The town is cute. It’s only about three or four blocks, and most of the buildings are matching. They’re all brick and most of them look old, like this town has been here for a hundred years and hasn’t grown at all since then. And I like it. This is the kind of town that I always wondered what it would be like to grow up in—a town where everybody knows everybody. How crazy would it be to go grocery shopping and know every single person at the store.
I am from a large city where you will probably never see the same face twice. And if you did see them twice, you wouldn’t remember them, because you don’t talk to people. Here, everybody talks to us.
Now, Sander and I are in a supermarket, looking at socks. It’s so completely normal that it doesn’t feel real. I don’t get normal.
“You should get these,” he says, holding up a pair of socks that have smiley faces all over them.
I shake my head.
“What about these?” he asks, holding up some bright colored ones.
“Those don’t even match,” I say.
“Socks aren’t supposed to match,” Sander says. “I end up losing them anyway. I always wear mismatching socks.”
“Just because you’re a slob doesn’t mean I am.”
“So, we need to talk,” he tells me, as he puts the socks back.
“Do we?” I ask.
“I’ve kind of been putting this off, but the guys are going to meet us soon. Pretty much everybody pawned the job of telling you off on me. Apparently I’m good at delivering life changing news to people.”
“What kind of life changing news?” I ask.
“You know your mom?”
“Obviously I know her,” I say.
“Right. Obviously,” he says, then clears his throat. He isn’t looking me in the eye. He’s look at the top of my head, and he keeps shifting his eyes away from me, making me think that whatever he is about to tell me is really bad.
“Just spit it out, Sander.”
“She’s not your biological mother,” he says.
His words, though they shock me, doesn’t ruin my life. In my head, my mother has always been a monster. A monster that starves me, locks me away, and even threatened me with a knife a few times. I’ve always wondered how a woman could do that to a child she gave birth to. And I’ve also wondered if I’m crazy like her, because I know that mental illnesses can be hereditary. It’s almost a relief to know we’re not related by blood.
But then it hits me—this woman adopted me. Maybe she couldn’t have her own children and decided to give me a home. What made her hate me?
“Is there something wrong with me?” I ask him.
“What do you mean?” he asks.
“She adopted me, because she wanted a kid. What made her hate me?” I ask. “Was it something I did wrong?”
“Karlie, she’s crazy. Like, legit crazy. And she didn’t adopt you. She kidnapped you,” Sander says. “It’s all a very long, very complicated story. One that I, unfortunately, can’t tell you. Your dad wants to tell you.”
“My… my… my dad?” I ask.
“Yes. Your biological father,” he says.
“He’s alive?”
“Yes. And he’s looking for you,” Sander says. “He’s been looking for you. And now we found you. He wants to meet you. Do you want to meet him?”
I nod.
“He’s flying in from Switzerland to Miami. We are all going with you to meet him,” he says. “Is that okay?”
I nod again. “You guys have to be there. I can’t… without you.”
“Good,” he says.
“Does that mean I won’t see you anymore after…” my voice breaks. “He’s my dad. I have to go with him. But you…”
Yeah, okay. Maybe I am being super girly right now, but I will miss these guys.
“I promise you will see us again,” Sander says.
“But if I go with my dad, I’ll be in Switzerland,” I say.
“Karlie, we are based out of Switzerland,” he says. “Don’t worry. You will see us so much that you will literally get sick of us.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
“I can’t speak any other language besides English,” I say. “What if nobody but me speaks English and I go back to have no friends. I don’t want that.”
“One, you and I will always be friends. So you won’t have no friends. You still have the phone Gage gave you. Use it,” Sander says. “Two, your dad lives… somewhere special. And everybody there speaks English.”
“Okay,” I say.
“Everybody there will love you. Trust me,” he says. “Everybody loves your dad.”
“Is he… married?” I ask.
“No,” Sander says, then laughs. “Women always try to get his attention, but he’s very focused on work.”
“Do you think he’ll like me?” I ask.
“Your dad loves you, Karlie. He has a picture of you when you were a baby in his office. I’ve caught him staring at the picture quite a few times,” he says.
“Yeah, but I’m not a baby anymore,” I say. “I’m all grown up.”
“Trust me, I’ve noticed,” Sander says. “But your dad loves you. That’s why he sent us here to get you. To be honest, we were all a little offended at first that your dad was sending us to find a teenage girl.”
“Why?” I ask. “Do you not usually find people?”
“Not usually teenage girls who don’t know how to use a gun,” he says. “There was one teenage girl… an assassin… she was amazing with a knife. Kind of scary, actually. I had to get eighteen stitches because of her. But that’s a story for another time. Now, we need to go meet your dad.”
My dad.
I’ve waited seventeen years for this moment.
Now I’m terrified.
Doppelgänger.
I am sitting in the middle of a coffee shop. I’m still not sure where I am, but they do have really good coffee.
Like, amazing good.
“Stop bouncing,” Sander says.
“I can’t help it,” I say, taking another drink of the frozen coffee. I’ve never had coffee before, but I like it. A lot. And I plan on it becoming part of my daily routine. Because coffee is my friend.
