Specter: Circuit Series Book One

by Dailey, Lacey

  Her head came off my shoulder and she pressed her forehead against mine. Her face was blotchy, her eyes were bright red, hair was stuck to her cheeks with snot, but she was still so fucking beautiful. I palmed her cheeks and held her to me while she cried. “He told me he took you!” She sobbed. “He told me he didn’t need Julie because he took you instead.”

  My grip on her tightened. “What?”

  “Kade!” She cried. “He told me his men took you. He told me he was going to cut you into pieces and mail them to me! I tried to get him to take me instead. I wanted to make a trade, but he wouldn’t listen and-"

  “What the hell did you just say?”

  A bomb went off somewhere inside me. My bones cracked, the world around me went up in flames, and my ears popped. I could not hear anything but that one sentence.

  I wanted to make a trade.

  “Did you just say you tried to trade yourself for me?”

  “Of course I did! Wren, you didn’t hear what he said they were going to do! I couldn’t let that happen to you! I’m so sorry. I drug you into so much darkness and now they are gonna be after you! He wouldn’t take me, Wren! I’m so sorry! You have to run!” She tried to scramble off my lap.

  I moved my hands to her hips and held her against me. “Listen to me, Sage. Nobody is going to take me anywhere, you hear me? Circuit found Julie. She’s safe, and the men who took her are in custody.”

  She sniffed. “What?”

  “Kade was lying to you, Sunshine. Nobody is going to hurt me. It’s over.”

  “Did you say they caught the man who took Julie?”

  “Yes.”

  Her chest heaved. “That man was… that was the man who…”

  “I know, babe. I know who he was.”

  She collapsed against me, shoving her face in my neck. “Thank you.” She whispered. “Thank you.”

  “It was all of us.”

  She let out a small sob. “Trish would want you to have so many crayons.”

  “It’d be my honor to place them on my desk.”

  The room went silent for a while. I could feel several sets of eyes on me but didn’t lift my head from the crook of her neck. I held her until her sobs slowed and she sat up.

  “I never want to see him again.”

  “You won’t.” I cupped her cheeks and brushed away leftover tears. “And, Sage? If you ever try to trade my safety for yours again, we will have so many problems. Do you hear me?”

  She looked taken back. “If I had to choose between me or you, Wren, I would choose you. Every time. Besides, it was me who drug you into this life. I should’ve left you alone.”

  Now that was a sentence that ripped out my insides. “Please, don’t.” I begged. “Don’t ever leave me alone, Sage.”

  “You don’t know what they’d do to you. You didn’t hear it.”

  “You’re right.” I conceded. “I didn’t hear it, and you know what? I’m so fucking sorry you had to. But here’s the thing, I am not scared of Kade Wilson. I am scared of losing you.”

  She pushed a lock of hair from her wet face. “Why?”

  My lips quirked. “You have no idea, do you?”

  “Know what?”

  I pulled her face close to mine and brushed my lips over her ear. “I love you, phantom girl. I love you so much.”

  There was a hitch in her breath. She yanked away from me and grabbed my face, staring me in the eyes as if she were looking for a sign that told her I was lying. Her big blue eyes were popping from her head. Before she could say anything, I pressed my lips to hers.

  Her body flailed in surprise. For a moment, nothing happened. We sat there, our lips pressed together and neither of us moved. My chest was going wild against hers. I could feel her trembling in my lap as I waited for the moment that came next.

  That moment was spectacular.

  A soft sigh went from her lips to mine a second before she deepened the kiss. Her hands went from fisting my shirt to gripping the hairs at the nape of my neck. She sunk into me like she trusted me to shield her from all the darkness the world had.

  “Sun.” She whispered against my lips. “You’re my sun.”

  Something inside me happened after that. It was as if my whole world had tilted just a smidge. Like loving her made the world feel different. The air felt lighter. Everything appeared brighter. And things didn’t seem so scary anymore.

