Hidden Hearts

by Eva Chase

  Not that Mom had intruded on our privacy all that much. But she didn’t have perfect control over her talent any more than the rest of us did—and I’m sure now and then it was hard for her not to wonder.

  “Are you watching what you eat and drink around this woman?” Jeremy went on. “You know they got my DNA from a glass in my apartment.”

  “I haven’t left anything she could take for a sample,” I said. “Believe me, the last thing I want is to get caught. But I don’t think she suspects me. She’s just agreeing to hang out with me because she thinks I’ll lead to that friend I made up.”

  “I suppose the fact that she hasn’t already hauled you in means you’re doing all right.” Jeremy sighed. “What are you going to do when it’s time to produce that ‘friend’?”

  “With a little luck, I’ll know enough by then to come up with a proper plan about that. If worse comes to worst, I’ll just get out of here. I’ve had a good five years.”

  “I know you love that city,” Jeremy said.

  “It’s fine,” I told him. “A little variety can’t hurt. Maybe I’ll go up to Edinburgh or somewhere. It’ll be worth it if I can find out enough to help all of us stay ahead of them.”

  “True. Any idea yet why she’d be helping Alpha Project at all?”

  “I’m still trying to get a sense of that. I’ve had some impressions that seemed like… she’s angry about something, maybe? And there’s a sense of loss—her looking at some photos. I still think they might be threatening her somehow to get her to comply. She isn’t necessarily on their side.”

  “Uh huh.” Jeremy sounded amused. “I get the impression, the way you’ve talked about her, that you’d really like her not to be on their side.”

  I thought of Carina in the dance club last night, moving with me in perfect sync, the lights glancing off her dark hair as it cascaded around her. So free and yet so guarded at the same time. One thing I knew for sure: I hadn’t gotten anywhere close to uncovering all the painful secrets she had buried. But God, didn’t it set every part of me on the alert in the most enjoyable possible way when she shot me one of those archly playful glances.

  “Of course it’s hard to imagine someone like us helping them capture us,” I said, hedging. “I don’t want to assume she’s the enemy when she could be just as much a victim as Mom and Dad were.” Maybe it was time to change the subject. Jeremy had some tender spots. “So how are things with Grace?”

  There was a rustle as my brother shifted his weight. “Oh, you know… It’s good, having someone. It’s great.”

  Jeremy might not have wanted to express a whole load of feelings to me about his relationship, but the soft warmth that had crept into his voice said plenty. I knew how much that woman meant to him. He’d risked a lot keeping her safe, breaking some of his own rules about caution, a few months back when Alpha Project had caught wind of his location. I was looking forward to meeting her at some point.

  “She’s adjusting to this kind of life well,” he added. “Always having to be wary, ready to pick up and leave… I still feel bad about how much she had to leave behind to come with me.”

  “From what you’ve said, she didn’t have that much back in San Jose for her to miss. And if you’re going to be on the run for the first time, Austria’s not a bad place to be.” They’d been in Paris for a little while, and then moved to Vienna when I’d told Jeremy that Alpha Project seemed to be sniffing around London, which was too close for his comfort. Now that he had two people to protect, Jeremy liked taking chances outside that even less.

  “Well, that’s true,” he said with a laugh. “Even Connor seems to be settling down a little over in Florence. Maybe the European air was good for him.”

  Connor was Ethan’s twin, and as hot-headed and brash as Ethan was quiet and thoughtful. He also shared Dad’s talent for starting fires. Not a good combination. Jeremy or our parents had needed to extract him from one sticky situation or another several times since he’d started living on his own.

  “He hasn’t started any fires in the wrong places yet?” I said, meaning that both literally and metaphorically.

  “No, thank God. He actually sounded almost… subdued the last time I talked to him.”

  “I’ll try to check in with him too.” I shifted my weight. I’d simply observed here for long enough. “I’ll catch you later.”

  “Be careful.”

  Of course he’d leave me on those words.

  Being careful, I ambled across the street toward the building, scanning the sidewalk as I went. I still hadn’t seen anyone come out. After I’d ended the call, I kept the phone by my ear as if I were listening to someone talk. I leaned against the wall of the building I’d seen during one of the moments my hand had brushed Carina’s skin last night, and let my fingers come to rest by my side on the marble-tiled exterior.

  What did this place have to say to me?

  The impressions that rose up in my mind were hazy. I got the strongest sensations from objects that had meant a lot to people, stirring up a lot of emotion. No one had cared all that much about this place, other than the mix of excitement and trepidation I’d tasted in that brief flash from Carina.

  I got the warble of poured cement and the screech of bonded steel. Men in suits walking through the glass front doors. A fragment of an argument: "How can you justify a price like that?" Nothing that stood out. Nothing that had any clear relation to Carina.

  Well, I'd known it was a long shot. There were dozens of offices in this building, and from Liam's digging, only one of them was rented by any company associated with the shell Alpha Project owned.

  I was debating whether it could possibly be worth the risk to go inside after all and see if I could get any sharper impressions there when a couple of figures came out the doors. I watched them from the corner of my eye.

