And let him.
And let him.
It was getting embarrassing. And rather tongue-y.
“Brooke, have a little self-respect,” I said, trying really hard not to giggle.
She pulled back, her breaths a little fast.
With a grin, he said, “I figured I deserved more than just a peck on the cheek for saving your life.”
“You figured that, huh?”
“Pretty much.”
“So, I’m all paid up.” She scooted out of the seat and went to the attached bathroom to put away the ice pack, humor playing about her mouth.
He threw a towel at her as she walked away. “Actually, you still owe me for saving everyone else’s lives. I’ll put it on your tab.”
She stuck out her tongue.
“You guys make such a disturbing couple,” I said.
“This coming from the girl dating the Angel of Death.”
I glanced down, remembering the kiss he gave Tabitha again. “We’re not dating, in case you forgot.”
Seeing Jared kiss her had been painful, no matter how I played it in front of the others. I’d never felt pain like that. Now I knew what all those country songs were talking about.
Of course, he did try to kill me. That was pretty painful, too.
SHADOWS IN THE BASEMENT
“So, what do you think is really going on?” Brooke asked me as she took her turn to wash her face and get ready for bed. We’d left the boys downstairs on guard duty.
“I think there’s a stupid war coming and everybody thinks I am somehow going to stop it. How can we do anything without Jared?”
“That was amazingly brave what you did in the vault. Which, by the way—” She stepped out of the bathroom, her face white with soap. “—did you know that was an actual vault?”
“I had no idea.”
“And they made it for you.” Brooke shivered. “That’s just eerie.”
“We have to figure out what’s going on and we have to do it fast. And I think I might know who can help.”
Intrigued, she rinsed her face, then came back while drying it with a towel. “Who?”
“My grandpa Mac.”
“Grandpa Mac?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I had to call him something besides ‘paternal grandfather.’ But he grew up with this stuff.
He might know something we don’t.”
“If he is actually alive, he probably knows a lot of somethings we don’t.”
“Agreed.”
After I took my turn at guard duty while Cameron took a shower in my bathroom, Glitch, Brooklyn, and
I went back upstairs to review Plan A. Then we waited for everyone to go to bed.
“Okay, you ready?” I whispered to Brooke, cracking open my bedroom door.
“Yes, but I’m still not sure how we are going to get down to the basement without alarming Cameron or waking your grandfather. He is the lightest sleeper on planet Earth, as evidenced by the night we tried to sneak out your window to go to a frat party in Albuquerque.”
I cringed at the memory. “That was awful.”
“I was surprised at how red his face could get.”
“I know, right? But I sneaked out the other night and he didn’t know a thing about it. I think on that particular night, he knew we were up to something.”
Glitch snorted. “You guys are always up to something.”
With a chuckle, I led the way downstairs. Each step creaked. Each door squeaked. It was like we were living in a haunted house, it was so loud. I had never noticed before. But we managed to make it to the basement without anyone the wiser, including Cameron.
When we got to the basement steps that, I didn’t mind admitting, creeped me out, Glitch closed the door and turned on the single lightbulb overhead. The one that created more shadows than light.
“Okay, this is creepy,” Brooke said.
“Right? And my grandparents wonder what’s wrong with me. Why I don’t like going into the basement.
Have they even looked in their basement?”
“I don’t think it’s that bad.”
Like when the victim in a horror movie stalks slowly forward and opens a cabinet only to have a cat jump out at her, the three of us jumped about ten feet in the air. Brooklyn squealed and Glitch let loose a string of curses any tattoo artist would be proud of. And I knew enough to slap my hands over my mouth to suffocate a scream before it left my throat.
We turned in unison to Cameron, who stood behind us, casual as could be.
“What are you doing here?” Brooklyn asked, her hands over her chest as she tried to catch her breath.
“I wondered where you guys were sneaking off to, so I followed.”
“You heard us?”
“The entire neighborhood heard you.”
“Cameron, you can just admit it,” I said. “You like hanging out with us.”
“Can’t.”
Brooklyn frowned at him. “Why not?”
“You guys are weird. Bad for the rep.”
She scoffed. “You have to have a good rep to be worried about anything bad happening to it.”
“True. So, what are we doing?”
“Nothing,” I said, a little too fast and a little too aggressively.
His brows shot up. “Okay, count me in.”
Glitch sighed and walked down the stairs past us.
“Who’s watching Jared?” I asked.
“Your grandfather’s asleep in the recliner.”
“Poor guy,” Brooke said.
We crept down the eerie stairs and past jars of canned vegetables, an old typewriter that fascinated me as a child, and a box of collectible snow globes until we came to the shelf with an ancient trunk stuffed underneath. I knew from previous explorations that it contained my parents’ personal items. Things they had saved. Things of no importance to anyone but me. Every time I rummaged through the trunk, a nostalgic sense of pleasure washed over me. I knew what was inside. The dress I’d worn home from the hospital. My favorite blanket I’d practically eaten as a child. A teddy bear named Garth.
But I’d never paid much attention to the documents inside. They were mostly things like receipts and travel logs and such. And how could I forget the awards certificate for my Best of Show in Finger
Painting? The more important documents like birth and marriage certificates were kept upstairs in my grandma’s file cabinet. But these were from my dad’s personal effects. If there was anything about his father, surely it would be in here.
As I rummaged through the trunk, Cameron asked, “So, what are we doing again?”
“Nothing you’d be interested in,” Glitch said.
“Sure I would.” Cameron’s voice held a hint of humor. He seemed to love nothing more than baiting
Glitch. Then again, Glitch did start it. And yet he knew better than anyone what Cameron was capable of.
Glitch had gone crazy.
After practically emptying the chest, I came across a manila envelope I hadn’t noticed before. I opened it and thumbed through the papers inside. They weren’t my father’s but Mac McAlister’s. My grandfather’s. My pulse quickened.
“Oh,” Glitch said, reading over my shoulder. “I thought Mac was short for McAlister. But it was actually his name. Then it makes sense that they called him Mac.”
“Yeah.”
“Your grandfather on your dad’s side?” Cameron asked.
“Yep.”
Brooklyn pushed past Glitch to point at the paper I was holding. “What is that?”
“It’s a license of some kind. A pilot’s license. And here is a receipt with his name on it.”
“But there’s nothing here to indicate that he might still be alive,” she said.
“You think your paternal grandfather is still alive?” Cameron asked.
Crap. I didn’t want him to know why I thought that quite yet. My new ability was just that. Shiny and new. I wanted to explore it further before announcing it to the world. “I have my suspicions.”