Snared by Stefan Petrucha

sharply. Then she walked away.
    Â 
    Her wrist hurt from striking Doyle, but Lindsay felt good. She’d spent a lot of the evening chatting with Mel and Tee. Both girls had tried so hard to be friendly, but she couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. She didn’t even know if she liked them or not. The pity got in the way. Mel was kind of quiet, but nice enough. Tee was more outgoing, but still subdued. Char just didn’t like her, and Lindsay was fine with that. She knew the girl was jealous, though of all of Ev’s entourage, she actually seemed to understand that Ev was going to leave them.
    Lindsay approached her uncle’s house, walking through the sand and smiling. When Mark’s house came up on her right, butterflies erupted in her stomach.
    Lindsay slowed as she reached the alley separating her uncle’s house from Mark’s. She glanced along the sandy trail and stopped dead. A block of ice dropped into her belly when she saw the girl creeping along the side of Mark’s house.
    Ev! The platinum hair, the bikini top. That bitch.
    She crept along the side of the house toward the glowing light of Mark’s window. He was still awake. The shade was up, and Ev was going to make her move. Lindsay felt so stupid. She’d almost believed all of Ev’s “don’t waste your time on him” stuff. She wanted Lindsay away from Mark because Ev wanted him for herself.
    Lindsay thought about yelling at Ev to get away from the house and the window and the boy next door, but she stopped herself.
    If Mark was the kind of guy she believed he was, he’d send Ev away.
    Please don’t bring Barbie back.
    If he was just another classless hick like the boys at the bonfire, Lindsay wanted to know it.
    Lindsay quietly hurried across the alley to her uncle’s porch. She tiptoed over the deck andleaned against the siding, listening, praying Mark didn’t flirt with Ev. Her heart was already aching to think he might invite her into his room.
    But that didn’t happen. A sharp gasp came up from the side of the house. It was followed by another sound. Shrill but controlled. Muffled and quiet. Lindsay inched forward, wanting to see what was going on.
    Ev raced along the sand, looking desperate. Her platinum hair whipped from side to side, slapping her face and shoulders as she stumbled and righted herself. She tore out of the alley, the sound of stifled sobbing rising from her. Wild eyes shone over hands clasped tightly to keep the cries in her mouth.
    Moments later, the door of Mark’s house flew open and Doug, the leaner of the two guardians, charged out onto the porch. He jumped the stairs, hit the beach with a dull thud, and kept running, kicking up small clouds of sand as he sprinted along the shore. Lindsay watched the chase, her pulse thundering in her ears. Jack appeared a moment later. He similarly ran and jumped. He hit the sand and paused, looking up the beach. Dougstopped, too, forty yards away. He put his hands on his hips and just watched the girl’s flight.
    Far down the beach, Ev looked back at the guardians. She screamed, a piercing, terrible sound.
    But she never stopped running.
    What the hell is happening? Ev was terrified by something. Something she had seen in Mark’s room?
    Lindsay silently backed to the door. She didn’t want to be caught by Doug or Jack. No way did she want in on that. She slipped inside the screen door, then locked the heavy wooden door behind her.
    Heart fluttering, she raced up the stairs to her room. At the window seat she cautiously leaned forward to look down.
    A black shade descended over Mark’s window.
    And Lindsay knew she was right, knew what drove Ev away in such a panic. Ev had seen Mark being punished. She’d crept to his house, hoping to hook up. She looked through his window and saw…whatever it was Doug and Jack did to Mark. The sounds Ev made weren’t loud, so there was no way the guardians