Текст книги "Finding Sky"

Автор книги: Joss Stirling

Соавторы: Joss Stirling
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Текущая страница: 7 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

‘Snow doesn’t stay lower down til around Thanksgiving,’ Zed explained.

We walked on hand in hand for a few more minutes. He gently brushed my knuckles through my glove. I found it strangely sweet that this boy, reputed to be the toughest nut in Wrickenridge, seemed content to walk like this. He was intriguing in his contradictions.

Unless, of course, Tina was right and he was just being what he thought I wanted. Way to go, Sky: how to spoil a lovely moment.

The snow was now ankle-deep and my val ey shoes were not doing a very good job at keeping my feet dry.

‘I should’ve thought,’ I grumbled, kicking a clump of ice off my canvas toe cap before it could melt through.

‘My sight isn’t much help for practical stuff like that

–sorry. Shoulda told you to bring boots.’

He was one strange boy sometimes. ‘So, what powers do you think you have, aside from the telepathy thing?’

‘Various, but mainly I can see the future.’ He paused at a particularly beautiful spot, a clearing in the forest where the snow lay deep and pristine.

‘Wanna make an angel?’

He dropped it so casual y into the conversation, I was stil reeling. ‘You go ahead. Don’t let me stop you.’

He grinned as he tumbled back into the deep snow, waving his arms and legs to make an angel shape.

‘Come on—I know you’re going to.’

‘Because you can see?’

‘Nope, because I’m gonna do this.’

He sat up quickly and tugged me down beside him before I had a chance to brace.

Wel , now I was here, I had to make an angel, of course. Lying on my back, looking up at the patch of stars, I tried not to let my worries about being a savant and the possible danger coming for me sour the breathtaking beauty of the forest at night. I could feel Zed beside me, waiting for me to make another step towards him.

‘So what can you see?’ I asked him.

‘Not everything and not al the time. I can’t “see”

my family’s future, or only rarely. We’re too close—

there’s too much interference, too many variables.’

‘Do they do the same thing?’

‘Only Mom, thankful y.’ He sat up, brushing the snow from his elbows. ‘The rest have other gifts.’

‘You’ve seen my future? In that premonition?’

He rubbed a hand over his face. ‘Maybe. But if I tel you exactly what I saw, I might either change things or be the reason it happens—I can’t know that for sure. My sight gets more precise the closer I am to an event. I only know with any certainty something is going to happen a second or two before it does.

Yet it can go real y wrong. That’s what happened in the raft—by interfering I helped cause what I was trying to stop.’

‘So you won’t tel me if I’m going to be a good skier?’

He shook his head and tapped my forehead. ‘No, not even that.’

‘Good, I think I’d prefer not to know.’

The breeze rustled the branches. The shadows were deepening under the trees.

‘What’s it like? How can you bear knowing so much?’ I asked softly. He was my opposite in many ways: I knew so little about myself, about the past; he knew too much about the future.

Zed got up and pul ed me to my feet. ‘Most days, it’s a curse. I know what people are going to say—

how the film wil end—what the score’s going to be.

My brothers don’t real y understand, or don’t want to think, what it’s like. We’ve al got our own gifts to handle.’

No wonder he was having problems getting along at school. If he was always ahead of the rest, always knowing, then he would be weighed down by a terrible sense of futility, not being able to change outcomes, like the pizza burning. It made my head hurt just thinking about it. ‘This is al too weird.’

He put his arm round me, tucking me under his shoulder. ‘Yeah, I get that. But I need you to understand. You see, Sky, it’s like, I dunno, I suppose a bit like being in a lift with muzak. It’s playing away in the background but you don’t notice until you pay attention. But from time to time, I get a sudden trumpet burst of things. Scenes play out. I don’t always know the people or understand what they mean. Not until later anyway. I may try and stop things but they usual y just happen in a way I didn’t anticipate. I try to block it out—I can for a time—but once I forget it comes back.’

I decided it sounded more like a curse than a gift.

He’d be a little ahead of everyone when he tuned in.

Then I realized.

‘You bloody cheater!’ I elbowed him in the ribs.

‘No wonder you are unbeatable when you pitch or kick goals!’

