“In fact, I’m quite looking forward to hearing what the prisoner has to say. . . . ”
JAKE
I’ve dated girls with secrets before, but Gaia is a completely new kind of cagey. I thought after the whole Tatiana shoot-out, after playing Triple X in Russia, after fighting for our lives together with her crazy father and uncle, after telling me about her mother’s death that there couldn’t possibly be anything else she was keeping from me.
But there’s more. I know it. There’s something else. Something else big. Something that’s keeping her from trusting me completely. I can tell in the way she’s always darting her eyes around when I ask questions. And sometimes I feel like she’s on the verge of saying something and then she stops herself. I mean, what is it? She’s pretty much with me most of the time.
Could her family have even more deep dark dramas that she doesn’t want to reveal? Is that even possible? Is it something about her mom, maybe—or the reason her dad and uncle, like, hate each other? Is it secret worthy? Something more than your standard dysfunctional spy-family crap?
I’ve got to admit, it scares me just a little bit. I mean, what could be bigger than the fact that her family is full of spies and that she’s constantly a target? If there’s something bigger than that, it’s got to be a little scary.
The thing is, it’s not scary enough to keep me away. It’s not scary enough to even make a dent in the attraction I feel toward her. I’ve never felt anything like this before. And it’s not just that she’s hot. I mean, she is, but it’s not just that. It’s something else. There’s just something about her. Something that makes me think about her all the time and crave her when I’m not around her.
So whatever that secret is, it’s not going to scare me away. And sooner or later, she’s going to tell me what it is. Because, unless I am totally off base, I think she’s starting to feel the same way about me.
trapped
What had made her think that she could get away with one normal, fun night? Didn’t she know the fates were working against her here?
Freelance Vigilante Work
GAIA WAS IN SUGAR HEAVEN. SHE had passed Dylan’s Candy Bar a hundred times since its grand opening, but had never stopped in, and now that she was there, she felt as if she’d come home, made peace with the universe. This place was built for her.
“I can’t believe you’ve never been in here,” Jake said, watching as Gaia selected a huge bag of Gummi Bears to add to her basket. “You live less than ten blocks away.”
“I know. I have issues,” Gaia said. But now that she’d been inside, she knew she was definitely coming back. Possibly on a daily basis. The two-story candy shop had every sugar-fix item Gaia had ever loved plus dozens of things she’d never even heard of. They had Wonka Bars, M&M’s in every color in a Crayola box, and an ice cream counter with flavors only dreamed of in heaven.
Maybe I should get a job here, she thought, imagining the damage she could do with an employee discount.
“So, I tell you we can go anywhere in the city and you drag me all the way back up and across town to go to a place, like, ten blocks from your house,” Jake said, gnawing on a piece of black licorice.
“You said it was my choice,” Gaia pointed out.
“Just wanted to be sure we’re clear,” Jake said, smiling. He looked down at her overflowing basket and frowned. “You’re going to be on a sugar high for the rest of the year.”
“Pretty much,” Gaia said.
She took one last pass by the novelty wall, grabbed another Spider-Man pop, and deposited her basket on the counter. As the girl started to ring up her purchases, Jake pulled out his wallet. Gaia grabbed his wrist and pushed it back down under the counter.
“I got it,” she said, the words “sugar daddy” ironically popping into her head. Every time Jake paid for something—cotton candy at the Knicks game, the cab to get back uptown—she felt more and more like this was a date. And the more she felt like it was a date, the more self-conscious she became. Gaia and dates did not mix.
Besides, she couldn’t be out on a date while her father was interrogating Natasha and Tatiana. She couldn’t be out on a date while her dad’s kidnapper was still out there somewhere. It was just wrong.
Better for her subconscious to think she was just hanging out, even if on some level she was hoping this was a date, and Jake seemed to be hoping that, too. Her subconscious, after all, was the entity that made her say stupid things, drop entire plates of food in her own lap, and automatically punch the lights out of anyone who touched her.
