Absolute Zero (Touch of Frost)

by Rush, Lynn

  “Sorry to rain on your parade, but that place in California wasn’t The Center.”

  Chapter 32

  We rode in silence for the last few minutes of the drive to the apartment. I thought my brain was going to melt. Nate just kept dropping bombshells.

  The car rolled to a stop in the back parking lot of the apartment. So, we hadn’t destroyed The Center? Which meant Andrey didn’t work for them?

  Nate glanced around, through the windows, then landed his gaze on me. He reached for me, but retracted his hand before he made contact. Through the darkness, he must have seen the confusion contorting my face.

  I probably looked like such an idiot.

  “Let me have a look first before you get out.” He cranked his door open and stood, half his body still in the car while the rest craned out and looked around. “Clear.”

  I shot a look at Georgia, then grabbed my bag and pushed open the door. Nate looked at me over the hood of the car. “Ready?”

  “I guess.” I had no idea what I was in store for. Examining me for an imbedded chip? Sounded gross. But the car ride here confirmed what Georgia had already mentioned.

  We could trust Nate.

  I slammed the door shut, grabbed Georgia’s hand, then followed Nate upstairs. He jammed his key into the lock and pushed open the door. We were barely through when Tim ran out from one of the bedrooms. “Dude! I—” He skidded to a stop in the middle of the living room when he saw me and Georgia.

  “Ahh—hi. Um. Mandy. Georgia. Didn’t expect—”

  “It’s okay, Tim.” Nate shut the door behind us.

  I still gripped Georgia’s hand, but she let go of mine and hustled to Tim. She threw her arms around his neck and planted a whopper of a kiss on him. He hugged her close, then lifted her up off the ground and spun.

  I shifted my weight from foot-to-foot. Looked like she was more than okay with Tim’s little secret. But why shouldn’t she be? He was doing just the same thing me and Georgia had been doing when we lied about our powers.

  My backpack slid off my shoulder, and I turned to the side. Nate pulled it down. “Here. I’ll set it on the couch.”

  I shrugged out of it, then shoved my hands in my pockets, trying to avoid looking at the PDA Georgia and Tim were displaying.

  “Everything okay?” Tim asked, now holding Georgia’s hand. “I was wondering what happened when I couldn’t reach you, Nate. Um, were you guys out at the bars or something?”

  “It’s okay. We know everything.” Georgia rested her hand on his chest as she leaned into him. “Nate brought us here because Mandy might have a tracer under her skin somewhere and we need help finding it.”

  Tim’s bottom jaw dropped, and his green eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. He slouched his already fairly short five-foot-ten frame and stared at Nate.

  I suppressed a laugh. I was deliriously tired for that to be funny. Any other time, I’d be pissed that our lives were so irrevocably jacked up.

  “Tim.” Nate stood beside me. “This is The Daughter.”

  His jaw opened even more. I seriously saw every filling he had.

  “But you should probably change that title to, The Daughters, remember?” I nodded toward Georgia.

  Tim looked down at Georgia, and she nodded against his shoulder. “Hi.” Her cheeks tinged bright red.

  “The Daughter? As in—”

  “Sarah and Josh’s children. Sarah had twins. Your arm is draped around Georgia Hillman and next to me is Amanda Hillman.”

  “Holy shit.” Tim let go of Georgia. “Here? In this apartment? Oh God. That means The Center can’t be far behind. Nate. How could you bring them here? And if Mandy’s tagged. How—”

  “Tim. Calm down,” Nate said. “It’s fine. The Center isn’t after them. Well, they probably are, but they don’t know they’re here at this apartment.” He glanced at me. “But someone named Andrey does.”

  “Shit.” Tim paced.

  “What’s wrong, Tim?” Georgia said.

  “I can’t go back there, Georgia. I won’t.”

  “Tim. Settle down. We’ll figure this out. First. We need to see if Mandy’s tagged. Andrey found her here, so I’m assuming she is. I’m just not exactly sure he’s working with The Center, though.”

  “Found her here? What do you mean?”

  “He trashed our place downstairs. Grabbed Georgia, but she flamed up, and she got away.” I looked at Nate. “If The Center isn’t after us, why’d two Agents come to our smoothie place in Trifle?”