‘Yeah, it does have that fringe benefit.’ He turned to me and smirked. ‘Helped you out, didn’t it?’

I remembered the fluke save. ‘Oh.’

‘Yeah, oh. I sacrificed my perfect goal scoring record for you.’

‘Hardly—you scored, like, twenty or something.’

‘No, real y. What are people gonna remember about that match? That I scored loads or that you saved that one? I’m never gonna live it down.’

‘Idiot.’ I swatted him.

He had the gal to laugh at me. ‘That’s done it. I’l have to distract you again before you hit me a second time.’

As he leant forward to take a kiss, he abruptly lunged, knocking me backwards. A tree trunk splintered five feet behind us. Simultaneously, I heard a report like a car backfiring.

Zed dragged me behind a fal en tree trunk and pushed me under, sheltering me with his body. He swore.

‘This isn’t supposed to be happening!’

‘Get off me! What was that?’ I tried to get up.

‘Stay down.’ He swore again, even more colourful y. ‘Someone took a shot at us. I’m getting Dad and Xav.’

I lay quiet under him, my heart pounding.

Crack! A second shot struck the trunk not far above our heads.

Zed slid off me. ‘We’ve got to move! Rol out the other side of the trunk and run for the big pine over there.’

‘Why don’t we just shout to tel them that they’re shooting at humans?’

‘He’s not hunting animals, Sky: he’s after us. Go!’

I squeezed under the trunk, scrambled up and ran.

I could hear Zed just behind me—a third shot—then Zed tackled me from behind, his elbow connecting with my eye as we went down. A fourth shot hit the tree in front just level with where my head had been.

‘Damn. Sorry,’ Zed said as stars whirled. ‘Saw that one almost too late again.’

Better stunned than dead.

Yeah. But still I’m sorry. Just stay still. Dad and Xav are hunting our hunter now.

I think there’s more than one.

‘What?’ He lifted his head a fraction to look at my face. ‘How do you know?’

‘I don’t know. I just feel them there.’

Zed didn’t question my instinct and relayed the news to his father.

‘I’ve told him to be careful.’ Zed stayed over me, refusing to let me risk being in the line of fire. ‘It could be a trap to lure him out. We’ve got to get back to the house. There’s a stream just over that ridge. If we get there, we can stay hidden and circle back. OK?’

‘OK. How do we get to it?’

Zed smiled grimly. ‘You’re amazing, Sky. Most people would have lost it by now. We crawl—make like lizards. I’l go first.’

He slithered on his bel y over the ground then dropped over the ridge out of sight. I fol owed, trying not to think about what it would feel like to get a bul et in the back. It was too dark to see what was down there so I just had to trust him. I slipped head first down the bank, rol ed and landed with my butt in icy water.

This way, said Zed.

Keeping low, Zed led

me down the course of a

shal ow stream that fed into the Eyrie. He was wearing walking boots, but my canvas sneakers had no purchase on the stones and I kept stumbling.

Hold on to my jacket, he told me. Almost there.

As the stream got deeper, the bank lowered al owing us to clamber out of the gul y. We emerged on the grassy slope in front of the house.

‘Sense anything?’ Zed asked.

‘No. You?’

‘I can’t see anything. Let’s make a run for the house.’ He gave my arm a squeeze. ‘On three. One

–two—three!’

Feet squelching in my shoes, I sprinted across the open ground and through the front door. I heard the lock click behind me without Zed touching it.

‘Your dad and Xav OK?’ I panted.

He looked distant for a second, checking in with the rest of the family.

‘They’re fine, but they lost the hunters. You were right: there were two of them. They took off out of town in an unmarked SUV. Black, dark windows.

Hundreds of cars like it in the mountains. Dad says to stay here til he gets back. Let’s look at that eye.’

Zed steered me into the downstairs bathroom and sat me on the edge of the bath. As he fumbled with the first aid box, I realized that he was shaking.

I put my hand on his arm. ‘It’s OK.’

‘It’s not OK.’ He ripped open a pack of cotton wool, shooting the bal s al over the vanity unit.

‘We’re supposed to be safe here.’ Fury rather than shock was making him tremble.

‘Why wouldn’t you be safe? What’s going on, Zed? You seem not real y surprised that someone wanted to shoot you.’

