Beautifully Unnatural: A Young Adult Paranormal Boxed Set

by Amy Miles

  “The shrink dad or . . . ?”

  My stomach twisted. “I only have one dad.”

  “Oh, man. Lynn said your dad kept things from you, but . . . ” Her brows came together as if she sensed this wasn’t the time or place. “I took it from your room while you were at school. You should be thanking me. If I hadn’t been wearing this, I couldn’t have helped you out at the station, in the hospital room, or when you were so confused last night and I told you to go find Lynn. Although, I guess that last one didn’t work out so well.”

  My mouth dropped open. “You’ve been sending me mind messages this whole time?”

  She gave me a look. “They must grade on a curve at your school.”

  I couldn’t believe it. “For your information, those messages made my ears ache.”

  “There you go, feeling sorry for yourself again. Look, if you can figure out a way to get us out of here, I’ll give you the darn bracelet back, okay? I can’t send you messages without it. Unless, I’m touching you and believe, me, I have no interest in that.”

  I huffed. She knew secrets about my family that I didn’t even know. Focus. Need to get out of here. “Drew, did you steal anything from anyone else?”

  “I’m not a thief, okay? I took your lame bracelet because I was trying to help Amanda. You know, our cousin?”

  So not my point. “I meant do you have something you can use to send a message to someone else and ask for help?”

  She shook her head. “If I did, don’t you think I would’ve used it by now?”

  “Okay, let me think.”

  Drew and I sat there, staring at each other as precious seconds ticked by. Then she gave me a look. “Is this your idea of brainstorming?”

  “Shhh! I’m thinking.” Really I was just wishing Trip were here to help us figure out what to do. He really was a good detective even if he had let me distract him at Lynn’s. “Wait a minute. That’s it.”

  Drew gave me a weird look.

  “You can send a mind message to Trip. Tell him where we are and he’ll send someone to come rescue us.” Then I cringed, remembering that Trip needed saving himself, thanks to me.

  “Slight problem. I don’t know who this Trip is and don’t have anything of his.”

  “Trip’s an assistant detective on Amanda’s case. He works with Sam Williams,” I said.

  A noise sounded from down the hall that might’ve been a door slamming. My nerves went on alert. We had to hurry before Bishop, Chuck, or even worse, Devin came in here to do whatever it was he brought me here to do.

  Drew gave me a curious look. “Why is your first thought to call this assistant detective? And why are you calling him by his first name?”

  My cheeks went up in flames. “Is that really important right now?”

  She laughed out loud. “You have the hots for a cop on Amanda’s case?”

  My cheeks heated. “Just send him a message.”

  She wiggled her eyebrows. “Are you two doing it?”

  I gave her a dirty look. “Can you focus? I have a piece of paper with his phone number in my pocket.” Muffled voices came from the direction of the living room. “Reach your fingers over here and get it. That’ll work, right?”

  “It’s not very personal.”

  “Does it have to be?”

  She sighed. “Depends on how long he held it. I need to feel a connection to him.”

  I wondered what kind of connection she’d feel with him and if she’d be able to tell how hurt he was. My body went weak with the visual of Trip being beaten, tied up, and knocked unconscious. But, he had to be all right. He just had to be.

  Drew bit her lip and flapped her hand toward my jeans pocket.

  I heard another door slam in the house. “Hurry, Drew.”

  She fingered my pocket, looking nervous, but then she frowned. “There’s no piece of paper, but there is something metal in here. It feels like it might be . . . keys.”

  “Huh?” My keys were in my purse, which I’d left back in Trip’s car.

  She tugged with her fingers and something jingled as she pulled it out. “Yep, keys.”

  “Those aren’t mine,” I said, and then recognized the key ring. “They’re Lynn’s. She shoved them into my pocket at her house.”

  “Great,” Drew said, but her voice was flat. “Lot of good that’s gonna do us.”

  Suddenly, my insides glowed. “There’s a switchblade on the keychain. I used it back at the hospital. Now, stop talking and cut us loose.”

