The Last Harvest(78)

“Ali…” I put my hand on top of hers to stop her, but she’s not listening to me.

“I can tell you want to,” she whispers.

I let out a shuddering breath as she frees me from the rest of the buttons. I start to say something when she lowers her head.

I want to stop her, I know I should, I will. “Ali,” I say as I pry my hand off the steering wheel and pull back her hair so I can see her face, but that only makes it worse.

“Pioneers!” A guy screams as he passes the truck, raising two twelve-packs above his head.

Ali giggles, but she doesn’t stop.

As much as I want to forget everything and disappear into her, into this moment, I grasp onto the back of her neck, feeling the brand beneath my thumb, the raised mark … the invitation, and pull her off me. “This isn’t right.”

“I don’t understand.” She sits up, pushing her shiny dark hair out of her face. Her eyes are soft brown with flecks of light gold. “Don’t you like it?”

“Believe me … I do.” I look straight ahead at the bonfire in the distance as I button my jeans—anywhere but her soft lips. “Just not like this … not yet.”

“Then when?”

I tighten my grip on the steering wheel. “If you can just give me a little more time.”

“Is this about Miss Granger?” Her eyes well up with tears. “Were you with her last night? Is that why you left me at the Preservation Society?”

“There’s a lot more to it than that.”

“I’m not going to wait forever, Clay. Time’s running out,” she says as she gets out of the car.

“Ali, wait!”

She turns back. “I’ve tried everything. I want to be with you. I thought this was settled. But I can’t make you choose me.”

“Ali, it’s not that. It’s always been you—”

“Then show me.” She takes off into the woods.

I will my body to calm the hell down and go looking for her.

I’ve been to some ragers out here, but never anything like this. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s blasting, people are wasted, a few couples are practically doing it right out in the open. The bonfire’s huge and putting out a ton of smoke. And there’s a weird herb smell, same thing I smelled in the secret room at the Preservation Society. You can probably see the smoke all the way to Gerard County. Dumbasses. This party’s going to get busted before they even shoot off the fireworks.

I fan away the smoke, looking for Ali, when I spot Tyler dancing on the bed of a truck with some girl. His hands are all over her ass and she’s grinding up on him. The girl turns to face me, and I do a double take. It’s Tammy. She sees me watching her. She smiles as she leans back, kissing Tyler. It’s not a peck on the cheek, it’s a full-on kiss with tongue, but Tammy never takes her eyes off me.

A bunch of guys from the team start howling and whistling at them. And I want to rip their heads off.

“She’s staring right at you, man. She wants you.” Pete Adams elbows me in the ribs with his beer bottle. “The quiet ones are always the kinkiest,” he adds dreamily.

“Grow the f*ck up,” I say to Pete as I push through the crowd to get to her.

This isn’t Tammy—the Tammy I know would never act like this. I’ve got to get her out of here before she does something she regrets.

“Think you’ve had enough.” I grab on to her and lift her off the truck bed.

“I knew you’d choose me,” she says, wrapping her legs around me.

Prying her off me, I set her down. “I’m getting you out of here.”

“I’m not leaving until you kiss me right here … right now. Like you mean it.”

“Oooh…” A crowd gathers round.

She doesn’t realize what’s happening. What’s inside of her. What’s driving her.

I take a deep breath to tell her that’s not going to happen, when the smoke hits me. I stagger back a little, the ground tilts, the fire’s spinning in front of me.

I squeeze my eyes shut. I’m trying so hard to focus. I feel like I’ve seen this all before but I can’t figure out from where.

I open my eyes to see Tyler whispering to Tammy. Is the Devil speaking through him? I saw him whispering to Jimmy down in that cell at the Preservation Society. I saw him whispering to Ben on the field after he turned on me at practice, and now this …

“Relax, Clay.” Tammy steps forward, and suddenly she’s taking off her clothes. “Come skinny-dipping with me.”

“This is the Devil, Tammy. This isn’t you.” I take off my coat so I can wrap it around her, but a bunch of guys grab on to me, holding me back.

“Let her do it, man.”

She just smiles as she strips down naked right there on the muddy bank. “Come with me, Clay, please.” She takes off her glasses and pulls the elastic out of her hair, wading into the dark water.

I jerk out of the hold to find everyone raging around me, egging her on. They don’t understand what’s really happening here.

Tammy swims out to the floating dock where they’ve set up the fireworks and climbs up, lighting a flare.

“He’s coming, Clay,” she calls out. “He’s coming for all of us.”