He gave a hol ow laugh. ‘It does make a kind of horrible sense, Sky.’ He rinsed out a flannel and placed it against my eye, the cold dul ing the edge off the pain. ‘Hold that there.’ He then cleaned my cuts and scratches with the cotton wool. ‘I realize you want to know why that might be, but it’s better for you and for us if you don’t.’

‘And I’m supposed to be OK with that? I go for a walk with you, and get shot at, and I’m not supposed to wonder why? I can live with exploding lemons and the rest of it, but this is different. You almost died.’

He pushed the cloth back against my cheek where I had let it drop away. ‘I know you’re mad at me.’

‘I’m not mad at you! I’m mad at the people who just tried to kil us! Have you told the police?’

‘Yeah, Dad’s handling it. They’l be along. They’l probably want to talk to you.’ He took the cloth away and whistled. ‘How’s this for a first date: I’ve given you a black eye.’

That gave me a jolt.

‘This was a date? You asked me here on, like, a date and I missed it?’

‘Yeah, wel , not many boys take their girls out on a duck shoot with them as the target for a first date.

You have to give me points for style.’

I hadn’t got past first base yet. ‘This was a date?’ I repeated.

He pul ed me up into his arms, my head against his chest. ‘It was a date—I was trying to get you used to me, kinda in my natural habitat. But I can do better, I promise.’

‘What? Gladiatorial combat next?’

‘Now there’s an idea.’ He nuzzled my hair. ‘Thanks for keeping a cool head out there.’

‘Thanks for bringing us through it.’

‘Zed? Sky? Are you al right?’ Saul was shouting from the hal way.

‘In here, Dad. I’m fine. Sky’s a bit roughed up, but she’s OK.’

Saul hovered in the door, his expression anguished. ‘What happened? Didn’t you see the danger, Zed?’

‘Yeah, obviously I saw. I thought, “Let’s take my girlfriend out for a walk and try and get her kil ed”. Of course, I didn’t see—no more than you sensed it.’

‘Sorry, stupid question. Vick’s on his way. I’ve cal ed your mom and Yves back. Trace wil be here as soon as possible.’

‘Who was it?’

‘I don’t know. The two Kel ys were sent down on Tuesday. It could be payback. But they shouldn’t know where to find us.’

I turned in Zed’s arms to look at Saul. ‘Who are the Kel ys?’

Saul saw my face properly for the first time. ‘Sky, you’re hurt! Xav, get in here.’

The bathroom was beginning to feel very crowded with so many Benedicts hovering over me.

‘I’m fine. I just want some answers.’

Xav came running. ‘She’s not fine. Her face feels like it’s on fire.’

I opened my mouth to protest.

‘Don’t bother, Sky, I can feel what you’re feeling.

An echo of it.’ Xav reached out and put his fingertip on the bruise. I experienced a tingling like pins and needles on the right side of my face.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Trying to stop you looking like a panda tomorrow.’

He lifted his finger away. ‘It’s my gift.’

I touched my face cautiously. Though the bruise throbbed, the intensity of the pain had dimmed.

‘You’l stil have a bit of a bruise. I haven’t had time to get rid of al of it. Pain’s quick, bruises take more time to clear up—at least another fifteen minutes or so.’

‘We’d better get Sky home. The further from this mess she is, the better.’ Saul ushered us out of the bathroom.

‘Won’t the police want to take her statement?’ Zed handed me a dry pair of socks from the clean laundry basket.

‘Vick’s sorting it out. He doesn’t think we should involve the local cops; he’l get his people on to it. If he wants to talk to her, he can go to her to do so.’

Another thread for me to tug. ‘And his people are?’ I kicked off my shoes to rub my icy feet.

‘The FBI.’

‘That’s like the CIA—spies and stuff?’

‘No, not real y. The Federal Bureau of Investigation deals with crimes that cross state boundaries. The big felonies. They’re plain clothes. Agents rather than cops.’

I slipped the tie from my unravel ing plait and clumped my hair together in a ponytail. ‘Zoe always says Victor’s a man of mystery.’

Saul flicked his eyes to Zed, clearly uncomfortable with how much I was learning about them.

