by Belle Malory
He barely speaks to me all the way here, and now he’s making fun of me? Awesome.
“So I understand you’re here for an interview, right?” Mrs. Little asked. The yorkie settled into her lap, and she softly stroked it. “Is this about my husband?”
Phoenix shook his head. “No, Mrs. Little, this isn’t about—”
“Call me Penelope.” She batted her lashes at Phoenix, smiling brightly.
Kennedy nearly groaned out loud.
“Okay, Penelope,” he said, totally oblivious. “We’re actually here to ask you a few questions.”
She frowned at that answer. “This isn’t anything serious, right? I mean, I guess it has to be, if you two were sent.”
Phoenix leaned forward in his seat and clasped his hands together. He stared at the floor, probably trying to figure out how much to say. “It’s a matter of national security,” he said, meeting her worried gaze. “But you’re not in any trouble or anything like that.”
Penelope let out a dramatic sigh and held a hand to her chest. “What a relief, right?” She chuckled, and it eased some of the tension.
Taking some initiative, Kennedy said, “We brought a list of names with us, and we’d like to find out if you’re familiar with any of them.”
Penelope nodded. “Of course. I’d love to help, if I can.”
Phoenix pressed a few buttons on his brace, and the list of names appeared. “We’d like you to read through these. Let us know if you see any names you recognize.”
She did as he asked, scanning the list. The maid, Maya, came in and set down a tray filled with coffee, tea, and baked goods. Phoenix’s eyes lit up. He reached for a Danish and devoured it within seconds.
“I’ve heard of some of these,” Penelope said. “But I know none of them personally.”
“Which ones have you heard of?” Phoenix asked.
She pointed to one—Sameer Bengal. “I believe he is a famous geologist.” She lowered her finger to a cluster of names. “And I’m pretty sure these are all business owners and property investors.”
“But you’ve never met any of them?”
She shook her head. “No. Never. And trust me, I have a really good memory. I’ve become practiced at placing names with faces due to the industry my husband works in. You have to, or it gets embarrassing once you’ve met the same person several times, and you don’t know what to call them.”
Phoenix looked over at Kennedy, giving her a look that spoke volumes. This was the end of the road for them. Figuring out the secret behind Project 27 may turn out to be a bust after all.
But then Phoenix’s eyes flashed, and he turned back towards Penelope. “Wait—does the company Ryder Industries ring any bells?”
Penelope shifted in her seat. She cleared her throat before answering. “I’m familiar with the CEO, Maxwell Ryder.”
Yes.
Finally, they were onto something.
“How do you know him?”
“Well, I don’t know him very well,” she said, inspecting her manicure. “I sold him some property a few weeks ago, but that’s the extent of our relationship.”
This was getting interesting.
“What property?” he asked. “Where is it located?”
“Just north of Campeche, Mexico,” she replied. “Close to the beach.”
“Do you know why he wanted it?”
“No idea.” She shrugged. “He never told me.”
That was odd, Kennedy thought. Why wouldn’t she ask him what he planned to do with it?
“Is there anything unique about the land?”
She uncrossed and re-crossed her legs. The yorkie grumbled in her lap from the movements. “Um, well, it’s thirty acres of uninhabited land. It was passed on to me through generations of Santiagos—that’s my maiden name,” she explained. “There’s an old house on property, but no one lives there anymore. Also, there are a couple of cenotes and an old Mayan archeological site. Nothing spectacular, just a few drawings and pottery that was dug up some fifty years or so ago.”
“Why did you sell it to him?” Kennedy asked. She hadn’t meant to pry, the question slipped out unexpectedly.
Penelope went silent for a long moment. “I…I had no more use for it.”
She was lying.
“I’ve always lived in Florida,” she continued. “Plus, my husband lives here. There was no need for me to keep that land.”
Still lying.
Kennedy was sure of it. Aside from her obvious discomfort, why would a mega-rich Mexican woman sell land that had been in her family for generations when she had no need of the money? Surely it couldn’t have cost her that much in taxes, especially if she could afford a gigantuous mansion and hovering sofas.
