Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
I hurried toward them, and as I neared, I noticed the girl—maybe eleven or twelve—was dressed as Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Her face and hands were painted green, and she wore a black robe with matching horns on her head.
“Hey, your friend forgot this,” I said as I approached.
Oscar stood up, turning to me, his eyes shifting between me and the girl.
“I’m sorry that I was trying to help my people,” she said, as though she was mid-fight with him about something. Must’ve been some sort of game.
“Reggie, this is Keeg,” Oscar said.
“Hello, Keeg. I am…” She hesitated. “Reggie.”
“Hi, Reggie. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said, confused by their peculiar exchange as I took her hand for a shake. She eyed my hand strangely. Maybe that wasn’t a custom in their country.
“I’m in trouble,” she went on.
“Yes, you’re in a lot of trouble,” Oscar said before turning to me. “She’s my niece. She wandered off during the parade.”
“I was being supportive of a good cause,” she insisted.
“Yes, of course you were.”
I handed him his friend’s phone. “Peter Pan left it back at the bar. Apparently, it’s difficult to keep that in his tights.”
“Oh, thank you,” he said. “That was really nice of you.”
An awkward silence followed, and it sucked that I couldn’t exactly confront him in front of his niece about anything that happened at the bar.
“Well, I guess I probably should go back,” I said, admitting to myself that he didn’t seem any more interested in taking things further with me than he had back at the bar.
“Keeg, we have to walk back to Town Square anyway, if you want to come with us.”
Maybe he did want to talk about it, after all.
“Yeah, I’d really like that,” I said.
I felt so pathetic. Here this guy had been nothing but fucking weird with me from the moment I met him, yet I couldn’t help but be intrigued.
As we headed down the alley together, the girl asked, “What are you, Keeg?”
“He’s Ash Ketchum,” Oscar replied.
“It’s cute,” she went on. “I like him, Owen.”
“Owen?” I asked. “I thought your name was…”
“Oops,” Reggie said.
Owen—or Oscar, or whoever the hell he was—looked guilty as hell. Had he given me a fake name because he wasn’t interested? God, how desperate was I to have bothered coming out to find him when he gave so few shits about me? I should have taken one of the billion other hints he’d sent me before dragging my ass out there.
“Well, you have Peter Pan’s phone now so…”
Just then, Sexy Lying Robin looked off into another side alley and called out, “Frederick! Hey, Frederick!”
He halted, looking to me. “Hey, Keeg, I will explain all this. I promise. But do you mind staying with her real quick? I just need to go grab him since he doesn’t have his phone.”
I should have walked away then. I didn’t have to babysit for him, especially when he didn’t even want me to know his real name. Of course, I wanted an explanation more than I wanted to walk away, and it wasn’t his niece’s fault that her uncle was a total asshole.
“Um, yeah, totally.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back.”
He hurried down the alley, calling out after his friend.
“Can we get some gelato?” Reggie asked.
“What?”
“Over at that stand,” she said as she walked right along into Town Square, pointing to a gelato stand not far from us. “I want some more gelato.”
“Um, do you think your uncle would be okay with that?”
“I usually get things that I want, especially from him.”
I looked back into the alley. “Hey, Reggie, I think we should stay here so your uncle doesn’t lose us, okay? Once he comes back, we can ask. Is that fair?”
She sighed and folded her arms together. “Yes, I suppose that will have to do.”
I was relieved she stopped, because she seemed like the kind of girl who wasn’t used to being told no. As we waited for Asshole Robin to return, a man approached us from the side. I glanced over, noticing him holding the collar of his button-down close to his face, like he was talking into a mic.
“I think we might have a hostage situation here,” he said.
“What?” I asked, loud enough for him to hear me.
As if my day wasn’t fucking weird enough.
“I’ve been made,” he said, reminding me of Owen’s comment in the restroom earlier.
I looked to Reggie, who said, “Hey, Officer Mallow. This is my—”
The guy whipped out a gun, aiming it at me, and I threw my hands in the air, truly thinking that was what you had to do in such a situation.
“Step away from the princess,” he warned me.
Princess? The hell?
“Um, I don’t know what’s going on right now.” And of course, my mind went through a series of possibilities. Was I involved in some sort of abduction scheme that guy had been participating in? Was that why he was weird as hell?