Fallen Crest Forever (Fallen Crest High #7)

Her eyes moved upwards.

The person upstairs was moving again. Whoever it was wasn’t being as quiet anymore.

Drawers opened.

Things dropped to the floor.

A door clicked shut, and a different one opened.

A light was flicked on now, then off right away.

Someone was in the bathroom.

They moved back into the hallway.

I could see the thoughts whirling in the girl’s head as I watched myself. Her forehead wrinkled, and she bit her lip. She was biting too hard, she drew blood. She never noticed.

I watched all this, but I couldn’t tell her (myself) to stop.

She’d stopped listening to herself long ago.

The person moved in one bedroom, then the other. Only Logan and Nate had rooms up there. The person walked by the bathroom. The only other door was a closet.

The footsteps continued.

They didn’t stop at the closet.

They were coming down the stairs.

They were coming to where we were—Mason and the frozen girl.

The alert blared inside me, but I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t do anything. Then Mason lifted his hands, and the moonlight glinted off something metal.

A handgun.

He held it, poised with two straight arms and his feet braced. The footsteps stopped at the top of the stairs. Suddenly red and blue lit up the room. It was small at first, then brighter and brighter.

Someone above cursed again and started down the stairs.

Everything in me paused. My heart. My breathing. My thoughts. The girl’s eyes were so wide, so frightened, but she couldn’t say anything. Her voice was paralyzed.

Mason’s finger moved as he took off the safety.

Sirens broke through the girl’s fear. She could hear the cops coming closer and closer. It was no longer just a colorful landscape. They’d parked. They were on the other side of the door. She heard another type of running. The kind that was coming to help. Those feet sounded different than the intruder’s. The footsteps were fast, but sturdy. The others had been accidental, then less tentative, and finally filled with the assuredness that they were alone in this house.

But that was wrong.

It all happened in one second. Mason was braced against the closet door. The cops would burst into the house, and the front door would hit him. The intruder was coming down the stairs and would be right there, right in the spotlight as the cops barged in.

If Mason shot, it might be self-defense.

If the cops shot—well, they might not need to.

Sam had to do something. I had to do something.

Summoning all the strength inside of me, I burst out of my paralysis. I stopped my knees from shaking, my hands from trembling. I was suddenly right here. I felt the chill in the room; I rode the upper crest of the feeling that something wrong was about to happen, something that would change lives.

“Mason, don’t!” My voice finally ripped from its prison.

The intruder froze on the stairs, whirling to me, then looking for Mason.

He cursed.

The cops banged on the door. “POLICE!”

Mason thumbed the safety back on. He locked eyes with the intruder, and both sprang into action.

Mason tossed the gun to me, launching himself forward.

The intruder tried to jump over the bannister, so he would land right where I stood.

I caught the gun as the two crashed into each other.

The door burst open.

Guns, lights, and yells filled the room as four cops rushed forward. Two grabbed Mason and hauled him backward.

“He lives here!” I yelled.

The other two cops grabbed the intruder and slammed him against the wall.

“Sam!” Mason bucked against the cop’s hold.

I looked down and realized I had the gun. I slipped it inside my pocket. The weight sagged my pajama pants, so I scrambled and tightened the drawstring, tying it so it couldn’t budge.

“I’m fine,” I called out, my voice cracking.

I’m fine.

I’m fine.

I kept repeating that in my head.

I wasn’t fine.

“Let me go. She’s scared.”

One police officer nodded, and the other released Mason. He rushed over to me. I was caught up in his arms, and we both turned to watch.

The cops turned the light on, and one pulled off the intruder’s ski mask.

“Adam?!”





This is insane.

I kept shaking my head, thinking that. It was insane. Adam Quinn broke into our house, and not even our house in Fallen Crest. He drove to Cain, found out where we lived, and then broke into this house. Why? That was the big question. He told the cops it was a good-natured prank.

Mason and I had changed into our clothes now, and the police were still questioning Adam in our living room. He was able to look over at Mason and say, “Right, Mason? We’re in a big prank war. That’s all it was.”

The asshole wanted us to cover for him.

I was about to say hell no, but Mason took my hand to stop me.

“Yeah. Just a really stupid prank. That’s it.”

The cop lowered his notepad. “You don’t want to press charges?”

Mason shook his head, just slightly. “No.” He stared right at Adam, his eyes almost calm, but there was a dangerous aura coming from him. I felt shivers down my spine. Mason had something planned for Adam, but he wasn’t going through legal channels to do it.

“Hey!”

We heard a commotion and raised voices from the front door.

“Mason!” Logan was there, waving. The police stationed in front of the house were holding him back. “I live here. Tell ’em so I can come in.”

“So we can come in.” Nate popped his head out from behind Logan. “I’m here too.”

“Yeah.” Mason turned to the cop holding the notepad. “That’s my brother and my best friend. They live here too.”

The cop narrowed his eyes, then gestured upstairs with his pad. “Their rooms are the ones upstairs?”

“Yeah.”

The cop looked at Adam as he said, “The rooms this guy was searching in.” He let out a sigh, putting his notepad back in his pocket. “What do you wager those two guys don’t have any idea about this ‘prank war’ you’re in? You went through their stuff. I wonder if they’ll want to press charges?”

Adam just closed his eyes and folded his head down. He was dressed for the part, in a black long-sleeve shirt and black pants. He’d had a flashlight with him too, but the cops confiscated it, along with his ski mask.

The cop waved for Logan and Nate to come in. Taylor came with them, holding Logan’s hand. Logan went right to Adam, his jaw clenched.

“What the fuck, Quinn?! I could’ve been here. Taylor could’ve been here.”

Adam opened his eyes and held his hands up in surrender. He shot Mason a look. “It was a prank. That’s it.”

Logan snorted. “Right. Because we’re in one big fucking prank war, huh? My ass, a prank war.” But he looked at Mason. “Were you aware of this prank war?”

Mason half-grinned. “I was. Not telling you was part of it.”