“What the…” I said, looking at Dakota.
Everyone started laughing. And I suddenly got it. I was the virgin so they gave me the tamest horse of all. The truth was, they were all tame. I raised my hands in the air and shook my head, yelling out, “You guys are jerks, but I like it. You got me. You got me.” I figured it’d be best if I laughed along.
Camden said, “I like this girl.”
In the meantime, Dakota roped his horse. He grabbed my rope from me and let the horses run with us. That’s when I held on to the horse’s mane for dear life.
“Keep your eyes on the path in front of you,” Dakota yelled out. “Never look down at your horse, it will make you dizzy.”
I obeyed. We ran and walked through the woods, taking the occasional break, across acres and acres of land and around a huge lake, until it was almost dark. I felt free—wild, even. I thought I could ride forever, but I was exhausted when we made it back to the main field. I brought both my legs over to one side of the horse and started to jump down. Ian hurried over and caught me. It turned out to be a good thing. My legs were like jelly, like after riding a Harley all day. He carried me to the fence and then handed me over to Dakota.
My heart pounded. I pulled my head into Dakota’s shoulder, his arms holding me tight. I heard him take a deep breath of my hair before setting me down. Was he feeling the same connection between us that I was feeling? Moments later, my legs gathered their strength. He didn’t let go of me. If anything, he held tighter.
“How can you still smell so good after a two hour ride?”
A nervous laugh escaped me, and I pulled away. “I always smell sweet,” I said. “I never sweat, either.” I laughed.
“That, I believe,” he said seriously and after a pause, added. “I’m so glad you fit in with us.”
I grinned. Was I in?
Driving down the hill, I thought I saw a familiar face in a parked car. The man was reading a newspaper. It was Jeremy. What was he doing here? I smiled.
I followed Dakota’s Jeep to Abby’s Pizza, Ian in the seat next to me. We laughed about Abby’s parents naming the restaurant after her. Hunger suddenly gripped me. We ate ourselves silly on some of the best pizza I’d ever eaten. When we were done, we used the self-serve ice cream machine to fill a bunch of balloons full of ice cream. Then we went outside and played a balloon toss game, throwing the balloons across the street to our partners. We were all a sticky mess by the time the balloons were gone.
When I got home, I met my agent parents in the office to tell them what was going on. “Can you believe I got into the group my first day?” I figured they would congratulate me and start really believing in me now. Instead, I got a lecture.
“Look, Misha,” Agent Penrod said. “What you did today was reckless. You didn’t call and you didn’t activate your tracker. If you want to make this seem real to the kidnappers and Madness, you’re going to have to call us and ask if you can do things before you do them. This is amateur stuff here. Good grief.” She was so like my mom.
“She’s right, Misha,” Agent Wood said. “I was worried about your ability to see this mission through, and it looks like my worry was justified. What if the kidnappers had decided to snatch you while horseback riding? We would have no clue what had happened to you. Nothing like this had better ever happen again.”
They were right. I needed to be better. But, they didn’t need to treat me like a little child. “Sorry guys. You’re right. I should have let you know what was going on, and I should have activated the tracker.”
Agent Wood clenched his teeth as he listened to my apology.
I saw Agent Penrod smirk, but it was gone as quickly as it’d appeared.
“I’m really sorry,” I repeated. “It won’t happen again.” I hurried to my room. No point in hanging out with the two of them any longer than I had to. When I walked into my room, I noticed a note from Jeremy. My heart flipped, and I wondered why. After reading the note, I figured it was just because someone recognized my good work. Despite what my agent parents had said, I rocked it today.
Congratulations on nailing it today. Great work. Looks like you got in on your first try.
I looked at the note one more time. In my mind, I saw Jeremy in that car behind that newspaper, and I smiled. Just like in DC, he would protect me at all costs. I couldn’t ask for a better handler.
The next day, I was so saddle sore, I didn’t even dare try to longboard up to the school from where I parked. Instead, I hobbled up. Several other members of Madness walked just like me. Throughout the day, it became more and more clear that Ian called all the shots with this group. They all looked to him as their leader. When ideas were bounced around, Ian always had the final say.
After school, I jumped into my car and rolled the window down. I was about to drive away when Ian’s fingers grabbed the door and he leaned in.
“Wanna come over for dinner tonight? My parents are out of town,” he said.
Right, no parents. That’s because he lives by himself and is twenty-five and a recruiter for a kidnapper.
“Sure,” I said. It was kind of scary to think about being alone with Ian in his house, but I’d do anything to get on the right side of the leader of the group and be one of the eight chosen to be kidnapped. We had to figure out what was going on, and what had happened to the other kidnapped kids. Besides, I could handle myself.
I made sure to fill Agent Wood and Agent Penrod in on my plans, and they gave me some unsolicited advice about what information to get out of Ian and how to do it. I listened patiently, biting my tongue. I knew they just wanted to help me.
I arrived at seven, and followed Ian into his massive kitchen. He had made spaghetti with meatballs. It smelled rich and meaty. No way he was a high school senior.
“I hope you like spaghetti,” he said. “It’s a specialty of mine.”
