by Ivy Smoak
I locked eyes with him. "In your dreams."
He laughed and lowered my hand.
The sound made my insides flip over.
It took me a second to realize that we were standing in the middle of our hallway holding hands. For all I knew, this could be the last time I ever saw him. I didn't want to let go of his hand. But I knew my choice had already been made. "Enjoy the meteor shower." I dropped his hand. My whole body instantly felt cold. "I know how much you like watching the stars alone."
The smile seemed to fade from his face.
And I knew why it faded. Because it was a lie. He missed watching them with me too. I could see it in his eyes. He thought I abandoned him. Or that I was dead.
He pushed his hair off his forehead. "Have a good night, Sadie." He walked back into his room and closed the door without another word.
For the first time, I thought maybe I had it all wrong. Maybe avoiding him and pushing him away wasn't the answer. Because it seemed like I was hurting him either way.
I quickly walked away from his room. He was upset because I was leading him on. I pushed through the door to the stairs. Asking him for his number one minute and then reminding him that he liked being alone didn't exactly align. He should be mad at me. I was mad at myself.
I was furious with myself for sleeping with Eli. And I felt cheap for sleeping with the vigilante. The first time we were together, I was completely heartbroken. I had slept with him to help forget about Miles. But it wasn't exactly easy to dismiss the only person I had ever loved.
My back started to ache before I even exited the stairs. I should have let Eli walk me to the vigilante's lair when he had offered. But a part of me didn't want Eli asking me a million questions about why I was bringing so much stuff with me. I walked outside and took a deep breath. All the thoughts rolling around in my head were just distractions. I needed to stay focused on what truly mattered.
For some reason I found myself taking the route that allowed me to pass by the Corner Diner. I stood outside again and peered in. No Joan. She had completely disappeared, just like Don. None of it made any sense. I was missing some important link.
When I turned away from the window of the diner, I froze. About a block ahead of me on the path was the real Sadie Davis. She was standing in the middle of the sidewalk, obstructing the normal flow of the other pedestrians.
A smile curled onto her lips.
I stepped forward and she immediately put her hand up again. Just like she had the last time. Her five fingers were spread out, signaling me to stop.
Why did she never try to hurt me? Was she just watching me? I certainly had enough people watching me already. If she really was working for Don, maybe she didn't know everything he had done. Maybe she would flip sides. I could talk to her. I could try to make her understand. We didn't have to be enemies.
But then she lowered her thumb.
My thoughts about peace completely evaporated. Four. She's counting down. Yesterday she hadn't been telling me to stop. She had been telling me that I had five days. And now I only had four. I was in some new twisted game.
Someone bumped into me on the sidewalk, knocking me slightly to the side. When I regained my balance and looked ahead of me, Sadie Davis was gone.
Four days. It was like my pulse was pounding in my ears. The normal sounds of the city seemed to fade away. What the fuck is going to happen in four days?!
Chapter 21
Monday
By the time I reached the top of the fire escape, I was completely out of breath. I hadn't stopped running since I had seen the real Sadie Davis. Four days. I swallowed hard and pounded on the strange window-like door of V's lair. There was no answer.
"V!" I banged on the window again. God, where was he? Was I early? I was about to pull my phone out of my pocket when I heard a clanging noise behind me. When I turned around, V was standing there. Tall. Powerful. Every bit the superhero that I needed.
I immediately dropped my backpack and duffel bag and wrapped my arms around him.
"You're shaking. What's wrong? What happened?"
"Sadie Davis..." I managed to choke out.
"Take a deep breath, okay?" He ran his hand up and down my back, somehow making me feel calm despite Sadie Davis' warning.
"She's going to kill me." I pulled my head back so I could look up at him. That's why I had been running as fast as I could to the only place that I felt safe. I had convinced myself that I only had four days to live. Four days wasn't enough time. It was like I could hear a clock ticking down in my head.
"Who?" asked V. "The other Sadie Davis?"
I nodded. The real Sadie Davis.
"No one is going to hurt you ever again. I promise."
"You shouldn't make promises that you can't keep."
"I can keep it. Let's get inside, okay?" He reached around me and pressed the code into the keypad. The window made a whirring noise as it slowly rose. He let go of my waist, grabbed my backpack and duffel, and stepped into his lair.
For some reason I stood frozen on the fire escape.
He put his hand out for me. "I promise I'll keep you safe, Sadie."
I didn't believe his words. But I did believe that he'd try. Besides, I couldn't face this alone. I put my hand in his and stepped through the window. He intertwined his fingers in mine and silently escorted me to his bedroom.
"Athena, lights on." The lights immediately turned on. He dropped my hand and placed my backpack and duffel on the bottom of the bed. "There are a few things you might need in the bathroom. Just let me know if there is anything else."
I nodded.
He didn't say anything about being glad I was going to spend the night again. It was as if he knew I'd be staying all along and it wasn't a surprise to him at all. He sat down on the edge of the bed, looking slightly uncomfortable even though it was his room. He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees, and clasped his hands together. "Tell me what happened," he said.