  "At least we're making progress," the woman said in a snippy voice. Her suit was so sharp it put my business-y attire to shame. She flicked back her copper hair.

  "If you can really call it that," the man with her replied, and my gaze jerked to look at them directly.

  I recognized his voice. I'd heard it—and seen that rounded face with its shock of prematurely white hair—in one of the impressions I'd gotten from Carina. She'd been talking with him about her "assignment." He must be her Alpha Project contact here.

  And her assignment, even if she didn't know it, was me.

  She'd probably talked to him about me. I didn't know how thoroughly she might have described me. I turned my back to them, my heartbeat stuttering. But at the same time, a rigid sense of resolve was forming in my chest.

  If I managed to make physical contact with him, who knew what secrets I might catch?

  How could I do it without him getting a good look at me? My mind scrambled through possibilities. The two of them were starting to move toward the road—to hail a cab. Ah ha.

  I didn't let myself second-guess. A taxi zoomed into view and veered over to the curb. I swiveled and strode to catch it at the same second the Alpha Project people moved.

  I grabbed the back door and ducked in just an instant before the white-haired guy could, almost dodging him—but brushing close enough that my forearm grazed his hand. Then I yanked the door shut and scooted to the other side to be harder to see. The guy made a disgruntled sound, but I was already directing the cabbie back into traffic.

  It wasn't much of an impression I'd gotten, but as I sank back in the seat, my stomach clenched. Because I'd caught a whisper of a retreating back that had looked an awful lot like Carina's, and the guy muttering to himself, "Useless bitch."

  I still didn't know how she was mixed up with them, but they clearly didn't think much of her.

  6

  Carina

  “You’re seeing this fellow again?” Frederick asked, propping his knobby elbows on his desk.

  I shifted in my chair across from him. As the most senior British member of Alpha Project, he was the one I’d had to report to d
irectly since I’d arrived here. But his office always felt a little too stuffy to me, a little claustrophobic. Maybe it was the filing cabinets jammed along the walls and the smell like stale bread in the air.

  “Just one more time, and then that friend of his should be back,” I said. “I’m hoping I might see something useful at one of the places they’ve been to a lot together.”

  “But you haven’t turned up anything so far.”

  “You know I can’t direct my talent with a whole lot of accuracy,” I said, trying not to sound exasperated. Frederick had been pushing for progress practically from the moment I’d stepped off the plane. I didn’t see him producing anything we could use either. “I’m doing my best. If it doesn’t work, well, I’ll have that in-person meeting in a few days. If it seems like he’s our guy, we can bring him in.”

  Frederick made a skeptical sound and ran his hand over his thick white hair, which looked a little bizarre over a face that didn’t appear to be much more than forty. “We’ll see.”

  “Have there been any more reports of coincidentally returned items?” I asked. “If there have, then we know it’s not this guy, since he hasn’t even been in town.”

  “So your new ‘friend’ says,” Frederick said.

  I managed not to roll my eyes at him. Nick was hot enough that I couldn’t imagine he felt the need to resort to lies to keep the attention of some random pretty girl he happened to run into. He could have had his pick of the women at that club the other night.

  Frederick shuffled a few of the papers on his desk. “No,” he added. “No reports. But the records we’ve gathered only show one of those returns every month or two. I’m sure what we’ve heard isn’t even half of the situation. Only particularly important objects would have been reported in any major public way. If our target is in the habit of returning things like teddy bears as well, who knows how often he’s using his talent?”

  “I guess we’ll find out sooner rather than later,” I said. “Well, I don’t have anything else to report on, so I guess—”

  The phone on Frederick’s desk buzzed. He pushed a button. “Yes, Holly?”

  His secretary’s voice carried from the speaker. “Mr. Langdon is here to see you, sir.”

  Frederick gave me a small smile. “I think Mikkel may want to speak with you as well. He’s taken a trip over here to oversee some of our European operations.”

  My body had tensed. I breathed slowly in an effort to relax. Of course Frederick had decided to drop this impending visit on me as a surprise. He liked seeing me uncomfortable. But it wasn’t as if I had any reason to be uncomfortable around Langdon. Other than my foster parents, he’d been the most frequent presence in my life since I was a kid.

  “Sure,” I said. “I’ll be glad to see him.”

  I got up anyway as Frederick told Holly to send Langdon in. Langdon cared a lot about formalities. He’d want a face-to-face handshake for proper respect. He didn’t really like people calling him just by his first name, and I was willing to bet Frederick wouldn’t do that while he was in the room.

  It was hard not to be a little tense around a guy like that. In some ways Langdon was a second father to me—or, well, third—and in others he felt like sergeant and judge all rolled into one. You never knew which side you were going to get.

  The door opened, and Langdon stepped in. He had a way of almost gliding with that skinny body of his. He must have had at least fifteen years on Frederick, but his straight, close-cropped hair still had a sprinkling of black amid the gray. His eyes, close-set in his gaunt face, were an almost matching shade of cool gray.

  He smiled when he saw me, thin but wider than Frederick’s. “Carina,” he said in his crisp yet cheerful voice. “What a pleasure to see you.”

  “Same to you,” I said, offering my hand. His was dry and tight, a quick shake and done.