  “Well, those are Agents for The Center, but they don’t know you’re here. You’re registered under fake names here in the apartment. That’s why I think you’re tagged by Andrey if he found you.”

  “God. I’m tired. I’m not even registering anything anymore.”

  “Wait, you can flame? What’s that mean?” Tim turned to Georgia. He took her hands and held them.

  “I’m fire, Mandy’s ice.”

  “Red hair and nails. Blue hair and nails.” Tim glanced at me then back to Georgia.

  She nodded. “Yeah, that’s new. I’ve only known a few months that I had a twin, and there was something called The Center, Agents, everything.” She opened her palm and made a fireball. I doused it with some slush.

  “Oh, my God.”

  “Tim. Come on. Let’s check Amanda, then I’ll tell you everything.”

  “All right.” Tim let go of Georgia’s hand and looked from her to me. “Just stand still, okay?”

  I looked at Nate. What was Tim going to do?

  “Enhanced vision, remember?” Nate whispered in my ear.

  He brushed the back of his hand against my cheek, then pulled his hand away quickly. “Oh, sorry.”

  God. He was so respectful.

  “It’s okay. Technically…” I smiled. “You are my boyfriend, still.”

  His eyebrows shot up, and he stepped closer, but Tim’s voice stopped him. “Okay. Don’t move.”

  “What are you going to do?” Georgia asked.

  “Just going to have a look.” Tim drew in a deep breath, then squinted.

  His eyes flashed red, then turned into a bright neon-green color. I gasped. I think I heard Georgia gasp, too. I froze, not literally, but I stood as still as I knew how. His gaze started at my head then slowly moved down.

  Two long minutes later, he blinked, and his normal turf-green color returned. I let out a breath and leaned against the door. Oh, yeah. I needed sleep. And some food.

  “So?” Nate said.

  “She’s tagged all right. Six times.”

  “What?” Nate said. “Six? We’ve got to get them out now.”

  Georgia came to my side and grabbed my hand. “Come on, Mandy. Sit, you’re going to pass out.”

  “Sitting is good.” She led me to the kitchen table, and I eased into the padded chair. “So, they’ve been watching me since June? Why have they left me alone?”

  “Observing most likely,” Nate said.

  “Why?”

  “Part of studying. Learning your habits. Finding out about your life. Checking to see if you were using your powers? Developing them?”

  “Crap, they maybe saw us in the field, then, Georgia.”

  “Field?” Tim asked.

  “We’d go there to mess around with our powers. Practice them.”

  “Damn.” Tim opened the fridge and yanked out a Coke. “The Center always wanted to see us in natural environments. Remember Nate? They’d construct these rooms to look like normal places?”

  He nodded.

  “I’ll take one of those Cokes. If I don’t get some sugar in me, I really am going to pass out,” I said.

  “I’ll cook us some grub,” Tim said. “Pancakes?”

  “Perfect,” I said.

  “Why would Andrey tell Mandy she was too dangerous to live back at The Center, which wasn’t actually The Center, then just decide to observe her. Doesn’t make sense,” Georgia asked.

  “Who’s Andrey?” Tim asked.
/>   “Exactly. No one seems to know,” I said as I cracked open my soda. “There were two chicks, besides Andrey, when I came to for the first time after they grabbed me at grad. Then, it was always clipboard lady, faceless voice lady, and Andrey. He watched. Then he showed up while me, Jasmine, and Georgia were trashing the hotel-from-hell. He told me he killed Mom.”

  “Andrey’s not an Agent. I had some of the highest clearance in there, and I don’t know him.” Nate pulled his chair close to me. “And you said he has an accent? Russian?”

  “Sounds like it anyway,” I said.

  “I’ll find out who he is, Mandy.” He sat straight. “Er—Aman—”

  “Mandy’s good,” I said with a whisper.

  His lips curled into the sweetest smile. The one I remember from when we first met. It reached his brown eyes and flicked the amber flecks to life.

  “I’ll find him for you.” He leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “I need to go talk to Martin and see if he can patch up your apartment. Then I’ll get my stuff so we can get these tracers out of you.”

