I handed the security guy my fake ID and boarding pass. Rick did the same. Our FBI agents followed close behind.
While getting my shoes back on after security, Rick took my backpack again. “We’re only a few gates away from each other—but my plane leaves in about ten minutes. You still have a half-hour or so.”
I was glad he didn’t ask me again about home. He stopped at a gate that had no people waiting in it and led me away from the main walkway, setting our backpacks against a wall.
“Christy—”
“Wait,” I said. “Rick, I’m sorry about the gala, that night in the safe house and—”
“Christy. You don’t need to apologize again. I do. I’m sorry for ignoring you at the house. Especially after you explained everything to me. I was rude and mean.”
“Stop it. You don’t have anything to apolo—”
He pulled me close. I felt his warm breath on my face as he looked straight into my eyes and my heart lit on fire. He moved in even closer. The touch of his body against mine sent tingles to the tips of my toes. He whispered, “Can I kiss you?”
I nodded, wanting nothing more.
He kissed me softly. The kiss by the fountain had been beautiful, but nothing like this. His hand was warm on the back of my neck and his lips were soft and giving. My fingers drifted along his back.
I thought briefly about Alex. My last words to him had been said in anger. In fact, I had punched him. I would never see him again, would I? Not likely. I shouldn’t feel guilty for kissing Rick. This kiss was special, like he was gifting me a part of himself. Alex kisses set my body on fire, but that couldn’t last forever. Alex was gone. He hadn’t meant what he’d said about me “being taken.” But why did it hurt so bad to think I’d never see him again?
I pushed on the hurt, taking it to the far reaches of my mind, because Rick was here. He was real, and I believed in him. I would kiss him one final time. It couldn’t hurt. I was going to enjoy every second. He made me feel safe and secure with who I was, unlike Alex, who always asked me to change in some way. Rick was definitely the right choice. I didn’t even hear that voice in my head contradict my thoughts—it was wonderful.
At one point, his arms tightened on the small of my back, and I cringed in pain. He pulled away, ever so slightly, and whispered, “Sorry.” I gladly wrapped my arms around him, but he was careful to stay a tiny sliver away so that he wouldn’t hurt my bruised body, his hands stopping just before the small of my back. He kissed me until I could barely hold a thought.
“Hey. Hey,” a voice called. “You’re going to miss your flight, bud. Time to go.”
We pulled apart. It hurt to think I would never see him again.
“I’ll call you,” he said, smiling, pressing his finger against my waiting lips.
I forced a smile, hoping he would.
“We’ll get together this summer. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said, as he let my hand go, hoping it was true. In one month I’d be legal, too.
“We’d better run,” the agent said to Rick. My heart thudded hard as I watched them take off. Rick’s gate was only three down, and he handed the boarding agent his pass. Before getting on the plane, he looked my way and waved. I smiled despite myself and waved back, hoping and praying he would call me.
I leaned against the wall, enjoying the sensation of my pounding heart—recording every last detail of my final moments with Rick. I never wanted to forget how I felt at that moment.
My flight to Colorado was leaving in about twenty minutes and I felt knotted up; I felt on edge. I was glad to be leaving D.C. and the horror of its memories, but still had reservations about going home. I wished I could stay in Colorado and not continue on to Montana. I looked at Chris, who sat a row away from me.
I stood up and went over to him, sitting in the seat beside him.
“So, you’re going with me?” I asked, resigning myself to the idea.
“No,” Chris said.
“Will I have to go back to D.C. to testify?”
“Most likely not.”
“Why not?”
“They said they got everyone.”
“What about justice?” Fire licked my throat.
“Justice will be served but usually with cases like this, deals are made. This kind of stuff is often kept real quiet. If they can keep it that way, that is.” Now my throat burned at the thought they’d get a sweet deal. I’d have to write Jeremy to find out the details.
“Why are you here if they got everyone?”
“They think they got everyone.”
