Blindsided Page 4

  “I hate to admit you’re right, but there’s no other reason for all these people to show up here. Which means if they find what they’re looking for…” Seth pinches the bridge of his nose, the pain clear on his face.

  “Rest.” I kiss his forehead. “You shouldn’t have spied on my interview.”

  “I was—”

  “Worried, I know. You need to stop. It’s annoying.” I rub his head until he dozes off. He’ll feel better after a break from seeing. Then I pull out my phone and call Miles.

  He picks up immediately this time. “Fiona! What’s up?”

  “Nothing good, I’m afraid.” I sneak out of my room so I don’t wake Seth, and tiptoe down to the kitchen to grab some Pop Tarts. “Juan’s right-hand man is in town, plus the Army just set up camp at my school and interrogated every student.”

  There’s a pause. “I’m waiting for the punch line.”

  “There isn’t one. Didn’t Graham tell you I called the other day?”

  “Yeah, but I thought you were just being paranoid. Did you actually see The Phantom this time?”

  I roll my eyes. “I saw a bullet pass right through him, and then he walked through a fence and threatened me. Oh, and the Army Major asked me about the factory and Radiasure, which I’m pretty sure means they’re all here in the quest to make it again.”

  “Well crap,” he says too matter-of-factly.

  “It can’t happen, Miles. You know that as well as I do.” This world is bad enough with a limited supply of Radiasure—people overdose, they die from their mutations, they kill to get more. The idea of unlimited access to the drug is more terrifying than anything I can think of.

  “What are you saying? You’re gonna stop them from finding it?”

  “I don’t know…” Part of me wants to say I’ll stop them no matter what. But it’s a huge risk, and I’m not sure I have to jump in that far. I’m finally out of that crime mess—do I really want to risk going back? “Right now I’m more concerned about how much they suspect us of knowing things. They grilled the whole Pack today, which puts all my friends at risk. I want to cover my tracks so they’ll leave us alone.”

  “Fair enough. What do you need me to do?” Miles says.

  My smile is so big my cheeks hurt. I can always count on him. “I need you to get in contact with Spud. She can tell us for sure how much the Army or Juan suspect us.”

  He’s so quiet I wonder if the line went dead, but then he says, “Yeah, uh, that might be hard to do.”

  Chapter 7

  There’s no way I could have heard him right. Spud is the best hacker in the world—she even hacked into my dad’s iron-clad network to find the real Radiasure formula rumors in the first place. Plus, Miles has made it pretty clear he’s dating her. It’s not like it’d be difficult to ask her. “What’s so hard about it? I bet she could find out in less than a day.”

  Miles clears his throat. “It’s not that she couldn’t do it. She just happens to be busy with a really important job right now is all. I don’t think she has time.”

  “What kind of job?”

  “You know I can’t tell you that.”

  I frown. It was worth a shot. “Couldn’t you just ask?”

  There’s a long pause, and I get the sense he doesn’t want to. “Look, I’ll ask, okay? But don’t get your hopes up too high. She’s under a ton of stress as it is, and I hate burdening her more than necessary. She’s already in so much danger.”

  It’s hard to believe what I’m hearing, and yet I know the kind of pain in Miles’ voice. You only sound like that when you’re worried about someone you care about. I thought his relationship with Spud was like all his others: casual, physical, for fun. Now I’m pretty sure I was wrong. “You’re in love with her.”

  “Fi…”

  He doesn’t need to say more. I sit on a kitchen stool, an unexpected flood of emotions hitting me. My brother is in a real relationship. With the most infamous hacker alive. He knows enough about her to be in love. Miles has always been mine—in a big brother way, but still. Now he has someone else to think about, to worry over, to care for. Tears prick at my eyes. “So she’s more important than me now?”

  “Hey, you know that’s not true,” Miles says softly. “She just…yeah, you’re right, she means the world to me. I stress about her safety all the time, especially because I have no way to protect her.”

