Pretty Wanted by Elisa Ludwig Page A

unlucky stroke of timing.
    Finally, we opened the door and looked around. The space was darkened. Where there had been people were now shadows. An eerie blue light flooded the space out in the hallway ahead. Tiny red lights flickered on and off in the distance—smoke detectors, I assumed. I hoped they were not alarms. Disarming a system in a house was one thing; doing it in a big building like this one was another. I didn’t know the first thing about museum security and had none of the acrobatic skills needed to dodge a laser grid if there was one. I thought of Tre again, and his love of Ocean’s Eleven. I wished he were here.
    When we were sure the coast was clear, we walked downstairs to the Enchanted Caves area, a cement labyrinth of hulking rocky forms with hidden tunnels and hanging stalactites.
    “We should sleep down here,” Aidan said. “Nice and cozy.”
    We crossed into a small passageway under an arching roof into an even more enclosed space, the rock striated with markings.
    I paused, feeling my heart race.
    Why am I tripping right now?
    Then my mind caught up to my body and I realized what was bugging me: This was all a little too much like the night we’d spent hiding out in a cave in the Painted Hills, after we’d barely escaped being shot by Chet and Bailey. We were looking for Leslie and they were, too, but when we wouldn’t tell them anything, they threatened to kill us. If we hadn’t escaped . . .
    A shiver ran through me, as I remembered that dark and terrifying night, the hours Aidan and I spent cramped up and waiting, not sure if we’d make it to see another day.
    “I don’t think I can,” I said.
    Aidan was feeling it, too. “Good call. We don’t need to relive that stuff,” he said. “Let’s go back upstairs.”
    I followed him up away from the caves, wishing I could climb away from the dread and anxiety I felt, but it seemed to cling to us like a stubborn fog. Underneath, it was a harder, starker reality: There was still a murderer out there—and the longer we were out here, the more we were risking our lives.
    Aidan paused on the stairwell. “Listen, I was going to wait to give this to you, but you should have it now.” He handed me the paper bag. I stopped to unfold the top and peek inside. It was the red dress.
    “Are you kidding?” I asked. “You bought it bought it?”
    “I did.”
    I blinked a few times, to make sure it was real. It meant so much to me, that he’d gone out of his way to get it. And most of all that he was still trying to show me he cared.
    He moved closer. “I want you to know how serious I am. About us. About making this work. We have to let go of the past. And you have to believe me, Willa.”
    I didn’t know what to say. Here we were in the darkened, abandoned museum. Cops were looking for us. As were dangerous criminals. We were perpetual trespassers, always on someone else’s turf. The thing was, we only had each other. We couldn’t let anything get in the way of that. I was done fighting.
    I reached over and took Aidan’s hand, stroking the back of it with my thumb. “I believe you.”
    “You’re probably the only one in the world right now who does,” he said. “You—you’re the only one I care about, anyway.”
    He leaned into me and we kissed, his lips pulling on mine. His hands encircled my waist, his hair was soft in between my fingers and I felt anticipation quicken inside me. If I closed my eyes and let myself drift away, I could make the rest of the world, all of our fears and problems, disappear. Maybe not forever, but for right now, and this minute was the only one I could control. This minute, however fleeting, was the one we desperately needed.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
    HarperCollins Publishers
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    SEVEN
    THE SOUND SEEMED to be coming from somewhere by my feet. A high-pitched tone, and then a buzzing. My dreams gathered around the sensation,