The Secret Six

by Evie Del Mar

  Lily was standing next to Drake, leaning against the car with her arms crossed, chuckling. “Drake, stop. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

  “Lily,” Drake, still perched on the hood, warned, “you will not ruin this moment for me. Just let me be.”

  Colin walked off the plane, heading towards us. “Does everyone have all of their belongings?” We all nodded in unison. “In that case, you all be safe and always be on your guard.”

  Cole chuckled. “Yes, Uncle, thank you. Have a safe flight back.” He waved as Colin walked back onto the plane, giving us one last wave before walking inside. We were officially on our own.

  “Ok, what’s first?” Blair asked, literally jumping in place. “This is our first legit road trip as a complete group, and I don’t want to waste a second! And before you say anything, Blake,” she looked over at her brother, narrowing her eyes, “yes, I know that we’re on a ‘mission’, but that doesn’t mean I still can’t have any fun.” Blake put his hands up in surrender.

  Cole pulled out his cell phone. “My father gave me the address of the lodge we’re going to be staying in. I figured we could drive there to freshen up a bit, eat some dinner, and get a good night’s rest before our search begins tomorrow.”

  Drake’s hand shot up faster than I ever thought possible. “I call the red Lamborghini!”

  “Shotgun!” Blake shouted behind him. They quickly loaded the car up with their stuff, and got in the front seats, their eyes growing wide as they took in the interior.

  Blair hooked an arm through Lily’s as they made their way to join the guys. “Boys and their toys,” she laughed, rolling her eyes.

  “Guess that leaves you and me in the Bugatti,” Cole smiled down at me. His smile was so contagious, I couldn’t help but smile back. The way his eyes gleamed with excitement, making them crinkle at the corners. It lit up the whole world, making everything seem alive.

  My heart picked up a little at the thought of being completely alone with him. The only other time we’d been alone was when he saved me from the ocean, which was extremely embarrassing, and when we washed the dishes.

  I loaded my bags up in the trunk and climbed in the passenger seat, feeling instantly relaxed as the leather from the seat shaped to my body, similar to the seats from the jet.

  Cole got into the driver seat, buzzing with excitement. He placed his phone on the holder suctioned to the dash, and plugged in the address on the car’s GPS. “Hang on tight,” he said, looking over at me with a grin as we sped off, Drake following closely behind.

  ◆◆◆

  “Is everything ok?” Cole asked. I hadn’t noticed that I had gone quiet while staring out of the window. It had only been about an hour into our drive and once the shock of how fast this car could go wore off, I fidgeted with my shell necklace while my mind wandered away.

  “What would happen if we were to come across members of The Brotherhood while on this trip?” I couldn’t even look him in the eye because I didn’t want to think about what would happen to him, or any of the people I just started getting close to, if we ever came across any members. “I mean, these people killed the previous generation, and we don’t know what any of them look like. So, how will we know if we run into anyone? What would happen if it came to a fight?” I started having trouble breathing.

  Cole took my hand, rubbing his thumb across my palm, soothingly. “Don’t worry about that. Drake, Blake, and I will take care of all the heavy lifting.” He winked and gave me a grin that melted my insides.

  I suppressed a laugh. “I’m being serious!” I tried to sound as compelling as possible, but it was pointless with his charm. “Are we really ready for any type of battle?”

  I noticed his jaw clench, looking a little nervous, but it was gone too quickly. He didn’t take his eyes off the road. “This is what all of our training has been for.”

  “You do realize that I’ve only been able to move water just twice right?” I scoffed.

  “Technically, three times if you count my father’s office, but we all have complete faith in you. You’ll be surprised by how much your instincts will take over when necessary.”

  I looked back out of the window and played with my necklace some more. “I really hope you’re right.”

  “That’s a pretty necklace. Where did you get it?” I knew he was trying to uplift the somber mood I had created with my skepticism.

  “My mother gave it to me on my tenth birthday,” I smiled at the memory. “She would never let me go anywhere near a body of water, so when she went digging in her closet and brought out a necklace shaped like a seashell, I almost cried with joy. ‘I know you don’t like your father’s and my rule about going to the ocean, so I thought I would bring a little bit of it to you, instead.’ She made me swear to never take it off, telling me it was an important heirloom that was handed down to her from a relative.” My eyes clouded as tears threatened to pool over as I thought about my mom.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset.”

  I sniffled and wiped my eyes. “No, don’t apologize, it’s ok. I love talking about them. It makes me feel closer to them.”

  Cole gave me a small smile, but it seemed too forced. “I wish I had memories about my mother. I was too young to remember anything when she died.”

  “I’m so sorry, I can’t imagine that. At least you still have your father, though.”

  Cole cleared his throat, changing the subject. “So, any embarrassing or funny stories about your parents?” He chuckled. “I know everyone has one or two because every parent’s dream is to mess with their kids.”

  “My dad was notorious for mortifying me,” I laughed. “The worst part was that nine times out of ten, we weren’t around anyone, but just at home.” I told him the downside to being, not just the only child, but also, “daddy’s little girl”. My dad always saw me as “his little girl” and had a hard enough time accepting the fact that I was growing up. Whenever I got new jeans for school, they always had to pass “The Jeans Test” which was that my dad had to be able to grab a handful of the material on my upper thigh for me to be able to leave the house.