  “Where exactly are they?” Mandy asked.

  “Each shoulder. Each calf. One big toe. And—” Tim looked at me as he hovered near the stove. “Um.”

  “What? Oh great. It’s in, like, my brain or something, right? Can’t get it out?”

  “Um, no. It’s—well—it’s in your right butt cheek.”

  Heat fused my face. Georgia broke out laughing and slapped the table. Nate stiffened beside me. I leaned forward, planted my arms on the tabletop and let my forehead crash against them.

  Tim might have chuckled, too.

  “Laugh it up, everyone. Laugh it up.”

  Chapter 33

  “Everything’s fine, Scott,” I said, positioning the phone between Georgia and me as I put it on speaker.

  We sat in Nate’s room. Our stomachs were full of pancakes and Georgia was helping me mentally prepare for the “surgery” on my right butt cheek. This totally and completely sucked.

  “You guys just need to stay alert. I have six tracers in me, so Andrey knows about your location. Obviously I’m not there now, but he may come sniffing around there to see what’s up.”

  “Damn it. I liked this place, too.”

  “Hey. Maybe it’ll still be okay. Who knows,” Georgia said.

  “I doubt it. But at least The Center doesn’t know about it, right?” I said.

  “So, how are you getting the tracers out?” Scott asked.

  I glanced at Georgia. She smiled, and I crossed my eyes at her. She thought it was hilarious that some guy was going to cut open my butt and pull out a tracer. Yeah, not so much. Then again finding humor where we could might help us stay sane, right?

  At least it would be Nate seeing my butt for the first time. I mean, technically, he was still my boyfriend.

  Sure, I thought he was an Agent, I froze him pretty good and kicked his ass around a little, but then, he turned out to be a good guy. Respectful. Courteous. And a genius. He was in Tim’s room studying up on surgery techniques.

  “Hello?” Scott said.

  “Oh. Um, yeah. Nate knows a little bit about medical procedures. He’s going to take them out.” Heat fused my cheeks again.

  “What? No!”

  “Scott, what do you think I should do? Stroll into an ER and point out where I have some super high-tech tracers embedded beneath my skin and ask them to kindly take them out?”

  Georgia giggled. I smacked her shoulder.

  “She’s right, Scott,” Jasmine’s voice chimed in.

  “He’s eighteen, how could he know anything about surgical procedures. Where is this tracer?”

  “You mean tracers, with an “s”. I guess they were being thorough, huh?” I tried to giggle at my lame joke, but it sounded more like a grunt. Man, I was nervous.

  “Where are they?” Scott asked again.

  “Shoulders, calves and feet,” I said, with a glare to Georgia that she not say anything about the butt-cheek one. She rubbed my knee.

  “You call me when it’s done, okay?”

  “Where’s Zach?”

  “In his room. He zonked out after you left.”

  I glanced at my watch. It was almost four am. I was sick of pulling all nighters.

  “Okay, talk to you later,” Georgia said, then tapped the end button.

  “I hope Andrey doesn’t show up at that safe house without us there,” I stood, then flopped onto Nate’s bed.

  “Jasmine will protect them.”

  “Let’s hope she’s fast enough.”

  “She loves Scott, and she won’t let anything happen to him.”

  “She can’t stand Zach, though. She might let him get hurt focusing on Scott.”

  “Yeah, that’s true.”

  “Let’s just hurry this up so I can get back there. So, you’ll stay with me the entire time, right?”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t let him cop a feel or anything,” Georgia said.

  “I can’t believe you just said that, G. I mean really.”

  “Just trying to lighten up things. It’s heavy in here, not to mention cold.” Her skin glowed, and a wave of warmth washed over me. “He’ll just poke, pluck them out, then you’ll heal. It’ll be fine.”

  “As long as Andrey doesn’t come flying in during it.”

  “Once you’re healed, we’ll run downstairs, grab some stuff, and figure out our next move, okay?”

  “Yep. Let’s get this over with.” I pushed myself up and off the bed, weary that things would go as smoothly as we’d just laid out, but what choice did I have? “Where are we doing this?”

