the darkness, it was hard to see. Branches flailed and scraped against the window. I twisted around in my seat, caught the lights flaring in the distance.
    We pulled up beside a chain link fence. A section had toppled into the ground, all twisted.
    “Where the hell are we going?” I asked, rubbing my sore arm.
    “Take a guess,” Morgan said.
    The car launched forward with a jolt as I drove over the mangled fence and swerved into a swampy thicket of oak trees. A dirt road curved into some kind of nature preserve, tucked behind Skully’s neighborhood. I half-expected a T-Rex to raise its head above the bushes. After circling for a few minutes and finding only dead ends, I let Morgan have it.
    “We can’t just drive around all night. This is stupid.”
    She wouldn’t even look at me. Her jaw clenched.
    We slammed through a field of tall grass. There was the bay, dark as asphalt.
    “Stop here,” she said.
    I coasted closer to the shore and cut the ignition. For some reason, Morgan got out and started walking. I followed.
    The ground sparkled with broken glass. Poles jutted from the water. There was a dilapidated old fishing dock, the edges frosted with barnacles. It smelled like mud and salt.
    Morgan plunked down on a craggy