My immediate inclination was to turn and leave. Because, like whatever it was Archie and Rose got up to when I wasn’t around, this clearly wasn’t meant to be my business.
But my cowardice became a moot point when Dunc turned and saw me. That goofy smile broke across his face.
“Hey, Ben,” he said easily. “Whatcha doing?”
“Who the fuck are you talking to?” That had to be Archie. He swung his flashlight into my eyes so that I couldn’t see.
“Ben?” someone else said.
Now there were more flashlights pointed at me. All of them. Hand over my eyes, I stumbled back, my foot landing in a hole and turning my ankle.
Someone grabbed my arm from behind. Steadied me. “Are you okay?”
Shelby. It was Shelby gripping me. I stared at her. Those wide blue eyes. That alluring mane of white-blond hair.
“Am I dreaming?” I asked.
She laughed, a high, tinkling sound. “I’ve heard that when you can’t sleep it means you’re awake in someone else’s dream. So maybe you are dreaming, just somewhere else.”
“Huh?”
“What’s he want?” Archie called. “What the hell’s he doing here?”
“I don’t know,” Shelby called back, but then she leaned close, her soft lips grazing my ear. “Maybe you should go back to bed. I don’t think you want to be here. Not for this.”
“Bring him over,” Archie shouted. “It’s okay. We need him.”
“What’s he saying?” I asked Shelby. I didn’t understand what was happening.
She shrugged, then motioned for me to follow her, which I did. Shelby loped ahead of my drunken stumbling with all the grace of a prancing horse before gesturing in a dramatic flourish as she delivered me to Archie. I stood before him as he lowered his flashlight, allowing me to see the wide Cheshire grin stretched across his face.
“What’d you need me for?” I asked.
“What else?” he said smoothly. “Your navigational skills.”
—
“Wait.” I stared at the others and felt lost. The constant rush of the waterfall was sucking sound and reason from the air. An aquatic event horizon. “What are you talking about? What are you guys doing?”
“Ben, Ben, Ben.” Shelby continued her bouncing, skipping around the circle like something out of a fairy tale, wild hair flowing behind her. The rest of them just stood like statues, watching me, the expressions on their faces unreadable.
I went to Rose.
“Hi,” she said.
“You left me.”
“You were passed out.”
“I was asleep.”
She shrugged. “I couldn’t wake you.”
Had she tried? Archie swooped in before I could ask, slinging his arm over my shoulder like we were the very best of friends. I felt ready to vomit. He reeked of whiskey and worse.
“Gibby,” he boomed. “You sure you don’t want to go back to bed? You look like shit, you know.”
“You’re supposed to be asleep,” I said. “All of you.”
Archie held me closer, practically choking me. “You’re no fun, you know that?”
“Let go!” I squirmed.
“But we’re having a debate.”
“A what?”
“A debate. An ethical one. Maybe you can help us figure out what we should do.”
I wanted him off me. “Okay, fine. What is it?”
Archie grinned and released me, taking a step back. “Now we’re talking.”
“Hurry up. It’s cold.”
But he didn’t hurry up. Archie being Archie, he took his sweet time. “Here’s a hypothetical situation. Say someone commits a crime. A self-serving crime. They take something of value simply because they want it. That’s wrong, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “Sure.”
“So if someone else were to take what they’d stolen and use it for something good, would that be a moral action?”
“You mean give it back?”
He waved a hand. “Say that’s not possible. But the second person can do something good with that item. They can make the world a better place.”
“Well, no,” I said. “That’s stupid. That’s not even debatable. Two wrongs and all that.”
“Not even if they’re going to give it to the poor? To people who really need it?”
I snorted. “Who is this? Robin Hood? It’s still not moral. And besides, altruism isn’t about morality in the first place. It’s about looking good and social status. In other words: self-serving.”
“Cynic,” scolded Archie. “Wrong answer.”
“Right answer,” I muttered, although it was starting to dawn on me what he was talking about. “Wait, Archie. This isn’t about the Preacher, is it? Dunc, you didn’t tell him about Willits, did you?”
Dunc, who was draining the last of the Jim Beam, shot me a rueful look, shame rimming his hooded eyes, which told me all I needed to know.
“Archie,” I said. “You’re not this fucking stupid. I know you’re not.”
“Maybe not,” he agreed. “Maybe this is all hypothetical. That’s what I said, right? So maybe you’ll go back to your tent and fall asleep, and when you wake up in the morning, your life will be exactly the same as it is right now. Unlike ours.”
A chill went through me. “So you’re planning on stealing that money? How?”
Archie smirked as he tugged on the sleeves of his black hoodie. “Don’t you worry about how. We might just use my cloak of invisibility here. Those guys’ll never know what hit them. They won’t even know we’re there.”
One by one, I glanced at the others. “This is . . . You’re all fucking with me, right? This is a joke?”
Dunc pointed at me with the empty whiskey bottle. “I don’t think money that would let me leave Teyber once and for all is a joke. Do you?”
“Why the hell do you want to leave so damn badly?”
He huffed. “Have you met my dad?”
“What’s wrong with your dad?”
“He’s a shit-kicking asshole is what’s wrong. And unless you’re willing to come over and shoot him in the head for me, I’d kind of like to get away from him. For good.”
I whirled around. “What about the rest of you? Are you serious about this? Or are you just drunk?”
Clay looked at me with solemn eyes. “I don’t talk about it a lot, but my little sister’s sick. Really sick. My mom can’t work anymore, and we can’t pay for all her hospital bills.”
I knew Clay’s sister. She was seven years old and had a gap-toothed smile and braids and wore ladybug rain boots every time she came into the grocery store. Even in summer. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Cardiomyopathy. Her heart’s failing. She’s probably going to need a transplant.”
“Well, I don’t think your family would be happy knowing that this is how you tried to help them.”
“I think my family just wants her not to die, Ben.”
I turned to Tomás. “What about you? You know this is crazy. You told me. What do you need money for? Your parents not funding enough trips to Europe these days?”
“I want to help Clay,” he said flatly.
“Shelby . . . ,” I said.
She stopped skipping long enough to fold her arms and set her jaw. The indignant fairy. “You know what? My life’s not any of your fucking business.”
Archie cut in. “I’m getting the feeling you don’t want to be our navigator. That’s disappointing.”
“No,” I breathed. “I really don’t want to do that.”