My heart pounded with dread. They hadn’t captured everyone after all. Had Jeremy lied to me again? What were his exact words?
“They think? They think?” My voice was shrill.
“Look, we got everyone we knew about. It’s only been two days since we started rounding ‘em up. It can take months to be sure. Give us a chance to tie off all the loose ends.”
I stared at him wide-eyed, panic choking me, while I tried to remember exactly what Jeremy had said. “They’re all dead or in custody.” Did he just not know because he was in the hospital?
“Don’t get all crazy on me now. You’re safe, be assured of that.” With that, he stood and offered me his hand to help me up.
How could I be assured? I reluctantly took his hand, and we walked to my gate where people were already boarding the plane. But I wasn’t ready to board. I needed time to digest what Chris had told me.
“Really,” he said, backpedaling, “Don’t worry your little head about it. I’m sure we already have everyone involved. I didn’t explain it right. You are safe.”
I listened with no comment. I didn’t know him. Could I believe him? I walked over to get a drink at the drinking fountain and he walked back over to the chairs and took a seat. Jeremy had said more after he said that the terrorists were all dead or in custody. Something about the terrorists being on the run. Why hadn’t I really heard that while I was with him? I could have questioned him. I walked into the bathroom for no particular reason. I was putting off the inevitable.
I stared at myself in the mirror, washing my hands over and over again. This was it, an end to my ability to change. In a few hours, I would be home. When it came right down to it, I was afraid to go home. Would people see me as a new, different person and accept me? I gently touched a few of the white-strips that dotted my face. I hoped I could make myself pretty like Marybeth had done for me almost every day of the trip.
Would they see that I had more to give than right answers, eloquent speeches, and pristine writing? Would they care about me if they found out what I had witnessed—that I had experienced something horrible? But I couldn’t tell. We had just been in a car accident—that was all. My heart hurt thinking about how it would feel if no one saw the new me and liked it. I wanted to be noticed. I wanted to be valued. I wanted to feel included. I looked away from the mirror and that voice in my head came back.
“Remember hope—believe.”
The hurt suddenly turned to burning and my despair turned to hope.
I could hope. I could believe. I had to believe that things would be different—better even. I took a deep breath and smiled as I dried my hands. I didn’t understand why I felt so uncertain. It didn’t make any sense. Like Marybeth had said, I did have two amazing guys vying for my attention in D.C. Why not again? I had made friends, and I could again. The brightness of the hope I felt filled my whole soul.
When I came out, I saw Chris tipping his head to my gate, urging me to board. I looked around one last time and headed for Chris to get my backpack, my mind quieter and yet alert. I bent over to pick up the backpack and something started to buzz in Chris’ pocket. He stood up and grabbed my arm, hard, leading me into the family bathroom.
“What’s…” I started to say.
He held his free hand up to lips, gesturing for me to be silent. Two large men fell in behind us and stopped at the door to the bathroom while Chris and I went in. He pulled out
what looked like a pen and starting at my toes, he moved it over my body. Was it a bug detector? It screamed when he ran it over my backpack.
Without talking, he opened my backpack and dumped the contents onto the floor. He ran the detector over it until he singled out the hygiene kit the rep. at the check-in desk had given me. He went to the door and handed it to one of the two men outside the door and then came back to me, moving the bug detector slowly over my whole body and backpack one more time. No buzzing.
“Did anyone else give you anything while here at the airport?”
“No,” I said, before remembering the traveler’s necklace. “Oh yeah,” I laughed. “A nun in the bathroom gave me that St. Christopher’s charm,” I said, pointing at the charm on the floor.
He shook his head, running the device over it. It didn’t chirp, but he picked it up anyway and gave it to the guards outside the door. My insides turned to jelly. I felt so stupid. He’d told me not to accept anything from strangers.
He raised his eyebrows, waiting for me to explain.
I told him about the nun and everything that had happened and what we talked about. He rolled his eyes and sighed.
