“Yes, it is,” Emily replied. “It came from a number I don’t recognize. It was something like a threat.”
Rina looked intrigued now. “And it relates to supernaturals?”
Emily didn’t reply. But she didn’t need to. She knew Rina would deduce what Emily’s silence meant.
Rina nodded. “Anyway, if it makes you feel better, I didn’t send that text message. And neither did Michael, because we were together all night last night.”
Emily made a face. “Ew . . .”
Rina had a look of irritation on her face. “We were going over all the dirt he’s been able to dig up on you. He was trying to connect the dots that just weren’t connecting. He was drawing conclusions that didn’t make sense. He was hell-bound on proving there’s an Owl living in your house.”
Emily laughed nervously. But within her heart, she was inches away from panicking.
Keep it together, The Owl coached. You’re almost home free.
“I wasn’t able to dissuade him from bringing his father in to school today,” Rina said. She looked Emily up and down again. “Apparently, Mr. Winter agreed with my assessment that nothing shady was going on in your house, otherwise you’d have been taken away.”
“Why did he come to you?”
“I suppose he thought I’d give an impartial analysis to his data,” Rina said. “It’s no news that I’m against the vigilantes.
“I’ve done all I can to fight against them, including writing negatively about them and even petitioning the state government and Congress to disband them. Nothing yet.”
That was news to Emily. She filed it away somewhere in her mind.
“Whatever gave him the notion that there was an Owl living in my house?” Emily wanted to know. “I mean, it’s just Dad and me.”
“Damned if I know.” Rina picked up her earpieces, signaling the end of their conversation.
Emily didn’t have any other place to go, so she remained at the table awkwardly and focused on her food.
So if not Jamie, Michael, or Rina, who sent the message? The Owl asked the question that was haunting Emily yet again. Who knows our secret?
13
Lunch break ended, and Emily was still no closer to figuring out who could have sent the message to her. She and Rina didn’t exchange any more words, which left Emily thinking they hadn’t bonded after all.
However, she was left with a new impression of Rina: admiration. Emily hadn’t known Rina was an advocate for supernaturals. Mostly because she hadn’t been to all the seminars Rina had organized, and she hadn’t once picked up a copy of Rina’s newspaper.
Now, it didn’t mean Emily could tell Rina she was The Owl or even talk to Rina about supernaturals. Or any details that bordered around Emily’s life or the death of her mother, for that matter. But it did mean that Rina was not the enemy, and when the time came that Emily needed help, perhaps she could rely on Rina to provide it.
The rest of class that afternoon was one single boring blur. Emily’s mind was nowhere near her science lecture or the history lessons about the Fourth Amendment and Abraham Lincoln.
Several times, Joanna tried to get her attention, but Emily purposely ignored her. She still felt hurt and needed to lick her wounds for a bit longer.
In Emily’s strong opinion, Joanna should have told her the truth. Her best friend should have been the one to tell her about the investigation, not Jamie. Joanna was closer to Emily than Jamie. In fact, several times in the brief year Emily had been keeping the secret, she had come close to opening up to Joanna.
But Emily had been wrong about her. If Joanna was keeping this huge secret from Emily, what else was she keeping?
At this point, Emily expected The Owl to point out her hypocrisy. (She was, after all, keeping The Owl secret from Joanna.) But The Owl said nothing. It was almost as if she was sulking. Why, Emily could not tell. They still had unfinished business from the previous night.
The last period for the day before extracurricular activities was AP Physics. It was a breath of fresh air for Emily because she wouldn’t have to sit in front of Joanna, feeling Joanna’s hot gaze burning her skin.
Without a word, Emily left the class with the few who took AP Physics. She heard someone call her name. It sounded like Joanna, but then again, it could have been another girl. Emily didn’t stop to listen, and she left for the next class without looking back.
