The Golden Couple (The Samantha Project Series, # 2)

by Karpinske, Stephanie

  “I guess. But still, I don’t think this person would ever find you.”

  “But what if GlobalLife figures out who hired the investigator? GlobalLife will think they know something about me. They’ll come after Allie and her parents!”

  Colin stopped. “Shit! You’re right!”

  We got in the van and sat behind Jack, who was cleaning out the glove compartment. Colin told him about the private investigator and our theory about how Allie and her family were at risk of being harmed.

  “No. You can’t go talk to her. It’s too dangerous.” He continued to clean out the front of the van.

  “What’s dangerous about it? We go to her house, we talk to her, and then we leave,” I explained. “You can drop us off on your way to drop off the van. Then come pick us up. That way nobody will see the van sitting out front. Her house is on the way to that storage place.”

  Jack still wouldn’t agree to it, so Colin tried. “Think about how many people they’ve already killed, Jack. We can’t let them kill three more innocent people. All we’re asking is to have a few minutes with her.”

  He paused to think about it, then let out a long sigh. “Fine,” he reluctantly agreed. “But once you get in her house, you stay there. No going outside. No walking down the street. Just stay put. And you’ll only talk to her, right?”

  “I don’t think anyone else will be home,” I said. “Her dad usually goes into work on Sunday and her mom is always traveling.”

  Jack shook his head. “I don’t know how you two talked me into this.”

  Colin and I quickly gathered our things from the van and put them in Fisher’s SUV.

  “So I’ll lead the way and you follow,” Fisher told Jack.

  “We have to make a quick stop.” Jack glanced over at Colin and me.

  “What? Why?” Erik asked.

  “I don’t have time to explain it now, Erik,” Jack said. “You can ask Sam about it later.”

  Erik and Brittany both looked at me to explain, but I refused to tell them anything. I knew they would only argue with me about it. Erik tried to contact me privately through my mind, but our telepathy skills were almost nonexistent now.

  Jack dropped Colin and me off at Allie’s house around noon. Her house was on a big corner lot. It was a huge old Victorian-style house. It looked more like a mansion. When we got to the door, we could hear the TV on inside. We rang the bell several times.

  “I’m coming,” Allie yelled as she came to the door. When she finally opened it, she looked like she’d seen a ghost. “Oh my God! Sam?! Colin?!”

  I looked back at our van, parked a few houses down. Jack wouldn’t leave until we were safely in the house. “Allie, you need to let us inside.”

  The sound of my voice woke her from her shock. “Yeah. Come in.” She pulled me into a hug. “Where have you been, Sam? I’ve been looking for you for weeks! And Colin was helping me, but then he was gone, too.”

  She released me and went to hug Colin. “Where did you go, you big idiot? I thought you were gonna help me and then you just disappeared.”

  As she let him go, tears started running down her face. Allie hated people seeing her cry. She quickly wiped the tears away, but they kept coming. “I can’t believe you guys are here. I thought I’d never see you again.”

  “Come on. Let’s sit down.” I guided her to the sofa. Colin locked the door behind us then sat down next to me.

  Allie stared at Colin. “What happened to you? Why are you all bruised?”

  The remnants of GlobalLife’s attack on Colin still showed on his face. “It’s a long story, Al, but I’m okay.”

  “Tell me everything,” Allie ordered. “Where have you guys been?”

  Colin signaled for me to do the talking. “We can’t tell you everything, Allie. We’re only here because we need you to stop that investigation. Colin said your mom hired a guy to look for me. We need you to tell the guy that I’m fine and that he needs to stop looking.”

  “Yeah, okay. Although I asked my mom about it the other day and she said he’d found nothing. Like you just disappeared into thin air.”

  “Good. Now you just need to make sure he doesn’t keep looking. Will you do that?”

  “Yeah, but you have to tell me more. Like where you’ve been. The news said you were missing and then they said you ran away. What really happened, Sam?”