“I love it. It smells amazing. I had no idea you were a chef. I figured we’d be eating pizza.”
He chuckled. “Actually, spaghetti with meatballs is the only thing I can make.” He ladled two big meatballs with sauce over a bowl of spaghetti and handed it to me.
“You seriously made this by yourself?”
“Seriously, so you better love it. I’m kinda protective of this recipe—it’s my grandfather’s.” He made himself a bowl, too, before opening the oven and pulling out two crispy pieces of garlic toast and placing one on my bowl and one on his. After pulling out two forks from a nearby drawer, he led me out onto the patio where we sat at a table covered with an umbrella. The sun was low, about to set, and the reddish ball peeked through the thick trees surrounding his property.
“This is amazing,” I said after swallowing my first bite.
“Thanks,” he said.
We chatted aimlessly as we ate. My skin prickled with goose bumps when the sun went down.
“You cold?” he asked, looking at my hands running up and down my arms.
“Just a bit,” I said.
“I’ll be right back.” He went inside and brought out a couple of blankets. We moseyed out to the garden area and sat on loungers, and I wrapped up in one of the blankets he handed me. We looked up at the stars. “So, tell me about where you came from,” he said.
While my cover told me some specific things about Misha’s past, I was charged with coming up with a lot of the unimportant things. I’d fill my team in on what I’d come up with later. I had to be flexible in order to be the person I thought others wanted at that moment. I’d anticipated this question and had come up with a lot of fun things to tell him about.
“I hated leaving all my friends in Colorado,” I said, hoping to get things on a personal level. “But the worst was leaving my cat and dog. They were really my older sister’s, and she said she couldn’t handle having them so far away from her. She and her husband moved into a new apartment that allowed pets right before we moved. I was so mad at her. I’d been taking care of them for the last two years since she got married. She only cam
e to see them about twice a week, and she never cleaned up after them.”
“I don’t have any siblings, so I don’t know what that would be like. I can’t imagine fighting with my brother or sister. I think I’d be so glad to have one, like we’d always have awesome times together.”
“If only it could be so easy. Sisters can be a huge pain.” I told him a few funny stories about the dog and cat and then my sister. I drew on my experiences from my real family in Montana. I was hoping to get him to talk about his personal life and get him to give me a hint as to his real age so I could confirm he was the recruiter for the kidnappers and not just a student caught up in this mess unawares. He didn’t take the bait, which made me think he really was the recruiter—trained not to talk about personal stuff. I changed tactics to a more direct approach.
“It sucks—moving senior year, you know? But I’ve decided to look at it as a rockin’ adventure.” I grinned at him and added, “Especially now I’ve found you guys. I can’t wait to find more awesome things to do in Oregon. Turns out this state might not be so bad after all.” I paused, then turned the conversation to Ian. “What about you? Are you from here?”
“I was born in Portland and moved here when I was ten.”
“Oregon is your home, then?”
“Yep. I plan on dying here, too.” He shifted on the lounger and looked at me. “Where’re you planning to go to college?”
“Not sure. I was thinking I’d go to Colorado State. I might still end up there. I haven’t decided yet.” I pulled the blanket up tight around my neck.”
“You should consider University of Oregon. We’re all hoping to go there.”
I assumed he meant members of Madness. “I’ll look into it.”
“So, why don’t you have a girlfriend?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
“I don’t like being tied down. Girlfriends can get in the way. Only Troy has a girlfriend right now. She goes to a different school.”
“None of the girls have boyfriends?” I knew he’d know I was asking about the girls in Madness.
“Not right now. It’s hard to keep a girlfriend or boyfriend outside the group. It’s hard to make them understand the relationship we have with each other. They all end up getting too jealous. The drama isn’t worth it. We date, we just don’t stick with one person. Dakota dates more than any of us. While I have the occasional girl ask me out, Dakota is bombarded with girls asking him to go out.”
Great. I had to get involved with the ladies’ man. This might not be as easy as it looked.
“Have any of you ever dated each other?”
“Sure. I dated Abby and Tarran for a while, but once the heat died down, we decided to move on. There’ve been a few other hookups, but they never seem to stand the test of time. In the end, I think we’re too much like a family to have romantic feelings for each other.”
He considered them his family, and he was planning to have them kidnapped? That didn’t sit right with me.
After that, the conversation died down. I’d never heard such loud chirping of crickets. At nine, he said, “I hate to kick you out, but I promised my parents that if I invited anyone over, I’d send them home at nine. It’s nine.”
I was a bit shocked. Had I done or said something wrong? Why would he follow his parent’s rules if he didn’t have any? Or was he bored? He stood up and held out his hand for me to take. I sighed loudly and took it. I kept waiting for him to make a move on me, but he never did. He was a complete gentleman. He hugged me hard at my car door and then opened it for me. I sat inside, still a bit shocked.
“I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?” I figured the direct approach would serve me well in this situation.
“Of course not. I think you’re the perfect addition to our group.”