‘But the less that’s known about his other life, the better, understood?’

‘Another Benedict family secret?’

‘They do seem to be piling up, don’t they?’ Saul chucked Zed a set of keys. ‘Take Sky home on the bike—but don’t go direct. We don’t want you leading anyone to her.’

‘You could take me to my parents’ studio and they can run me back.’

‘Good thinking. Zed, give my apologies to Mr and Mrs Bright for not taking proper care of their daughter.’

‘What do I tel them about it al ?’ Zed asked, guiding me out of the house.

Saul rubbed the back of his neck. ‘I’l get Victor to explain. He’l know what and how much to say. For now, tel them it was some idiot running wild in the woods. Ask them to keep a lid on it until the authorities have had a chance to deal with it. Is that OK with you, Sky?’

I nodded.

‘Good. You did great.’ Saul kissed the top of my head and hugged his son. ‘Thank God we’ve only got one black eye to show for it. And thank you, Sky, for being so patient with us.’

I mounted the motorbike behind Zed, gripping on to his jacket like a lifebelt.

‘I’m going to take us by some back roads that skirt round Wrickenridge to your side of town,’ he warned me. ‘Just in case.’

The so-cal ed back roads proved to be little more than dirt tracks. To help myself cope, I fel back into my habit of seeing the drive in my head as a storyboard: headlamp cutting through the dark—

startled deer bounding out of the way—bike weaving round a fal en tree—girl clutching on to boy. Music would be menacing, urgent—heavy metal maybe …

But it didn’t work—the danger was too real; I couldn’t distance it with a story, not when I was one of the main characters.

I felt filthy and shaken up by the time we reached the Arts Centre. My head was pounding again.

‘Can you do that thing Xavier does?’ I asked, pinching the bridge of my nose after I took the helmet off.

‘No, but I can buy you something for it at the drug store.’

‘It’s OK.’

Zed blew out a bracing breath. ‘Come on; let’s face the music from your dad.’

‘Can you see how bad it’s going to be?’

‘Trying not to.’

The black eye was a bad enough introduction, but the news that we had been shot at by a madman in the woods was the last straw.

‘Sky!’ wailed Sal y, her voice echoing around the clean white wal s of the studio in the roof of the Arts Centre. ‘What have we brought you to? This would never’ve happened in Richmond!’

‘You might not believe me, ma’am,’ Zed said politely, ‘but it doesn’t normal y happen here either.’

‘You’re not to go out until this crazy man is caught!’

Sal y said, brushing my cheek and tutting over my bruise.

‘And why didn’t you tel us you were going out this evening, Sky?’ Simon looked at Zed with open hostility, which was not surprising as Zed did look particularly menacing in black bike leathers. But I thought the question was rich coming from Simon seeing that they were hardly ever at home. The role of Strict Dad-Meister was at odds with the relaxed Bohemian Artist thing he had going, but for me he always managed to make an exception. In his mind, I was always to be ten, not sixteen.

‘It was a last minute decision. I just went for supper. I thought I’d be back before you came home.’

Your dad is measuring me up for my coffin rightnow, Zed told me.

He’s not.

I’m catching images here—all of them painfuland detrimental to my future prospects of being afather.

‘You’re grounded, Sky, for going out without permission,’ Simon growled. He was clearly channel ing Dad-Meister at the moment.

‘What! That’s not fair!’

He’s over-reacting because he’s afraid for you.

Still not fair.

‘I’m sorry, sir, it’s my fault Sky went out tonight. I asked her over.’ Zed tried to erect a force field between me and Simon’s anger.

Dad-Meister zapped it down. ‘That may wel be, but my daughter has to learn to take responsibility for her own decisions. Grounded. For two weeks.’

‘Simon!’ I protested, embarrassed that Zed was witnessing this.

‘Don’t make me extend it to four, young lady!

Goodnight, Zed.’

Zed squeezed my hand. Sorry. He’s not going to listen to me. I’d better get back.

He left and then I heard the bike roar into life outside. Wolfman zipping off out of harm’s way.

Thanks a lot.

I folded my arms, my foot tapping in the way a cat’s tail twitches when riled. If Simon was playing Dad-Meister, I was SuperAngry Sky. ‘You expect me to sit at home while you and Sal y play here but don’t want me to enjoy myself with my friends!’ I exploded.