  Drew looked up at me in momentary shock before she worked the blade out and started cutting the tape on my wrist.

  We were saved. I hoped.

  ****

  I cut the last of the silver tape off Drew’s right ankle, then she bolted from the chair. We pushed the bedroom window open as quietly as we could, climbed out into the dark night—or early morning—and started running.

  Pumping my legs as hard as I could, I stared at the ground, hoping I wouldn’t trip over a rock or something. There was barely a quarter moon out tonight and it wasn’t lighting the ground very well. I turned to Drew. “How long do you think until they notice we’re gone?”

  She sprinted along beside me and showed no signs of being out of breath. “No telling. They hadn’t checked on me for a full day before they brought you in.”

  “A full day?” I gasped. “How did they feed you?”

  She glared at me. “They didn’t.”

  Guilt ran through me as I paused about a mile away from the cabin to catch my breath and study an old wooden sign. “Sugar Pine Road.”

  “Left or right?” she said.

  I sucked in cold air, shook away my guilty thoughts about her suffering, and concentrated on finding the best escape route. Who knew if they’d started searching for us already? “South will take us to Highway 50, which is probably where they’d expect us to go. I say we go left.”

  She appeared to be okay with that suggestion because with a skip, she was off and running again.

  I tried to keep up with her but she was really fast. In way better shape than me. Even on no food. Guilt seeped into me more and more each time my feet hit the ground. She’d told them she was the mind reader. For me. What had possessed her to do that?

  “Stop here.” We came upon a driveway off to our right. A small wooden house appeared at the end of the dirt drive and I gestured that way. “826 Sugar Pine Road,” I said, when we came up to the front of the house. “Maybe someone will be home and can call the police.”

  We knocked and pounded on the door, but nobody answered.

  So, here in the middle of the Sierras, Drew and I ran around to the back of the house and committed our first B and E. Well, it was my first. Who knew about Drew? At the very least, she’d already broken into my apartment and heisted my bracelet.

  I stood back as she threw a huge rock up at the window. Crack. Upon impact, a spider web pattern etched across the glass but the window held. I picked up the rock, threw it as hard as I could and the window shattered.

  With a grunt, Drew pushed herself up through the open window frame and disappeared out of view. “Ooof.”

  I heard a thud. “You okay?”

  “Yes.”

  I bounced on my heels, waiting for her to come around and unlock the back door.

  A thwack came from behind me and I spun in that direction. Tall trees loomed above me and shadows moved beneath them. The wind blew and a chill went through me. I wondered if I was alone right now. Hoped so.

  There was a click and the back door burst open. Drew’s head appeared in the doorway. “I couldn’t find a phone.”

  My heart pounded against my chest. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Let’s keep looking.” Drew locked the door behind me. Not that it would do much good considering the neighboring room no longer had a window.

  I hurried down the long hall looking for anything that would help us, but this was obviously a vacation cabin and there wasn’t much here. Judging by the dust
, it hadn’t been used in a long time.

  “Nothing!” Drew shouted from the front room.

  Not wanting to panic, I inhaled deeply and slipped my hands into my pants pockets. Something crinkled against my fingers. I whipped out the small piece of paper I’d slipped in there this morning and fingered Trip’s handwritten cell number. I didn’t even know how badly he was hurt, but there wasn’t much choice. “Here.” I held it out to her. “Use this to send Trip a message.”

  She snatched the paper from my hand. “What kind of name is Trip anyway? Were his parents on something?”

  I shrugged. “Get us out of here and I’ll find out.”

  She held the paper for a second and then sighed. “This is really weak but I’ll try.”

  I studied Drew as she sat cross-legged on the living floor between a recliner and the TV. “Good luck,” I said, hoping this worked.

  She pressed the paper between her palms, closed her eyes, and mumbled to herself like she’d gone into a trance. Her face was so clear and calm, it almost seemed like she’d fallen asleep. Then her brows furrowed and her eyes flew open in obvious irritation.