  “I assume in here. A bed seems the most comfortable.”

  A knock rattled the door. “Mandy?” Nate’s voice trickled through.

  Georgia hopped up and opened the door. “Okay, doc. Patient’s ready.”

  “Can I talk to her alone first quick?”

  Georgia nodded and scurried out of the room.

  Nate scooted in and shut the door behind him. “Look. I just wanted to let you know, I can do this. It’ll be fine. Tim said they’re close to the surface. Won’t be a problem.”

  “Yeah. Okay.” I bit at my middle fingernail. “Where are we doing this?”

  “In here okay? Then you’ll be comfortable and can heal yourself.” Nate reached out and touched my shoulder. “And the one in that sensitive area. Don’t worry. I’ll be very discrete. I’m just sorry it’s there. I can tell you’re embarrassed. But don’t be.”

  “Easy for you to say.” I showed him my back. “I just figured the first time someone saw my butt it would be, like, for romantic reasons. Not to dig a chip out of it.”

  “So, I take it you’ve never been with a guy that way?”

  “Nope. Got my powers when I was fourteen. Couldn’t control them very well. Relationships weren’t really an option until recently.”

  “If it makes you feel any better, I’m just as embarrassed. I’ve never been with a woman before like that.”

  “Really?” I looked at him sideways. “You haven’t?”

  “I am only ten years old, remember.”

  I laughed, then let my face fall into my hands. “God, we live weird lives. A ten-year-old is going to do a surgical procedure on me to pull out six tracking devices, and see my butt when no one else ever has, well-besides Georgia.”

  His turn to laugh. His hands gripped my shoulders, pulled me back to his chest and kissed my hair. He wrapped his arms around me, one at my waist and one around my chest.

  I felt so safe in his arms. He was my shield. My protector.

  “Don’t worry, Mandy. It’ll be fine. And remember, I might only be ten years old, but I’m older mentally.”

  “Good.” I rested my hands on his arm around my waist. “I wouldn’t want to be arrested for anything.”

  “I’m glad you’re laughing,” Nate said as he turned me around.

  His hands cupped my cheeks and tilted my head so I got a full view of his flickering e
yes. “Do you forgive me for lying to you?”

  I nodded. “Do you forgive me for freezing you and kicking your ass earlier?”

  He laughed. “Yes. Did you really mean what you said about being your boyfriend?”

  “If you want the job.”

  “I do.” He smiled. “I want that job more than anything.”

  “Why?” I wasn’t really sure why I asked such a heavy question during this tender moment, but I needed to know.

  “The first moment I saw you at that party I wanted the job.” He combed my hair back, his eyes analyzing my face.

  I guess I understood why he looked at everything so intently now. He was a sponge when it came to knowledge and learning. But was I just another project to him? Another problem to figure out?

  “I can’t explain it, Mandy. But I want you by my side. I want to take care of you.” He drew in a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Everything in my life leading up to the moment I met you seems…unimportant.”

  Wow.

  “I’ll never let anyone hurt you,” he whispered. “Ever. I swear it.”

  That was a promise I was sure he could deliver on, too. I was strong, and I could kick ass, but I was sick of it. So yeah, I was going to let Nate step in and help. Even more, I wanted him to.

  His thumb brushed over my bottom lip, something he seemed to enjoy doing. “Would it be okay if I kissed you?”

  “That’s what boyfriends do with their girlfriends, right?”

  The corner of his mouth tilted up in that yummy half-smile. “So, it’s our second first kiss in this room.”

  I nodded, my body heating up remembering that first, first kiss. Things were a little different now as we stood in the middle of his room, next to his bed, preparing for surgery.

  He pressed his soft, warm lips against mine. The heat melted the fear I had about the tracers in my body. Nate could do this. He cared about me. Was the most amazing, self-less guy I’d ever met.

  I buried my hands in his hair and held tight. He was my anchor right now. With so many things unknown, he was solid.

  He nipped at my bottom lip, and I let him in. Not just that warm tongue and his delicious scent, no, I let all of him settle deep in my pores. His hand cupped the nape of my neck and tilted my head as he went deeper.