“We told you not to talk to anybody. I told you not to take anything from strangers. What were you thinking?”
I not only felt two inches tall, I wanted to disappear completely.
“I know it was stupid, but she was a nun. I just didn’t know.”
“That’s the point. You don’t know.” My face burned and my insides shook.
He put his hand to his ear and gave a description of the nun and rep. to whomever was on the other end.
“What’s going to happen now?” My heart battered my ribs. The terrorists were obviously alive and kicking.
“We’ll put a decoy with that necklace and kit on the plane to Colorado and then somewhere besides Helena. You’re heading for Portland now and then home. Justin, a makeup artist, is on his way to change your look and get you on the plane to Portland.”
“I’m sorry. I really am. But you accepted a kit from that rep., too.”
“Just do what we tell you from now on.” The harshness in his voice made me feel worse.
“I will. I promise.” It wasn’t fair, though.
He rolled his eyes again and breathed out hard through his nose. He didn’t try to make me feel better. He wanted me to feel bad so that I would be more careful.
There would be no question about me being careful. Fear crawled through each and every bone in my body, one by one, slowly chilling me. I wrapped my arms around my middle, hoping I wouldn’t start to shiver.
A few minutes later, Justin came in with a bag and had me change into different clothes. Jeans and a T-shirt, along with a hoodie. I wouldn’t stand out for sure. Justin was a breath of fresh air. He fitted a short brown wig on me and he sprayed makeup all over my face. He called it airbrushing. If you looked closely, you could see my steri-strips and scrapes, but you really had to look.
“This is the end of the road for us, Christy,” Chris said. “Good Luck.”
“Thanks,” I said, guilt dripping from my voice.
He left the room.
“What’s your cover, Anna?” Justin asked.
I was Anna, now? He gave me a quick cover-story about being in a car accident while visiting relatives in Maine. Of course, it became a bus accident for my parents. He had me practice talking with him, just in case someone was insistent on talking to me. He also reminded me to clean up once at the airport in Helena so that my parents wouldn’t freak out seeing me in disguise.
I liked Justin and his easy, light-hearted personality. We even joked and laughed while waiting at the gate for my flight. By the time I boarded the plane, I’d almost forgotten that I was a target and that the terrorists were still actively trying to get to me.
I had to believe what Justin had told me. That we had fooled them and I wouldn’t be found. What else could I do? I pushed the horror into a corner of my mind and sat back in my nice roomy seat, drink in hand, to watch a movie and escape D.C.
Excerpt from Protected, Book 2 in the Watched Series
Chapter One
Over the last three weeks, I’d moved like a ninja through the halls of Helena High—invisible, stealthy—going from class to class, taking the least traveled paths. At least that’s what I’d convinced myself. It took the horrible, sing-song voice of Katie Lee for me to realize I was no ninja master. More like a giant target with a bull’s-eye painted on my forehead.
“Christy Hadden. Oh, Christy Hadden.”
My heart froze. Katie Lee had bullied me since the first day of my sophomore year, nine long months ago.
“Hey, look,” she had said that first day. “It’s that homeless girl we saw eating out of the garbage at the mall last week.” The three girls with her had laughed liked hyenas.
There was a hint of truth in what she’d said. They had seen me, but I hadn’t been scrounging for food. I’d accidentally dropped my retainer in the trash can with the garbage from my meal only a few seconds before they’d walked up. My parents would have killed me if I didn’t get it out. “Money doesn’t grow on trees,” they would have said. Since then, I’d only worn it at night.
I heard steps getting closer, and wished I could make my feet run. But, I couldn’t. Like a statue, I stood; I couldn’t even breathe. Why did I let her have this effect on me? I thought my experience with terrorists in DC had made me stronger than this.
The bell rang and the off-the-beaten-path hallway in front of me was nearly deserted. I was late. One more thing to add to the suckiness of the moment. Katie Lee bumped me hard into the wall, her face only inches from mine.