  I pushed my fingers into her snow-white hair and kissed her until we were forced to come up for air. She rested her cheek against my shoulder and kept peppering kisses along my neck and cheek until her body went slack.

  “That was my first kiss.” She whispered. “Well... the first one that mattered anyway.”

  Not a damn thing could stop the grin from forming on my face. “That was my first kiss too.”

  She flew upward. “Really?”

  “The first one that mattered anyway.”

  She shook her head, a slow smile forming on her lips. “Wren?”

  “Sage.”

  “I love you too.”

  Epilogue

  SAGE

  Several Months Later…

  If someone had told me a year ago I’d be standing in a private elevator in an abandoned building descending into a top-secret underworld that housed a dozen criminals, I would’ve insisted they get tested for every drug known. Yet here I was, typing in a password created especially for me and taking the short ride into Circuit.

  The first time I’d stepped off the elevator, I was awestruck. Ya know those moments when a teenage girl meets her celebrity crush and she geeks out so bad there’s nothing more than flailing hands and loud squeals? My first time in Circuit was similar to that. I guess I was sort of picturing a run-down building with newspapers covering the windows and beer bottles everywhere. I should’ve known better than to compare Circuit to any one of Kade’s hideouts. When I’d asked Wren to take me to Circuit I wasn’t expecting to walk into a place that looked like it was funded by a tech nerd with millions and millions of dollars to spend. I didn’t even know what half of the technology in the place was called but I had a feeling the enormous blinking thingy on the back wall rivaled the cost of a small house.

  “Phantom girl is here!” Ace shouted my arrival before I had both feet off the elevator.

  “Hi, Sunshine!” Wren bellowed, not bothering to look up from his screen. There was a foam cup on the corner of his desk I knew was filled with warm Diet Coke. I grimaced when he lifted it and took a sip.

  “What treats did you bring us?” August hollered.

  “It’s not my girl’s job to feed you.” Wren barked. “She ain’t your mama.”

  “His mama doesn’t feed him.” Zelda cracked. “And his girlfriends keep dumping him.”

  “Why do I need a girlfriend to feed me when Wren’s girl feeds me all the time?”

  “You act like you’re special, man.” Ace leaned back in his chair and placed his right foot on his left knee. “But she feeds all of us.”

  It was true. I did feed them. It started the first time I came to Circuit. After Wren had gotten prior permission from Cruz, he introduced me to the wonderful people who made up the circuit board. I’d made cupcakes as another token of my gratitude and personally thanked each one of them for what they did for me, Julie, and everybody else whose lives they made significantly better. Since that day, I’d been bringing them treats at least once a week. It stemmed from my boredom at home. What’s more, baking meant I got to spend more time with my mom, and since the hard questions became easier to answer, I reveled in making up for the time I’d missed with her.

  “I come with zucchini bread.” I announced, holding up a tray everybody seemed to miss.

  Ace let out a dramatic groan and thrust his hands outward. I rolled my eyes and plopped the tray of pre-sliced bread on the corner of his desk.

  “What the hell is zucchini bread?” August blurted.

  “Bread with vegetables in it!” Ace shouted, rubbing his hands together and li
cking his lips. “It’s the shit!”

  “Come get it!” I hollered. “Before Ace devours it.”

  The clicking sound of a hundred fingers hard at work stopped abruptly. The silence was accompanied by desk chairs rolling across the cement floor. I smiled watching August shove his sister’s chair and send her flying. Ace had two slices down his throat before anybody had even gotten to his desk. Zelda was smacking Marshall’s hand to stop him from taking the big piece and there were cackles all around.

  These people are not criminals, I thought. These people were one big family. And how lucky was I that I got to be a part of the family?

  I grabbed a slice of bread before it was gone and carried it towards the man who kept this family together. My feet halted at the bottom of the small staircase and knocked on the railing as if I were about to enter a teenage boy’s bedroom.

  “Hi, Cruz.”

  “Hi, Sage.”