  Heavy vibrations filled my ears, sounding like a lawn mower roaring. Trip doesn’t believe me.

  I poked at my ears and shot Drew an annoyed look. “You’re talking in my mind.”

  I am? “Sorry. I get into the zone and then, well, you know.”

  “No, I don’t know.” Mind reading took so much effort for me. Sometimes it hurt like hell. She seemed to control her mind messages with ease. Maybe after more practice, I’d be the same way. Was there a chance I’d get used to it?

  “Hello?” She waved a hand in front of my face.

  I took my fingers out of my ears. “What?”

  “Your weird named boyfriend doesn’t believe I’m talking to him.” She seemed very irritated. “I told him I was with you, that we’d escaped from where Aaron and Charlie were keeping us and all I feel is his disbelief. How you can find someone that skeptical attractive is beyond me.”

  “Give him a break.” Pictures filled my brain of him being kicked in the head. I could hear the pop in my mind and cringed. Then I realized if she were talking to Trip and feeling what he felt, he must be okay. Anxiety flooded me. “Can you tell where he is? If he made it to a hospital?”

  Drew shook her head. “I can’t see him. Just feel him.”

  “Does he feel . . . hurt?” Please, say no.

  “I don’t mean I can feel him physically.” Her eyes narrowed and she looked irritated that her power didn’t go that far. “Just his emotions.”

  Nausea filled my stomach. “I need to know how badly he’s hurt. They left him tied up with Lynn at her house outside the city.”

  “Lynn!” She called out our aunt’s name as if to say Eureka! Then she tossed Trip’s number away from her, pulled Lynn’s keys out of her pocket, and enveloped them with her hands. “We have her keys. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that earlier.”

  I watched in fascination as Drew closed her eyes, her lids fluttering a little as her facial muscles relaxed. Everything about her went perfectly still and peaceful. Serene even.

  Suddenly, her eyes popped open. “What’s the address again?”

  I gave it to her. “Lynn believed you?”

  Drew seemed to finish her mind message and then dropped her head back. “Yes, of course. She knows how our powers work. She’s also relieved that we’re safe.”

  I stood up and paced, feeling antsy. “I guess all we can do now is wait.”

  “That may be all you can do.” She tossed Lynn’s keys onto the coffee table and snatched Trip’s scrap of paper off the floor, holding it tightly between her palms. Then, she went into meditation mode. “I’m gonna see if I can get your boyfriend to believe me.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  She gave me a wicked look. “Yeah, but you want him to be.”

  True, but . . . “If he’s not believing you that means Lynn isn’t with him anymore. Otherwise, she would’ve told him we escaped.”

  “Maybe Lynn dropped him at home,” she said, surprising me with her optimism. “Tell me something only you’d know about him.”

  I knelt down on the hard wood floor. “You can sense his emotions? Right now?”

  “Yes. He’s knee deep in doubt.”

  Help was on the way and Trip had been through enough. Thanks to me. “Just leave him alone.”

  “If you tell me something personal about him, I can send him a message from you,” she said, in a taunting voice.

  A message from me? She didn’t play fair. My stomach felt queasy with how badly I wanted to apologize. To tell him he’d been right that our first priority was safety. He needed to know I understood that now. “He has a faded blue truck.”

  “Any moron could know that.” She rolled her eyes. “Tell me something personal, something that only you and he know.”

  I crossed my legs and thought about him. “We talked about mind reading. He helped me figure out how it works, how I can determine if the pictures I’m seeing are thoughts or real events.”

  “You needed help with that?” She gestured with her hand. “Never mind. Go on.”

  “At the cemetery where my mom’s buried, we realized I had a family I didn’t know about.” My gaze met hers. “Did you know about me?”

  Her eyes were steady. “Yes.”

  Sadness filled my chest. Had they lived close by? Had she wanted to see me?

  She cleared her throat. “Trip feels like he might be hallucinating. Now give me some dirt so he’ll know that you’re with me for real.”

