“You guys are juniors?” Leah asked.
“Yeah.” I was getting used to upgrading myself.
“We're seniors,” she said.
I glanced around at the five girls. “All of you?”
“Well, yes, except for Genesis. She's a junior. But I meant me and my brother.”
“Logan?” I asked, sounding like a moron. “You're the same age?”
“Yes. But we aren't twins. We're actually steps.”
Steps. “How long have your parents...” I wasn't sure how to phrase that, so I said, “How long have you been steps?”
“Too long,” she muttered.
“I would love to be Logan's stepsister,” another girl said. “I'd just sit around drinking in his perfection.”
I looked to Leah for guidance.
She rolled her eyes. “Daphne, if you don't stop creeping on Logan, I'm going to have to cancel our friendship status.”
“She can't,” Daphne said. “I'm head cheerleader, and she's on the squad.”
“Don't you hate it when girls creep on your brother?” Leah asked in a casual tone.
Uh oh again. Her tone was way too casual. She totally had her eye on Will. The silence had stretched on long enough that everyone was watching me. “Uh, um, sometimes?”
My answer had pleased her if the grin on her face was any indication. She glanced over at Will again.
“Are you, um, seeing West?” I asked. Please say yes. Please say yes.
Leah's lip curled in disgust. “Not if he won the lottery and bought a love potion. He's such a perv. I've been fighting him off since junior high.”
Oh. Darn.
Leah's eyes widened and she said, “You aren't interested in him, are you? If you are, I mean, I shouldn't have trashed him.”
“No. I'm not. He was kind of staring at me outside.” I didn't want to say too much in case one of them did like the guy.
“Oh right,” Genesis said. “That thing where he checks out your body like it's a compliment instead of a skeezy move.”
“Ew. I hate it when he does that,” the pretty Asian girl said. “It's like bugs crawling all over your skin.”
“I think it's nice to be appreciated,” the other blonde said.
There was a group eye roll.
“April has a skewed sense of propriety.”
I glanced at April.
“I like boys a lot,” she said.
No way was I asking her to expand on that comment. Hoping to change the subject, I said, “So who's dating Logan?”
Five assessing gazes landed on me and began to beat against my forehead as if probing for information.
“Why, Amanda?” Leah looked gleeful, and I was very afraid she was hoping we could date each other's brother. Only Will was not my brother.
The staring continued, and I struggled for a way to divert their attention. I knew one thing for certain. We had to find the people behind this assassination plot, and we had to find them fast. “I just figured one of you guys was his girlfriend.”
“Whose girlfriend?” a voice asked from behind me, and I turned to see that Logan was standing there.
Oh no. I was walking right into a setup with this guy in less than an hour.
“Will,” I stammered. “Will doesn't have a girlfriend.” I couldn't believe I actually managed to say those words.
“The real question, Amanda,” he said, crouching down to my eye level, “is whether you have a boyfriend.”
Oh. No. I looked into his brown eyes and realized that even though he was no Will, he was hot. My shyness kicked in. “I... uh... no.”
“No boyfriend?” he asked.
I shook my head, “No.”
“And Will doesn't have a girlfriend,” Leah piped up. “Isn't that interesting?”
“Yes,” he said, not taking his eyes off me. “That is.”
Suddenly, Will was standing beside us. “We should get back, Amanda. Mom will worry.”
Oh, thank God. He'd given me an out.
“It's Christmas break, Will.” Leah had pasted herself beside him. “Surely you don't have a curfew.”
“No,” he answered, “but we didn't tell her where we were going. She's going to wonder why we aren't back from the gym.”
Logan stood, and I jumped to my feet. “We don't need to get grounded already. Will just got ungrounded yesterday.”
Will raised a brow at me.
Great. Now I'd painted him as a bad boy, and Leah already had the hots for him.
“You're one to talk,” Will replied.
And now I was a bad girl. I didn't need a reputation I couldn't live up to.
Will motioned for me to head for the door. I extricated myself from the pack of girls, but Will had more trouble getting away. When he finally cleared them, I waved to the girls and Logan. Will gave the guys a “later” nod, and we escaped.
The door closed behind us and I sighed. “Wow.”
“They could be watching us. Let's get in our loft.”
Chapter Six
We walked to our temporary home. When we went inside, Grandma and Christie were sitting at the table waiting.
“How'd it go?” Grandma asked.
“You knew where we were?” I started to pat down my clothes. “Are you filming us? You should have warned me.”
“No, not yet,” Christie said. “The common areas of the building are wired with cameras. We saw you meet up with the neighbor kids.”
“How'd it go?” Grandma asked again.
“It went well,” Will answered. He pulled out a chair for me. I sat and then he sat next to me.
“Those guys are pretty aggressive,” I told them. “I wouldn't be comfortable going back if I didn't have Will there.”
Grandma tapped on her tablet. “Logan Childs and Logan West are both eighteen. Ethan Jackson is a month away. And Leah turns eighteen in March. They do have a few years on you and a lot of street smarts.”
“That explains why West goes by West. He's the biggest threat for Amanda. I'm not sure she'd be safe with him. Logan's already hitting on her. He seems like an okay guy so far.”