  I’m not stupid—Spud is on everyone’s list. If she ever got caught, she’d be locked up or tortured or dead, probably all three. “This is weird.”

  Miles laughs. “It is, isn’t it? Never saw it coming, and yet here I am in a long-term, long-distance relationship. And I wouldn’t trade her for anything.”

  “Oh, gag me,” I say, though I think I can accept this once I get used to it. “Well, I guess all I can do is be glad you can put in a good word for me. Tell me if you hear anything from her?”

  “Sure. And, Fiona?”

  “What?”

  “Please don’t do anything impulsive until I do hear back from her. I can tell you’re freaking out—you don’t think things through when you panic.”

  I let out an indignant squeak. “That’s not true!”

  “Do I need to remind you of how you just had to go to the factory to see if Graham was telling the truth despite Spud saying he was?”

  I pout, the guilt over that still strong. “Shut up.”

  “Whatever. Just promise me.”

  “Sure. I won’t do anything stupid. Bye.” I hang up before I can hear his answer, because I have a feeling he can pick up on my plans even over the phone. If I have to wait forever to hear from Spud, I have to do something in the meantime. It’s not like the Army or Juan’s men will pause their plans while Spud is busy.

  “What’s with the nasty glare?” Seth stands in the doorway, looking groggy and therefore adorable. “And what are you doing that’s not stupid?”

  Crap, how much did he hear? “Nothing.”

  His eyes narrow as he comes closer. “You’d be horrible at lying if people could see you.”

  “Whatever.” Someday I’ll learn to trick him, but today is not that day. So I smile as I walk over to him, and then I kiss him in a way I hope will make him drop it. He pulls me closer, and before I know it we’re fooling around on the couch. We haven’t gone all the way yet, though it’s times like this I think it would be easy.

  Then I open my eyes.

  Minus the places my dress still covers, Seth appears to be floating a few inches off the couch. He kisses me just above my bra. It feels amazing, but to my eyes it looks like he’s making out with air. And there’s something extremely odd about watching him enjoy skin I can’t see.

  “We better stop.” I push him back and do my best to hide my discomfort.

  He still seems to pick up on it, though we’ve never talked about why I always stop him right before things get too intense. “Yeah, you’re right.”

  Seth sits next to me, but there’s a distance I can’t explain. It makes me wonder if I’ve hurt his feelings, or if he thinks he hurt mine. I turn on the TV to drown out the silence.

  “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about what you said on the phone,” he says after we’ve both cooled off.

  I cringe. “You’ll just get mad at me.”

  “Psh.” He puts his arm around me, and all seems well again. “Of course I’ll get mad at you—that’s what we do, Fi.”

  I try not to smile, but it’s true. We still argue about plenty of things. It doesn’t seem to stop us from being crazy about each other. “How about we make a deal? If I’m going to get yelled at, I want something in return.”

  He rolls his eyes. “Fine, what do you want?”

  Since I’d rather not tell him, I pick the one thing he hates more than anything. “You have to draw me.”

  “Fionaaaa,” he whines.

  “Deal or not?” I’m pretty sure he won’t take it. Every time I convince him to draw it ends up with me complaining about how bad he is at
it. Why couldn’t the one person who can see me be an artist instead of a math freak?

  “Why do you make me do this all the time?”

  “Because…” My body wilts, and I lean into him for support. I always thought being seen would be enough, but now I want more. I want to see. I want to know. I feel so close to having details about myself I never dreamed of having—and yet so far away because I will never see myself. “I need to see what you see, so I can imagine what we look like together.”

  The bump in Seth’s throat bobs, and he squeezes my shoulder. “Fine, it’s a deal.”

  “I’ll get paper!” Jumping up, I grab a notebook and pencils from my backpack and am back in seconds. I shove them into Seth’s lap and sit facing him. “I was talking with Miles about all the people showing up here to make Radiasure and then suspecting us of knowing too much. I think we should cover our tracks.”

  Seth makes a big scratch across the paper, and then he looks me right in the eye. Angry, of course. “You can’t avoid trouble for more than a few months, can you?”

