Here
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He casts a glance toward me. “We can’t go back to Springfield. We’ll have to take our chances in the wild.”
I don’t care where we go.
We clear the bodies and reach the other side of the portal. Reece stops, searching the forest. A gunshot rings out.
Evan’s still out there somewhere. If the roles were reversed, he’d never leave me. I grab the door handle and open. “I’m not leaving him.” I jump out the door and run around the front of the trunk, toward the woods.
“Julia! Come back!” Reece jumps out and curses as he follows me.
I enter the eerie forest as my heart pounds, my blood heavy with fear. A figure emerges from the shadows of the trees and I lift my gun. “Stop right there!”
“What are you still doing here?” An irritated voice calls out. Evan limps from behind a tree.
I drop my arm and collapse to my knees, crying in relief.
Reece stands next to me. “What took you so long?”
Evan continues toward us, dragging his leg. “I got trapped by a bluff and only had one bullet left. I wanted to make it count.” His left pant leg is torn and blood stained. He sees the fear in my eyes. “It’s just a cut. I’m fine.” He pulls me off the ground into a hug.
I rest my cheek on his chest, clutching his jacket in a tight grip.
“We need to get out of here,” Reece says. “Reinforcements are going to show up soon.”
I help Evan hobble to the truck. I climb in first and he slides in next to me as Reece settles in the driver’s seat.
Evan looks out the windshield then to Reece. “The wilds?”
“Gotta better idea?”
“Not yet. You still looking for your mother?”
Reece nods.
“Good. She might be able to help us send Julia home.”
Reece and I look at Evan in surprise, but he refuses to elaborate as we drive into the dark and unknown.
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank my daughter Julia for harassing me to write a book that “she could read.” She asked me to name the character after her, which I did with one caveat: If it got too weird I would change the character’s name. Lucky for her, I recognized two very distinct people. Julia Phillips is NOTHING like Julia Swank.
And I kind of like it that way.
I’d also like to thank Julia for being so excited about Here that she formed a book club comprised of eighth grade girls to beta read it. (And so did most of their mothers.) It was very exciting for me the night the girls broke out into an argument over who they preferred in the love triangle—Evan or Reece. Many thanks to Emily Cook, Megan Frerking, Grace Klausen, Shelby Reiff, Rachel Roberts, Brooke Sherman, and Allison Smith.
I also want to thank my son Trace Dixon. He was a tremendous help with the world building of Evan’s universe, letting me bounce ideas off of him during multiple power lunches. He claimed it was fun but it helped that he really likes lunches paid for by mom. It also helps that the Salty Iguana is his favorite Mexican restaurant.
Here wouldn’t the book it is today without Trisha Leigh, my critique partner and awesome friend, who stuffed one young adult book in my hands after another when I told her I was going to write a YA next. And offered nothing but encouragement when I hit a plot wall and freaked out. “You’ll get it,” she said. “You always do.”
And last, I’d like to thank my editor Jim Thomsen, who always offers support and encouragement and makes my books so much better. Little did he know what he was getting into when I asked him to edit my first book.
About the Author
Denise Grover Swank lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri and has two previously published, award winning books—Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes, a humorous southern mystery and Chosen, a paranormal thriller/romance. Denise is the single mother of six children ranging in age from four to twenty-four. Her fourteen-year-old daughter is quick to point out what she gets wrong about teenage behavior in her books—and what she gets right.
You can find out more about Denise and her other books at www.denisegroverswank.com
Table of Contents
Title page
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
About the Author
Table of Contents
Title page
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
About the Author