Sander grabs the coffee from me. “I think you’ve had enough.”
“Give it back,” I say, now fighting him for my coffee. He’s a lot stronger than me, but it doesn’t stop me from fighting. He holds me with one arm and holds the coffee away from me with them other.
“Hands off my daughter,” a voice says, making Sander and me both jump.
Sander quickly removes his arm from around me and I’m too busy looking at the guy that just walked in to care about my coffee anymore.
The guy… my dad… he’s tall. He’s a few inches shorter than Sander, but probably six or more inches taller than me. He’s got dark hair that is slowly starting to turn grey and his eyes are the exact same color of light green as mine.
“You look just like your mother,” he says.
My first thought is the mother I grew up with, who I look nothing like, but then I realize he is talking about my birth mother.
“I’m Michael Sinclair,” he tells me. “Your father.”
I just stand there, staring at him. I’m not sure what to do.
“Now tell me. How is it you’ve managed to win these guys over in less than a week,” he says, pointing towards the window. All five guys are standing there, watching us. More like watching me. They’re probably worried that I’m going to have a mental break down or something, but I’m not. I’ve made it this far. I can handle it.
I just shrug my shoulders. “So is my last name Sinclair?”
“Yes,” he answers, then looks behind me at Sander. “Tell the rest of them they can come in.”
Sander wordlessly walks off at the order of Michael… er… dad?
This is a little weird.
The rest of the guys walk in, all of them coming close, but not too close. I
can see the questions in their eyes, but they all remain silent. I wonder for a moment just how powerful my father is.
“Shall we sit?” Michael asks.
I nod.
He sits down in a big booth and I sit across from him, scooting over so others can sit beside me. He does the same. Nolan is the one who scoots in beside me, and I’m not surprised by this. I’ve known the guys long enough to know that Nolan is in charge. He is the only one who doesn’t look intimidated by my dad.
“Go easy on her,” Nolan tells Michael.
Michael’s eyes move from me to Nolan. “Are you trying to tell me how I should talk to my daughter?”
Nolan doesn’t back down. “Your daughter or not, I won’t let you scare her.”
My father looks back at me. “We have a lot to talk about, but not here. Are you willing to go to Switzerland with me?”
“Only if they go,” I say.
He looks at Nolan again. “Care to explain?”
“She trusts us,” Nolan answers.
“How can she trust you guys? She just met you,” my father says, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice.
“I thought you trusted them,” I say. “That’s why you sent them to get me, right?”
“I do trust them,” my father says. “With your life. However, I don’t trust any of them to date you.”
My face grows warm. “Well, I’m not dating any of them, so don’t worry.”
“Let’s keep it that way,” he says to me, then turns to look at each of the guys. I keep my head down, scared to see what any of their reactions might be.
I hadn’t thought about any of them in that way. Sure, I’m attracted to some of them, but what teenage girl wouldn’t be? They’re cute, mysterious and I just found out their some kind of super ninjas. Plus, there is the fact that I’ve never gotten attention from the opposite sex before. Or anybody for that matter. But they’re my friends. I’m okay with them just being my friend. That’s all I want.
Nolan leans forward and I look up to see that he’s having a staring match with my father.
“She’s seventeen,” Nolan says. “And I get that you haven’t seen her since she was four years old, but that is your own fault. Better one of the guys on my team than one of the guys at spy school. I don’t think if you noticed, but your daughter is very pretty.”
Spy school?
What the heck is spy school?
Hold up. Did Nolan just say that I’m “very pretty”? That doesn’t sound like something Nolan would say.
“I’ve noticed,” my father says, now looking at me. “You really are a doppelgänger of your mother. If it wasn’t for your eyes, you’d be completely identical. Her eyes were brown. She was so happy when you were born with my color of eyes. She hoped you would be.”
“Tell me about her,” I say, craving to hear more about her. Anything. I need to know about the woman who gave birth to me.
“Later,” he promises, then looks at the boys. He doesn’t look happy. “So, I guess we are all going to Switzerland. My private jet is waiting for us at the airport.”
Private jet?
I look over and see Sander standing at the edge of the table. He’s hold my now empty coffee cup. My mouth hangs open. “You little brat. That was mine!”
He just laughs.
“I’ll get you another one,” Hunter says.
“Don’t,” Sander says. “You didn’t see her. She was so hyper.”
“Then I’ll get her two,” Hunter replies with a grin. He turns to walk towards the counter, but I stop him.
“Hunter.”
He turns around. “Yes?”
“You’re officially my favorite,” I say.
He laughs as he walks off.
“All it takes to be her favorite is to get her coffee?” Gage asks. “I’ll buy you as much coffee as you want when we get home.”
Home.
Switzerland.
This is going to take a bit to get used to.
“Don’t forget you guys still have a job to do,” my father tells them. I hear the warning behind his voice.
“I hope you’re not questioning my teams’ loyalties,” Nolan says.
“Not their loyalties. Just their priorities,” he says.
“I think you’re forgetting that she is our priority right now,” Nolan says.
“I could pull you from the case,” my dad says. His threat is thick in the air.