‘That is so unfair!’

‘Don’t you talk back to me, Sky.’ Simon threw his brushes in the sink and ran the water too hard, the spray wetting his jumper.

‘You’re just saying that because you know you’re in the wrong! I didn’t complain when you stood up Mr Ozawa at school on Monday—that was so humiliating. I didn’t know what to say to him. I didn’t ground you for being crap parents.’

Simon shot Sal y an embarrassed look. ‘I phoned Mr Ozawa to apologize.’

‘I know you only adopted me late in the day, but sometimes I think you forget you’ve got me.’ I regretted the words as soon as I spoke them.

‘Don’t say that!’ Sal y put her hands to her mouth, eyes shining with tears, making me feel about an inch tal .

‘So it’s a bit much,’ I continued. My hole was pretty deep now and I had to keep digging. ‘A bit much for you to tel me off for not keeping you in the loop with what I’m up to. Half the time I’ve not got the foggiest where you are and I’m sure you don’t realize it!’

‘It’s not the same,’ snapped Simon, angry now I’d hurt Sal y. He was probably hurting too. I know I was.

‘Four weeks.’

I don’t know what came over me. Normal y it takes a lot to get me furious but I’d been shot at, had a load of secrets dumped on me by the Benedicts, ended up with a black eye, and Simon had turned it into something for which the juvenile punishment of grounding was thought an appropriate response.

‘That’s just a load of bul !’

‘Don’t you use that kind of language to me!’

‘Urgh! Too American for you? Wel , you brought me to this bloody country! I didn’t ask to get shot at!

I’m sick of it al —sick of you!’ I stormed out and slammed the door behind me. Angry at him—angry at myself. I stomped up the road, kicking an empty can ahead of me, swearing with every rattle. No music inside to accompany this exit, unless you count the desire to clash bin lids together music.

I could hear someone running after me.

‘Darling!’ It was Sal y. She grabbed me and folded me into a hug. ‘You have to understand your father’s afraid for you. You’re stil his little girl. He’s not used to seeing you with such a grown-up boy. And he certainly doesn’t want you to get hurt by some trigger-happy redneck in the woods.’

Miserable under the weight of everything that had happened in the last few hours, I started to cry. ‘I’m sorry, Sal y. I didn’t mean what I said—about the crap parent thing.’

‘I know, darling. But we are crap parents. I bet you’ve not had a square meal this week—I know I haven’t.’

‘You’re not. I’m a rubbish daughter. You took me in and put up with me and I …’

She gave me a little shake. ‘And you have given us a hundred times more than we ever gave you.

And we’ve never forgotten for one moment that we have you even when we are at our most unbearable.

Give Simon a chance to cool down and I expect he’l even say sorry to you.’

‘I was scared, Sal y. They were shooting at us.’

‘I know, darling.’

‘Zed was real y great. Knew what to do and everything.’

‘He’s a nice boy.’

‘I like him.’

‘I think you more than like him.’

I sniffed, fumbling for a handkerchief. I had no idea what I felt about him—confused about the savant connection, doubtful that anyone could want me as much as he claimed, just learning to trust him a little.

‘Be careful, Sky. You are such a sensitive soul. A boy like that can crush you if you get too hung up on him.’

‘A boy like what?’ Why did everyone think they could put a label on Zed?

She sighed and steered me back to the car. ‘He’s good-looking, a little wild from what I hear. Few people stay long with their high school sweethearts

–it’s part of the training for life.’

‘We’ve only had one date.’

‘Exactly. So don’t let your imagination go running off with you. Play it cool and you’l keep him interested.’

Him being interested wasn’t the problem—I was the one keeping it light. But this was so like my mum

–to worry about the heart when bul ets had been flying. ‘And this is, what, relationship advice according to Dr Sal y Bright?’

‘Do we need to have that conversation again? I thought we discussed it when you were twelve,’ she teased.

‘No, no, thanks, I’ve got the facts.’

‘Then I trust you to apply them in practice.’

‘You trust me, but Simon doesn’t.’