During the class, she wondered how she was going to un-invite everyone to the party that night. Even though she hadn’t sent a reminder, she knew everyone and their friends were going to arrive at her door if she didn’t let them know otherwise.
Joanna was supposed to help her prep her house for the party. The party was just a stupid idea—a dare, actually. She was the most popular girl in the school, and nobody ever got to come to her house. She had been to other house parties but never had one in her own home. So, during one of the other parties, she had been dared to host the next one.
In a bid not to be seen as a spoilsport, she had agreed. Now, with all she had learned—her friends were spying on her, her life may or may not be in danger—she saw no reason to continue the party preparations.
But how was she going to tell everyone not to come to her house that night?
Maybe having the party might not be the worst of ideas, The Owl reasoned, finally speaking up after her lengthy silence.
Emily bent a little to shield her face and whispered, “How so?” She then looked up again as if nothing had happened.
We don’t have a suspect, do we?
Emily shook her head.
The—
“What don’t you understand, Emily?” asked Mr. Clarke, the AP Physics teacher.
“Excuse me?” Emily blurted out, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. Weary eyes turned to look at her.
“You did just shake your head, did you not?” Mr. Clarke asked.
“Urm . . .” Emily had nothing to say.
“Is something the matter?”
“No, Sir. Just trying to clear the sleep from my eyes is all.” Okay, that was a lame excuse.
Mr. Clarke smiled. “I can imagine. I see a lot of glazed eyes from where I’m standing.”
The entire class laughed.
“I understand this is not the most ideal time to consider the wave particle duality of matter,” Mr. Clarke added. “That’s why I’ve put in for this class to be moved to one of your morning periods.”
Mr. Clarke returned his attention to Emily. “Would that help?”
“Surely, Sir,” Emily said with a nod.
Mr. Clarke went back to teaching. Thank goodness.
The Owl picked right back up where she left off. As I was saying, the party would afford you the opportunity to find out who sent the message. If I were the suspect, I would utilize the party to act. I’d do something big. Something brash. Something that’ll force your exposure.
Emily didn’t like the sound of that. It made her feel insecure. That there was someone out there watching her. Who had her number.
What was more terrifying about the whole situation was that she didn’t know what this person wanted. Did they want to extort her? Did they want to kill her? Did they want to turn her in? She had no idea, and she couldn’t stop thinking about it—constantly replaying different scenarios in her mind.
At times like this, she felt like screaming.
Please don’t. It’ll only be awkward for both of us.
Damn Owl could always read her emotions!
The class came to an end shortly after. Mr. Clarke kept them for one more minute, giving them portions of their text to read and an assignment due in one week. When he was done, they all left the class.
Emily’s first destination was the bathroom. She found an empty stall, sat on the toilet cover, and buried her face in her hands. “I don’t want to have this party,” she said out loud. “What if they attack me? What if they take something? What about Dad?” She said that last bit with a gasp. She hadn’t thoug
ht about her father much.
You have an aunt not far from the town. I’m sure she’ll be happy to daddysit.
Emily shook her head. “I still don’t want to host the party.” The truth was, she was terrified. Suspicious. It could be anyone. And as long as the culprit’s intention was unknown, she was in danger. They knew where she lived. They knew her phone number. What else did they know?
“Emily?” said a voice. The door to the bathroom opened.
Emily froze. She could hear her own breathing.
“Emily?” The door opened wider and footsteps came in. It was Joanna.
Emily felt a surge of anger and hurt. “Go away.”
Joanna shut the door and walked directly to the stall.
Emily tried to fight the tears. She failed. They streamed down her cheeks. She was thankful the door to the stall was shut. It would have been embarrassing for Joanna to have seen her tears because the truth was that she didn’t want to fight with her best friend. Now more than ever, she needed Joanna. She might not tell her what’s up, but her support was invaluable.
“I’m sorry,” Joanna started. “I’m sorry if you feel hurt and betrayed by my actions. I love you, and I would do anything to protect you.”