Even though he didn't specify, I knew he wasn't referring to changing my mind about my sleeping arrangements. "I saw her yesterday and..."
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, cutting me off.
"There was a lot going on with Eli, if you recall. And I completely forgot about it until I saw her again. Yesterday she put her hand up like she was telling me to stop. It was odd because I wasn't trying to approach her. But today she did the same thing and then lowered her thumb. She's counting down the days until something happens. I have this awful feeling that I'm running out of time. Like you said today. We're living on borrowed time."
"I was referring to our time together. Not your life. Nothing is going to happen to you."
Why did he keep saying that? He didn't know the future. I swallowed hard.
"We'll figure it out together. The others should be showing up any minute."
"Don't you think I'm right?" I asked.
"It's a leap. We don't have any reason to believe she wants to hurt you."
"She's working for Don."
"Liza should have a better understanding of her motivations by now. She's been researching her all day. I should give you a few minutes to settle in." He looked down at his hands. Despite his words, he didn't move from the bed.
"V?"
He lifted his head and locked eyes with me. And for the first time I was able to read him. At least, I thought I could. He looked sad. I swallowed hard. Because I was pretty sure I knew why he was sad. He thought I was right. He thought I only had four days to live, even though he said my conclusion was a leap.
He grabbed the top of his hoodie and pulled it down slightly to cover his eyes. He cleared his throat and stood up. I watched him walk out of the room before I could say anything else.
I didn't need any time to settle in. It wasn't like I was going to unpack my bags. This wasn't a permanent situation. Either we'd figure it out in four days or I'd be dead anyway. Despite what V thought, there was no need to analyze Sadie Davis' motivations. I could
see it in her eyes. The hollowness. Don had the same look in his eyes. They were killers. They sucked the joy and life out of everyone they met. Just like me.
"Eli Serrano is at the entrance," Athena's computerized voice said through the speaker system.
I quickly walked out of the room. It would be better if Eli didn't know I was sleeping here. Having V and him in the same room was awkward enough. I didn't need to add to the hostility.
"Access granted," V said and the window whirred open.
I wasn't sure why, but ever since finding out that Eli was 26, I could see it. He didn't carry himself the same way the other boys did in my classes. He stood up a little straighter and had more of an air of authority around him. Maybe that was why I was so easily attracted to him. His confidence was a little contagious. It made me believe in myself too.
Eli smiled as he made his way over to me. "How were the rest of your classes?"
"I had a hard time focusing."
"Why?"
"Because I was thinking about time. And the fact that I'm running out of it." Now more than ever.
"You don't have to go through with it."
"Go through with what?" V asked.
I turned toward him. For the first time, I realized that he carried himself in the same way that Eli did. Everything about him oozed confidence. He must be older than me too. Why wouldn't he just show me his face? Or give me a name more than just one letter?
"Go through with what?" V repeated.
I wasn't sure how he'd react to me wanting to kill Don, so I was relieved when Athena's voice interrupted us.
"Liza Roth is at the entrance."
"Access granted," V said. He took a step toward me. I knew he wanted to know what Eli was referring to. He wasn't just going to forget about it. Especially since I was acting so guilty.
"What the holy hell is all this?" Liza asked.
Thank you for another distraction. We all turned toward her.
"Welcome to my headquarters," V said.
She walked past us, completely ignoring V, and stepped up onto the raised platform where all his computers were. She immediately touched one of the buttons on the first monitor she approached.
"Access denied," said Athena.
Liza jumped and then turned around with a goofy smile on her face. It looked like she had just walked into her favorite dream. "You have a virtual assistant? That's freaking awesome. What's its name?"
"Her name is Athena," V said.
"What else does she do?"
"Everything I need her to. Athena, light up the base."
The floor Liza was standing on suddenly lit up blue.
Liza glanced down and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "What processor does she use? Can I take a look at her back end?"
Eli laughed.
Liza glared at him. "Eli Serrano from Grand Junction, Colorado. You graduated top of your class at the police academy and decided to work as a detective instead of a beat cop like your father." She hopped off the elevated platform and the lights on the floor automatically turned off. "You clearly have stalker tendencies and a penchant for danger. I'm Liza." She held out her hand for him. "And I wasn't referring to Athena's ass."
I was glad he had laughed at the back end comment and not me. Even though I was pretty sure I already knew what she thought of me, I didn't want everyone else to hear it.
Eli reluctantly shook her hand. "I don't have stalker tendencies."
She turned away from him instead of responding. "As the only one here without a death wish, I want to make myself perfectly clear. I work in the shadows. If even one word of me being part of...whatever this is...gets out, I'm done. And if I'm going to work efficiently, I'll need access to all of that." She pointed to the computers behind her.
"Done," V said.
She smiled. "And you need to stop hacking into my surveillance system. If you want, I'll set you up with your own. But I don't like being spied on. Especially when you don't know how to cover your trail. You're going to get us all killed."
V nodded.