  “If he couldn’t grab a handful, he would say ‘Did you paint those on?’ or ‘Did you have to jump off of your bed to fit into those?’” I tried to mimic my dad’s deep voice. “And then I would have to march back upstairs and change.” I rolled my eyes, coming back to the present.

  Cole busted out laughing. “That’s actually quite funny. I’ve never heard of anyone’s father doing that.” He then put the car in park.

  I looked out of the window, confused. “Are we here already?”

  “Yup. I didn’t want to interrupt your story, because it was quite intriguing.” He winked.

  “I’m never going to hear the end of this, am I?”

  “Nope,” he snickered as he got out of the car.

  I followed him out of the car to see “Wuksachi Lodge”, a little country hotel nestled in the middle of the park, with a little patio off to the side for people to dine, surrounded by the trees. Compared to the size of the academy and the luxurious jet plane, it was nice to have a sense of normalcy again.

  Drake pulled up next to us and parked his car. He got out and followed Cole inside the lodge to check us in. A few minutes later, both boys walked back out, each holding an envelope. Cole gave one to Blair, saying that they were our room keys. The girls would be sharing one room while the boys shared the other.

  “Eekk! I’ve been dying for a much needed girls’ night,” Blair squealed.

  “We need to park our cars on the other side of the lodge,” Cole pointed in the opposite direction, and continued, “and that’s also where our rooms are.”

  “Can’t we go sightseeing? Please? I’m dying to go and explore the forest. I’ve never seen so much green in my entire life!” Lily cried.

  Cole put a hand on Lily’s shoulders. “Patience, Lily. It’s a bit late to go and wander off,” he said, looking toward the sunset.r />
  Drake draped an arm over Cole’s shoulder. “Dude, please don’t be an ‘all work and no play’ person this whole trip.”

  Cole shrugged out of Drake’s arm. “We’re on a time crunch, remember? Let’s just head out to our rooms, unpack, and relax for the rest of the evening. Our search starts early tomorrow morning for Lily’s piece. Once we find it, we’ll do a bit of exploring before moving on to the next location.”

  Drake planted a kiss on Cole’s cheek. “Aw, thanks, Dad!” he exclaimed sarcastically. Cole wiped his cheek aggressively, glaring at Drake.

  We all got back into the cars and headed towards the building, parking in front of the doors to our rooms. Cole and I got out and grabbed our bags out of the trunk. Before I got a chance to say anything to him, Blair linked her arm through mine, hauling me to our room. I glanced behind my shoulder and watched as Cole gave me a small wave, laughing.

  We walked into our rooms, or suites I should say, because it looked more like a small apartment than a cabin room. Two queen beds sat side-by-side, a small nightstand separating them. A sliding wooden door opened up to a little alcove area with an armchair and a long sofa.

  I picked one of the beds and heaved my suitcase on top and began to unpack. I got a weird feeling that I was being watched, so I slowly turned around to see Blair and Lily sitting on the opposite bed, studying me.

  “Why are you staring? Do I have something on my shirt?” I glanced down, thinking there was a stain that I didn’t know about, but nothing was there.

  “Melody, we know what’s going on with you and Cole,” Blair said looking at Lily, both wearing matching grins. Heat rose to my cheeks as I turned back around, hiding my face from them, and began unpacking my toiletries from my suitcase.

  “There’s nothing going on.” I tried to sound as confident as I could but I knew they wouldn’t believe me.

  Lily giggled. “Anyone with a pair of eyes can see that something is going on, so spill.”

  I huffed out a breath and sat on my bed, feeling defeated. Maybe it would be nice to talk to someone about these strong feelings I had with Cole, or to have someone knock some sense into me. “I wish I knew what was going on. After my accident, all I could think about were these hypnotizing eyes and when I found out who they belonged to, it made the feelings all the more real and intense.” I remembered the first time I saw Cole’s eyes, like I had found the last missing piece of the puzzle that was my life. Something about him felt like forever.

  Both girls released a sigh and, in unison, said, “Aww.”

  “Looking at him brought back a vague memory of flying without getting wet by the rain. It was extremely weird.” I always questioned that part, thinking I was either semi-conscious or delirious.

  Both girls giggled to each other, exchanging a glance. I raised an eyebrow at them, clearly getting the hint that I was missing some inside joke. “What’s so funny?”

  Lily cleared her throat. “There’s a reason for that, but you’ll have to ask Cole yourself.”

  “You guys probably think I’m super lame. I mean, I hardly know this guy, and I already feel like we belong together.” I looked down at my fingers, embarrassed to meet their gazes.

  “Melody, you are far from wrong.” I looked up and saw Blair smiling. “We see the way he looks at you when you’re not looking. We wish we had someone to look at us like that.” Lily nodded in agreement.

  My heart picked up in rhythm, imagining the thought of Cole looking at me with the same longing that I had for him. “You don’t think it’s weird that it happened so suddenly?”

  “Absolutely not!” Blair shouted. “I believe that everyone has a soul mate, somewhere out there, and when you find him or her, you’ll just know.”

