The Secret (13 page)

He stopped suddenly, waiting for a student to cross in front of him.

I decided I would make him talk to me—right now. Rushing to catch him, I wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling him to me. “Can I come? I’ve missed you.”

Warm hands covered mine and he squeezed my fingers lightly.

Encouraged by this, I held onto him. Maybe he would finally talk to me.

He turned in my arms and I realized it wasn’t Jake. “If I would have known I’d get this kind of reception—I would’ve transferred sooner.”

Trying to pull back from him, green eyes captured me. I couldn’t move. A gentle trace of his cologne flowed through me, smelling of coconut and sun. I breathed in deeply, feeling my head get hazy.

He tightened his hold and gazed into my eyes. Dipping his head forward, his lips touched mine.

It was like I was standing outside of myself. Pixie flowers blossomed around us in shades of white and yellow. My heart beat wildly. Abruptly, the flowers turned blood red and scalding heat burst through me. I yanked away from him—my hand flying to my lips.

Compassion swept over his face. “Your mother.”

“Lanie?”

I turned, seeing Jake standing a few feet away from me. His face held disbelief and his arms dropped, making the books in them fall loudly to the floor.

My chest pounded and I glared at this kissing guy. “How do you know about my mother?”

“You wouldn’t be Delanie Hart—would you?” He crossed his arms and glared at Jake with a curt nod. “Jacob.”

I looked at Jake and saw his jaw tighten. “I thought you had chosen to stay out of the country—forever.”

“Sam!” Marsha ran down the hall at full speed.

“Hey, baby!” He turned, opening up his arms.

I watched her leap into them and they spun in a circle.

Confusion muddled in my mind and I held to the wall behind me to keep my balance.

“I knew you’d come.” Marsha searched his eyes and held tightly to him.

Tilting his head to the side, he smiled. “I could never resist you—could I?” He put her down. “I had to come.”

The second bell rang, but I didn’t move. “How did you know about my mother?”

His green eyes looked sad, but he didn’t say anything.

Marsha’s smile vanished and she smacked him in the shoulder. “I can see you’ve been busy.”

“Who is this?” I demanded.

Putting out her arm in a grand, sweeping gesture, she said, “This is my prom date. Meet Sam, my twin brother.”

I felt myself getting angry. “Why didn’t you say anything about him before?”

Marsha pursed her glossy, pink lips together. “What was it you said? Everyone has secrets?” Dropping her voice, her eyes hardened. “And just because you’re
chosen
doesn’t mean you get my brother, too—got it?”

Episode 14: The Game

“Can I help you?”

Mr. Drake’s wife, Sheila, answered the door. She was wearing a pink bathrobe and had ratty hair.

“Hi—my name is Lanie and this is Jake. We’re in Mr. Drake’s English class. He was out all last week and we wanted to check on him.”

Sheila squinted at me. “You are so sweet. We’ve all had the flu. Right now he’s asleep—can you hear the game blaring? That man—he hasn’t been resting well and says the television drowns out his thoughts. Sorry, I don’t want to wake him. But I’ll let him know you guys came by.”

Jake glanced at me as we walked down the steps. “Feel better?”

Surprised that he’d said anything, I shrugged. “Yes. I just wanted to make sure he hadn’t left town on us or anything.” I got in the car and turned my head to Jake, wanting to explain about the kiss with Sam. “Jake—”

Starting the car, he put his hand up to stop me. “Don’t.”

The warehouse kitchen smelled like fresh, hot rolls. A red tablecloth was spread out and candles were lit in various places around the table and bar. Steaming plates of food draped the table and spilled over to the granite countertop.

“Sorry we’re late.” I looked at Stewart and sat at the table with the others.

Stewart sat next to me. “It’s fine.” He turned to Sam. “And welcome, Sam. I’m sure you’ll be a great addition to the team.”

Marsha popped an olive into her mouth. She bumped Sam’s shoulder. “Stewart has connections.”

Sam put his head down in acknowledgement. “Right—some military genius or something, Marsha says. And let me say how grateful I am that you’re helping—and sorry to hear that you are leaving us tomorrow.”

I tried not to look at Sam, but I could feel the intensity of his gaze on me.

“Oh—Lanie and Rob are like family to me. I want to help. But, yes, I do have to take off in the morning.” He looked at all of us. “But don’t worry. Your friend, Mr. Luth, won’t win this game. I do have connections that may be able to help us in the code-breaking division. But let’s not have this food go to waste. Eat.”

Sam put his napkin down on his lap and sat back, smiling across the table at me. “Yeah—Luth has never been
my
friend. We never seemed to get along.” He shrugged sarcastically. “How did you come to know Lanie and Rob, anyway?”

Steward loaded some asparagus onto his plate. “Oh—I knew their father, Thomas. We grew up in the same neighborhood, went to the same school, and ended up serving in the first Desert Storm together.” He shrugged and looked sad. “Then he went on to become a doctor and I stayed in the military.”

I thought of my father and felt a twinge of grief reach into my heart. But it was different than before—now I knew that he’d come back for me.

Taking a bite, Sam looked up from his plate. “And you didn’t know anything about The Foundation?”

Stewart chewed his food, putting up a finger. Taking a swig of water, he said, “No. He kept that a secret from me. But—I wasn’t that great of a friend to him at the time. I lost my family. My wife and daughter. It was sudden and I couldn’t deal with it.”

“I’m so sorry.” Karen looked up from the plate she was passing to Rob. “I didn’t realize that.”