  Cruz drug his eyes from his screen. I knew from experience I’d only be able to hold his attention for a moment. The first time I laid eyes on Cruz, I was massively intimidated. I squeezed the shit out of Wren’s hand and my legs shook as I approached him, taking in his tattoos, the gauges in his ears, and the scowl on his face. And then he started to talk, and I learned that Cruz with no first name is the second kindest man I’d ever met. He lives and breathes this organization. Ace likes to joke if we cut Cruz open we’d find a giant circuit board rather than bones and muscles.

  “Do you want some zucchini bread?” I held my hand out, wincing over the fact I didn’t have a napkin or a plate to put it on. “My hands are clean.”

  He chuckled and jerked his chin. “Sure, mama. That’d be awesome.”

  I climbed up the stairs and transferred the still warm bread from my hands to his. He took a huge bite.

  “Thanks for this, by the way.” He mumbled, crumbs flying. “You don’t have to keep feeding us.”

  “August says otherwise.”

  “I’d say August should learn how to feed himself but last time he tried to cook here, he blew up the fucking microwave in the loft.”

  A laugh burst out of me. “I think I’ll keep bringing snacks.”

  He nodded and shoved the rest of the slice in his mouth. “Good idea.” He turned back to his screen. I took that as my cue to leave. My conversations with Cruz didn’t last much longer than that but I’d made it my personal mission to get to know every member at Circuit a little better.

  Despite the remain anonymous rule, they’d accepted me with open arms.

  Figuratively. Not literally. I still couldn’t handle when people touched me. I was getting better. But I was not ready for a full-on hug from somebody who wasn’t named Wren Wilder.

  Speaking of Wren Wilder...

  “Hi, babe.” I scampered across the building and plopped my bottom on the corner of his desk that didn’t hold the day-old soda.

  “Hey, you.” He finally lifted his gaze and gave me his attention. “Please tell me you saved me some of that bread.”

  I grinned and pulled a pre-wrapped slice out of the purse that was slung across my body. I held it outward. He clasped his hands and looked toward the sky, mumbling a thank you.

  “She loves me.” He told the sky.

  I nudged his shoulder. “You goob.”

  “Sunshine, you know I get excited when you bake.”

  “You get excited by a two-dollar bottle of Diet Coke from a vending machine.”

  “That’s different.” He barely had the foil off the bread before he shoved half the slice in his mouth. “Diet Coke is its own category.”

  “What category is that? My strange addiction category?”

  He shook his head and adjusted his glasses. “The things I can’t live without category. Diet Coke used to be in the top spot.”

  “What took its place? Lucky Charms?”

  He chuckled and gripped my chin, pressing a light kiss to my lips. “You, Sage. You’re the number one thing I can’t live without.”

  “Oh God!” Zelda gagged. “Can you two stop with this lovey dovey shit on the daily? Josie and I are engaged and we ain’t even that bad.”

  “Specter and Phantom sitting in tree! K-I-S-"

  “How old are you, bro?” Wren chuckled at Ace’s song and finished the rest of his snack.

  I grinned at the use of my honorary code name.

  Phantom.

  Ace, August, and the rest of the crew decided I needed a code name. Cruz agreed for safety precautions. The day I got my code name was also the day I was given my own secret lair password and the emergency security code.

  Ace chose Phantom, and I couldn’t argue with that. Being Phantom girl was what brought me closer to Wren. It’s given me all these new friends.

  Plus, Specter and Phantom? How badass was that?

  “You staying at home tonight?” Wren asked. “Want me to come stay with you?”

  He did his best to sound casual, but I knew why he felt the need to ask. These days, I stayed in his apartment with him more times than not and it wasn’t ever a conversation. It was just routine. I kept a toothbrush and fresh socks at his place for Pete’s sake, but tonight was different. Because tomorrow morning I was going to wake up and attend my first day of college.

  It took months and months and months for me to make the decision, but once I did, it felt like the weight of a thousand men was lifted off my entire body. I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to study, but I knew I wanted to get an education. Brett and I signed up for classes at Trinity Washington together. I’ll be taking general courses while he’s diving head first back into biochemistry.