She sighed. ‘No, he’s always felt real y protective about you, maybe even more so because you were so hurt when we took you on. If he could lock you in a tower, dig ditches, plant a minefield and ring it al with razor wire, he’d do it.’

‘I suppose I’m lucky I’m only grounded.’

‘Yes, you are. I can probably beat him down to two weeks for you, but I think we can safely say you’re grounded.’

The third eldest Bened ict brother, Victor, came cal ing after we’d gone to bed. I could hear Simon swearing as he fumbled for his dressing gown to throw over his T-shirt and shorts. Sal y came to fetch me.

‘Not asleep yet?’

‘No. Wha’s up?’

‘The FBI are in the kitchen. They want a word with us.’

Victor was with a female col eague. He had straight, long dark hair tied back in a ponytail and wore a sharp black suit with a silver tie. Like his father, he had a calm aura, as if he could be surprised by few things. The col eague struck me as more nervous. She was tapping her stylus on her electronic memo, her hawkish face shadowed, her short brown hair sleeked back behind her ears.

‘Sky.’ Victor held out a hand to me and led me to the seat opposite him. It was strange how he acted as if he was in control in our kitchen. Sal y and Simon had given way to him without a murmur, hovering on the margins while he ran the show. ‘Do you mind if we record this?’ He gestured to the BlackBerry lying on the table.

I glanced at Simon. He shook his head.

‘That’s OK. I don’t mind.’

He pressed a button. ‘Record on. Incident seven, seven, eight, slash ten. Interview four. Present in the room are agents Victor Benedict and Anya Kowalski and witness, Sky Bright, a minor. Also in attendance are the witness’s parents, Simon and Sal y Bright.’

Cripes, this sounded like a trial.

‘Have I done something wrong?’ I asked, rubbing at the tea stain on the table top.

Victor’s expression softened and he shook his head. ‘Other than go out with my idiot brother, I’d say not. Sky, you’re sixteen, is that right? What’s your date of birth?’

‘Um …’

Sal y jumped in. ‘No one is sure of her exact date as she lost her birth parents when she was six. We chose the day we adopted her—first of March—as her birthday.’

The hawkish agent made a note.

‘OK,’ said Victor, giving me a speculative look.

‘Now, Sky, I want you to tel us in your own words, remembering as much detail as possible, what happened this evening out in the woods.’

Pushing a few stray grains of sugar to and fro on the table, I relived the experience for the record, running it in my head like one of my plots frame by frame, leaving out only the fact that for some of the time Zed and I had been using telepathy. Oh, and the kiss. I didn’t think they needed to know about that.

‘Zed said you were the one to realize that there was more than one shooter. How did you know?’ Ms Kowalski butted in when I had reached that part in the story.

I wondered if I should make up something about hearing a noise or seeing another person, but decided I’d better stick to the truth.

‘It was a gut feeling—you know, like an instinct.’

‘Sky’s always had good instincts,’ added Sal y, embarrassingly over-eager to assist the authorities with their enquiries. ‘Remember how she never liked that tutor we employed for her that time, Simon?

Turned out he’d been involved in a hit and run incident.’

I’d forgotten that—it had happened years ago. Mr Bagshot had made me feel panicky—guilty—when I was with him as if his emotions were spil ing out and swamping me.

‘Interesting.’ Victor laced his fingers together. ‘So you saw nothing, just felt it?’

‘Yes.’ I rubbed my temples, the headache back.

Victor dug in his pocket and pul ed out a packet of aspirin. ‘Zed sent these. He said you’d forget to take one.’

He’d seen this and not that we’d get shot at if we went for a walk? Second sight was annoyingly patchy. I took a tablet with a gulp of water and finished the story.

‘Have you caught the men who did this?’ Simon asked. Both he and Sal y were pale: they hadn’t heard the details of what happened, nor how close the bul ets had come.

‘No, sir.’

‘Any idea who they were?’

‘Not at this time.’

‘Is Sky in danger?’

‘We have no reason to think so.’ Victor paused. ‘I want to tel you something in confidence; you need to understand so you can make sure Sky is safe, but I have to ask you to keep it to yourselves.’

I wondered for a horrid moment if he was about to tel my parents about the savant stuff. They’d never believe him.

