Dirty Little Secrets

CHAPTER 28.

CLYDE'S POV

The streetlights flickered like they were running out of battery. I walked beside Gabrielle, our steps slow after the long group study session. Her house was just two blocks away, but I always made sure she got home safe. She’d saved my life during that asthma attack. The least I could do was walk her back.

“You sure you’re okay?” Gabrielle asked, glancing at me sideways. “You’ve been quiet since we left the library.”

I forced a smile, shoving my hands deeper into my pockets. “Yeah. Just thinking about the project. And… other stuff.”

The truth was, I’d been on edge for days. Summer hadn’t come home. George said she was “staying with a friend,” but his voice had that tight edge it gets when he’s lying to protect me. My sister was hiding something big. She always did. After our parents died, she became this unbreakable wall between me and the world. But walls crack eventually.

A shadow moved behind us. I caught it in the corner of my eye—someone keeping pace, staying just far enough back that the streetlights didn’t fully catch them. My stomach tightened. I didn’t say anything to Gabrielle. No need to scare her if I was just being paranoid.

We reached her front gate. She turned to me with a small smile. “Thanks for walking me. Text me when you get home, okay?”

“Will do.” I waited until she was inside before turning back toward George’s apartment. The shadow was still there. My heart picked up speed. I quickened my pace, pretending I was just in a hurry.

The footsteps behind me matched mine. It was getting faster with every taken step.

I broke into a run.

“Hey!” A voice called out—deep, calm, but commanding. “Clyde Walker. Stop running, kid.”

I didn’t listen. My lungs burned, and I could feel the familiar tightness that warned an asthma attack might be coming. Not now. Please, not now. I pushed harder, cutting through a narrow alley that led toward the main road.

A hand grabbed my backpack and yanked me backward. I stumbled, nearly falling. The man spun me around and pinned me against the brick wall—not hard enough to hurt, but firm enough that I couldn’t break free easily.

He was tall, dressed in dark clothes, face partially hidden by a hood. His eyes were sharp, calculating. Not the kind of guy you wanted following you at night.

“Let me go!” I snapped, trying to sound braver than I felt. My voice cracked anyway. “I’ll scream. My sister will—”

“Your sister,” the man interrupted smoothly, “That is exactly why I’m here.” He released my backpack but stayed close, blocking my escape. “I’m a friend of Summer’s. Been trying to reach her for days. She’s not replying to texts. Not picking up calls. You wouldn’t happen to know where she is, would you?”

I stared at him, chest heaving. Skepticism and fear warred inside me. “I don’t know you. And if you’re really her friend, why are you following me like some creep?”

The man chuckled, but there was no warmth in it. “Smart kid. Protective. Good, because she definitely needs that.” He leaned in slightly. “Name’s not important right now. Just tell her I’m looking for her. She can’t keep running from this. From what she is. From what she has to do.”

My hands trembled. I hadn’t seen Summer in days. George was being cagey. The bruises I’d glimpsed on her before she disappeared… something was very wrong. “What do you mean? Is she in trouble? If you hurt her—”

“I’m not the one hurting her,” he cut me off, voice low and intense. “She’s doing that all by herself. Running, hiding, and fighting what’s coming. Tell her this for me: "You can’t keep running. Just embrace it.”

The words sent a chill down my spine. They sounded like a warning wrapped in a threat.

He stepped back, melting into the shadows of the alley. “Go home, Clyde. Stay close to your sister. She’s going to need you soon.”

“Wait!” I lunged forward, but he was already gone—swallowed by the darkness like he’d never been there. My heart hammered so hard I had to lean against the wall, pulling out my inhaler just in case.

Who the hell was he?

I walked the rest of the way to George’s apartment on autopilot, mind racing. Summer had been acting strange for weeks. The late nights. The mysterious phone calls she thought I didn’t hear. The way George and that guy Kingsley kept hovering around her like bodyguards.

When I got inside, George was on the couch, looking exhausted. “Clyde? You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I hesitated, Summer’s absence weighing on me like lead. “Some guy followed me and Gabrielle. Said he was Summer’s friend. Told me to give her a message.”

George sat up straight, eyes sharpening. “What message?”

I swallowed hard. “You can’t keep running. Just embrace it.”

George’s face went pale. He pulled out his phone immediately. “Stay here. I’m calling her, right now”

I sank onto the couch, fear twisting in my gut. My big sister had always protected me. But for the first time, I wondered if she was the one who needed saving.

And whoever that man in the shadows was… he knew way too much.

The game Summer was playing was bigger than I thought.

And it was getting closer to home.