  He nodded with slightly narrowed eyes at Frederick, who hadn’t bothered to get up. Until that moment, anyway. The younger guy scrambled to his feet and held out his hand too.

  Langdon ignored it and dropped into the third chair by the side of the desk. He swiveled it toward me. “So, Carina, I understand you’ve made a little headway out here.”

  He must have read my reports, but I guessed he wanted to hear the story from me in person too. To make sure I hadn’t accidentally left anything out?

  “I’d like to think so,” I said. “I’ve been able to confirm the man with the talent we’re looking for here—”

  “One of the Keane boys,” Langdon broke in, with a glance toward Frederick. “We were able to confirm that with DNA at one of the scenes, weren’t we?”

  “That’s right,” Frederick said. “It seems he got into a scuffle with someone over a lost bit of jewelry. There was a trace of blood in the necklace setting. 99.9% certain it’s a match. But not the same brother we almost caught in San Jose.”

  “Well, that does sound awfully definitive.” Langdon turned back to me. “My apologies. Go on.”

  “I was able to confirm his presence at two of the scenes,” I said. “And get a general sense of body type. None of the witnesses I’ve been able to talk to got a better look at him, but in one of the neighborhoods I ran into a guy who lives nearby. I told him I was looking for someone, and he mentioned a friend of his who’s particularly good at finding things. I figure there’s a good chance that’s our man.”

  “But this man is conveniently on vacation at the moment,” Frederick said dryly.

  “A business trip,” I said. “He should be back in a couple of days. The bits of the past I’ve been able to view around my contact have only backed up things he’s mentioned. I have no reason to believe he’s lying to me.”

  “We do have to be careful around these people—and anyone associated with them,” Langdon said. “What if he mentioned to his friend that you’ve been poking around the site of one of his returns?”

  “I didn’t say anything that should have tipped him off that I might be a threat,” I said. “And I’ve been careful not to push so much that it’d raise suspicions. Our target shouldn’t even know we’re on to him here anyway. Besides, if he were worried about me, why would he agree to meet me again?”

  “A fair point.” Langdon steepled his fingers. “You’ve done good work here, Carina. I hope it continues to develop. Make sure you continue to be just as careful in how you interact with this man and his friend, our probable target.”

  He said it in that way of his where it was hard to tell how much he was concerned and how much expressing his authority. Langdon was always so unreadable, even when he seemed to be acting supportive.

  It was hard to blame him for being a little odd that way, though. I mean, he oversaw this entire project, he made sure people like me had a place where we could practice our talents without being worried about repercussions, he had to deal with rogue talents like the Keane family harming the ones he wanted to protect… It had to be a lot of pressure. But he’d taken it on despite that.

  My fingers curled into my palms. He was the one who’d given me this chance to get my vengeance personally. I didn’t want to let him down, not when he’d put that much trust in me.

  “I will,” I said. “Of course. You know I’m ready for this job.”

  “Yes, you’ve proven yourself many times.” He gave me another smile. “You know, Todd back at the compound was asking after you. You should call him when you have a moment. I know it’s been a while since you’ve been able to see each other, something he clearly regrets.”

  “I’ll see,” I said, my skin prickling a little. Todd had been raised at the Alpha Project compound alongside me, a couple years younger than me, in similar circumstances. Langdon seemed to figure that since we were the only two talents there over twenty, we should naturally want to live happily ever after. Unfortunately I thought Todd was about as interesting as a wet noodle.

  But maybe I wasn’t going to have much choice in the long run. Where was I going to find another guy who’d unde
rstand what I could do, who I was? I knew Alpha Project kept track of various families with powers, but they mostly lived secretly in seclusion. I’d never even gotten to meet any of them outside of the orphans on the compound.

  “You know,” Langdon tapped the arm of his chair. “I’m thinking… How sure are you that this friend you’re waiting on is the Keane we’re looking for?”

  “It’s hard to say for sure, obviously,” I said, grateful for the change of subject. “But I figure someone who might have had an excuse to be in the neighborhood where one of the items was returned, who’s known for being especially good at finding things… I’ll be surprised if it’s not.”

  “Well, then, why don’t we stage an ambush at that first meeting rather than waiting? We can take him into custody immediately.”

  I hesitated. “But if it’s not him—we can’t just grab some innocent guy.”

  Langdon spread his hands, his lips curling more sharply. “If it’s an innocent, we’ll let him go with no harm done. We shouldn’t risk letting the guilty party get away. You as much as anyone else should want to avoid that outcome.”

  I did. Oh, God, did I want to catch that asshole and see where he could lead us. But part of me still balked.

  Part of me that was imagining the look on Nick’s face if he brought his friend to meet me and suddenly a squad of Alpha Project guards descended on them. What if they hurt him in their eagerness to get to his friend?

  No. We weren’t like the Keanes. I could do this right, without anyone getting hurt unnecessarily.

  “Maybe I overstated the case a little,” I said. “People exaggerate about how amazing their friends are at things like that all the time—it could be just that. How about if we just had a few people ready on site, but they didn’t close in unless I give a signal to show I’m sure?”