  I frown. “C’mon, look how close it was for you today. What if they find our trails out there in places they don’t think we should be? What if they find our prints at the factory or something we left by accident? They’ll keep coming at us until they get what they think we have.”

  “Maybe…” He starts on a fresh page, making a clumsy attempt at a head. I almost want to ask if my skull is really that lumpy, but he’ll just glare at me. He looks at my face again, then back to the page. “I mean, we don’t have any real information for them, do we? I’ve never seen anything at the factory but twisted metal…though maybe some of that metal had traces of Radiasure. Who knows?”

  I nod, thinking. “When Miles told me about the real formula, he said the public version was missing a top secret element. Whatever that is, any evidence would be at the factory, and if we saw it…even by accident…these people don’t strike me as the type who’d let witnesses go.”

  Seth works on my eyes, which already seem too big for the head he drew. “I hate that you’re probably right, but it’d be seriously dangerous even to hide our tracks.”

  “I know. Major Norton told me not to go out there anymore, like that wasn’t gonna make me curious.”

  He snorts. “He told me that, too. I don’t think he’s the smartest guy around.”

  “Clearly.”

  “Let’s talk to The Pack about it. If they’re in, we’ll have enough people to cover our butts.”

  I purse my lips, thinking. “I’d rather not put them at risk, though.”

  “We’re all at—” Seth drops the pencil, and his eyes fill with terror. I turn to see what has him so freaked out and gasp. It’s like a nightmare, but this is all too real. The Phantom stands in my living room, seeming pleased with our surprise.

  Chapter 8

  The Phantom looks around before his eyes fall on me. “Is your mother not home yet?”

  As scared as I am, I somehow find the strength to stand. “Why do you want to know?”

  His laugh is quiet as he pulls a glowing blue pill from his pocket. He swallows the Radiasure dry, and I wonder if he took it just to intimidate me. “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “How about you go back out and knock like a decent human being?” I put my hands on my hips. “Then I’ll answer my door and your question.”

  “Fiona,” Seth hisses.

  “Your boyfriend seems properly afraid of me.” The Phantom comes closer, his chin tipped up in a challenging gesture. “Why not you?”

  I don’t have an answer that is more sophisticated than “instinct kicking in.” Every day of my life I’ve lived with fear—if I always gave into it I’d be nothing but a puddle of whimpering and shaking. “It’s not exactly the first time I’ve met someone with a terrifying ability who pops Radiasure like it’s nothing, is it?”

  “This is true.” Another step closer, to the point that he’s almost in my personal bubble. “Speaking of extraordinary abilities, I’ll only ask one more time: Where’s your mother?”

  “I’m not telling.”

  “We’ll see about that.” Before I can react, The Phantom charges for me. I brace myself to be tackled, but instead am met with a cold sensation that makes my whole body shudder. That’s when I realize he’s walking right through me, and I let out an involuntary scream.

  By the time I recover and turn around, The Phantom has a knife to Seth’s throat. I can’t breathe, can’t think, knowing how easy it would be for him to slice my boyfriend’s neck right open. “This boy seems to hang out with you a lot. I could get rid of him if you want.”

  I force down the lump in my throat. There’s no other choice now. “Let him go. I’ll take you to her.”

  “That’s better.” The Phantom lowers his knife and points toward the door. “Shall we?”

  “Yes.” I hold out my hand to Seth. “Can I borrow your keys?”

  Seth gives me the “you’re crazy” look, but he gives them to me anyway. “You’ll be back, right?”

  “As long as she listens well,” The Phantom says. We go outside and get in Seth’s black truck. My skin crawls being so close to Juan’s most prized henchman, the feeling of him walking through me still too fresh in my mind.

  I try to focus on driving, on the heat rippling the horizon and the deep blue of the late afternoon sky. Madison is still as small and boring as ever, but the stucco houses and rocky yards we pass have become a sign of home. As we hit Main Street, where the old diner, dry cleaners, bar, and other stores seem to be stuck in the seventies, a strange sense of responsibility comes over me.

