Undercover with the Hottie (Investigating the Hottie)

by Alexander, Juli

Two hours later, I was wide awake. My stomach churned with acid, and I wanted nothing more than another hug from Will.

  I made it another ninety minutes. It was either sneak down the hall to talk to Will or pull my hair out, one strand at a time.

  I crept to the door and opened it an inch. The loft was dark except for light over the stove and light filtering out from the bathrooms. I dared to open it wider and peeked around. I couldn't see much, and I didn't hear anyone moving around. Everyone must be asleep. I moved into the hall and took slow, deliberate steps in the direction of Will's room. After about five steps, my foot bumped into something.

  What in the world?

  A light clicked on near the floor and I could see that Nic was laying on an air mattress in the hall.

  “What are you doing?” I hissed. “Are you sleeping in the hall?”

  “We've been taking turns all week,” he said. “You didn't think we'd take a chance on you two sneaking into each others rooms, did you?”

  “Oh! We would never!”

  “Amanda, that's exactly what you're doing right now.”

  “I can't sleep!”

  “Go back to bed, and I won't tell Christie.” He rolled back over and clicked off the light.

  Good grief. “You could at least wait until I got back to my room before you turned out the light.”

  “I could,” he said.

  I felt my way down the hall to my door. Then I went in and slammed the door. I know it was childish, but so was refusing to leave the light on for me.

  I crawled back into the bed, hugged a pillow to my chest, and closed my eyes.

  Part of me, the part that didn't back down from a challenge, wanted to wait until Nic was sleeping and try again. Now that I knew he was there, I had a shot at getting past him. I wouldn't mind seeing the shock on Nic's face when I outwitted him. The part of me that was sane and rational knew I was already in enough trouble. And also that a sleeping Nic could be deadly if he didn't realize who was sneaking around him. Yeah, I didn't need to prove anything. It was enough to know that I could do it, if I so chose.

  I didn't want to get up the next morning. I hadn't slept but a few hours, and I was disappointed in myself. Not to mention that I was still in line to get chewed out.

  Someone finally knocked on my door.

  “Come in,” I growled.

  Will peeked around the door. “Are you awake?”

  “Not willingly,” I said, pulling a pillow over my head.

  “It isn't like you to hide from this.”

  “I'm making some changes in how I approach life.”

  He surprised me by laughing. “Get up, psycho. Until you do, we're both in limbo, and I need to know what is going to happen.”

  “You are assuming that I care.”

  “I know you care,” he said, his voice husky.

  I heard him moving closer.

  “Either admit you care about me and get out of bed, or I'll tickle you until you do.”

  I screeched as I scrambled out of bed and then ran for the bathroom.

  Will kept laughing after I closed the door and locked it. I couldn't stop laughing either. Even if they kicked me out of GASI for being so inept, meeting Will made everything worth it.

  After brushing my hair, my teeth, washing my face, and throwing on some shorts and a T-shirt, I ran downstairs. I was the last one there. I went over to the coffee pot and poured a mug for myself. I added a ton of sugar and milk, because I don't actually like coffee. Then I went to sit at the kitchen table with everyone else.

  “We've decided that we'll deal with any disciplinary ramifications from your behavior after the mission is completed.” Christie gave me a stern look. “We think that limiting your GASI contacts to just the three of us may have been a mistake. We'd like to expand your contact base and your handlers.” She glanced at Nic. “It isn't unfathomable that dealing mainly with close family members has given an impression that less than one-hundred percent commitment to the Agency is acceptable.”

  “I'm sorry. What?” Will asked.

  “Christie! Do you think that I'm not trying my hardest just because you are my aunt? Or because I don't respect you and Nic? Because I do. I don't know whether to be angry or heartbroken that you'd think that of me.”

  “And me,” Will said.

  “Of me and Will. Of us.”

  “Regardless,” Nic said. “We are going to make some changes after this mission.”

  My stomach threatened to rebel at the evidence of Christie's disappointment in me.