“And Leah Childs has already made it clear to her friends that she has dibs on Will.”
Will blushed. “This is kind of awkward.”
Christie beamed at us. “Sounds like you two made quite a splash.”
Thinking back to our encounter outside, I said, “More like a thud. Or a splat.”
Will laughed.
Christie and Grandma looked confused.
“You didn't watch us outside?”
“No. The building didn't have the exterior wired, and we haven't made that call yet.” Christie leaned forward. “So what happened?”
“I almost killed Will.”
Grandma chuckled. “I don't think that's going to help us save the Secretary-General.”
“She slammed into me because I stopped suddenly. Then when I hit the ground, she leapfrogged over me to avoid tackling me on the concrete.”
“You had to be there,” I told them.
“But you aren't hurt, Will?” Grandma frowned at him.
“Just some skinned knees,” he answered. “I used some napkins at Ethan's to clean up the blood.”
“What?” I grabbed his leg. “I didn't know. Let me see.”
He scooted the chair back so I could see his knees. “It wasn't a big deal.”
I was a terrible partner. Shouldn't I have noticed that he was hurt? I was a terrible girlfriend too.
“You didn't notice because there was so much going on. You were undercover, and you were making headway.”
He was trying to make me feel better.
“I really wish we had some video of that,” Christie whispered to Grandma.
“We should have had them wired already,” Grandma answered. “I didn't anticipate them running into anyone in the gym.”
What were the chances that they had made some technological advances in their equipment since October? I didn't want Will knowing a
bout devices hidden in my bra. Maybe there was another option? And if we did get a chance to sneak a kiss, I did not want Christie and Nic lecturing us about our covers, or worse, about our kissing technique.
“I do have some good news for you, Amanda.” Christie pulled two iPhones out of a bag near her feet. “We were able to have the iPhone apps fully vetted. You'll be able to use these phones for most of your communications needs.”
“Swag.” Will picked up one of the phones. “What about calling and texting people from home?”
“You can. We programmed the apps on the phones to check you in at places consistent with your Mock UN cover stories. The phones have the technology for the video support.” Christie winked at me. “A much better solution than you had on your last mission.”
I was starting to wonder if that had even been necessary in October. Had she been hazing me? I gave her a suspicious look.
“Nic told me about these when he trained me,” Will said. “I'm glad they've been approved. I'm not sure I could deal with that old school technology Amanda had to use.”
“Especially since you don't wear a bra,” I mumbled.
“Huh?” Will looked up from the phone.
“Nothing. Do we still need contact lenses?”
“Yes. They haven't updated the actual lenses yet. You'll have the same prescription as before. Will doesn't need them, so his won't impact his vision.
“The lens records and transmits video while you're wearing it. If you remove it but don't turn off the support unit, it will continue to take photos for up to several hours. Make sure to cut off the support before you take it out.”
“I've never worn contacts,” Will said. He turned to me. “Doesn't it creep you out to stick your finger in your eye?”
“You'll get used to it.” I shrugged. “It's no biggie.”
Grandma woke me the next morning. “Amanda, there have been some developments. Go ahead and get showered and dressed and come downstairs.”
Developments? “Is everything okay?” I asked.
“The five of us are safe and sound. We'll bring you and Will up to date after you get ready for the day.”
The five of us are safe and sound. Somebody else wasn't. I hurried to shower and wash my hair. I couldn't stand the not-knowing, and drying my hair took forever. Then I pulled on jeans and a shirt and went down to hear the news.
Will sat at the kitchen table with Nic, Christie, and Grandma. Guys had it too easy when it came to getting ready. They sat quietly, waiting for me to join them.
“They wouldn't tell me anything until you got here,” Will said.
Good. “Thank you.”
Nic shifted in his seat. “We had a contact in the motor pool. Yesterday, I met with him and he filled me in on the way things work with the Town Cars—my duties as driver, the way the dispatcher assigns us, the best routes to take... He also gave me the names of two drivers that he thought could be trusted if we needed them. The man is the brother-in-law of one of the Secretary-General's advisors, and he volunteered to work with me.”
Something had happened to him. I braced myself for Nic's next words.
“He was shot in what appears to be a bungled burglary attempt. We don't believe for a second that this was unrelated. It occurred at three a.m.”
Poor guy.
“He survived.” Nic grimaced. “So far. We have a team securing his hospital room.”
“Does this mean they know about Nic?” I asked. “Is his cover blown?”
My aunt sighed. “We don't know. The driver has a reputation for listening in on conversations and taking the information to his brother-in-law. He may have provoked the wrong person. If Nic's cover is blown, it could work to our benefit. It may draw out the assassins.”
My face must have betrayed my horror because Christie said, “Amanda, he's prepared. He's careful. We have a full team backing him up as he goes forward. We also are taking additional precautions with you two and with the loft. We don't mean to scare you.”
“The message here is that you need to be very careful,” Grandma said. “I'll be monitoring everything that happens in this building, especially our loft and the neighbors'. I'll be watching you very closely as well. Whenever you leave the loft without one of us, we'll have a team keeping an eye on you. If they do their job right, you won't even notice.”