  Hmm. I didn’t feel comfortable telling her about his mom and his promise to himself. “Well, he . . . touched my birthmark.”

  “Hot damn!” She rested her chin on her fist. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

  It felt weird talking about Trip with someone, probably because I never had. Opening up was a little easier this time. Drew was a very enthusiastic listener. The corners of my mouth turned up. “We kissed in the parking lot outside The Bean.”

  “Whoa. Say goodbye to ever getting a traffic ticket.” She sat up straight, held his paper between her hands again and went silent a moment. “I just told him you think he’s hot.”

  I frowned. Typical. Just when I’d started to like her, too. “That’s not funny.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment. “I just told him about the goofy smile you had when you talked about kissing him in the parking lot.”

  My face went up in flames. “Stop that. Isn’t that misuse of your powers or something?”

  She shrugged. “The police already know what we can do, so who cares? I’m also telling him how bright red you get when you talk about how much you looove him.”

  That really pissed me off. “Cut it out! You send him another message or I swear I will—”

  “Now I’m telling him you want to rip off his clothes—”

  “That’s it. You’re dead meat.” I dove at her and ripped the paper out of her hands. We rolled around the floor, flipping over and over until we hit the couch.

  A blast crackled through the air then. Right across from us the TV exploded into a million pieces, spraying glass all over the floor.

  With our hands still gripping each other’s wrists, Drew and I froze. We stared into each other’s eyes, gulped, and then turned simultaneously to look up behind the couch where someone was standing.

  He wore fancy shoes, a black suit, and his dark hair was slicked back. His lips thinned, his face went tight, and he gave us a look that said he had better things to do right now than deal with us.

  Wild guess? Devin.

  And just my luck, he had a gun pointing straight at us.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The guy in the suit eyed me critically as if he didn’t like what he saw. He gestured with his gun, looking comfortable with it in his hand as if he were merely holding a cigarette. “You’re Sandy’s kid? Not what I expected.”

  My throa
t went dry and I swallowed. Did he mean not what he expected as a mind reader or not what he expected as in I really was his daughter? Then, part of what he’d said hit me. Sandy’s kid. “You knew my mom?”

  His smile chilled me to the bone. “Very well.”

  I felt two inches tall as he gave me a smug look that said he had a secret and wasn’t going to share. Figured. Who didn’t keep secrets from me I’d like to know? Well, besides Drew. She was almost a little too honest for my taste.

  “What do you want with Kylie?” Drew hadn’t moved an inch even though I was basically rolled on top of her.

  “Yeah.” I gulped, trying to be brave. “What do you want with me?”

  I unglued my hands from Drew’s wrists and sat beside her, putting up a united front. Although it wasn’t that great of a front considering he was still holding a gun and we didn’t have squat.

  He glanced toward the front door, turned back to me again, and broke out into a cool smile. “It’ll all make sense soon.”

  I took a deep breath, trying to make my mouth form words. “Um, Chuck told me something. Are you . . . ? I mean, is it possible you could be my—”

  Footsteps clomped up the front porch and Devin’s gaze shot to the door, his mouth curving into a wicked smile. “It’s about time.”

  Drew turned to me. Do you think that’s Aaron and Chuck?

  I nearly jumped at the words in my head and I automatically glared at her in response.

  She gave me an annoyed look. Do you really want me to ask that aloud? He has a gun, or did your gazillion I.Q. miss that fact?

  My frown deepened from not having an answer to my question and from wondering who was coming. Then, the front door handle clicked and turned.

  “I have somebody I want you to meet,” Devin said, simply, and then rose to his feet. As if on cue, the front door swung open and in came Chuck and someone behind him.

  Charlie and . . . who is that lady behind him?

  I ignored Drew and watched as a woman—who looked eerily familiar—stepped around Chuck. As he shut the door and moved aside, I had a clear view of her. At first I thought it was Lynn, but dismissed that idea as my eyes moved over her features.