Beautifully Unnatural: A Young Adult Paranormal Boxed Set (60 page)

She stared at me vacantly, making no attempt to move.

Great. It was all up to me. I threw my body upward and my chair moved a fraction of an inch in her direction. I did it again and again as I pondered how to get that fighting spirit back in her. Maybe if I pushed the right buttons, her attitude would come back.

“I know we didn’t start out on the best of terms, but pull it together.” My chair creaked an inch closer to her. “Considering the way you treated me in the emergency room, I never pegged you for a quitter.”

“W-what?”

“Perhaps you forget jumping out at me in Amanda’s room? You laughed at me, remember? Pretty rude since you didn’t know me, but did that stop you? No. You just got your thrills off harassing me.”

Her eyes widened. Probably wondering how I could throw put-downs at a time like this but I needed her obnoxious fighting attitude.

I writhed left, then right. But it wouldn’t budge, darn it! “This is hopeless.”

I took a deep breath and remembered what my dad always told me when I felt sorry for myself,
‘You can laugh or you can cry.’
It gave me renewed strength. Even so, I needed Drew to join my team. “It was obnoxious of you to scare me in Amanda’s hospital room. You could at least say sorry.”

Something flickered in her eyes then and I was encouraged. She wasn’t over and out, just worn down. I’d get her back.

“I’m
here
because of
you
.” She’d whispered, but her voice had a steel edge. “They found me at the hospital and I told them I was the mind reader so they’d leave
you
alone.” An irritated look crossed her face. “It wouldn’t kill you to show a little gratitude.”

She’d done that for me? I shook my head. Have to acknowledge it later. Right now, we needed to focus on escaping. “Look, we need to join forces to find a way out of here.” I threw my weight up again and the chair moved slightly in her direction. “Can you buck up and help or are just going to sit there like dead weight?”

“You ungrateful twit.” Her low voice was laced with venom. Then she threw herself toward me, bringing her chair half an inch my way. “I don’t know why I protected you.”

“Hey, don’t blame me if you can’t look in the mirror.” My chair moved closer to her with a loud squeak and I cringed, hoping Chuck and Bishop hadn’t heard it. I waited a few seconds but didn’t hear footsteps. “My dad’s a psychologist. Any one of his psych books defines your attitude problem by chapter two. Can you say, crying out for attention? I bet you’re hiding a piercing. Probably a tattoo as well. Tell me I’m wrong.”

She straightened, balled her fists, and narrowed her eyes. Then with one giant thrust, her chair was beside mine and she flipped her fingers toward the tape on my wrists trying to work it apart. “You’re such a goody-goody know it all, aren’t you? You with your happy life and perfect grades.”

“How do you know about my GPA?” That threw me a little until I remembered that wasn’t the point. Drew was back and fighting, although maybe I’d prod a little more just for fun. You gotta take the joy where you can when you’re tied up and being held captive. “You’re right, I have a 4.0 and can read minds. Jealous much?”

“Of you? Ha!” She thrashed in her chair and the tape holding her wrists loosened allowing her to move her hands in little circles. “Your life is so boring I almost fell asleep when Lynn told me about it. Not to mention what a whiny freak you acted like after finding out you can read minds. Oooh, like it’s so scary.”

My eyes narrowed. She was back. The Drew I’d first met. I also remembered why I didn’t like her. “Whiny? Me? Hardly.” I curled the tip of my boot up under the tape around her ankle and tried to lift it off.

“Don’t try to deny it, cousin. You’re not the only one with power. I can feel everything you’re feeling.” She looked quite pleased with herself.

Maybe that’s because I’d stopped struggling and my body went into shock mode. “What did you say?”

“That’s right,” she said, pulling her ankle away from the leg of the chair so I could once again work to pry the tape loose. “When you were trying to help the police find Amanda, I could feel it. Your wimpiness. Your hesitation. You wanted to wuss out on reading Aaron Bishop and abandon Amanda, because you were so scared for yourself. Boo-hoo.”

Guilt flooded through me as I secured the pointy part of my boot under the tape and tried to break it off. “Not true.”

“Is so, babe. Can’t lie to me.” She smiled smugly. “Who do you think prodded you along that day in the police station? Lynn and I were sitting outside in the car when Officer Collins and Officer Williams brought you in to read Aaron Bishop’s mind.”