However, she supposed the reasons why were irrelevant. All that really mattered was why Ryder wanted it.
“Is Maxwell in some kind of trouble?” Penelope raised her brows, looking worried. Unless Kennedy was imagining it, the corners of her mouth had curled up and her eyes were gleaming wickedly beneath her innocent veneer.
“Not that we’re aware of,” Phoenix answered. “I think we’ve got all the info we need here. Thank you for your time and cooperation, Penelope.”
“Of course!” she said, all smiles again. “Anything for the keepers.”
Before they headed out, Penelope asked Phoenix and Kennedy to pose for a picture, and then more irritatingly, she asked Phoenix to pose for a picture of just the two of them.
The woman had no shame. She flung her hair back and pushed her breasts way up while the maid readied the camera. Kennedy rolled her eyes. How obvious can you be?
On the way back to the car, Phoenix chuckled and said, “I saw your look of disgust.”
She was glad to see his mood had improved, but she didn’t appreciate being the butt of some joke either. “I wasn’t trying to hide it.”
The doors of the sedan slid open at their presence. “You have no reason to be jealous, you know.”
“You have legions of admirers,” she reminded him, buckling herself into the car. “Or were you not aware?”
He turned around to face her, going completely still. “There is only you,” he said. “And you are all that matters.”
She might have come back with some sarcastic remark if it weren’t for the dead-serious look in his eyes. It lasted only a moment before he turned away and told the car to start, but that one moment was enough to leave her speechless.
He meant what he said. Deep down, she had already known that. But it hadn’t really hit her until that moment. She mattered to him.
They were halfway home by the time she found her voice again. “I think we should check out the land Mrs. Little sold to Maxwell Ryder.”
“I do, too.”
“Why do you think he bought it?”
Phoenix watched the blur of trees pass by, lost in thought. “I’m not sure. We’ll have to do some research. Dig up everything we can about our CEO.”
“Do you know anything about him?” she asked curiously. “Do you know what kind of company he runs?”
“All I know is that it’s technology related.”
She thought about that, wondering how the land in Mexico was connected. “I can help with the research.” Secretly, her mind spun together plans of going back to Olympus with him. “And if Mason sends you to Mexico, I’m going, too.”
“Kennedy.” She didn’t like the way he said her name. As if that wasn’t even an option. “You need to stay here. Be with your family.”
“That’s a little hypocritical, don’t you think?”
He twisted around. “Why would you say that?”
“You’re not with your family,” she pointed out.
“Mason can’t send us all home at the same time. I’m scheduled to go home next month, as long as the Sae-yers haven’t passed the perimeter by that point.”
Kennedy sat back in her seat, surprised by his news. So she really wasn’t being singled out. That drove Matilda’s goodbye t
heory home for her, and the finality of it all sank in a little deeper.
“Don’t look so hopeless.” Phoenix’s voice grew lighter, teasing. “It’s not the end of the world.”
“That’s not funny.”
He shrugged. “I only joke to keep from weeping.”
The image of his handsome face turned a botchy red with tears streaming from his eyes seemed too ridiculous. He wasn’t the crying type. “You stole my line,” she said, arching a brow.
His fingertips softly caressed the side of her face. “And you, Kennedy Mitchell, stole my heart.”
Twelve
You would never guess how studious Reagan was unless you found her in the zone. When Kennedy walked in through the front door, that’s exactly how she found her. Reagan lounged on the sofa, her hair piled into a messy bun on top of her head, furiously typing on her laptop. Music blared from the stereo above the television.
Kennedy turned it down to get Reagan’s attention. It didn’t work. “Hey,” she called loudly. “Where’s Mom?”
Reagan didn’t look up from her screen. She smacked bubblegum against her teeth and said, “Out with Jake. But if she asks, she went to a book club meeting.”