The total for the candy was astronomical, but Gaia barely even blinked. It was worth it just for the experience. Jake held the door open for her as she maneuvered her way outside while simultaneously ripping open a bag of chocolate-covered pretzels. She bit into one and closed her eyes, savoring the taste. This had to be what happiness felt like.
“So, you up for more or do you want to head home?” Jake asked. “Cuz there’s this band playing at CB’s Gallery tonight. This guy Shiva from my dojo said he’s seen them play. They’re supposed to be pretty good.”
Jake pulled a wrinkled fluorescent green flyer out of his pocket and showed it to Gaia. The ad was for a band called the Dust Magnets, and there was a scraggly line drawing of an angry-looking dust-bunny playing the guitar. The illustration looked vaguely familiar, but Gaia couldn’t place it.
“Where’d you get this?” she asked, turning the page over.
“They were plastered all over Oliver’s neighborhood,” Jake said with a shrug. “I tore it down the other day and figured I’d check it out if I was around.”
Gaia popped another pretzel into her mouth and considered the invitation. She was hardly ever home at a reasonable hour, but that was usually because she was on the lam or kicking someone’s ass. But her many months of living the street urchin lifestyle had turned her into a serious night person. She wasn’t remotely tired, and if she went home she was just going to sit there and obsess until her father called. Besides, now she had supplies. With the amount of food in her bag, she could go all night.
“Why not?” she said, stepping off the curb and heading for the subway. It might be cool to stay out just for fun instead of staying out to find freelance vigilante work.
As long as it wasn’t a date.
The Kicker
ED SAT BACK INTO THE CUSHY COUCH he’d managed to secure at CB’s Gallery by arriving there at the very uncool hour of eight o’clock. He’d been sitting there on and off ever since, only getting up when Kai or one of her friends was there to save the seat. He figured if he was going to have to listen to Kai’s brother’s punk band destroy the honor and legacy of punk bands everywhere, he may as well do it from a comfortable couch.
“Hey there!” Kai said, returning from the stage where she’d been chatting with the band’s drummer for the last fifteen minutes while he set up. Between the bright graphic tank top she was wearing and the glitter swept onto strategic portions of her face and shoulders, Kai was absolutely glowing. All day and all evening, Kai had been even more hyper than usual, running around, thanking everyone from school for coming. Over the past week she’d been putting up flyers advertising the gig on bulletin boards, windows, and every other empty surface she could find at the Village School.
“Miss me?” she asked, plopping down next to him.
“Yeah, totally,” Ed replied, forcing a smile.
He wasn’t exactly sure how to act around Kai these days. Ever since she’d basically offered her body up to him and he’d frozen faster than a shallow puddle on an Antarctic night, being with her made him tense. He was always worried she was going to try it again and he was going to bail again and she was going to start thinking he was gay. Or just really lame.
Not that she was going to undress in the middle of a crowded club, but sooner or later he was going to have to deal with the after-the-club situation.
To top it all off, it seemed that every last member of her brother’s ban
d, the Dust Magnets—minus her own brother, of course—was in love with Kai. They’d all been shamelessly flirting with her for the past hour, buying her drinks, making her laugh. And the kicker was, it didn’t bother Ed in the slightest. He wasn’t jealous. He wasn’t proprietary. He wasn’t anything.
Kai was a cool girl, but there was just no sparkage.
“Okay, you have contemplative face,” Kai said, touching her fingertip to the top of his nose, which was wrinkled in concentration. “What’s wrong?” She’d curled her black hair into a million perfect tendrils and they bounced around her face as she shifted in her seat, resting her elbow on top of his shoulder.
“Nothing,” Ed replied. “Just can’t wait for the music to start.”
Kai’s face lit up. “I know! Steve is so excited! They’re totally pumping up the amps. They’re going to bring this place to its knees!”
Yeah. Wailing in pain, Ed thought.
He looked at the door as he had been every time it opened, not knowing whom he expected to see, but hoping it was somebody, anybody, with whom he could share his pain. This time none other than Sam Moon walked in, followed by a horde of friends. He looked around and almost immediately spotted Ed.
