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“I’m kidding,” he said. “You started that. No. What I’m saying is, you’re in over your head. You don’t even really have to work with me if you don’t want to. Just take a damn break that isn’t neck deep with these Academy boys. I won’t even talk about them. You just need to hang around someone normal for a bit. I won’t ever do anything you don’t want me to do.” He held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
“Scouts use three fingers.”
He flicked up a third finger and grinned. “Sorry,” he said. “I won’t force you to stay, but stay long enough to complete one of my jobs. If you still aren’t happy, you can go back. But it doesn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to be the Academy way. With all the kidnapping and the guns and risking your life.”
The deal didn’t seem bad, but I knew there was more to it than just promising to work with him for a couple of weeks. I’d seen how he was going to set up one of his jobs, where he was going to poison a well in a foreign town far away. He was trying to save lives in our city, but he was making other people sick in the process.
Most of my concern was for Brandon, Marc, Axel and even Raven and Corey. I would be making a deal that they’d be unhappy about. They’d tell me not to trust him. Just like he was telling me not to trust them.
But I was also getting in too deep with Brandon and the others, and headed for full out disaster. I had growing feelings for all of them. I didn’t like not being able to choose between them. The longer I held out, the harder it became, and the more I was sure that saying anything at all would destroy the group. Wasn’t Blake’s offer what was looking for? An opportunity to step back for a little while and consider what I was doing?
The most important part of all was that Blake could very well help me. He had resources of his own, and Alice wasn’t aware of him, which gave us an advantage.
Still, in my heart, it felt like I was betraying the boys. Would I rather hurt them by going away for a couple of weeks, or get them killed by Alice by being incompetent? I felt Blake’s intentions were honest. From his perspective, it did seem the boys were dragging me down into risky situations.
Blake stood by, looking confident. I squinted at him. “And you won’t try anything funny?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. You’ll know my every move. And not like last time where I was holding back some little things...”
“Like poisoning a well? And knowing who I was the whole time?”
“You can’t blame me for some of that. I probably should have told you the truth about knowing who you were. But you lied to me, too.”
I had. Blake and I had gotten off on the wrong foot from the start. I sighed. I didn’t have any other option. “Fine,” I said. “Two weeks. That’s it.”
“It’ll do,” he said. He leaned forward, gave me a peck on the mouth and then smiled. “Seal it with a kiss.”
I rolled my eyes. I reached back, wanting to put my hair up in a ponytail or something because it felt messy, but having to settle for combing my fingers through it. “Just tell me what to do.”
“Get in the car, for one. It’s chilly out. And why are you wearing that ridiculous outfit? I do like the shoes. Doesn’t seem like your style, though.”
HUNTING WITH A FOX
Blake drove off the island. It got dark as we pulled away from the island’s street lamps. In the car, with the heater on, I could strip off the dress shirt and leave on the T-shirt underneath. “Where are we going?” I asked.
“To see Doyle, first. That’s where we’ll start.”
“I already saw him. He said the core was at the guy’s house, only I couldn’t find it.”
“Doyle’s tricky,” he said. “And you don’t know anything about this core. Doyle will be able to give us more clues. First rule of doing things the smart way: Know what you can do and know what you’re doing.”
“The guys know things. This was just a surprise. And we were caught off guard. It wasn’t any of our business and this Eddie group dragged us in.” I was irritated that he was saying the guys were stupid.
“It can happen,” he said. “But you don’t just go running off after bad guys and secret phone services without knowing what you’re handing over and who you’re dealing with. Your first mistake was your first move after Brandon was taken. You exposed yourselves. Now it’s not just Brandon, but three of them. You shouldn’t have been bait.”
“I thought they’d kill him,” I said. “We were trying to find the core so we could jump them when they showed up.”
“And if they had, they wouldn’t have just handed him over. They might have shot you, or him, or both. You didn’t even know if Brandon was alive at all. If Brandon was already dead, then you were chasing a lost cause.”