  Grandma laid a hand on my arm. “It's okay, sweetie. Trust can be regained.”

  Will cleared his throat, and I realized he was upset about this as well. “So,” he said, “what about the current mission? How does this change things? Can we use Logan and his sisters, or not?”

  He asked good questions, and if I focused on the mission maybe I could keep it together.

  “We are still a go on this mission,” Nic said. “We've made some great inroads with surveillance. We identified some suspicious activity overnight.”

  Really? “What?” I asked.

  “We've identified several likely meetings among high level officials at the UN. These occurred off site at odd hours. The analysts are pursuing those leads now.”

  “We aren't helping with that?” Will asked.

  “No,” Nic said. “I'm going to provide support for Christie to check on Smith. Grandma will be monitoring you guys. We want you to hang out with the neighbors today. You can move faster through the teen crowd with their help. The only thing they are authorized to do is introduce you to people and facilitate having those teens use the chargers. They are not to challenge anyone in any way and they are not to act in any way inconsistently with their normal behavior.” Nic stopped and pointed to me and Will. “Those teens are your responsibility. Your primary mission is to keep Logan, Leah, and Sidney out of trouble. The surveillance is now your secondary mission.”

  Oh, wow.

  Grandma said, “In addition we will be getting updates from the analyst teams throughout the day. We may need to redirect your efforts. I'll be texting the two of you. One of you will touch base by phone after each text.”

  “Did you make any plans for today before things fell apart last night?” Nic asked.

  Will shook his head. “No.”

  “Why don't you two start texting and see what you can get going. We need you out there socializing.” Christie hesitated. “And by socializing, I mean with the other teenagers. I do not mean with each other.”

  Oh crud. She went there again.

  I didn't try to answer. I wasn't sure I could say anything without sounding snippy.

  “We hear you loud and clear,” Will said. He looked over at me for support, but I didn't give him any. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “So, point made. We totally get it.”

  Christie continued to stare at him.

  He cleared his throat. “We are on board. Completely.”

  A bead of sweat formed on his forehead, and I realized I wasn't being fair. I took a deep breath and said, “We get it, Christie. No worries.”

  “Now that that's settled,” Grandma said, pushing her chair back and standing, “I'll whip up some eggs and pancakes while you two start texting.”

  Grandma wasn't the kind of Grandma who cooked well. She was more that drum pounding, computer hacking, trouble maker type of grandmother. I didn't want her eggs any more than I'd want eggs I cooked myself.

  “Don't be silly,” Nic said, his voice strained. “I'll cook. It's my turn.” He stood and went over to the counter.

  Grandma winked at me.

  Oh yeah. She'd done that on purpose. But I was fine with that because Nic actually could cook.

  “Why don't you two get in touch with your friends?” Grandma whispered with a sympathetic look in her eye.

  “On it,” Will said.

  I left my coffee and went to sit with him on the couch, one of us at each end.

 
I texted Leah and Sidney to see what they were doing.

  Leah: Come over.

  Sidney: Come here.

  Lifting my gaze to Will, I said, “They want us to come over.”

  He nodded. “I know. Logan said they already have some people there.”

  “Go on over,” Christie suggested. “We'll call when breakfast is ready. If you can find out what the plans are, we'll have a head start on preparations.”

  “We need our contacts in.” I looked down at my pale legs. “And I need jeans.”

  Fifteen minutes later, we knocked on the door at the loft next door.

  “Yay,” Sidney said, hugging each of us in greeting.

  This wasn't the Sidney we'd freaked out last night.

  “Um, hi, Sidney. Good to see you too,” Will said.

  She took our hands and pulled us through the door. “We're just starting to decide what to do today. And,” she leaned toward us and said in a loud whisper, “apparently West drove Daphne home last night, so we are all excited to grill them when they show up.”

  “Really? West and Daphne? Surely not.”

  “Why not?” Will asked. “He was into her.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “He was? How did I miss that?”

