Especially when Ruthie, standing chest-deep in the water, was once again staring anxiously at the darkest spot in the thicket of trees, trying, it seemed, desperately to pierce through blackness to discern what might be hiding behind the thick boles. “We should go back.” Nodding to herself and worrying her lower lip, Ruthie added, “Yeah, I think it’s time. You know . . . it might not be so safe here. Let’s go.”
Shiloh broke the surface of the water again to stand next to her. “What are you talking about?”
“Ruthie’s thinking about the missing girls,” Kat said.
“I didn’t say that!” Ruthie protested.
Kat said, “But you were.”
“No, I—”
“But nothing happened to them, okay?” Shiloh cut in. “Some people don’t know this, but Rachel and Erin took off after going to a rodeo—happens all the time. Sometimes teenagers just don’t come home.” Shiloh barrel raced in the local circuit, so she considered herself an expert on all things rodeo.
“Rachel Byrd wouldn’t just not come home!” Ruthie argued.
“You know her?” Shiloh was skeptical.
“No, but her family attends a church where my dad sometimes preaches.”
“Oh God.” Shiloh rolled her eyes. “So what? Here’s a news flash, Ruthie: Even churchgoers cross moral lines, just like the rest of us. Trust me, I know. Some of them are the biggest hypocrites around!”
“No—” Ruthie started to argue, but Shiloh ran over her with, “Even the police think those girls ran away. End of story. No big deal, really. Maybe they needed to leave. Maybe things weren’t all that great at home. Maybe they were really bad.” Her expression, already shadowed in the moonlight, turned even darker. “When I turn eighteen, believe me, I’m taking off.”
“You mean to college.”
Shiloh shot her a searing look and didn’t bother keeping the sarcasm from her voice. “Sure. College. That’s the plan.”
Stung, Ruthie winced, but asked, “Where would you go?”
“Somewhere else. Anywhere else.” Shiloh was emphatic. “Like those girls who got the hell out of here.”
“They didn’t just run away,” Ruthie said, spinning in the water. “Isn’t that right, Kat?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“Your dad doesn’t think they’re runaways. That’s what you said about Rachel and Erin, right? And Courtney Pearson . . .”
“Give it a rest,” Shiloh muttered, her voice hissing across the lake’s surface.
But Ruthie went on, “Courtney’s been all over the news, and I told you, Rachel used to attend our church. But everyone talks about them. Right, Kat? And . . . and, Shiloh, you really shouldn’t use the Lord’s name in vain.”
Shiloh snorted. “Kat’s dad is a detective. He’s paid to be suspicious, but no one’s saying anything bad happened, like—foul play.” She looked to Kat for corroboration.
“Not officially,” Kat agreed, “but Dad doesn’t tell me everything. He can’t.” Especially when he wasn’t around all that much, when he was avoiding coming home.
“I’m telling you all that’s going on is that a couple of girls took off to get away from some kind of bad situations. They probably had dads or stepdads who knocked them around and had weak mothers who didn’t believe them, or even want to believe them. Or maybe their mom was a drunk, or on pills, or a sicko cousin or some creeper of an uncle tried to get into their pants.”
Ruthie actually gasped, treading water with some difficulty.
“Oh, get real!” Shiloh rolled her eyes at the younger girl’s na?veté. “For God’s sake, Ruthie, it happens, okay? Not everyone has a perfect mom and dad who go to church picnics and hold hands and dote on their children and wear halos over their damned sanctimonious heads!”
“Shiloh, enough,” Kat warned.
In the moonlight, Ruthie’s face started to crumple, but she kept her head above the waterline and managed to lift her chin a fraction. “Why are you so mean?”
“I’ve had lots of practice,” Shiloh said tautly. Not backing down an inch, she added, “Remind me again, would you, why you were so hell-bent on coming here?”
Ruthie’s lips tightened. “I don’t know anymore.” She spun in the water and took off for the dock where they’d left their clothes.
Kat glared at Shiloh. “Do you always have to be such a bitch?”
Shiloh was hot. “Yeah. I think I do.”
“You went too far this time. Look what you did.”
“What I did? What you did,” Shiloh shot back furiously. “Bringing her was your idea.” Before Kat could say a word, Shiloh dove deep and disappeared again.
“Damn it.” Pissed as hell, Kat saw Ruthie’s head bobbing over the water’s surface. What a colossal mistake this whole skinny-dipping thing was. Well, it was the last time. Shiloh was right: Ruthie was a wimp, but with three girls missing, it was kind of stupid to be out here like this. And Ruthie wasn’t wrong about Shiloh, either. At times Shiloh was an angry, heartless bitch.
Who needed either of them? Kat thought, as she cut across the water after the shyer girl. She had her own problems. Big ones. Unbidden, her mind drifted back to her mother, never far from her thoughts. I’ll . . . dying . . . And no one in her family knew what to do.
Nope. She didn’t need Shiloh or Ruth. She vowed with each stroke that, starting tomorrow, she was going to find new friends. Normal friends.
Chapter 2
Ruthie shivered and tried not to think about someone hiding in the woods, about the eyes she felt watching her, about sensing an evil presence. The other girls would just laugh at her, but as she worked her way across the lake, she scanned the perimeter, searching the gloom and feeling a gnawing fear.
Beneath the surface, something slimy slid across her leg, and she let out a startled cry, but whatever lurked in the water moved on. Or maybe it was just in her mind.
It was all probably because of Shiloh. The truth was, Ruthie was starting to think she wouldn’t really care that much if Shiloh left town. Good riddance to bad news. Isn’t that what her mother always said? For once, maybe Beverly McFerron had a point.
Katrina had said Shiloh was fun to be with, sort of, but she also had a blazing mean streak and the tongue of a viper. It was almost as if she reveled in being a bad girl or a rebel or whatever. The bottom line was that it was dangerous just hanging out with her.
Ruthie had been a fool.
What had she been thinking, sneaking out here in the middle of the night? Just to fit in? Just to make friends? Well, no, there was more to it than that, of course. It was because she needed to get close to Kat to gain access to her brother. Ethan Starr was like a real-life cowboy, having won junior rodeo competitions in barrel racing for the past few years running. So adorable, and humble too, as he said hello to Ruthie every morning when they passed in the hall at school. Some days she lived just for that hello from Ethan. She knew he didn’t have a girlfriend, so why the heck couldn’t it be her?