Kennedy smiled, shaking her head. What a lame excuse. Ashley’s idea of reading consisted of skimming recipes and instruction manuals. And that was pretty much it.
“Where have you been all day?”
Although she would like to pick her sister’s analytical brain, she doubted DOE wanted her talking about classified projects. She hurried to come up with a semi-vague answer. “I spent the day with Phoenix. He um…had to run a few errands before heading back to Olympus.” And before Reagan could ask for more details, she quickly asked, “What are you working on?”
“A speech,” she said. “The school awarded me valedictorian.”
“What? That’s great, Rea!”
She shrugged as if it were no big deal. “Thanks.”
“Aren’t you excited?” Kennedy sat in the recliner across from her sister, propping her feet up. “I mean, that pretty much means you’re smarter than all the other students, right?”
“No.” Reagan giggled. “It means I have more work to do. Plus, everyone expects me to go to some big-name school, and you already know how I feel about that.”
Kennedy frowned, wishing she didn’t. “Have you told Mom yet?”
“Nope.”
“When exactly are you going to do that?”
Another shrug. “Soon.” Her fingers stopped typing, and she looked up at Kennedy. “I heard what happened with Hunter.”
Kennedy felt her heart stop for the barest moment. “How did you find out?”
“He told me.”
Since when had her sister become her former best friend’s go-to confidant? Hunter made fun of Reagan and her kind all the time. One of his favorite things to say about her was All book smarts. No common sense whatsoever. Now he suddenly found her sister capable of sharing intimate conversations?
She let out a long sigh. If he were mad at anyone else, he’d be coming to her to talk about it. “Was he okay?” she asked Reagan.
“Maybe you should find out for yourself.”
“He won’t talk to me.”
“Have you tried talking to him?”
Kennedy shook her head shamefully. “But I know he won’t. He couldn’t even look at me.” She twisted her brace, staring at it. “What did he say?”
“He told me not to tell you.”
Kennedy felt her brows draw together, feeling stung. When she looked at Reagan, there was no remorse there. “Seriously?” she asked. “Since when did the two of you start exchanging secrets?”
“Probably around the time you stopped being his friend.” Reagan shut her laptop and set it aside. “Come on, Kenn. What do you think he said? He’s heartbroken. He shouldn’t have had to find out about Phoenix that way. You should’ve told him yourself. You said you were going to tell him yourself.”
Kennedy gripped the arm of the recliner. “I told Hunter how I felt. I didn’t think it was necessary to hurt him even more by telling him about someone I wasn’t even sure about.” She stood up, shaking with anger. She needed to leave the room before she said something she regretted. Reagan’s brace beeped as she started to walk away. An invisible force turned her around, and her gaze flicked to her sister’s wrist.
Hunter’s face lit up the screen.
Kennedy slowly inhaled. Every muscle in her body stiffened, and she wasn’t sure who she was angrier with. Sisters were inherently supposed to be on each other’s sides. That was the way family worked. They were supposed to help you, comfort you when you needed it, and root for you to succeed. They weren’t supposed to steal your best friends and look at you with shame in their eyes.
Deep down, she knew that was just scratching the surface.
Beneath all that, she was so mad at Hunter, and she felt guilty for being mad at him. He didn’t deserve her anger, not when she was the cause of his pain.
On some level though, she assumed nothing would ever break their friendship. Their loyalty to each other was supposed to be strong enough to survive the most difficult challenges. Right now it didn’t feel all that strong. This had dug beneath their late night’s spent talking through the window. It dug beneath the seat on the bus everyone knew not to sit in because it was theirs. It dug beneath their plans to visit Puma Punku after graduation, so Hunter could prove to her once and for all that his ancient alien theory was one hundred percent true.
God, it felt like the more she fit into keeper life, the less she fit into her old one. No matter how much she wanted to scream and point fingers, what she wanted more was to have both Reagan and Hunter back, unchanged. Within her innermost core, she knew she was the angriest with herself—because she was the reason they had changed.