“You think somebody could protect her more than us?” he says, relaxing back against his seat. My father doesn’t scare Nolan like he does the others.
My dad doesn’t look happy.
This isn’t exactly how I pictured meeting my dad for the first time would go.
“On the way back to Switzerland, I need to be caught up on the details you’ve left me out of,” my dad says, then looks at me. “And maybe you could begin with telling me why my daughter is so underweight.”
“Yeah, about that…” Nolan’s voice trails off, and he looks uncomfortable. “We have a lot to catch you up on.”
As the words leave his mouth, there is a loud sound that shakes the whole building, followed by the sound of glass breaking. My ears start to ring and I look around, feeling a little bit dazed. The smell of smoke fills my nostrils. I don’t have time to process anything before the guys are on their feet. Nolan immediately shields me with his body as the rest of the guys look around for an immediate threat.
A few seconds later, Nolan faces me.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
His voice sounds a bit distant, like my ears are stopped up. I nod at him, not sure if I can form words right now.
The six guys, seven including my dad, swing into action. Nolan pulls me to my feet, but when I go to stand, I’m nearly fall over. He doesn’t give me a chance to regain my footing. He just throws me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing, and I am carried away from the coffee shop.
I feel nauseous, but fight against it.
A few seconds later, we are all getting into vehicles. There are three separate ones. I get into a vehicle with Nolan, my dad and Jax.
“Are you okay?” my dad asks, turning around in the seat to look at me.
Jax is driving again and Nolan is sitting beside me.
“I think I’m going to puke,” I say, trying to take deep, even breaths.
“Please don’t puke in my car,” Jax says.
“It’s not yours. It’s a rental,” Nolan says, sounding annoyed. He looks at me. “Put your head between your legs and breathe.”
I do as he says. It helps a little.
“Why does Jax always drive when we’re running for our life?” I ask.
Nolan flinches and Michael, um… Dad, turns around in his seat to look at me. “What do you mean when you’re running for your life? You’ve had to run for your life before?” He looks at Nolan. “Explain.”
Nobody says anything.
“Now!” my dad yells, making me jump.
“There is nothing to tell. We took care of it,” Nolan says. “The people that hurt Karlie will never be able to hurt anybody else.”
I wonder what he means by that.
“Karlie?” Dad asks. “Don’t call her that.”
“That’s my name,” I say.
“Not it’s not,” he says. “Your name is Serenity. Serenity Faith Sinclair.”
When he says the name Serenity, I have a brief flash of a woman with dark blonde hair in my head. She looks a lot like me, and I can only assume that she’s my mother. I know instantly that he’s telling the truth, because that is what the woman used to call me. Serenity.
“Oh my,” I say, putting a hand against my head. “My name isn’t even real. What else about me isn’t real?”
Spy school.
I fall asleep on the airplane after we take off. I’m not sure how. I’m anxious. It’s my first time that I can remember being on an airplane and I almost got killed a few hours ago when a bomb went off. But somehow I did manage to go to sleep. A
nd I wake up a little later to find my head on Nolan’s shoulder.
“I don’t get it,” I hear Jax’s voice. “Why didn’t they come after us? Why just bomb the cafe and run?”
“They knew they didn’t have a chance against all of us,” Nolan says, keeping his voice low. “Michael Sinclair doesn’t leave the base, but everybody in the world is scared to death of him. Everybody knows how powerful he is.”
“Which makes Karlie the number one target,” Gage says, his voice sounding a bit off.
“It’s Serenity, not Karlie,” my dad says. “And she’s awake, listening to our conversation.”
How the heck did he know that?
I open my eyes.
“No offense,” I say to my father, “but I prefer to be called Karlie for now. I know that you and my mother named me Serenity. And it probably feels weird, but so much had happened. I just… need to hold onto something right now. And you can call me Serenity, or whatever, but let the guys call me Karlie, please.”
“Okay,” he says. “As long as you call me Dad.”
Dad.
I’ve been calling him my dad in my head. It feels weird to call him Michael.
But am I ready to call him “Dad”? I just met the guy.
And yet, I already love him. Even if he does scare the guys.
“Okay,” I say, then try it out. “Dad.”
He grins from ear to ear, which seems out of character for him. He’s a very serious guy. Jax, Hunter… all the guys, except Nolan, is scared of him. And maybe Nolan is too, but just doesn’t show it.
“So, where exactly are we going?” I ask. “I heard somebody call it spy school.”
“It’s not spy school,” Dad says. “That’s just what the kids who go there call it. Really, it’s much more than a school.”
“What is it?” I ask.
“Serenity, don’t you ever wonder where the secret government agencies get trained? Not just people who work for the government. Spies. Assassins. I mean, we’ve even had a few world leaders attend our school.”
My mouth falls open. “So you, like, train people in the CIA?”
“You’ve heard of the CIA,” Dad says. “That means we have not trained them. We train the secret government agencies. The agencies that even the CIA doesn’t know about. People in the CIA are… well, they’re idiots who think they’re the best. They’re not. We are. We control them and they don’t even know it.”
Finding Me (The Spy Chronicles Book 1) Page 6