“You were?” I wiggled my toe further up under the tape and I recalled how scared I felt that afternoon before reading Bishop. Hard as it was to admit, I had hesitated and for a moment thought about leaving the station.

“See?” She gave me an ah-ha look. “I’m right.”

Could she feel what I felt right now? Creepy. And totally not fair. I had to touch someone to read their thoughts. I threw my toe upward and the tape stretched but didn’t break.

“So, little Miss Perfect.” Drew thrashed her ankle around and tried to rip the darn tape once and for all. “Who do you suppose talked you into staying that day at the station?”

My body went numb. “Nobody talked me into anything. I decided myself.”

“You’re so in denial. That must be chapter three of your dad’s psych book.” She laughed at her own joke. “In that moment when you were ready to quit, I sent you a mind message.
That’s
what made you stay and read Bishop.”

“Is not,” I said, wiggling my wrists again, trying to remember.

“Still can’t accept it, huh?” She grunted and threw her leg outward, stretching the tape even more. “Think back, babe. You were ready to bolt. I sent you the message that changed your mind. I said
‘you’re the only one who can save her’
.”

Prickles ran up my spine as the words echoed in my head. Drew’s voice. Drew’s words. Nobody else could’ve known that. “That was you?”

She nodded smugly. “And you got some guts, thanks to me.”

Tears welled and I studied my knees a moment. It was hard to admit my moment of weakness. Especially in front of the ever obnoxious Drew. “I thought that was my conscience.”

“You wish.” She arched her butt up in the air, trying to work on the tape around her waist now since her ankles clearly weren’t budging. “You ready to thank me now?”

“No,” I said, able to look up at her again. Her eyes were strong now, tough, but there was also a tinge of softness in them. “Maybe later.”

She gave me a half smile. “Kylie?”

“Yeah?”

“How are we going to get out of here?”

I sighed. It was about time she asked that.

Chapter Fourteen

“All right.” I considered, once again, what Trip would do at a time like this. Start from the beginning and piece everything together. “Let’s see. We’re both tied up and the tape seems pretty much unbreakable.”

“Observant,” Drew said.

I ignored her. “We must be able to use something to our advantage.”

“4.0, huh?” She scoffed. “Do they hand those out at your school? Can’t say your brain skills are all the impressive.”

It clicked. “Brain skills. That’s it!”

Drew sighed. “If you had any.”

“But I do.” First time I felt happy to be pointing this out. “You do, too. I’m a mind reader and you’re a mind . . . messenger, or whatever. What do you call yourself anyway?”

“Don’t put a label on me. That’s so . . . commercial.”

“Whatever.” Why’d she always have to be difficult? “The point is you can send mind messages. You can call for help. The police will come and we’ll be saved.” Relief swept over me. “Bet you’re appreciating that 4.0 brain now.”

Instead of being impressed, her face scrunched up. “Do you really think it’s so simple? Like I can just tap into the phone line and dial 911 with my mind?”

I stared at her blankly as my plan evaporated before my eyes. “I’m guessing no.”

“Bingo.”

She was so not giving me anything to work with. “How do you send mind messages then?”

“Very carefully,” she said, and I assumed I was supposed to be impressed. “Plus, I need to either be touching the person—”

“Me, too.”

She glared at me for interrupting. “Or be holding something of theirs.”

“Huh.” I knew it wasn’t the time or place, but I couldn’t help wondering if I could read minds by holding an object of someone’s. “Wait a minute. You sent
me
a mind message.”

“Oh, great. Here we go.”

I stared at her, wondering how she could’ve done it. “But you weren’t touching me and you didn’t have anything of mine.”

She looked slightly embarrassed. “Actually . . . that’s not true.”

“I think I would’ve noticed if you’d been in the interrogation room with us.”

“No duh, genius. I meant I have something of yours.”

I frowned. “What?”

She peered down in the direction of her wrist and my eyes trailed to where her arm was tied to the chair.

Wrapped around her wrist was my mother’s silver bracelet. “I’ve been looking for that.”

“Now you’ve found it.”

Confused, I stared at her wrist. At the delicate figure-eight shaped links that held the bracelet together. Goosebumps pricked up my arms. Infinity symbols. “Did my dad give that to you?”

“The shrink dad or . . . ?”

My stomach twisted. “I only have one dad.”