  “Hey, guys,” Logan said. “We're going to do something today that gets you guys out into the city. You haven't seen anything yet, and that's ridiculous.”

  Oh, good. They weren't mad at us.

  “Like where?” I asked.

  “I know,” Ethan said. “Times Square. We can go down and sign confetti. They have a wishing wall, and then they'll drop the confetti with our wishes on it on New Year's Eve.”

  I glanced at Will. The Times Square thing was a pretty weird coincidence. Did he have a reason for going?

  “I've always wanted to do that,” Sidney said.

  “We can do that online,” April said. “Where it's warm. And then they print it and cut it up and release it over Times Square too. Same thing.”

  “It's not really the same,” I said. “I think it might be fun to go write on the actual confetti.”

  “We should go,” Genesis said, with a sneer in my direction. “I'll bet Amanda is dying for some Applebee's and Aeropostale to remind her of home.”

  What had I done to her? Besides Applebee's was good. And I knew lots of people who wore Aeropostale.

  “You do realize that when you insult Amanda, you're insulting Will too,” Leah said.

  From the blank look and the rapid blinking, I was pretty sure she hadn't realized.

  “Should we do Times Square or Rockefeller Center?” Leah asked.

  “I forgot about Rockefeller Center. That would be fun, too,” Logan said.

  “Sure, if your dream is to hug Al Roker,” Genesis said.

  “What is wrong with you, Genesis? You are being so rude!”

  “I'm just not a fan of the Today show,” she whined.

  “There's a ton of stuff to do there,” Sidney said. “Ice skating, and the tree is amazing!”

  “We could do both,” Logan said.

  “Let's do Times Square today and Rockefeller on Monday,” Ethan said.

  He really wanted to go out to Times Square. That was weird, right?

  I met Will's gaze and he raised a brow.

  If he were going for a nefarious reason, he would be better off going alone and flying under the radar. Wouldn't he?

  While the others kept talking, I tried to puzzle this out. Maybe he wouldn't be better off by himself once he got there. If he needed to get into the Visitor's Center, he might be better off with a group of us. Hmmm. Will and I should keep an eye on him.

  Will was saying something to me, and it took a moment to register. “Can we be ready in forty-five minutes?”

  Oh, yes. “Yes.”

  “We'll be back guys. We're supposed to have breakfast with the parents.”

  “Wear something warm, Amanda,” Logan said.

  Geez. That was so embarrassing.

  Will turned back and glared at him. I smacked Will on the arm, and we went out the door.

  While I jumped in the shower, Will filled them in on Ethan's suggestion so they could start planning for our trip to Times Square. I wouldn't have spent any time on hair and makeup at home, but I had to remember that it was part of my cover. I was moving here and would want to impress the guys. And I didn't particularly want to look like a corpse next to the other girls when Will was around.

  I was chomping at the bit by the time I finished with hair and makeup. Eyeliner, blush, lip gloss, and go.

  As soon as I got downstairs, Grandma announced, “I just got an update on the driver. He's being moved to a safe house. He'll be more secure there.”

  “He recovered that fast?” Will asked. “After getting shot?”

  She shook her head. “No. Not completely, but we sent a medical team with him.”

  “Okay,” Christie said, “We don't have much time. The Visitor's Center may direct you through a metal detector and search your purses and backpacks. We don't want to risk sending in any monitoring devices that would send up red flags. You can have your contacts, and if you can get some video or photos of anything suspicious, just use your cell phone. Remember that we'll have photos of whatever you are looking at, so if you can take turns keeping an eye on him, do that. Try not to alert him though. In the meantime, we'll have the analysts check back through the data they captured from him yesterday.”

  “Is there really a chance that this guy is involved? It seems so far fetched,” Will said.

  “It isn't likely, but it certainly isn't impossible either.”

  “You or your friends may pick up on some unusual activity in the square. If so, text us. We have a support team in the area, and they'll have eyes on you as well,” she continued.