“Thank you.” Stewart leaned back, staring at me and then Rob. “Rob and Lanie are like my family now. I shut their father—everyone—out. I became consumed with my work and ignored the world. Thomas came out to my lake house every month. We would talk—but I was angry at the world. Lots of times I wouldn’t let him in.” He looked at me. “But I’m so grateful you called me that night. It must have been fate.” He smiled back at Sam. “I want to do something that I know Thomas would have done for my family…if I still had one.”

My heart clenched and I reached out to Stewart, squeezing his hand.

He squeezed it back, seeming embarrassed. “Okay—eat, everyone.”

Letting out his breath, Sam stared at me. “It does look
scrumptious
, Stewart.” 

“Shut your mouth, Turner.” Jake frowned at him.

Sam’s eyes flickered to Jake. He seemed to be deciding if he should respond or not.

Stewart cleared his throat and dished up some rice—passing it to me. “So where have you been living, Sam?”

Tearing his eyes away from Jake’s unspoken challenge, Sam put on a polite smile. “After my parents died, I decided to go live out a peasant’s life in France. Live off the land, that type of thing. I’ve been working at a vineyard for the past year.”

Reed burst out laughing. “Oh give it up, Sam. You were kicked out before we were. And you had your powers.”

Sam didn’t respond, staring at his food.

Marsha hit Reed in the arm. “Shut up.”

Reed gulped another bite. “You should’ve thought of my loyalties before you ditched me for prom.”

I didn’t want to ask—but I had to know. “What can you do, Sam?”

“He exploits people—that’s what he does.” Jake spit the words out like they were overly salty.

A smirk peeked at the sides of Sam’s lips. “Jealous? You always prided yourself on reading people—too bad you were never any good at it.”

Jake didn’t move. “I never
took
information. I helped people.”

Stuffing a roll into his mouth, Reed turned to me, shuddering. “Sam can touch your face and see your fears—it’s freaky.”

I threw my hands in the air. “Is that why you kissed me—so you could read me?”

Everyone seemed to stop for a second. I felt my face grow hot.

Sam flashed his green eyes wide in surprise. Then a serious tone washed over his face. “No.”

I heard Jake’s ragged breathing beside me.

Marsha shot daggers at Reed with her eyes. “It’s not freaky.”

Reed looked helpless—his mouth stuffed. “Is too.”

Sam put a hand on Marsha’s forearm. “It’s okay.” He turned back to me. “I didn’t kiss you because I wanted to know anything about you.” A mischievous glint came into his eyes. He looked at Jake for a second and then back to me. “
You
kissed
me
.”

My pulse quickened. “I did
not
.”

Jake froze, looking down at his plate.

Sam cocked an eyebrow. “O—kay.”

Embarrassment fell through me in waves of deep brown and a dark, red crimson. I had
not
kissed him.

Rob interjected. “What?”

Waving his hand in the air, Sam motioned for Rob to let the subject drop. “Nothing.”

Jake turned his head to the side, searching my face.

I met his gaze, feeling guilty. “I was looking for
you
,” I blurted.

Reed shook his head. “Man, you can’t write better stuff than this.”

Stewart cleared his throat. “This is all interesting, but let’s talk about your plans for the immediate future.”

“We’re leaving.” Marsha’s eyes were certain. “After prom, if we haven’t been able to figure out how to activate my powers, Sam and I have talked about it—we’re going to go to The Foundation, get Alana, and go…somewhere.”

Reed swallowed loudly. “No—you’re not. We’re not splitting up, Marsha.”

Stewart put his hands up to stop an eruption. “Simmer down.” He looked at me. “I think Mr. Drake is the key to helping you all activate your powers.”

“He’s still sick,” I said.

Nodding, Stewart rubbed his beard thoughtfully. “Well, I have a suggestion—but I want Rob to explain what he’s discovered.”

Rob picked up his iPad. “I know we’ve talked about this—you know that the book is in basic Latin.”

“Yeah—why can’t you just read it?” Reed leaned forward.

Stewart pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “Good question. In military code deciphering we run into this type of thing a lot. You see—all that the text really tells us is how to start the transformation. But—after that—it’s protected by a language within a language.”

I tried to focus on Stewart, still reeling from Sam’s accusation that I had been the one to kiss him.

Holding up the iPad, Rob turned it around, pointing to the screen. “You see—this table shows what a normal text looks like.” He scrolled down. “And this one shows what a text that’s been encoded looks like. Do you see the discrepancy?”

None of us offered a yes or a no.

Karen looked tentatively at Rob and cut in. “You have to compare a constant with an oddball. And that’s what Rob did. He found that it created a looping factor. And now we can compare the two texts.”

“English—speak English, people,” Reed barked.

Stewart pointed to the iPad. “Look—this is basically charting a rhythm.  Every language has a rhythm, a cadence. Thus, meaning can be detected from how something is said. Much like you kids might be saying one thing to each other—but you’re meaning the opposite.”

Jake leaned back in his seat, glowering at Sam. “Nope—pretty sure most of the time I mean what I say.”

Stewart shook his head, ignoring the comment. “Well—this leads to my proposition.” He smiled and hesitated, looking at each one of us. “I would like to take the book with me back to Washington. And I want you all to come with me, too. You could all stay at my condo. I think it would be safer there.”

Reed shook his head. “We need our powers. We need to work with Mr. Drake.”

Stewart shrugged. “He could also come with us.”

“He won’t,” I said, thinking of Mr. Drake’s pretty wife.

There was a noise on the gravel road and Jake stood. “Who’s here?”

Everyone got up from the table and walked to the window.