Perilous

Chapter Fourteen

Perilous

Chapter Fourteen

It tore me from my trance and made me smile.

I went to him, and he hugged me, and for a moment, everything seemed okay again.

Cammie POV

"Fifty-four,"

Breathe.

"Fifty-five,"

Breathe.

"Fifty-six,"

Breathe.

"Fifty-seven,"

Breathe.

"Fifty-eight,"

Breathe.

"Fifty-nine,"

Breathe.

"Sixty,"

The bathroom door swung open, interrupting my count.

Zach emerged from it wearing loose jeans and a black button-down, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top few buttons were undone. Three little beads of water trickled down his forehead from his wet, curly dark hair. His bright green eyes stared down at his phone, a slight smirk and chuckle as he read whatever meme it must have been. His left hand waved a small white towel through his hair.

All this I noticed in the 0.375343245-second glance in that direction during my sixty-fifth situp.

"Oh, hey," I said, continuing my count in my head.

He looked up and his face scrunched together. "You're up earlier than expected."

I had fallen asleep not long after my little breakdown. The other side of the blanket was thrown over when I woke up, so I assumed Zach took a nap too. Kind of needed it after the all-nighter we pulled staking out Prince's place.

"Yeah, just getting a workout in."

Zach stood from afar and examined my last ten or so. "Your form is pretty good, but you could use some pointers."

"And one hundred," I whispered just before snorting at his words.

He handed me a water bottle.

"Please," I mused, using the towel from his hand to wipe the sweat off my brow. "Zion and Catherine made me do sets of these in a row practically all day- one set in the morning, one during training, one when I was training everyone else, and once before bed. Two hundred each, more if I pissed them off. So believe me," I leaned over and whispered in his ear as if it was a secret. "If anyone needs pointers, it's you."

I patted his shoulder and took a swig of water, disappearing into the bathroom.

I slipped on my high-heeled ankle boots, looking at myself in the mirror. My long blonde hair was down, lightly curled, I wore bright red lipstick and chilling eyeliner. I took a deep breath and ran my hands over my top- it was a black v-neck crop top. It looked great with my blue flare jeans.

I was still getting used to dressing regularly. Most of the time when I was with the Circle and wasn't undercover, I wore training clothes and bodysuits. Not exactly your typical coffee run outfit.

"You ready?" I asked Zach, grabbing my phone from the nightstand.

We were headed to Bex and Grant's room to make a plan on how to break into Prince's mansion the next night.

"Yeah, let's go."

Not long after, we appeared at their door and Zach knocked. "Hey, guys, it's us. Open up."

Nick was the one to open the door. "Hey,"

"What's with you? You look defeated or something." Zach questioned in regards to Nick's tired expression as we walked in.

I laughed. "Grant probably beat him in 2k again."

But when we made it in the room, it seems Nick wasn't the only one in an off mood.

"Whoa, what happened? The argument wasn't that bad." Zach exclaimed as we looked around.

Jonas watched us apologetically from where he sat comforting Liz. Macey for once wasn't being hostile toward her fiance. When Nick returned from letting us in and sat back down on the couch, she sat between his legs and he kissed the top of her head. Bex was buried in Grants' chest, sobbing.

From the looks on the other girls' faces, they'd been crying too.

I stepped forward. "Okay, what the hell is going on here?"

Bex removed herself from Grant's embrace at the sound of my voice. She looked at me, her brown eyes wide and terrified.

"Cammie?" She said.

I froze.

I got cold.

Goosebumps sprouted across my arms.

My head pounded.

So did my heart.

I couldn't breathe.

My vision got blurry.

I felt like I was going to collapse.

But then she was running toward me, as if in slow motion.

Her arms wrapped around my neck, and she held onto me.

Tight.

Her embrace was desperate and intimate. She was beyond relieved to see me but she held me in a way that said she was afraid I'd disappear.

And honestly, at that moment, there's nothing I wanted to do more.

Because that was the moment it happened.

That's the moment everything changed.