GUTTER GIRL

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

Jace

Drumming my fingers against the steering wheel, music blaring and the cool wind flowing through my open windows...exactly what I needed.

We'd kicked ass last night at the game. Firing on all cylinders. The celebration party after was epic, too. And now, my KOS outline and I had the rest of the day to head to the library in Clover to sit and write for six straight hours.

No babysitting Lily.

No football players looking over my shoulder.

No interruptions.

I really wanted to dig into this new direction Masrin's character was going.

Someone darted across the street. I pressed the brakes, not really in any danger of hitting the person, but still. I glanced around looking for more people, but saw only the one.

Dark pants. Dark shirt. Bright pink hair.

"McKenna?"

On my right, there was an older neighborhood that backed right up to a convent. I guess nuns still lived there and everything. The solid brick building loomed over the ten-foot walls surrounding an older subdivision on the outskirts of town. She must have run out from there, huh?

On the left was an abandoned building. Actually a couple of them, but they were all empty. No other cars were on the single-lane county road, so I pulled over onto the soft shoulder.

McKenna vanished around the corner of the run-down brick building, hugging a backpack to her shoulder. I made a U-turn so I could park on the side of the road she'd crossed to. Killing the engine, I gave the area a once-over.

The afternoon sun was muted by thick gray clouds and the buildings looked like they were straight out of a horror novel. There were two of them looming behind the broken, wrought-iron gate that maybe once, when it was functional, hemmed in a nice estate.

She'd snuck through the gate and gone toward the larger building on the right. It once was brick, but most had crumbled to the overgrown grounds.

It actually kind of reminded me of some of the structures in KOS.

I snagged my backpack, then hopped out of the car and hustled to the fence. I wasn't sure why, but I had to know where she was going. I threaded my arms through my backpack, securing it to me, then bent my legs and ducked under the useless chain around the gate entrance and hustled to my right.

Dried leaves and twigs crackled beneath my shoes and

it sent a shiver up my spine. Several huge aspen trees were up ahead, at the corner of the building McKenna had run toward. Branches hung over and the lowest ones raked against the roof tiles, screeching as they did.

Legit, B-rated horror scene right here.

I was probably going to get murdered by the ghost of whoever haunted this place, but I pressed on. I approached the corner and peeked around, working to calm my heart in the process.

McKenna ducked through another gate, a much narrower one this time, more like one that would be in front of a house or something. The rusty gate clanged shut, so I made my way, tiptoeing. I wasn't sure why, because the gravel, leaves, and twigs pretty much gave me away that I was walking down what used to be a sidewalk or small path.

A door ahead, that led into the ground floor of a two- story, nearly gutted building, slammed shut. She'd gone in there? Holy crap.

I made my way through the gate and to the door. I put my ear to it and all I heard was shuffling. Slowly, I pulled it open and a creak that rivaled the one in the opening part of Michael Jackson's Thriller ripped through the air. I stepped in, crunching what was left of the wooden floor directly inside the tiny room.