  I hated lying to Allie but it was my only choice. It was for her own good. “Okay, I’ll tell you.” I paused, trying to quickly come up with a story. “What you heard on the news was right. I ran away. I couldn’t deal with being here anymore. Memories of my parents were everywhere. And Dave was trying to take over my life. I hated it. So I left.”

  Allie looked confused. “But that’s so unlike you, Sam. Leaving town? Without telling anyone? Not even me?”

  “I know. And I’m sorry about that. I should have told you. But I knew you’d try to talk me out of it.”

  “I don’t understand. I mean, I get that maybe you needed to get away for a few weeks, but why didn’t you come back? Why didn’t you tell someone where you were going?” Allie wasn’t buying it. I had to come up with something else.

  “Okay, here’s what’s really going on. I did run away but there’s more to the story. Colin and I are, um, we’re um, getting married. In a couple weeks.”

  I glanced over at Colin. He looked at me like I was insane, but Allie didn’t notice. She was too distracted by the news.

  Allie burst from her seat. “Oh my God! Really? You’re really getting married?”

  I grabbed Colin’s hand and kissed him. “Yes. We figured, why wait until we’re older? We love each other and we want to get married now. But you can’t tell anyone this, Allie. They would only try to stop us. Dave. Colin’s parents. They would ruin it for us. So we’re just in town to get some of my things and then we’re leaving. And we can’t come back here again, at least not for a long time.”

  Allie lived for a good love story and she ate this one up. “My two best friends are getting married! I’m so happy for you guys! Sam, let me see the ring!”

  “Oh, we don’t have rings yet. But we’ll get them.”

  Allie gave Colin a strange look. “Do you want—”

  “No.” Colin abruptly cut her off.

  “What was that about?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” Colin answered, keeping his eyes on Allie.

  Allie took a seat again, sitting at the edge of the sofa. “So Colin, how did you propose?”

  Colin gave her an awkward smile. “Um, I think that should stay between Sam and me.”

  “No, come on, tell me,” Allie pleaded.

  I knew Colin wouldn’t come up with a story so I stepped in. “After I ran away, I missed Colin so much that I had to call him, just to say goodbye.”

  “Why would you say goodbye? Why not just ask him to come be with you?”

  “Because I didn’t want him to miss school. And graduation. It was too much of a sacrifice for him. So anyway, he pretended to go along with it, pretended to say goodbye, but of course, he ended up coming to see me. And no, I can’t tell you where that was, Allie. But it was somewhere warm and sunny. So I was sitting at this cafe one day thinking about how much I loved and missed him when the waiter comes over and gives me a postcard. It had a picture of that old movie theater downtown. You know, the one where Colin and I had our first date?”

  Allie was getting more and more excited. “Yeah, I know it. Go on.”

  “I turned over the postcard and Colin had written a note, but it was written like a movie theater listing. It said, ‘The Wonderful Life of Samantha and Colin, Showing today, and every day, for the rest of our lives. Please join me for this invitation-only event. A ticket has been reserved in your name.’”

  Colin stared at me like I had now completely lost my mind. I smiled at him, then back at Allie.

  “Oh, that’s sooo romantic,” Allie gushed.

  “It’s really kind of lame,” Colin muttered. I squeez
ed his hand, urging him to go along with it.

  “So I turn around and Colin’s standing there with a bucket of popcorn and a dozen roses. And then he got on one knee and proposed.”

  “Awww, Sam, that is so perfect for you! Because it’s not too sappy, which you hate. But it’s clever, which you like. And then the movie theme because you love movies! Colin, that was sooo perfect!”

  “Uh, yeah, thanks,” he said, after I squeezed his hand another time.

  “So the wedding’s in a few weeks?” she asked.

  “Yes, so we need to—”

  Before I could finish, we heard someone at the door. Colin had locked it, but someone was trying to get in. And from the struggle this person was having with the door, it had to be a break in. GlobalLife! I thought. They must have been watching Allie’s house and seen Colin and me. Now they were trying to break in! Colin and I froze, not sure what to do. Then suddenly, the door burst open.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Reykjavik

  A tall, thin woman entered the room, placing her purse on the floor. I felt my heartbeat return to normal when I realized it was Allie’s mom. At first, I didn’t recognize her. She was covered head to toe in a long black coat with a red scarf wrapped around her dark, wavy hair.