“Oh, man. Lynn said your dad kept things from you, but . . . ” Her brows came together as if she sensed this wasn’t the time or place. “I took it from your room while you were at school. You should be thanking me. If I hadn’t been wearing this, I couldn’t have helped you out at the station, in the hospital room, or when you were so confused last night and I told you to go find Lynn. Although, I guess that last one didn’t work out so well.”

My mouth dropped open. “You’ve been sending me mind messages this whole time?”

She gave me a look. “They must grade on a curve at your school.”

I couldn’t believe it. “For your information, those messages made my ears ache.”

“There you go, feeling sorry for yourself again. Look, if you can figure out a way to get us out of here, I’ll give you the darn bracelet back, okay? I can’t send you messages without it. Unless, I’m touching you and believe, me, I have no interest in that.”

I huffed. She knew secrets about my family that I didn’t even know. Focus. Need to get out of here. “Drew, did you steal anything from anyone else?”

“I’m not a thief, okay? I took your lame bracelet because I was trying to help Amanda. You know, our cousin?”

So not my point. “I meant do you have something you can use to send a message to someone else and ask for help?”

She shook her head. “If I did, don’t you think I would’ve used it by now?”

“Okay, let me think.”

Drew and I sat there, staring at each other as precious seconds ticked by. Then she gave me a look. “Is this your idea of brainstorming?”

“Shhh! I’m thinking.” Really I was just wishing Trip were here to help us figure out what to do. He really was a good detective even if he had let me distract him at Lynn’s. “Wait a minute. That’s it.”

Drew gave me a weird look.

“You can send a mind message to Trip. Tell him where we are and he’ll send someone to come rescue us.” Then I cringed, remembering that Trip needed saving himself, thanks to me.

“Slight problem. I don’t know who this Trip is and don’t have anything of his.”

“Trip’s an assistant detective on Amanda’s case. He works with Sam Williams,” I said.

A noise sounded from down the hall that might’ve been a door slamming. My nerves went on alert. We had to hurry before Bishop, Chuck, or even worse, Devin came in here to do whatever it was he brought me here to do.

Drew gave me a curious look. “Why is your first thought to call this assistant detective? And why are you calling him by his first name?”

My cheeks went up in flames. “Is that really important right now?”

She laughed out loud. “You have the hots for a cop on Amanda’s case?”

My cheeks heated. “Just send him a message.”

She wiggled her eyebrows. “Are you two
doing it?
”

I gave her a dirty look. “Can you focus? I have a piece of paper with his phone number in my pocket.” Muffled voices came from the direction of the living room. “Reach your fingers over here and get it. That’ll work, right?”

“It’s not very personal.”

“Does it have to be?”

She sighed. “Depends on how long he held it. I need to feel a connection to him.”

I wondered what kind of connection she’d feel with him and if she’d be able to tell how hurt he was. My body went weak with the visual of Trip being beaten, tied up, and knocked unconscious. But, he had to be all right. He just had to be.

Drew bit her lip and flapped her hand toward my jeans pocket.

I heard another door slam in the house. “Hurry, Drew.”

She fingered my pocket, looking nervous, but then she frowned. “There’s no piece of paper, but there is something metal in here. It feels like it might be . . . keys.”

“Huh?” My keys were in my purse, which I’d left back in Trip’s car.

She tugged with her fingers and something jingled as she pulled it out. “Yep, keys.”

“Those aren’t mine,” I said, and then recognized the key ring. “They’re Lynn’s. She shoved them into my pocket at her house.”

“Great,” Drew said, but her voice was flat. “Lot of good that’s gonna do us.”

Suddenly, my insides glowed. “There’s a switchblade on the keychain. I used it back at the hospital. Now, stop talking and cut us loose.”

Drew looked up at me in momentary shock before she worked the blade out and started cutting the tape on my wrist.

We were saved. I hoped.

****

I cut the last of the silver tape off Drew’s right ankle, then she bolted from the chair. We pushed the bedroom window open as quietly as we could, climbed out into the dark night—or early morning—and started running.

Pumping my legs as hard as I could, I stared at the ground, hoping I wouldn’t trip over a rock or something. There was barely a quarter moon out tonight and it wasn’t lighting the ground very well. I turned to Drew. “How long do you think until they notice we’re gone?”