‘You can trust us,’ Simon confirmed.

‘My family are here as part of a witness protection programme run by the FBI. We’re afraid that news of their location must have leaked to associates of the people they helped send to jail. The attack was aimed at them, not your daughter, so we think she is under no further threat as long as she keeps her distance from us.’

‘Oh.’ Sal y sat down, sagging like a col apsing inflatable. ‘You poor things—to be living under that pressure.’

Simon had guessed the next step. ‘Wil you be moving now your location is no longer a secret?’

‘We hope not. We al try and keep a low profile—’

‘I’m stopping as Colorado junior champion andretiring undefeated’, Xavier had said. He didn’t want to become too wel known across state boundaries.

Zed had avoided making more than a good impression on the basebal diamond, ducking attention.

‘But it’s a bit early to say—and hard to uproot the whole family. Our preference is to deal with this threat, contain it, and see where we stand then.’

I drew a circle with my fingertip. ‘And if you’ve a leak in the FBI, you have to plug it before moving or the problem would just fol ow you al .’

Victor’s gaze sharpened. ‘You’re a bright girl, aren’t you? No pun intended.’

‘But I’m right, aren’t I?’

‘Yeah. We can protect ourselves better in a place we know until we can be sure it’s safe.’

‘I see.’

He got up and pocketed the recorder. ‘Yeah, you do, don’t you. You’re sweet, just like Dad said you were. Thanks for your time, Sky, Mr and Mrs Bright.’

‘No problem, Agent Benedict,’ Simon said, showing them to the door.

Sal y sat down next to me at the table. Simon sat on my other side and reached for my hand.

‘Wel ,’ he said.

‘Yeah.’ I leant my head on his shoulder, our earlier argument forgiven.

‘I’m sorry, Sky, but we can’t let you see that boy out of school, or any of his family for that matter, until this is al sorted out.’

‘It’s not fair.’

‘No, it’s not, darling. I’m sorry.’

Unable to see Zed in my free time, I couldn’t wait to catch up with him at school to find out what was going to happen to his family. I felt very confused when he didn’t turn up for the next few days. He’d left me worried sick and facing everyone with an unexplained black eye. It was total y embarrassing—

the kind that makes you want to curl up quietly in a corner.

‘Whoa, Sky, you take up boxing?’ Nelson exclaimed in a loud voice on seeing me in the school hal way.

I tried to pul a hank of hair over my injury. ‘No.’

Other students were now looking at me as if I were an exhibit. Funny Girl with Black Eye, rol up, rol up!

‘How’d’ you do it then?’

I put on a spurt of speed, hoping to reach my form room before he got it out of me.

‘Hey, Sky, you can tel me.’ Nelson caught my arm, no longer teasing but serious now. ‘Did someone hurt you?’

I shoved my hair off my face and looked at him straight. ‘I ran into an elbow yesterday.’

‘Whose?’

‘Zed’s. No big deal.’

‘No big freaking deal! You’re joking! Where is he?’ Nelson looked fit to burst. ‘I knew no good would come of it. He should take better care of you.’

‘It’s OK.’

‘No, it is not OK, Sky. Zed’s not right for a girl like you.’

‘It was an accident.’

‘So how it happen then?’ He put his arm across the door, denying me entry. ‘How you run into his elbow?’

What could I say? We were targeted by an assassin? That would be like setting off a box of fireworks in whole school assembly.

‘We were mucking about in the woods and I kind of fel against him. Nelson, wil you let me go in? It’s bad enough looking stupid; I don’t also want to be late.’

Nelson dropped his arm. ‘But I got your back, remember? It may have been an accident but I don’t see him here checking you’re al right. I’m gonna have a word with Zed.’

‘Don’t.’

‘Nothing you can do to stop me, Sky baby.’

So now I had something else to dread: Nelson ripping up Zed in the mistaken belief he was somehow defending me.

Zed turned up two days later. Victor drove both him and Yves to school in a sleek Prius with blacked out windows, dropping them near the door. I only saw them hurry in because I happened to be running behind too, having to function on ‘Simon time’ due to his insistence on taking me to class. Simon never started out until the moment he was supposed to be somewhere—OK for artists perhaps but not for students.