  Allie got up and went to the door. “Mom, what are you doing here?”

  Allie’s mom hung her coat and scarf on a hook near the door. Like her daughter, she was always well dressed. She had on a dark gray tailored suit with a crisp white blouse unbuttoned enough to show off a large diamond necklace that matched her diamond earrings.

  “I took an earlier flight home. I couldn’t get my key to work in that door. Remind me to ask your father to fix that.” She leaned down to kiss Allie on the cheek. “Hello, sweetheart. How are you?”

  Allie’s mom hadn’t even noticed us sitting in the living room.

  “Mom. We have company. Now don’t freak out.” Allie walked her mom over to us.

  “Oh my goodness. Samantha? Colin? What are you doing here? I thought you were missing. I hired a—” Allie’s mom talked fast, just like her daughter.

  “Mom. You need to call off that investigator. They don’t wanna be found. They’re getting—um, never mind.”

  “Hi, Mrs. Taylor,” I said as her and Allie sat down. “Nice to see you again. What Allie was saying is that Colin and I have decided to, um, live together. Away from here. Out of state. His parents don’t approve, so we need to keep this quiet. Please don’t tell anyone.”

  Mrs. Taylor looked at Colin, then back at me. “Well, you’re both of age. Eighteen, right? I think you’re old enough to make that decision.”

  Allie jumped up from her chair. “Sam! Your birthday! I almost forgot! I have a gift for you. I’ll go get it.” Allie headed for the stairs, then stopped. “You don’t have to leave right away, do you? Please say no.”

  I checked the clock on the wall. “I’m sorry, Allie, but we do have to get going soon.”

  Allie’s face turned sad. “Oh, then let me get your gift. Stay right there.”

  Mrs. Taylor smiled at Colin and me. “My daughter is going to miss you both terribly. She talks about you all the time.”

  “We’ll miss her, too.” Awkward silence filled the room as I struggled to find more to say. “So, where were you traveling back from?”

  “California. I had some business out there.”

  Silence again. “You work in banking. Is that right, Mrs. Taylor?”

  “Call me Eve. And actually, I work in investment banking.”

  “Allie said you travel overseas a lot.”

  “Yes, my company has offices around the world. Because of that, I’m often stuck traveling to different countries. I get very little time at home. I wish it weren’t that way. I rarely see Allie and soon she’ll be off at college.”

  We heard Allie running down the stairs. “Okay, here you go.” She handed me two boxes, neatly wrapped. Allie loved giving presents. “I got these before you left. This one is a graduation gift. The other one is for your birthday.”

  I unwrapped the graduation gift, which was in a wide, flat box. Inside was a laptop bag made from soft brown leather. It looked very expensive.

  “Allie, this is way too much. I can’t accept this.”

  “You’re taking it. I searched forever to find one you’d like. So what do you think?”

  “I love it! But it’s still more than you should’ve spent.”

  Allie rolled her eyes at me. “Open the other one!”

  Inside the smaller box was a silver necklace that had a pendant on it. The pendant looked like the capital letter I with an open circle around the middle.

  I held it up to see it better. “Thanks, Allie! This is really cool. Is this a Greek letter?”

  “Yeah. It’s the letter phi, the twenty-first letter in the Greek alphabet. I learned all about when I was going to school there. It’s got like all these different meanings in math, science, art. I can’t remember them all.”

  “It represents the golden ratio,” Mrs. Taylor explained. “The ratio is found in nature, and it’s been used to create some of the world’s most beautiful architecture and paintings. In fact, you can see it in the works of Da Vinci and Dali. The ratio is even employed in the financial markets.”

  “See? It’s really cool,” Allie said. “You can look up all the other meanings on the Internet. I know you don’t like sparkly stuff, so I thought you might like this. I got it at a store in Athens. But it’s all silver! I didn’t get it at one of those tacky tourist shops.”