Sam lifted his chin and Ed did the same, acknowledging his former nemesis in the battle for Gaia Moore’s heart. Then he looked away. He knew Sam wasn’t going to make pleasantries and neither was he. But seeing the guy did make Ed wonder.
What was Gaia doing tonight? And wherever she was, was she half as bored as him?
The Chick Stare
SAM GRIPPED FOUR BOTTLES OF beer between his fingers as he carefully wove his way around tables and chairs and feet—not to mention the dozens of bags and backpacks that had been stowed on the floor. His roommate, Aidan, had found a table up near the stage with their other friends, the better to support Johnny Chen, the drummer of the band who had not only wheedled all of them into coming, but also into wallpapering their entire neighborhood in Brooklyn with those hideous green flyers. Johnny was Aidan’s former roommate at NYU. They’d lived together as freshmen, hated each other as sophomores, and now that they were living in separate boroughs and hardly ever saw each other, they were best friends.
There was a whole long story involving a girl they’d fought over and a fishing trip in which they’d gotten marooned at sea, but Sam had never quite followed it. All he knew was, Aidan and Johnny were now friends and that was why he was here.
Why Ed Fargo was here was an entirely different question. Sometimes New York was entirely too small for comfort.
“Thanks, man,” Aidan said as Sam placed the bottles down in the center of the imbalanced table. “What do we owe you?”
“Forget it. We’ll settle up later,” Sam said. He leaned his shoulder blades into the cane-backed chair and heard an ominous crack, so he sat forward again. His friends had left him a seat facing the stage, so he had to crane his neck all the way around to see Ed. Which, for some reason, was very important to him.
Because you want to see if Gaia’s going to show, Sam admitted to himself. Over the past year he’d grown accustomed to admitting these things to himself.
He took a slug of his beer, then hunched his shoulders, elbows propped on the table. He turned his head slightly, making like he was just checking out the door. Ed was still sitting on the same couch with some pretty Asian girl practically straddling him. Sam smiled and turned around again.
Apparently Gaia wouldn’t be making an appearance.
“So, I heard this band rocks,” Jeff Miller said, already sucking the dregs from the bottom of his bottle.
“Yeah? I heard they suck,” Aidan replied.
“Then why’d you make us come here?” Charlie asked.
At that moment, Johnny came down from the stage, drumsticks in one hand, mixed drink in the other. His eyes were swimming in their sockets and rimmed with red. He was a big guy, on the short side, but ripped—the kind of guy Sam would usually imagine could hold his liquor. Clearly, however, Johnny was not an accomplished drinker.
“Dude! You are the man!” Johnny shouted, practically tackling Aidan out of his chair as he hugged him.
“How drunk are you?” Aidan asked, slapping Johnny’s back.
“Very. I get performance anxiety,” Johnny answered over his shoulder. “But I’m so glad you’re here, man!”
Aidan shot Charlie a look that said, This is why I dragged you here. Charlie and Jeff laughed as the hug continued, and Sam found himself looking over his shoulder again, this time toward the door.
He should have asked Gaia to come with him tonight. He’d thought about it when he’d seen her earlier, but something had stopped him. Just like something had stopped him from bringing up the messages he’d left her. And the longer he’d said nothing about it, the longer she’d said nothing about it, and the more awkward it felt to even think about bringing it up.
The problem was, not saying something about it made him seem like he was embarrassed about it, which he was. Too embarrassed to jump straight to asking her out.
I’m just going to have to give it some time. Not a lot. Just some, Sam thought, taking another gulp of his beer. Once the memory of the many messages had faded a bit, he’d just call her up and ask her if she wanted to get together. Do something normal. Like go to the movies or for a walk. Or maybe a game of chess in the park. That was how they’d met, after all. It would be kind of romantic.
“Earth to Sam!” Aidan said, snapping in front of his face. He was standing up next to Sam now and Johnny had returned to his seat behind the drums. “What the hell are you thinking about?”