  “Wren, I’m fine.” I told him. “I was just gonna stay at your place like I always do. Brett’s gonna meet me on campus in the morning.”

  “Oh, I’m going too.”

  “What for?”

  He looked at me like I sprouted horns. “Because it’s my girl's first day of college?”

  “Are you gonna make me pose for pictures too?”

  “Hell yes.” He stood from his chair and palmed my face. “You know how proud I am of you, right?”

  I kissed him. “Yeah. You tell me like every waking moment.”

  “I don’t want you to forget.”

  “I’m not sure how I ever could.”

  In the time since I’d discovered Specter, I’ve managed to crack down barriers that held me back one by one. I still had my triggers, and there were moments I’d get thrust back in time and freeze up. Every once in a while, something would happen that rendered my mind and body immobile. But those moments were fewer and farther between than they’d ever been. I no longer screamed when somebody brushed against me. I no longer avoided restaurants like the plague. I didn’t wake up screaming every other night.

  For the first time since I’d met Julie, I actually believed I was healing. Although she was no longer my official counselor, I spoke to her weekly. She moved back to Florida to live with her mother after she’d been released from the hospital. She works in a center counseling patients who’d suffered physical trauma. She said it was an ode to her husband who had been desperate to get better but wasn’t given the proper resources. I didn’t reach out to her until over a month after she went back to Florida. I was still angry and she was still filled with guilt. Now, I’d consider her a friend.

  My new counselor’s name was Mandy. She wasn’t Julie and there weren’t any photos of the sun on her walls, but it didn’t matter. Not when I had the sun sitting right next to me and holding my hand for the full hour I got all the hard questions hurled at me.

  “Do you have everything you need? Notebooks? Pens? Highlighters? Calculator? Ruler? Protractor?”

  “Protractor? Wren, I don’t even have any math classes this semester.”

  “I was testing you.”

  I chuckled. “I’m going to be okay, Wren. I’m ready for this.” I said it with so much confidence, it was impossible to miss how much I’d actually believed it.

  “I know you are. An
d I’m glad Brett is going with you.”

  “I’m not!” Ace pouted, clearly eavesdropping on our conversation. “I’m gonna miss my big boo bear.”

  “Dude, you have got to stop calling him that.”

  Ace frowned. “I don’t call him that to his face, Wilder. That’d be super weird.”

  “Are you crushing on my brother?” I faked a gag.

  “Anybody with eyeballs that work properly is crushing on your brother.” He wagged his eyebrows.

  I rolled my eyes. Over the last few months, Ace and Brett had become incredibly tight. Wren joked his best friend status was getting taken away, but I knew as well as Ace did Wren was more than happy to welcome Brett. Aside from that, it was nice Brett and Ace got along so well. They'd even moved in together after Brett had come to conclusion he wanted to move out and Ace announced he had an extra room.

  With those two always together, it was easier to ditch them so Wren and I could spend some time alone without one of them hovering and watching our every move due to boredom or so-called “big brother duties.”

  “The two of you are ridiculous.” I declared. “We only have class three days a week. Besides, game night on Wednesdays will always be a thing.”

  “Yeah, and you two shitholes keep cheating!” Ace accused. “Brett and I have made a game plan. You bitches are going down.”

  “Don’t call her a bitch!” Wren growled. “And there is no game plan for MarioKart. You either win or you don’t. In your case, you don’t.”

  “Not all of us have girlfriends who lived as Princess Peach in another life.”

  “True.” He sent me a smile I felt deep in my soul. “I’m pretty God damn lucky, huh?”

  “I’d argue I’m just as lucky.”

  He cupped my face and kissed the ever loving shit out of me right in front of everybody. I pulled back and pushed him back in his seat, standing up. “Get back to work, Specter. I’ll be up in the loft waiting for you.”

  He grabbed my wrist before I could take even one step. “Before you go, we got you something for your first day.”

  “We?”

  “All of us!” August whooped, flying from his chair. “Guys?”