“I love you, too,” Emily admitted, “but how can I trust you if you lie to me?” As the words came out, she felt the sting of guilt. She was doing the very same thing she was hassling Joanna about.
Am I a hypocrite? Emily asked herself.
Yup, muttered The Owl.
“They were talking about running you out of town outright,” Joanna explained. “They didn’t even want to consider your innocence. I know this because my dad is a big donor to the vigilantes, and he’s the one keeping the state PD and the FBI away from the town.”
Joanna’s father was some sort of billionaire with powerful friends. That much Emily knew. What he did exactly, Emily had no idea.
“I had to convince my dad to let the vigilantes give you a trial. The only condition was that I couldn’t tell you,” Joanna continued. “The others were sworn to secrecy. They couldn’t say a word or you would have been run out of town. I wanted to tell you. It killed me that I was holding back on you. But in the end, it was a choice between being honest with you and you having the life I know you desire. Alive.”
Emily shut her eyes and whimpered.
14
You can’t hold out on her for too long, The Owl whispered into Emily’s mind. She’ll find out sooner or later that you kept a secret from her. She’ll hate you forever.
Emily was shocked at The Owl’s brutal revelation; however, she knew it was probably accurate. The truth was, she had considered telling Joanna about her secret before. Every time she thought about it, she was never able to bring herself to buck up and do it. Joanna was her best friend, but they had never really talked about vigilantism.
Emily didn’t know what Joanna’s stance really was. She’d suspected that Joanna’s father was a supporter of the vigilantes, but never knew to what extent. Now she knew he was funding them. If she could get Joanna’s father to defund them, maybe there was yet hope for her.
Emily stood and opened the stall. Joanna’s face was a bit moist, showing that she’d been crying herself. She stood to the side, hanging on to her backpack. A small smile lit up her face.
“Tell me everything,” Emily finally said.
“There’s nothing more to tell.” Joanna shrugged her shoulders. “Just after your mom had been—er—removed, they met in my father’s house and informed him they wanted to run you out of town. I heard and spoke up for you.
“It’s because of my dad that they decided to hold an inquiry, which involved me and a bunch of other people spying on you. I agreed because I didn’t want you giving up on your life just because those assholes wouldn’t consider your innocence.”
Emily gave a nod. “I don’t like it, but I guess I understand why you had to do what you did.”
“That’s all I ask of you,” Joanna said. “Know this. It’ll never happen again. There’ll never be secrets between us again.”
“Never?” Emily asked, concerned. She didn’t want to agree to something that she was in obvious violation of herself.
Joanna pulled Emily into an embrace. When they broke, she said, “If we leave now, we can get to the mall early enough to buy everything we need for the party.”
Remembering the party flushed Emily with a new wave of apprehension. Yeah, sure, she and Joanna were the best of friends again. That didn’t mean she wanted to jump right into holding the party again. Doing so meant she would be hosting a bunch of people who’d betrayed her.
Don’t forget the larger picture, came the voice of The Owl again. We need to force the exposure of whoever sent the message.
“Can we even still have the party?” Emily asked.
Joanna’s shoulders slumped. “Why not?”
“Well, I kind of forgot to send a reminder.” Emily was grasping at any excuse she could think of. “I doubt anyone remembers I have a party at my house tonight.”
Joanna grinned widely. “Everyone’s talking about it!”
“They are?” Emily asked, surprised. Great.
“Yeah! And I think the whole school is gonna come. You’re popular, Emily. Although I might have sent a message to our classmates yesterday reminding them about the party . . .”
Before Emily could respond to that, Joanna flashed a Black American Express card.
“What’s that?”
“What does it look like?” Joanna asked. She didn’t wait for Emily to reply. “It’s my dad’s Blamex. He’s going to pay for everything.”
“A Blamex!?” Emily gasped. Those were highly coveted credit cards with no limit. Only millionaires—or billionaires—had those! She had never even seen one before. “I don’t want you getting into trouble, Joanna. I can manage just fine on my own.”