Reagan didn’t answer Hunter’s call, and Kennedy didn’t comment on it. Hiding in her bedroom wasn’t going to help at this point. Not with the view waiting for her there. She needed to get out. Now.
“Kennedy,” Reagan said, standing up. “Wait.”
She paused as she reached for the door handle. “Why? So you can make me feel even worse? No, thanks.” She opened the door.
“There’s something I need to tell you.” Reagan followed her out onto the porch. “I saw on the waves today that DOE is shipping out another unit of the Peri-Guard.”
Kennedy spun around on the last step. “So?”
“They said Phoenix is leaving with the next ship. Kenn…those units are gone for a year at a time. Is it true?”
What the…why would she hear something like that?
“Their information is wrong.”
Phoenix would’ve told her if he was leaving for an entire year. That wouldn’t be something he’d forget to mention, and it was kind of pissing her off that Reagan would even try to worry her about it.
“Okay.” Reagan shifted her weight, looking at the ground. “I just figured you would want to know.”
Kennedy couldn’t stand to be there anymore. She continued to walk away from Reagan, unable to say anything else.
Almost all streets in this part of Amelia Island led to the beach, but she chose to use this one because the gravel ended about halfway there and converted into a dirt road. Most cars avoided it, which meant she could have some privacy.
She wasn’t sure what drove her to press the little button on her brace or why she did it, because she didn’t buy Reagan’s garbage about DOE for one second, but the next thing she knew, Matilda’s voice sounded through the speaker. “What’s up, cupcake?”
“Could you check something for me?”
“What do you need?”
“A statement was released about Phoenix. They said DOE plans to send him with a Peri-Guard unit. Could you check the accuracy of that statement?”
“Sure thing. Give me a few moments.”
Kennedy chewed her lower lip, waiting for Matilda’s response. It’s not true. It’s not true. It’s not tr
ue.
She came back not even ten seconds later. “It’s true, cupcake. His departure permit is listed in their database. The unit is scheduled to leave next month.”
Matilda went on to gush about how easy their system was to breach, but nothing else after that registered. How could this be? Her mind was having a hard time accepting it, even though Matilda had verified it herself. If the android told her it was accurate, than it was. Lying wasn’t in her programming.
All at once everything began to hurt. Her muscles ached and her cheeks burned and her head pounded like there was a little person in there screaming bloody murder. She wasn’t sure if she said goodbye or anything else to Matilda, but she remembered turning off her brace. Not just hanging up, but powering it off completely.
It wasn’t enough. Phoenix had given her that brace after breaking her last one. She didn’t want the reminder, and out of nowhere, it started squeezing her arm with its weight. She unsnapped the thing, tore it off her wrist, and chucked it as far as she could. Dust and gravel smoked around the circular piece of metal. She stared at it for a long time, wondering if she should go back and pick it up.
Choking sounds came from the back of her throat. Kennedy held her breath to escape them.
There was a reason for this.
A sound explanation.
She had witnessed how much Phoenix cared about her. Before he left to catch his flight, he had pulled her into his arms, stroking her hair, kissing her face, her lips. He refused to let her go until the last possible moment, and if he had lingered even a minute longer, he would’ve missed his flight.
He wouldn’t leave her for an entire year. He just wouldn’t.
She needed to keep a cool head. Stay rational. And the rational thing to do would be to go pick up her brace.
Maybe everything was piling up at once with Hunter, with Reagan, and now this, because she didn’t feel like doing the rational thing. So she turned around and started running.
At some point everything blurred around her, and she wasn’t sure if it was due to her speed or if she was crying. She began to run faster and faster until her steps were in sync with her rapid heartbeat. She wasn’t sure if she was running away from the brace, or if she was chasing isolation, but for once she didn’t analyze her every thought and emotion. Right now she simply wanted to do what felt good. And this, the running, the exertion—it strangely felt good. By the time the beach’s sand sank into her sandals, Kennedy collapsed.