by Tracey Ward
“We’re not,” Brody shouts.
I see Campbell’s head jerk toward him. “We’re not what? Who are you talking to?”
“Nick.”
“He didn’t say anything.”
“Not that you heard. You doin’ all right back there, hon?” he shouts to Alex.
Alex rubs her hands over her face, pushing her hair out of her eyes. “I think so. What happened?”
“They tranquilized you,” I tell her.
She groans in annoyance. “That’s what the pinch in my leg was?”
“They got your shoulder too. Took you down like a grizzly in a campground.”
“Cowards.”
“Would you go toe-to-toe with a grizzly?”
“I’m not a bear, Nick!” she cries defensively.
“Don’t blame me. I didn’t shoot you, Yogi.”
“Not a bear,” she insists sternly.
I smile, loving the angry seriousness on her face. Loving that she’s awake, alive, and still here with me. “Not even a Care Bear?”
“Don’t. Do not do that.”
“What?”
“Don’t be cute. That’s not fair.”
I press my hand flat across her stomach, lowering my tone. “You should get a tattoo right here of a big black bird.”
She laces her fingers with mine, grinning. “Maybe I’ll let you draw it.”
“I can’t draw.”
“I bet in the dream you can draw.”
“In the dream I can do anything.”
“I know you ca—”
“Hey, SB!” Campbell shouts.
Alex rolls her eyes. “What?!”
“I have bad news.”
“You are bad news.”
“Funny, but seriously, you’re not going to like this.”
“What is it?”
“We left the files behind.”
Alex drops her hand away from mine as she curses loudly. “I totally forgot to grab it.”
“We were in a hurry,” I remind her.
“Yeah, but what will we do without it?”
“Campbell?” I ask.
I see the shadow of his head shaking in the dark cab. “I remember a lot, but not all. Not every address down to the house numbers. I can ballpark us on most, but it won’t be perfect.”
“We only needed two of them anyway, didn’t we? Beck and Fry?”
“I’ve got Fry for sure. Beck is a ballpark.”
“Good enough.”
“It’ll have to be,” Alex grumbles. She looks up at me apologetically. “Sorry.”
“Why would you be sorry?” I ask.
“Because I lost the only leads we had.”
“They were your leads, not mine. I never wanted anything to do with them.”
“We can bail. We don’t have to track them down.”
I sigh, lying back flat on the truck bed beside her. “I think we do. I need answers, and I don’t think Brody has enough to get me where I need to go.”
“He doesn’t,” Brody answers.
“Stop doing that,” Campbell orders sleepily. “I don’t know if you’re talking to Carver or the voices in your head. It’s freakin’ me out.”
“Liam has all the answers. Can’t we kidnap him and make him talk?” Alex suggests.
“Easy,” I chuckle. “Let’s see what we get out of asking Fry and Beck before we go unpacking the water boards.”
“If you wanna take the long way ‘round…”
“I do,” I say softly, squeezing her hand and turning my head to look at her. She turns hers to me as well, her eyes big and dark. “I want to take the long way with you on everything. I’m not hurrying to put you in danger again.”
The truth is, I’d love to go find Liam and get what I need from him. Only problem is I don’t want her anywhere near him. We’re scrambling right now. I need somewhere to leave her, where I know she’s safe, before I get anywhere near these people again. Maybe surrounding her with more of us, more people with abilities who aren’t on the take, is the answer to that problem.
She brings her face in close to mine, so close I can barely see anything but her. “I could Slip us away right now,” she whispers. “I could take us anywhere in the world. Anywhere we want to go.”
“Where would you want to go?”
She searches my eyes. My face. I don’t know what she’s looking for, but finally she shakes her head faintly, a grin playing on her lips. “Nowhere,” she breathes against my mouth. “There’s nowhere in the world I’d rather be than right here.”
I kiss her. I close the distance between us until it’s nothing—nothing but the feel of her mouth against mine and the moonlight on my skin—and I think of all the places I’d take her to right now if I had that power.
Chapter Fourteen
Alex
I’m dying to Slip.
If Campbell pestered me to, I’d Slip anywhere he asked. I just want to feel it—to practice and know I can do it again if I need to. I’m not even itching for it like I was at first. Now it’s a worry nagging in the back of my mind—can I really control it? Can I do it on command if I need to? All I’d have to do to find out is—
Brody waves his hand in front of my eyes. “Hey, where’d you go?”
“Sorry,” I say, shaking my head to clear it. “I zoned out.”
“No kidding. You’ve been starin’ at the Lunchables for almost five minutes. Ham or turkey, sis. That’s all you got.”
“I know, sorry.”
“Stop sayin’ sorry. It’s been a long night. We’re all pretty tired.”
I pick up a ham pack, not caring. Seriously, the little circles all taste the same anyway. “You must be exhausted from driving all night. Do you want one of us to take over?”
“Campbell offered. He caught some Zs there during the last couple hours. He should be good to go for a few miles.”
“Can I ask you something?” I blurt out, surprising us both.
Brody turns his suspicious eyes to me. “You can ask me anything…”
“But you may not answer.”