"Okay then." She sat down in one of the chairs at the glass table. "If we're all going to be working together, I think we need complete transparency. So we should probably address the main question on everyone's mind before we begin, don't you think? V," she said without waiting for anyone to agree with her. "Who are you really and why are you doing this?"
Chapter 22
Monday
V clenched his left hand into a fist. I wasn't sure if anyone else noticed, but it was all I could seem to focus on. I could almost feel the hostility in the air. It made it hard to breathe.
"That wasn't part of the deal," V said.
"How are we supposed to uncover the truth if all the details aren't laid out?" Liza asked.
"This has nothing to do with me."
"If that we're true, we wouldn't all be here right now. In your apartment."
"She has a point," Eli said.
V shook his head. "Liza, we already negotiated. I'll add access to my computers and Athena. And I'll stop hacking you. Nothing else."
"But what if..."
"He doesn't have to tell us," I said, cutting her off. "I really appreciate that you're all here to help me. But if this is just going to be us fighting, I don't want any part of it." I wouldn't willingly walk into a situation that made me feel like I was burning. I couldn't think straight like this. It would be better to work on my own.
"Obviously she doesn't care who you are," Liza said. "She was living with the leader of the Helspet Mafia and didn't even realize it. She's clearly mentally unstable."
"Excuse me?" What was her problem? Who came into someone's home and started throwing out insults like this?
"All I'm saying is that he's asking a lot from us when he doesn't even trust us with his identity."
"That's not what you just said. You called me crazy." What a bitch.
"To make a point. Don't be so sensitive."
We all jumped when V slammed his fist against the glass table. I hadn't even seen him walk over there. He folded his arms across his chest. "Liza, we could really use your help. I've already told you that. But if you're not going to let this go, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
She glanced over at the computers with a dreamy look on her face. "Fine." She shrugged her shoulders. "Consider it dropped."
V nodded. "If everyone would take a seat."
The rest of us joined Liza around the table. I sat down across from Liza and Eli quickly stole the seat beside me, almost running into V. Eli draped his arm on the back of my chair without touching me.
The hostility was back in the air almost immediately as V took the seat across from Eli and glared at him.
This wasn't going well at all. I wanted answers. Not whatever the hell this was.
V cleared his throat. "Liza, what have you found out about Sadie Davis?"
"Not as much as I would have liked. She's ex military. More importantly, she's a highly trained sniper. Hopefully that doesn't come into play."
My stomach seemed to churn at her words. So that was how I was going to die. When I least expected it.
"There is a development on our end," V said. "Sadie ran into her yesterday. She put her hand up," V raised his hand, his five fingers spread apart. "She thought she was telling her to stop. But today when they ran into each other again, she only had four fingers raised."
"Is she counting down to something?" Eli asked.
"It sure seems like it." I shifted slightly in my chair. "We have four days to figure out what."
"Four," Liza said. "Huh."
We all turned toward her.
"What if she was telling you to stop yesterday. But today, she could have been saying something else. I mean, V called this thing the meeting of The Four. What if it's about us?"
A chill ran down my spine. We all looked back and forth between each other.
"We won't be able to figure out what she's saying until we pinpoint what her purpo
se here is," V said. "I think we should have Sadie walk through her whole story. We must be missing something."
I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. I wasn't used to talking about my past. It was like this small piece of me I kept locked away, close to my heart. I put my hand in the middle of my chest, expecting to feel my pendant, but instead I was reminded of all that I had lost. "When I was eight my parents died in a car crash." I locked my hands together and put them on the table. "I moved in with my grandmother. She died a little less than a year later." I stared down at my hands. "I bounced around in foster care a lot. Until Don." I swallowed hard. "I don't know what you want me to say."
I felt Eli's arms move off the chair behind me and wrap around my shoulders. "We already know all of this. I don't think making her talk about it is helping anything."
Thank you.
"Well, I have plenty of amendments to that detailed story Summer just weaved," Liza said with a laugh and pulled out a notebook from her bag. "Someone created a false report saying that Summer and her grandmother both died of carbon monoxide poisoning. I traced the cyber footprint to sometime earlier this year. Which means whoever did it was trying to make it look like you disappeared and resurfaced with a stolen identity. It looks like you changed the records, falsified reports, and stole someone's identity. It's enough to put you away for a long time. The adoption papers I uncovered, on the other hand, were actually legit. You were legally adopted by Don Roberts when you left foster care."
She held up her hand like she was waiting for me to protest. I hadn't planned on saying anything, though.
"But, now we know that he changed your name and adopted you as Sadie Davis so that everyone else would think Summer Brooks was missing. He was never enrolled as a foster parent. So whoever took you to him wasn't a part of the system either. Do you remember who it was?"
I bit the inside of my lip. "I was just a kid. I don't..." I tried to pull back the memory of when I first met Don. My mind was drawing a blank. All I could remember was that I thought he had a friendly smile. I had thought my luck had finally changed. Just the thought made me want to throw up. I shook my head. "I don't remember."