I bristled, not liking this worst-case scenario where Brandon ends up dead. “Were we supposed to just assume he was dead and stop looking?”
“They were risking your life to do it, and their own lives, too,” he said. He combed his hair with his fingers as he drove. “That’s something you’ll have to learn. Taking a risk is one thing. Suicide missions shouldn’t be in the equation. It’s common sense. Not looking ahead also meant you were risking Brandon’s life; you couldn’t have known if trying to save him would have gotten him killed.”
I wanted to fight him on this, but I was too tired to play the game of what might have happened. We’d been working with what information we had, even if it wasn’t enough.
I fell silent, trying to keep myself from falling asleep, but I think I did sleep for a while. There were stretches of time where I closed my eyes, and then opened them, finding the scenery completely different. Before I could figure out where we were, my eyes would drift closed again.
I jumped at the sound of a car door shutting. I sat up, rubbing my eyes, noticing the outline of Doyle’s farmhouse and yard full of satellite dishes.
Part of me was tempted to stay out in the car this time, not wanting to get shot at again. Plus, the car’s seat was comfortable and I was really tired.
I drummed up the energy by thinking about the guys: Axel, Brandon, Marc. They were missing. I needed to find them.
There were no outside lights on at the house, and once the car lights went dim, it was shadows and deeper shadows all the way. I kept my hands out and stomped through the grass for anything I couldn’t see and might trip or bump into. I tried the cell phone as a light, but it wasn’t providing enough. I should have remembered about the flashlight, and was tempted to go back for it, but I didn’t want to lose Blake.
I reached out for Blake, wanting to find his back.
The moment I touched him, he shifted and found my hand. He took it in his and held on to it, keeping me beside him. Without a word, he continued through the dark.
I stiffened, but held on, not wanting to get lost. After everything I’d done to him, the surprising warm gesture sent a wave of guilt through me. Despite many things, Blake was here when he had no reason to be, no stake in the game. He was simply here because I had called. It was hard not to be grateful to him.
Blake guided me through the dark front doorway. I paused, waiting for him to find a light.
Instead, he continued through the house. I barely remembered the layout, and kept right behind him. Was he insane? It was one thing to approach Doyle, who had a shotgun, during daylight. What if he thought we were robbing his house? Would he shoot first and ask questions later?
There was smoke in the air, but it was stale. I hadn’t checked the time on the way here, but I didn’t think it was super late. The house was silent, except for the hum of a refrigerator.
Blake took me through what I’d remembered was the living room, and instead of moving on beyond it to the parlor with the computer and collection of old furniture, he turned down a hallway. From this point on, I was at his mercy. Maybe he’d lock me in a cellar and go after Axel and the others on his own... did Hannahan houses have cellars?
Blake released my hand and whispered, “Keep still. Don’t move
.”
Why couldn’t he have told me to simply wait in the car? I could have slept a little longer instead of standing in the dark in the middle of Doyle’s house.
I was left alone in the dark, and waited. The longer I was left waiting though, the more I was anxious and wanted to get moving. Thoughts of ghosts and zombies filled my head. I wasn’t scared of the dark, but this was a creepy farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere where I already knew the owner had a shotgun.
Crash.
I jumped and then froze, terrified.
“Fucking Christ, shit!” came a familiar, loud Irish voice.
“What were you thinking letting Kayli go into a place where you know there’s an illegal network?”
“Who’s Kayli? I don’t know...”
Thunk.
There were more noises and grunts. “Doyle,” Blake said. “Get up. We’ve got work to do.”
There was more grumbling before a light went on. It was dim, but it managed to show me I was in a hallway, where there was a bathroom with the door open on the right, and a back bedroom on the left, the door open. I tiptoed forward, spotting Blake standing off to the side of the bed. Doyle, wide-eyed with bed-head and wearing only dingy, faded boxers with penguins on them and a lime T-shirt, was standing bent over the side table fiddling with the lamp.