“Yeah.”
“Got it.”
“What’s the question about?”
“Liam.”
He doesn’t look away, the way I thought he would. I figured he’d shrug his shoulders, tell me there was nothing to say, and that’d be that. What I wasn’t ready for is an open expression.
“What about him?”
I spin my Lunchable in my hand, not sure how to put into words the awkward feeling in my gut. “Were you… were you guys really friends?”
“Yes.”
I wait for him to tell me more.
He doesn’t.
“Okaaaaaaay,” I drag out leadingly. “Good friends?”
“Are you asking if we were gay?”
I step back, stunned. “What? No!”
“We weren’t. Or aren’t. Either way.”
“That’s not what I was going to ask.”
He shrugs, unconcerned. “The British thing comes off as gay to Americans sometimes.”
“Well, the Southern thing doesn’t.”
“I’m not offended.”
“I wasn’t trying to offend y—or, I know it’s not offensive to be—I just—”
“So what were you asking then?” he interrupts, saving me from myself.
“I don’t know,” I say helplessly. “I don’t know what I’m looking for. I guess I want to know if I was stupid for trusting him. I thought he was… not really my friend, but maybe he could have been?” I shake my head in frustration. “Never mind. I’m being stupid. It doesn’t matter.”
Brody leans against a nearby rack of candy. “What’d he do?”
“I feel like he betrayed me.”
“No, I didn’t ask how you feel. I asked what specifically did he do?”
“Oh. Um… he betrayed me.”
He smiles. “How did he betray you?”
I open and close my mouth but no words come out. No examples come t
o mind, and I realize there was a never a moment with Liam where he even hinted at me that he could be trusted. I think I just wanted to trust him. I was lonely in Nebraska after Cara died, lonely in that clinic—scared, even. Then there was Liam, and he was close to my age and not exactly nice but still okay to be around. Kind of funny sometimes. I was a freak being tested on their tables every night, but talking to him every morning made me feel almost normal. Like I could have that elusive dream of a normal life someday with Nick in my heart and friends in my life. I’d lost everything when Cara went away, but I had hope I could build my world back up again. Maybe make it a little like she’d always wanted for me.
But then it all came crashing down. They told me what they wanted me for, that I was never going to be normal, and I wanted to bring the building down on top of their heads for doing that to me—for destroying me in so many ways, again and again.
“He gave me hope,” I reply sadly. “Then he ripped it away. That’s how he betrayed me.”
Brody nods in understanding. “I get that. Those clinics are dark places. A lot of people playing at being your buddy, but more than half of them are lookin’ to get somethin’ from you. It’s hard to know who to trust.”
“And you trusted him?”
“I did. If I saw him today I still would, but I’m not sure it’s smart. He’s been deep on the inside for a long time. He might not be the same guy I knew.” Brody grins drolly. “But I hope he is.”
“It’s a dangerous word.”
“It is. But he promised it to me once and he made good. You don’t forget something like that.”
“How’d he make good?”
He steps away from the candy rack, shooting his grin one last time. “He set me free.”
“He broke you out?” I hiss disbelievingly.
“He sure did.”
“What did you have to do for him?”
“Nothing.”
“Bull!”
Brody chuckles as he dumps his goods on the counter. “Didn’t you say he did the same for you? Why are you so surprised?”
“It might not have gone down exactly the way we implied,” I confess, putting my items next to Brody’s. I reach for my pockets to pay for everything but he shakes his head at me.
“I got it,” he tells me, pulling out a wad of cash. He nods to the cashier. “And a fill on pump six, please.”
I wait in anxious silence as he pays, thanks the cashier, and leads me outside. I’m hoping he’ll let the subject drop and I can get away without exposing my very small, very white lie, but…
“So how exactly did it go down?”
There it is. I decide to go for honesty—full honesty this time.
“At gunpoint.”
“Hmm,” he hums thoughtfully.
“He put a gun to my head, Nick took the gun from him, he told us to stay, to turn ourselves in, we refused, we demanded the files, he gave us all but one, he told us to go to you, and here we are.”
“Liam put a gun to your head?”
“Yeah. He said the safety was on, but still.”
“Yeah, still,” Brody mumbles pensively.
“What?”
“It’s not like him. Liam hates guns.”
“That’s what he told us.”
“But he still put one to your head.” His brow pinches tightly as he squints up at the bright morning sky. “I guess he isn’t the guy I knew.”
“I wish he was. Your Liam sounds more helpful.”
“Yeah. Yours sounds desperate.”
Campbell waves to us from across the parking lot. “We’re all full! Let’s get a move on, slackers!”
Brody looks at me sideways, his eyebrows raised. “Your Campbell is kind of…”
“I know,” I agree wholeheartedly. “You don’t even have to say it. I know.”
∞
According to her file, Kimberly Fry lives in North Carolina, about halfway across the country from where we currently sit in Eastern Oregon. In the ancient, unlicensed, illegal gas hog of a truck we’re rolling in right now, that’s a long, expensive trip. One we don’t have the cash funds for.