  Could Cole really be my soul mate? He was the only guy to show any interest in me, without pity, and made me feel shy and comfortable at the same time. It felt natural to be around him, a sort of belonging.

  “You know that’s why Blair and I went to ride with Blake and Drake, right? We wanted you two to have some alone time,” Lily said, breaking me from my thoughts.

  “You didn’t have to do that!”

  Blair waved her hand at me. “It was nothing. Besides, Lily and I are living vicariously through you when it comes to romance and relationships.” We all giggled like a bunch of schoolgirls.

  I stopped laughing when a guilty thought punched its way into my stomach. We had a mission to complete, and this was no time to think about relationships. Finishing this mission should be the most important thing in my life now. My mother counted on us to find all of the pieces, and fast. I’d never want to disappoint her. I’d have to put my feelings for Cole aside, until…I didn’t know for how long.

  “Melody,” Lily whispered, breaking me from my thoughts. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Of course.” The tone she used made me nervous about what she was going to ask.

  “Your accident. What happened? If you don’t mind sharing.” Her question took me off guard. I hadn’t shared the story with anyone because I didn’t want anyone to see or treat me differently. I still blamed myself and carried around the guilt, but I wasn’t about to tell them that.

  “Oh, yeah. Long story short, my parents and I were driving home. My dad missed a sharp turn after my mom shouted for him to ‘look out’. Our car swerved off the road, over a ditch, and hit a tree.” I closed my eyes for a second, not wanting to spill any tears. “I don’t know what happened after that because I blacked out.”

  No one said a word for a few minutes.

  “What about your parents?” I asked Lily, wanting to break the silence and change the subject to anything other than me. “Where are they?”

  Lily looked down at her hands. “You remember me mentioning that my dad had a gambling problem?” I nodded. “Well, he disappeared one weekend and never came back. I assumed he went back to the casinos,” she shrugged her shoulders. “The police never found his body. They think that he owed some people some money, and when they came to collect and he didn’t have it…” Her voice trailed off, letting the sentence hang.

  “And your mother?” I whispered.

  “She passed away years before. She was diagnosed with breast cancer, so it was just me and my dad for a while,” she sniffled. “I think that was why he became addicted to gambling. It was his way of coping with the loss of my mother.”

  She cleared her throat and began again. “I was sixteen, still a minor, so I had to go to an orphanage. Cole and Tony found me there and brought me to the academy. I was the first member they found,” she said, smiling proudly.

  I got off my bed and went to go sit next to her. I put my arms around her and squeezed her tight.

  “Thanks,” she whispered into my shoulder. I looked over Lily’s shoulder and saw Blair looking down, fidgeting with her fingers.

  “Blair, you don’t have to share if you don’t want to.” I could easily tell she was uncomfortable, and I didn’t want to make her feel even more uneasy.

  “Now what kind of a girls’ night in would this be if I didn’t share, too?” She shook her head and looked up, as if she was holding back tears already, and took a deep breath. “Blake and I used to live in New York City, where our parents were fashion designers.” I mentally laughed, now understanding where her love of fashion came from.

  “Our parents were on their way to a runway show in London,” she continued. “Something happened to their plane when they were flying over the Atlantic Ocean, and it’s now at the bottom of the sea.” I saw a tear roll down her cheek, but she quickly wiped it away.

  “Blake and I became even closer after that. Not that we weren’t already close, but we were the only family that each of us had left, so we leaned on each other a lot.” She grabbed a tissue from the nightstand and blew her nose.

  Lily and I extended our arms out to Blair and all three of us cried. I couldn’t help but find it strange that all three of our parents, plus Cole’s mother, died gruesomely. It was eerie en
ough to raise the hair on my arms. I would have to ask Drake about his parents at some point. Was fate really that cruel?

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The early morning sun shone through our windows, warming my face. It was such a peaceful way to wake up, but I didn’t get to enjoy it too long because someone was shaking me.

  “Melody, wake up! We need to go!”

  I pried one of my eyes open and glared at Lily, who was in my face begging me to get up. We had spent the whole night binge watching romance movies and had laughed at almost every single cheesy pick-up line. It was about four in the morning when Blair and I had fallen asleep on one bed after the third or fourth movie—honestly, I had lost count—and Lily fell asleep on the other.

  I turned to the side and saw Blair still curled under the blankets. I glanced at the small alarm clock on our nightstand and groaned. “Lily, it’s six in the morning.” I grabbed the blankets and pulled them over my head, but Lily dragged them back down the bed, exposing Blair and me to the chilly air.

  “I want to go out into the park and sketch some of the trees for my journal. Since it’s early, it won’t be as crowded, and you guys have to come with me!” Lily pleaded.

  I poked Blair in the side. “Why are you still sleeping? I thought you said that when the sun is up, then you’re up?”

  “Yeah, but not when I’ve only had, like, two hours of sleep!” She complained.

  I turned back to Lily, who was still sitting at the foot of the bed. “Do we need to go and wake up the guys?”

  Lily shook her head. “Nope, no time. Besides, we’re not going to do anything risky. We’re just going to go look at trees.”