  I put the necklace on. “I love it, Al. Thanks!”

  Colin got up. “Well, we should really get going, Sam.”

  “Yeah, okay.” It was time to go but I didn’t want to. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye.

  As we walked to the door, Allie ran ahead of us. “Do you really have to leave? When will I see you guys again?”

  I looked at Colin. “We don’t know, Allie.”

  “Take lots of pictures at the wedding, even if it’s at the courthouse.” She said it quietly so her mom wouldn’t hear. “And next time I see you, I’ll give you guys your wedding present.” Allie grabbed me for another hug. “I’ll miss you so much.” Her voice was shaky and almost made me cry.

  Allie cleared her throat and let me go. Then she hugged Colin. “I’ll kill you if you don’t take care of her. You know that, right?” She spoke just loud enough for me to hear. “And make sure she still goes to Stanford.”

  Colin smiled. “Got it. We’ll see you later, Allie.”

  Mrs. Taylor came over to the door. “I know you two are adults, but the mother in me can’t help worrying. Do you need anything? Food? Money?”

  “No,” I said. “We’ll be okay. But thank you.”

  She smiled. “Well, please call us if you do.”

  “I guess this is it.” Tears were now running down Allie’s face as she spoke. “Now promise me that we’ll see each other again.”

  “We promise,” Colin and I said in unison.

  “Oh, Sam, your bag.” Mrs. Taylor went to grab the laptop bag I’d left on the sofa.

  “Thanks,” I said, taking it from her. “I got so caught up in the goodbyes that I almost forgot it.”

  Colin tugged on me to leave. “We really need to go. We’ll see ya, Allie. Bye, Mrs. Taylor.”

  Allie and I had a final hug, then Colin and I left. As soon as the door closed behind us, I started crying.

  Colin held my hand as we walked. “Sam, we’ll see her again someday.”

  “No, we won’t. That was the last time I’ll ever see her.”

  He knew it was more true than not, so we continued in silence until we got to Fisher’s SUV.

  “What’s wrong? What happened?” Erik asked when he saw me crying.

  Colin answered for me. “She’s upset about saying goodbye to Allie.”

  “Because I know I’ll never see her again,” I said, wiping my tears.

  “Was she the only one home?” Jac
k asked Colin.

  “No, her mom was there. But we didn’t tell either of them the truth. Sam made up this story about her and me running off to get married.”

  “Oh really.” Erik smiled at me. “And when is this happening, Sam?”

  “I had to tell her something. And that’s the only thing she’d believe. I told her we didn’t want anyone else to know. Oh, and she promised to call off the investigator.”

  “Where did you get this?” Erik picked up the leather laptop bag.

  “Allie gave it to me as a graduation gift. And she gave me this for my birthday.” I held out the necklace for them to see.

  Jack turned back. “Is that phi? The Greek letter?”

  “Yeah. Allie went to school in Greece last semester. She got this when she was there.”

  “That’s the symbol for the golden ratio,” Jack said.

  “Yeah, that’s what her mom was saying.”

  “Did you have any trouble with the van?” Colin asked Jack.

  “No. It fit right into the storage locker. There were plenty of empty ones. I paid the guy enough to cover the next six months, just in case we’re gone for a while. And if we don’t come back, I guess the guy gets a van and some very sophisticated equipment.”

  “I can always go and pick it up for you,” Fisher offered. He seemed to be in a better mood than when he’d dropped us off. And more trusting of Jack.

  About an hour later, we arrived at the small airport. As everyone unloaded the SUV, I went inside to present the reservation number. Two pilots were waiting at a front desk area. When I read off the numbers and letters, they nodded and one went outside to prepare the plane.

  The other one stayed behind. “I can get your things. Go ahead and board. If you need a restroom, it’s right down the hall.”

  “Wait. Some other people will be coming with me.”

  “Older man and his son?” the pilot asked.

  “Yeah, how did you know—”

  “Is there a girl, too?’

  “Yes. And one more guy,” I said.

  He nodded. “I was told they might be coming with us. Tell them they can board. I’ll get their things loaded on.”