Just wondering what Gaia’s doing right now, Sam’s mind replied.
“Nothing,” he answered.
“You’ve been zoning out all day,” Aidan said. “I’m surprised you figured out how to put your pants on to come here.”
“It’s the chick stare,” Jeff said, sucking at his teeth. “He’s got the chick stare.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Charlie asked with a laugh. Jeff was always saying stupid, pointless crap with this serious intonation like it was all deep.
“He’s thinking about some girl,” Jeff said, rather astutely for him. “It’s all over his face.”
Charlie, Aidan, and Jeff all looked at Sam expectantly. Like he was really going to get into a detailed conversation about his “chick stare” and the object of it with these guys in the middle of a loud club. Not likely.
“You are so off base, you’re halfway to the outfield,” Sam said. “I’m just trying to remember whether we remembered to pause the Xbox before we left.”
“Aw, dude, you better have remembered!” Jeff cried, moving to the edge of his seat. “I was like five minutes from slaying the dragon!”
“In your dreams,” Charlie said.
Sam smiled. His friends were fabulously distractable.
“So, you want another beer or what?” Aidan asked, whacking Sam’s shoulder with the back of his hand.
“Still working on this one,” Sam answered, tilting the bottle toward his friend.
As Aidan walked to the bar, Sam tried to tune in to Charlie and Jeff’s conversation—something about the club they wanted to hit later. The band hadn’t started playing yet, but the music on the sound system was still pretty loud. Sam could barely hear what anyone was saying, and he knew once the band began their set, it would become impossible. Then he could zone out all he wanted.
Zone out and think of what to say when he asked out Gaia.
The Usual Angst
GAIA LOOKED DOWN AT THE BEEFY, outstretched hand of the human boulder sitting by the door at CB’s Gallery and frowned. He grunted at her.
“What?” she asked.
“You gonna pay the cover?” the guy asked, his voice a low rumble. “Ten bucks.”
“Oh!” Gaia said, her face heating up instantly. She fumbled in her bag, feeling completely unsophisticated and stupid—a sensation only exacerbated when two Spider-Man lollipops fel
l out onto the floor. She’d never actually been inside one of these places before. How was she supposed to know what it meant when some freaky tattoo-covered bouncer grunted in her direction?
“I got it,” Jake said as Gaia crouched to retrieve her candy. He’d slapped a twenty into the guy’s palm before Gaia had located her wallet.
Damn, she thought as he tugged at her arm and dove into the thick crowd. He paid again. She was really going to have to get a handle on this stuff. Gaia’s brain was brimming with street smarts, but certain way-of-the-world logic completely mystified her.
Jake made his way toward the bar and Gaia followed. Suddenly, he stopped, blocked by a tight crowd of people, and Gaia took the opportunity to get a look around. The back part of the club, by the door, was an open area with couches and tables pushed up against the walls. The room was painted white, and there was actual artwork hanging on the walls. All the little tables had votive candles flickering inside white cups.
Gaia was just noticing this when she saw a booted foot flying toward one of the candles and she instinctively went to shout a warning. But before she could get the words out, she looked up and saw that the boot belonged to that Kai girl she’d seen Ed hanging around with. And the reason it was flying toward the candle was because she was crawling all over Ed himself on a love seat near the wall.
You have to be kidding me, Gaia thought, instantly turning her face away. He hadn’t seen her yet and maybe he wouldn’t recognize the back of her head, what with all the uncharacteristic waves in her hair. Of all the bars and clubs in this town, why did he have to be here?
Suddenly, her unusual night of fun was infused with a bit more of her usual angst.
Jake finally broke through and made it to the bar and Gaia stepped up next to him, putting more bodies between herself and her ex. There was a red Dust Magnets flyer plastered to a support beam and suddenly Gaia remembered where she’d seen it before.
“These things were all over school yesterday,” she said as Jake tried to get the bartender’s attention.
Freak Page 6
