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Eighteen
There wasa tiny seed of fear that the police or members of the council would be waiting for us when we arrived at Luca’s house. It didn’t seem possible that we had really gotten away with our heist. We didn’t know what the girls would do, not yet, but for now, we were in the clear. All we needed was time to look over the files.
“Come on.” Luca led us up to his bedroom before sitting and locking the door. He’d already turned on the security system, so there was no way of anyone getting in without us knowing, but he probably wanted to play it safe.
Gavin sat at the desk and opened the waiting laptop. He slid the flash drive into place as Luca and I stood over his shoulders watching the screen.
A window popped up with the list of files, and I sucked in a breath as he clicked on the first one. I scanned the new page and felt disappointment growing in my gut. This was the most basic information that anyone could get off a quick internet search. It didn’t even include her real last name.
“Keep going,” Luca hit the back of his hand against Gavin’s upper arm.
The next file came up and was also lacking anything interesting.
It took until the sixth file to find anything that made tonight worth it. A picture of Juliet when she was younger, maybe in college. Her hair was light brown, and she was laughing at someone just outside of the image’s frame. Changing her hair to blonde wasn’t incriminating, but it was what the rest of the page said that made me hold onto Gavin’s shoulder.
“Known affiliates: roommate, Kate Burton (AS), boyfriend, Freddie Haul (AS), classmate, Henry Chu (AS), friend, Rebecca Wilk (AS).” The list continued but I stopped. Every person in her immediate circle was involved with the group trying to destroy the Society. There was no way she was the only one not aware.
“Does this mean she has an ability?” I asked. I’d wondered about this, but there was no way to prove it.
“Possibly,” Luca said while keeping his eyes on the screen.
“Her parents are Patricia and Jameson Grovel,” Gavin said in a low voice, and I felt Luca tense beside me.
“Oh no,” he whispered.
“What? Who are they?” I pressed.
“They’re leaders within the AS. High enough that we know their names. Everyone in the Society does,” Gavin explained.
“They’re some of the top advocates in the mission to out those with abilities. We have an entire global division dedicated to stopping their attempts.” Luca said.
The air left my body all at once, and I stepped back to lean against the edge of the bed. She was one of them. She was working against us.
“But she told my dad their names were Angela and Duane, and her brother. What about him?”
Luca and Gavin shared a look. “She probably changed their names, too, as a part of her story.”
What was she honest about? What did we really know about Juliet?
“But how?” I asked the question plaguing me since the second I suspected her. “The timeline doesn’t make sense.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Gavin turned enough to face me. “The AS doesn’t just target the Society. They focus on making connections, like we do, to the powerful and influential. The difference is we work with these people to stop crime and improve communities. They do it to gain control. Juliet might have been sent into the company because of its reach, and it might have just been a fluke that she ended up working with your dad. It’s entirely possible that she does have honest feelings for him and doesn’t know about you.”
I wanted to believe that was the truth. More than anything I wanted Juliet’s relationship with me and my dad to be genuine. I wanted this whole thing to be one big mix up with a simple, easy explanation. The world, at least my world, didn’t work like that.
I shook my head. “That’s too much of a coincidence.”
Even if things somehow managed to end well, I could never be completely honest with her. By being near her I could be putting myself, the guys, and their families in danger. She could use me and our relationship against me. No matter what. This couldn’t end well.
“I agree. As much as I hate to think that Juliet’s been lying and scheming this whole time, I just don’t see how it could have just happened. There had to be some level of planning involved.”
I fell back onto the comforter and sighed. This was really happening. Juliet, either directly or not, was a part of the AS, and because of that, she couldn’t have a place in my life. I would never be able to trust her. A tiny part of me had held onto hope that this could be all a big misunderstanding, and she and dad could still be together. But I knew that even if that was the case, I couldn’t be a part of their lives.
Dad would be in a position to choose. I never wanted to do that to him.
“I need the whole truth,” I said to the ceiling.
“We’ll try,” Gavin replied gently.