  A knock at the door startled me, but Christie took it in stride. She went to the door and answered. A moment later, Sidney came in.

  “Is everything okay?” I asked. “We have a few more minutes, right?”

  “Oh, yeah. I just wanted to come over and see what you guys decided about us helping.”

  “We can't let you have too much involvement,” Nic said, “but we can let you help distribute the phone chargers and also give us passwords to any wifi networks you have logged on to.”

  She smiled. “We can do that. We can keep introducing you guys to people too.”

  I picked up the bag of chargers and took them over to her. “I am so sorry for putting you in that position last night. I know it must have been really, seriously disturbing to see that and think that we were brother and sister. I hope it doesn't scar you for life, and I hope you will forgive us for not being honest with you.”

  “Actually,” Sidney said, her eyes darting to Will and back to me. “I was hoping you guys could do me a favor.”

  “Sure! We can. What is it?” I said.

  “Um.” She glanced at Will again, clutching the bag of chargers in both hands. “I was thinking that if, um, Will wouldn't mind.” She took a deep breath. “If he would be okay with being my date for New Year's Eve. I mean pretending to be my date. Because I'm the youngest and most of those guys don't take me seriously.” She was looking at the ground as she finished. “So if it isn't too much trouble, do you think we could do that?”

  Awww. She was bright red from embarrassment. I had been almost as socially awkward as Sidney not long ago. Okay, fine. I was still that awkward.

  I didn't know how to save her though. I couldn't answer for Will. “Oh, it's a good idea,” I said, trying to sound enthusiastic. I'm pretty sure I failed.

  “I'd like to if it's okay with you all,” Will said. “Would it put her in any danger? Unless we have something we have to do on New Year's Eve.”

  “I think we all want to support Sidney in her quest to be taken seriously by the older teens,” Christie said, “and it would be nice to undo some of the harm on her psyche from your misconduct yesterday.”

  “We don't have an answer for you yet
, Sidney,” Nic said. “We'll have to make sure we don't need to use Will for something that evening. However, you have my word that we will try.”

  “We're having a party at Dad's, so if Will can, then he can just be my, um, my date to the party.”

  Unable to stand it any longer, I reached out and hugged her.

  “It sounds like fun,” Will said. “I hope we can do it.”

  “Okay, thanks. Sorry to interrupt.” Without looking at any of us again, she dashed to the door and let herself out.

  “She's a brave little thing, isn't she?” Grandma said.

  “She really is,” I said.

  “We can probably make that happen for her,” Christie said. “For now, we need to get back to the plan for today.”

  “Hang on,” Grandma said. “I just got a text that Smith left his house on foot carrying his gym bag.”

  “Time to move,” Christie said, immediately changing gears. “I'll go grab my bag. Nic, how far away is the Town Car?”

  Nic was already on his feet. “Two blocks. I'll pick you up out front.” He stuck his phone in his pocket and picked up his keys. “Good luck today, you two. If we get this wrapped up quick, we'll come back to help Brenda monitor you and your friends.”

  Grandma glanced at her tablet. “Go ahead and meet up with your friends. I want frequent texts today. And for crying out loud, keep your hands off each other.”

  I reached for the knee-length leather coat I'd found in my closet and put it on. Will had his leather jacket. Grandma handed me gloves and a hat, and then wrapped a scarf around my neck herself.

  Will reached over and squeezed my shoulder. “You going to be warm enough?”

  “Yes. I will. I'm wearing actual pants, so that should make a difference. Plus, my entire behind is covered.”

  He gave me that lopsided grin of his.

  “And, Will?”

  “Yes.”

  “Thanks for asking.”

  Chapter Twelve

  We took the subway to Times Square. The trip seemed to take forever, and I nearly froze. Luckily I didn't start with the turbo-charged shivers.

  There were ten of us since West and Daphne had arrived right before we left. Since they were holding hands, all attention was pretty much focused on their sudden relationship. I think Will and I could have kissed two or three times and nobody would have noticed.