“You’ve been hard to find lately,” she said, sneering. “Where’ve you been?”
I just stared. My mouth refused to move.
“Speak!” she growled, her round face knotted with mean delight.
“Arf! Arf!” came from behind me. I didn’t have to look to know it was Katie Lee’s sidekicks. They always barked at me whenever they saw me.
“Let’s go for a walk.” Katie Lee grabbed my arm, turning me around and leading me back to the bathroom I had just passed. A bathroom no one ever went into because it always smelled like a sewer. Her cronies stood as sentinels in the doorway, and I bumped into one of them.
“Down boy, down,” she said, her tiny, pug nose lifted toward the ceiling.
“You silly,” the other said. “Can’t you see it’s a girl?”
They laughed maniacally while stepping further into the bathroom. Katie Lee dragged me inside, pushing me up against a wall near the back corner of the room. All three stood between me and the exit.
“You know, Christy, English final papers are due Monday.” She paced in front of me. “We would’ve given you more notice, but, it’s like, we haven’t been able to find you. We figured you would be thinking of us and know we needed to get the papers in. So, where are they?”
All three held out their hands.
My jaw dropped. What? They’d never asked me to do their work before. Only kids in my old junior high had tried that. These girls had always just teased and taunted me until now. Taunting that often led to bruising me in some way or humiliating me beyond hope, but what could I do?
“Oh. Did you eat them?” Katie Lee asked, looking at my gaping mouth, her sharp, cruel face sneering.
I closed my mouth. She moved in.
I will not scream. I will not give her the satisfaction.
“Open wide!” She wrenched my mouth open and looked inside. I felt my lips crack. Immediately, my mind raced to the time she kicked me so hard in the shin I could hardly walk for two days. All I’d done was smile at her the second week of school, hoping to win her over.
“Nope,” she said, letting go and taking a step back. “Well, we need ‘em Sunday night. Have ‘em ready for us. Oh, and we don’t want any of that AP crap you do. We only want ‘B’ papers. Can’t have ‘em thinking we didn’t do the work. Got it?”
/> I just continued to stare, wishing my hand would jump up and clock her square in the jaw. Did they really think I would write their papers? I couldn’t write a “B” paper even if I wanted to. Nothing came out of me except “A” work.
“Got it, Hadden?” She came at me again.
“Got it,” I croaked, not wanting her to get any closer but knowing I’d never write those papers. Why hadn’t I told the principal the first time they’d harassed me? There were only five days left of school anyway. What could they do to me? Uh, maybe make my life more than miserable for two more long years. I had to overcome this, but how?
I stayed rigid against the wall until they disappeared around the corner. I sighed, let my shoulders slump, and slid down the wall to the floor, my thighs coming up tight against my chest as I sat. I wrapped my arms around my legs and pulled my chin to my chest, resting my forehead on my knees.
Determined not to feel sorry for myself, I thought of the letters I’d received from Jeremy, my real-life FBI Special Agent. Paralyzed from a bullet that was meant for me, he’d never once felt sorry for himself that I knew of and neither should I.
I pushed the screaming “poor me” thoughts to the back of my mind and searched for good memories. It didn’t take much effort to find some: Alex’s touch, Rick’s kiss, and Marybeth’s friendship. Those two weeks in DC had been the scariest, hardest, and most painful of my life and yet they had also been the most wonderful. Too bad I couldn’t forget the bad that had happened there and only hold onto the good. Instead, I remembered it all with nightmare clarity—with the bad always finding its way into my thoughts, no matter how hard I tried to block it.
I’d been back home almost a month, and Iceman still haunted my dreams at night, turning me into a paranoid schizophrenic during the day. I would be minding my own business, when I would see several robed, Middle Eastern men walking my direction, who, at second glance were really only normal, everyday Montanans. Knives turned into large, curved swords, but only for a second. When things fell on the ground, they became heads seeping blood.
Watched (The Watched Trilogy) Page 30
