Okay, that was supremely distracting. Pressed up against him, it dawned on me that the reason that Colin Love and other crazy-hot guys didn’t register on my hormonal radar was because I’d already imprinted on Kian. That could be … unfortunate.
“Is this your boyfriend, Edie?” Allison Vega stood behind me, wearing a deceptively friendly smile, but after our exchange at lunch, I knew to expect trouble.
“Yes,” Kian said, before I could answer. “I was lucky to meet her this summer.”
“Oh?” Allison imbued the single syllable with an insulting amount of skepticism.
He aimed a warm look in my direction. “Normally I wouldn’t date a high school girl, but Edie’s different.”
That’s putting it mildly.
“So you’re … in college?” she guessed.
Kian nodded. “Look, we’re in a hurry. But good luck with…” He trailed off as his gaze slid over her and then shrugged. “… everything.”
I stifled a laugh. When he took my hand, I worked not to react, as if we did this every day, when in fact, we’d only done it when he was porting us somewhere. I let him lead me toward the station, but he surprised me by stopping at a red Mustang parked behind all the black town cars and SUVs, a splash of blood against raven wings.
“If I’m going to impress them, I have to go all the way,” he said.
He opened the door for me, and I saw Allison and Brittany watching from the gates. The former looked furious and the latter confused. With a mental shrug, I climbed in. He reached across my lap, opened the glove box, and pulled out a small tin. Opening it, he dipped his fingers in the clear gel and smeared it around the frame of his window. Kian tilted his head, indicating I should do mine as well. While I complied, puzzled, he did the front and back windscreens. Then he started the car and smoothly made a U-turn around the cul-de-sac and headed back toward the city.
“We can talk freely now. The effects will last twenty minutes or so.”
“What the crap is going on?”
“Circumstances have changed. I’ve been assigned to you exclusively.”
“And you’re not supposed to tell me that,” I guessed. Which was why we’d soundproofed the car with silicon goo. God, my life is so weird. “Let me guess, you’re supposed to charm me for some reason.”
“I wish you weren’t mixed up in this, Edie, but since the alternative is you being dead, I can’t wish for that, either.”
“Wishes are part of the problem, I’d say. Is this car one of yours?”
He sighed. “Why are you so clever?”
“You went cheap, huh? Sum things up, if time is limited.”
“Normally, I manage five cases at once. I grant favors as requested, answer questions when permissible. But my boss called me into his office today. See, he wants your last two burned as fast as possible. He didn’t tell me why.”
I nodded, listening.
“I was instructed to win your trust, get close to you by any means necessary.”
“Which you could be doing right now, by allegedly laying all your cards on the table. Sort of like a double bluff. You tell me enough of the truth to make me think you’re on my side while you’re manipulating me for your own ends.”
“That’s possible,” he admitted. “Wedderburn suggested I tell you that I’m too into you to stay away, I don’t care about the rules anymore.”
“I might’ve bought it,” I said quietly.
With effort I hid the wash of humiliation I felt at the prospect of him pretending to find me irresistible. “Explain the soundproofing. Why do they think you’ve shut them out?”
“To gain your trust,” he said quietly. “I pretended to go along with Wedderburn’s suggestion about pursuing you. He doesn’t know I’m putting all the cards on the table.”
“That’s why you told Allison you’re my boyfriend? In case your boss was listening.”
“Partly,” he admitted. “But also because I thought it might help you.”
“Huh?”
Kian explained, “The guys will think you’re a bitch if you turn them all down without giving them a reason. If you have a college boyfriend, it gives you more room to maneuver.”
That was certainly true. “What if I wanted to date someone at school?”
“Do you?”
“No. I was just curious what you’d say.”
“Am I supposed to be honest?”
“I’d prefer if you were.”
“Then … I don’t want you to date anyone else. I hated hearing that you hooked up with Ryu. From your perspective, I haven’t known you long enough to feel that way, but—”
“You’ve been watching me for a while.”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I know how that sounds.”
“I read a novel where this hit man is supposed to assassinate a woman, but he ends up falling in love with her instead, just from watching her.” Maybe that was a stupid thing to say; I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to feel.
“I can relate,” he muttered. “Anyway, the girls will see you as less of a threat if they’re not competing with you for dates.”
It was hard for me to imagine that anyone could view me as a potential seductress, but that might be because deep down I was still science-nerd Edie, just wrapped in a prettier package. “Which makes them more likely to accept me. Good thinking. Is this part of making me use my favors faster?”
“Ostensibly it is. The longer it takes to wreak havoc at Blackbriar, the longer it’ll be before you start wanting something else.”
“Do you have any clue why they want me to waste my last two favors?”
Kian hesitated, risking a glance at me, and whatever he saw seemed to trouble him. “Wedderburn didn’t tell me this, but I did some checking on my own. I saw your file.”
Ice crept down my spine despite the sunshine. “And what did it say?”
“You have to understand, things at Wedderburn, Mawer & Graf are encoded by department, so I didn’t understand everything I saw.”
“That’s the company you work for? Sounds like a law firm.”
“Yeah. And for good reason. They know all about getting away with murder.” Kian offered a grim look.
“You’re not inspiring confidence right now,” I muttered.
He ignored that. “From what I could interpret, whatever you’re meant to do, it happens fairly early in your life.”
“So they need me to use my favors, so they’ll own me before I accomplish this mystery goal.”
As far as crazy conspiracy theories went, it made as much sense as anything, but logic hadn’t played a big role in my life since I followed Kian off the bridge. Then the faint whisper resonated: You’re dead, you’re dreaming, you’re delusional. And I could only work with this reality, hard to credit as it might seem.
“Exactly. If they still owe you favors when you reach that pivotal moment, they lose the tactical advantage.”
“But … for your bosses to be sure of all of that, they have to be able to see the future somehow. What’re we talking about? Crystal ball? Tarot cards?” If I sounded derisive, it was because this was freaking me out. Too much mysterious conspiracy talk made me feel like screaming, but calm rationality was my chief strength. This didn’t seem like an opportune moment to deviate from a functional paradigm.
“They wouldn’t invest so much on such uncertain glimpses,” he answered.
“So, what, time travel?”
“You accepted translocation, but trans-temporal is too far?”
I stared at him. “You’re serious.”
“My watch doesn’t have that function enabled, but those with more seniority have been awarded them. In a promotion or two, I could be working in acquisitions.”
“And that means?”