“But that’s the thing,” Joanna replied. “You’re not on your own. You’ve got me. Besides, my dad has a lot of credit cards lying around. I doubt he’ll miss just this one. Come on.”
Joanna was so nonchalant about the whole thing, Emily couldn’t help but go along with it. She just groaned her acquiescence and let Joanna lead her out of the restroom into the corridor. “We’ve got thirty minutes of extracurriculars. You’ve got cheerleading practice, and I’ve got . . . nothing.”
“I’m sure the girls can do without me for just today,” Emily argued.
“The girls, yes,” Joanna replied. “The boys, maybe not. Are you going to smooth things out with Jamie? I saw Kendra looking at him all starry-eyed when you were in AP Physics—why do you even take that class?”
“I’ve told you before, I need it to get into Stanford.”
“Oh, right. Your dream of being an engineer.” Joanna rolled her eyes. “You know, every girl wants to be a pop star or an actress. I still don’t get why you want to do something as boring as computer engineering.”
Emily laughed. “Remind me again what your dad does?”
“Yeah, sure, he’s an engineer, but that’s like a guy’s thing. I prefer the glamor and glitz of show biz.”
“Right, and how do you plan on doing that when you’re stuck in this out-of-the-way town?”
Joanna shrugged. “My dad knows people. But you haven’t answered my question.”
“Which one?”
They had walked out of the building, heading out to the parking lot, chattering like the high school girls they were. Emily had asked Joanna not to bother bringing her car to school that day. They had earlier planned that Emily was going to chauffeur Joanna around because they were planning the party together. It was Friday, so Joanna didn’t have to wake up early the next day. Emily was supposed to drop her at home.
“Jamie,” Joanna said flatly. “He’s pretty shaken up, you know? He thinks you never want to talk to him again.”
Emily chuckled. “Whatever made him think that?”
“Er—I don’t know, maybe the way you ignor
ed his questions after Mr. Winter’s talk or how you didn’t come to eat with us like you always do.”
They approached Emily’s Jetta. She pulled out her key fob and opened the vehicle. She was about to enter when she noticed Michael and Rina having a heated conversation at the corner of the parking lot.
Joanna followed her gaze. “What are those two yammering about?” Emily didn’t reply, so Joanna asked again, “Why are they even talking? I didn’t know those two even knew each other.”
Emily was mildly surprised. “I thought you knew everything.”
Joanna laughed out loud. “Whatever made you think that?” With a side grin, she glanced back at the two in the corner of the parking lot. “I only act like I know everything. Hey, did you invite them?”
Emily thought back to when she’d sent the invitations two weeks earlier. She didn’t include Rina or Michael. She hadn’t sent Michael an invite because his father had killed her mother, and she hadn’t sent one to Rina because she was weird—not that Emily would ever tell her to her face.
“No, I didn’t.”
“We should invite them.” Joanna gave Emily a light push on the shoulder.
Emily panicked. “Um, I don’t know that they’d want to come, though . . .”
“What?” Joanna’s forehead crinkled as she raised her eyebrows. “Nonsense. They’ll definitely want in.” She left the car and started walking toward the couple.
“Joanna!” Emily ran after her friend. She didn’t want those two coming anywhere near her house. They were both threats as far as she was concerned. Michael was training to be a vigilante—a supernatural hunter—and Rina was a reptilian-blooded reporter with a nose for a story. And they were both suspicious of her—at varying degrees.
What if Michael saw something in her room to confirm his suspicions? That confirmation was all he needed to bring the vigilantes upon her.
Joanna didn’t stop until they got to the couple. Rina was the first to spot them. She swiveled around on her heels and glared at them. Her glare was so full of hate that even Joanna was taken aback.
Adopted by The Owl: The Owl Shifter Chronicles Book One Page 7