I don’t know why I thought he’d be interested in me. He was looking at me as someone to send to the chopping block, nothing more. Could he really be working for the kidnappers? “Great. I think you guys are a lot of fun, too.”
Once home, I told my agent parents what I’d told Ian about my life, and that Ian was the definite leader, and that I was in.
“Don’t be so hasty in your judgment,” Agent Wood said.
Agent Penrod took a step toward me. “It’s important you get to know all of the members of Madness a bit better before you pass that judgment. Remember,” she cooed, rubbing her hand down my arm, a patronizing look on her face, “Division wants you to focus on Dakota and Ian, but it could be anyone.”
I tried not to show how upset I was at how they were treating me. I didn’t want to rock the boat. I’d let them baby me, for now. My actions from now on would show them I didn’t need their coddling.
The next day, Tarran, the redheaded girl in the group, invited me over to her house. After a quick call to my agent parents, which I ended hastily when Agent Penrod tried to baby me, I drove over. Apparently, every other Thursday the girls and guys split and had a contest to see who could come up with their next big thrill. All the girls were there.
We crowded around Tarran’s computer screen to watch YouTube videos and news reports on risky behavior.
“We always start off,” Tarran said, “with three or four new skater videos to remind ourselves that skater tricks suck. Besides, they’re hilarious.” We laughed and screamed at those videos and then moved on to ones that could spark ideas for our next few adventures. After about an hour, our initial list had five things we thought would be fun.
Jensyn ordered some Chinese food and everyone that could pitched in to pay for it. Tarran made up the difference.
While we waited, we chose our top two activities to present to the boys. Once that was done and we were chowing on the Chinese food, Mindy started to spill her guts.
“If my dad rips on my mom one more time, I’m going to make him a batch of brownies with extra strength Metamucil. I hate the fact they’re divorcing, but I’m starting to see why it might be best. They hate each other. I have no idea why they got married in the first place. My mom’s doing the best she can. If he were married to someone like him, he’d end up behaving the same way she does.”
“Down with terrible husbands and fathers,” Jensyn said, raising her heavily caffeinated drink in the air. When all the others grabbed their cans and raised them up to meet Jensyn’s, I hastily did, too. The clanking of the can was somehow satisfying.
Abby pulled Mindy into a hug, and Mindy started to cry. The rest of the girls crowded around her.
“It’ll all be okay,” Tarran said.
“Don’t worry, you’ve always got us,” Jensyn said.
“It’ll all work out,” Abby said. “You’ll see.”
At that point, they all started to cry. They really were like a family.
I also discovered that most of the kids in the group, with the exception of Ian and Mindy, all grew up in different states and within the last few years had moved here.
On the way home, I thought about everything I had learned. I wasn’t sure what it all meant—was it important that most of the group were out-of-staters? What were the kidnappers after? I maneuvered the car mechanically, focused on my thoughts, until a bright light coming from the middle of the street shined up at me in a quick spurt.
Startled, I jerked the car to the side, barely missing hitting the light. I almost hit the curb, but stopped just before. I gripped the steering wheel, breathing hard, then slammed my door open and jumped out of the car. My eyes swept the road, searching for the source of the light.
That’s when I saw her—a girl sitting on top of a metal safety rail on the side of the road. She held a flashlight in her hand, and she was staring right at me. Her red hair flamed in the dim light from a street lamp above her. She laughed, flipped the flashlight from one hand to the other, the light dancing around in the night sky, and then took off.
My instinct was to chase after her, but I stopped myself. It wasn’t a part of my mission, and I needed to stay focused. I could have killed that gi
rl, and she was laughing. Her face was permanently etched in my mind.
I didn’t bother telling my agent parents about my almost accident when I got back. I gave them a quick run-down of what I’d learned and hurried to bed.
The next morning, I knew I’d done something wrong when Dakota met me on the stairs to the school and looking me over said, “Roberts, what’s up with the pink?”
“Huh?” I said.
“It’s game day, and Madness loves game day.” I couldn’t help but notice his orange T-shirt with the outline of the head of an Indian, apparently the school’s mascot. I hadn’t pegged them for the ‘school spirit’ type, but concluded it must be the small town atmosphere that made even Madness love school sports.
“Well, if someone had told me, I would have been prepared.” I raised my eyebrows at him.
“Don’t you listen to the announcements?”
“Very funny,” I said. “No one hears those.”
“No worries,” he said. “I’ve got you covered.”
“You do?”
“Yep,” he said. “I just sent Tarran to the save the day. She’ll be here before you know it.” And she was. He must have been watching me from the time I pulled up with my car and then seeing my clothes, had sent her, without a thought, to go buy me a game-day T-shirt. I admit it, I swooned a bit.
I yanked the orange shirt over the pink one I already had on. It clashed harshly with my plaid skirt and pink Converse, but I didn’t care. It had been a nice gesture. There was an excitement in the air I’d never experienced in all my high school career. Nothing got done in any class, even English. No one had anything but football on their mind.
I did my duty when I got home, telling my faux parents about my day and what would be happening that night. They peppered me with questions and had me rolling my eyes only a few minutes into the conversation.
Adrenaline Rush Page 4