  This is my town.

  No one touches my town.

  My eyes go wide as I realize I sound just like my dad. Is this how it starts? People threaten the stuff you care about, and you go to whatever lengths necessary to keep it safe. As I pull into the bowling alley parking lot, I shake it off. It’s not the same thing—I’m only trying to stay out of harm’s way. And kind of failing so far.

  The Superbowl looks like a disco inside, with nonstop flashing lights and loud, party music. I suppose the owners think this will make bowling seem less lame, but everyone knows it doesn’t work. Lucky for them, it’s the only entertaining place in town minus the pool. I’d go more often if The Pack wasn’t banned.

  “She should be around here somewhere,” I say, scanning the shoe rental, snack bar, and small arcade section. Really hope she didn’t ditch out like a few days ago.

  “Lauren McClean, working here…” The Phantom clucks his tongue. I can’t disagree with him. Mom, even as a non-criminal, is talented and smart and not exactly bowling alley material. “Such a shame.”

  “Better honest money than illegal.” I walk down the main pathway, looking at each group of people in hope of finding her. People gape back at us, seeming horrified to see me with one of Juan’s tattooed men. I can hear the rumors now. Just when people were starting to be nice to me.

  “Are you having trouble finding her?” The Phantom says when we reach the middle lanes. “Please don’t tell me this is a diversion—she hides now, you disappear at the first chance. This would make me very unhappy.”

  I gulp, thinking of how quickly he went for his knife before. “No, that’s not it at all.”

  “Better convince me.” The Phantom’s voice has lost all playfulness. He’s getting tired of batting at his prey, and I don’t want to know what happens then.

  There’s only one place left to check. “She’s probably in the break room.”

  I head that way as everyone else packs up and starts to leave. No one told them to get out of here, and yet it’s like they know not to be anywhere near Juan’s people if they can help it. When I open the door, Mom’s sitting at a round table with her phone in hand. She smiles when she sees me.

  “Fiona! I didn’t know you’d be vi—” The moment Mom sees The Phantom come in, shock hits her face. Once it washes off, she pulls me behind her and glares at him. “How dare y
ou use her to get to me.”

  He raises an eyebrow. “I just want to discuss certain matters with you and your daughter. It’s not my fault you made it so difficult to locate you. I had to follow your little girl instead.”

  My face goes red. “That’s why you were at the school?”

  “Of course.” He sits at the flimsy card table and motions for us to do the same. “Let’s talk, ladies. That’s all I’m asking.”

  Mom takes her seat again, looking like she has no idea what’s going on. I sit next to her, nervous and curious myself. “You wanna talk?” Mom says. “Fine. Talk.”

  “I will make this very simple, Lauren,” The Phantom says. “Juan’s been watching you for a couple months now, so don’t think he doesn’t know why you’re here.”

  “And why is that?” Mom asks without a hint of anything but indifference. I, on the other hand, am kind of disturbed about the idea of Juan keeping tabs on us for that long. But maybe I should consider us lucky that he didn’t pick up on it sooner.

  The Phantom’s eyes narrow. “You know why.”

  Mom shrugs. “Do I?”

  I don’t think he can tell, but it’s clear to me that Mom’s baiting for information. Because obviously we don’t know what he’s thinking about us living here, but I get the sense it’s different from the truth.

  “Let’s not play games. Every syndicate has this information, thanks to an assassination in China that has you O’Connells written all over it.”

  I stifle a gasp. So Dad really went through with his mission to find the real Radiasure formula. Who did he send instead? Maybe I don’t want to know, because they’re probably dead. I hope they are, because it’d be worse if they were captured by another syndicate.

  Mom raises an eyebrow, seeming just as surprised by this information as I am. “Looks like you do know everything.”

  “Yup,” I add, because this works in our favor—obviously Juan doesn’t know we’re not working for Dad anymore. They must think we’re here to make Radiasure just like they are.