We pull off on a dirt side road in the desert just shy of the Oregon/Idaho border to stretch our legs and talk strategy. The guys start throwing out all kinds of options, Campbell not surprisingly offering to ‘work’ in a sperm bank for the afternoon, but I know exactly what I think we should do.
We should stretch my legs a little further.
“I have my debit card,” I tell them, pulling it from my pocket and tossing it on the hood of the truck in front of them. “I’ll pull out cash. I have plenty.”
“You can’t,” Campbell reminds me irritably. “For the same reasons we’re not running any debit purchases. Any hacker worth his weight could get into your bank account and watch your transactions history light up like a homing beacon.”
“If I’m not there for more than a minute it doesn’t matter. It tells them nothing about where we are. If anything, it confuses them.”
“You mean you’ll do your trick?”
“I mean I’ll Slip.”
“That’s what I said.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Where would you go?” Nick asks, his eyes intent on my face.
I shrug. “Anywhere with a machine that will give me U.S. dollars. New York? San Francisco? Chicago?”
“Puerto Rico,” Campbell suggests.
Brody points at him encouragingly. “That’s a good idea. It’s offshore but a U.S. territory.”
“It will tell them you’re Slipping,” Nick adds. “They might think we’re in the wind. That searching the immediate area is worthless.”
“So you’re on board?” I ask, feeling relieved. It’s a situation that puts me at risk, so I honestly expected a big fight. I was counting on Campbell of all people to help me persuade him.
Nick nods, his face still serious. “Yeah, I think it’s a good plan, but you’re not going alone. I’ll go with you.”
“It’ll make you sick. Just stay here. I’ll do it quick.”
“You need someone watching your back.”
“I’ve Slipped a thousand times on my own and I made it out just fine,” I lie.
Okay, it’s not exactly a lie, but it’s not the truth. I’m alive so I survived the Slips, but there have been times where I absolutely did not feel like I was fine at the end of one. Definitely not during.
Detroit immediately comes to mind.
“Just because you didn’t have help before doesn’t mean you can’t take it now. I don’t feel right about you going alone.”
“Me either,” Brody says. “And that brings up a good point: we need cell phones. At least two, in case we get separated.”
“You’re right. Her accuracy isn’t a hundred percent yet. We might not hit the mark both times. We’ll get no-contract phones with the last of our cash and establish two teams. Alex and I, you and Campbell.”
“Here,” Brody says, digging out his debit card. “Pin is two-two-two-zero. Drain it if you can.”
I take his tattered card cautiously. “Does that mean you’re in? You’re with us?”
“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” he asks evenly.
“Join the club,” Campbell quips.
I shake my head at Brody, feeling sad even though I’m happy to have him. “I’m sorry. I really am.”
“It’s not your fault,” he assures me, his eyes softening. “You all were right: they had me in their sights for years. I thought I was free but I wasn’t. They’ll never forget about me and if it comes up that they can use what I can do, they’ll come at me. I might not be as lucky then as I was last night.”
“Especially now that they know you’re a sniper.”
He puts his palms up in a helpless gesture. “I can’t run forever.”
“We should get moving,” Nick tells us. “Let’s get across the border into Idaho, buy the phones when we gas up again, then Alex and I will make the Slip to get cash. Hopefu
lly we’ll be flush and on the road again before nightfall.”
“I gotta piss,” Campbell abruptly informs us.
Brody does too, apparently, because they both immediately head off in opposite directions.
Nick and I carefully turn our backs to them.
I glance at him out of the corner of my eye, thrilled by his faith in me. I’m excited about getting a chance to Slip again, but I’m also nervous to the point of gagging, and when I go to pick my debit card up off the hood of the truck, my fingers are trembling.
A hand covers mine, stilling it.
“You okay?” Nick asks gently.
I take a shaky breath before meeting his eyes.
They’re calm—completely and utterly calm, the way they’ve been through our entire discussion with the guys, probably through his entire life—and the sight of it shifts something inside of me. Some of my fear leaches out through my hand into his. He can’t hold it because he doesn’t understand it, so he lets it go, where it evaporates in the air around us.
“Yeah, I’m good,” I assure him, wanting it to be true. “Nervous, that’s all.”
“You can do it.”
I smirk at him. “You always say that.”
“It’s because it’s true. You know how to do it. You’ve proven you can. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“Thank you for going with me.”
He grins crookedly. “Feel better knowing your backup battery pack will be there?”
“Kind of,” I admit. “But even without that, I always feel better when you’re around.”
He surprises me when his smile fades a little.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Nothing.”
“Liar. What is it?”
He turns his eyes to the distant highway, dragging out the silence until I nearly break. “I’m going to leave you with Campbell.”
“What?” I demand, shocked. And annoyed. Really, really annoyed. “What do you mean you’re going to leave me with Campbell? Like I’m a child?”
“No. And it’s not happening yet, so calm down.”
“No, I won’t calm down. You explain yourself. What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that when we find out who’s running the show, I’m going in alone.”
“Like hell! I’m going with you. Campbell and Brody—they’re going with you.”