I took a deep breath. Somebody had been shot already. This wasn't at all like my first mission. I turned to look at Will. He was nodding to himself. Then he caught my eye.
“We'll be careful,” he said.
“Get your lenses in,” Grandma said. “I need access to what you're seeing at all times.”
“No problem,” Will said. “On it.”
Turns out putting in the contact lens was a problem. Will had to take a break after thirty minutes because his eye was irritated to a screaming-bloody-murder red. He lay on his back on his bed with his eyes closed. I crawled up beside him.
“This is humiliating,” he grumbled.
“Not really. It's not as easy as it looks.”
“All this training to be a spy, and I fail at this.”
“You haven't failed.” Yet.
“The sole requirement for wearing the contact lens is having an eye to stick it in. And I still fail.”
“You haven't actually lost your eye yet, so you aren't doing that bad.”
“Yet?”
Oops. “I'm sorry but I'm going to win the best at being worst again. I mean I'm pretty sure that spies are supposed to be able to run without losing control, losing their balance, and making their partner eat the cement. You know that's probably the first question for a spy candidate. Can you walk and chew gum at the same time? No. Oh well, you aren't spy material. If Christie weren't my aunt, they'd have kicked me out on question number one.”
The bed jiggled as Will laughed along with me. It was nice to think about something besides the danger for a few minutes.
“If Christie had seen me leapfrog over you last night, she'd have to fire me. I'm sure GASI has a certain level of clumsiness that results in automatic termination.” Termination. “Oh crud. What if they don't fire clumsy spies? What if they actually terminate them? Like kill them.”
Will opened his eyes and grinned at me. “I'm sure they wouldn't. Besides I would have been impressed by that evasive flying maneuver you did if I weren't about to smash face first into the sidewalk at the time.”
“Close your eye, it's still red.”
“You don't like red eyes?”
“I like your eyes no matter what, but I like the blue better.”
“You like my eyes?” He was lying there, with his eyes closed, and a smile on his face.
“I do like them.” Here was my chance to flirt a little. “I like more than just your eyes.”
“Really? Like my nose too?”
I laughed. “Um, yeah.”
“What about my lips?” He pointed to his pouty lips.
“Yeah, they're okay.”
“Just okay? I don't think you really like them. I think you only like me for my eyes, and now that I've turned my eye into a stewed tomato, you're going to dump me.”
He cracked open his good eye to see if I was falling for it.
“I am not going to dump you. I really do like your lips.” I wanted to reassure him that his eye didn't come close to a stewed tomato, but, well, it did. So I just didn't go there.
“I'm having trouble believing you. If you really liked my lips, you'd prove it.”
My grin was so wide, it nearly split my face. Did I dare? I glanced over to the door to make sure Christie wasn't loitering nearby. No sign of her.
“Amanda?” Will said in a low voice.
I leaned forward a little, and the bed moved enough to clue Will in about my movement. His grin widened.
I raised up on my knees so that I hovered over his face. Then I got up my courage and leaned down to touch my lips to his.
“Took you long enough,” he murmured against my lips.
“Shup,” I said, shortening the two words into one and ending the conversation.
Will wrapped his arms around me as we kissed. A wave of exhilarating sensation swept through me.
“Is that how you're going to get his contact lens in?” Christie's question from the doorway jolted me back to reality, and if Will hadn't been holding me, I'd have fallen backwards off the bed.
I scooted back against the headboard, and Will sat up too.
Busted again.
“What... huh?” I asked as the fog around my brain began to clear.
“She wanted to know if that's how we were getting the lens in.” Will's cheeks were red.
“I don't get it.”
“Are you going to use your tongue to put the contact in his eye?” Christie asked, making it pretty clear what she'd meant.
“Don't be ridiculous,” I scoffed, trying to play cool.
“Cuz, I don't think that's going to work.” Christie's smile said she was enjoying teasing us.
I was hoping that meant she wasn't going to chew us out for our non-sibling-like behavior.
“Hey, guys, I think I'm ready to give this contact lens thing another try.” Will sprung off the bed with an enthusiasm that was obviously overkill.
Christie wasn't so easily distracted. “You run along then, Will. I'll just talk to my second favorite niece.”
“I'm your only niece.”
“You'd think you could do better then.”
Will hesitated in the doorway.
“Go ahead,” I told him. “Christie was about to praise me on my innovative methods of distracting you from your Cyclopsian drama.”
“Cyclopsian?” he asked.
“I think she means it as in Cyclops,” Christie offered helpfully.
“Yeah,” he said, “I get that.”
“Visual impediment? Retinal challenge?”
“Shup,” he said.
I giggled like an idiot. Shup.
“You're both talking, but I swear you aren't speaking any language I've ever heard.” Christie crossed her arms. “Now, beat it Cyclops boy. We need you ready for action.”
Will glared at her.
“Hey,” she said, “she started it.”
Will glared at me.
“And she made it way worse,” I said. “Cyclops boy? I would never.” I raised one hand to my chest to emphasize my innocence.
Undercover with the Hottie (Investigating the Hottie) Page 5