Shattered Secrets (Book of Red #1) (29 page)

“It’s not like that.” Megan picked up shells and tossed them into the rolling surf. “I just wish I knew how to be more like Abby. Every guy at school turns when she walks by, and she doesn’t have a clue. She’s simple and sweet and perfect. I don’t hate her. I know I love her just as much as her boyfriend does, maybe more. I don’t mind admitting that, either; I’m cool with my sexuality.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Have you talked to her?”

“No. Sometimes I feel like two people. I go on these expensive vacations with Will and his family every holiday season and summer, and I love it because I’m near him and he’s amazing when we’re not around Abby. But we’re also around all these rich jerks, and… I’m not around Abby. And then, when we’re in Virginia and pretending we’re middle class, everything’s different. I don’t even know what I’m talking about anymore. My head’s pounding.” Megan sighed. “Tell me about your life. Get my mind off my stupidity.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I have guy issues.”

“You do
not
have issues with Derick.” Megan leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her shins, staring out at the crystal-clear waters of Longboat Key. “He adores you.”

“That’s just the problem: he adores me.”

“How, exactly, is that a problem?”

“I’m keeping something from him.”

“Do tell,” she said, turning to face me, crossing her legs as if we were sitting on my bed and sharing juicy gossip.

Things were so different now.

“I can’t tell you. I can’t tell
him
. This is the bigger problem.” I swirled my finger on the wet sand, leaving foreign-yet-familiar star-shaped patterns behind—the Guardian’s symbol. “I wish I could run in there and tell him everything, but I’ve been warned not to tell anyone.”

Megan narrowed her blue eyes and moved closer to me. “This doesn’t have anything to do with, you know, your kidnapping. We never got to talk about it before you ran off.”

My pulse raced. Ran off from Virginia, or ran off from Will’s?

From Will’s. Had to be.

I jabbed my finger in the middle of the design. “Sort of.”

“I think you need to tell him. If you love someone, if you
truly
love someone, you’d be willing to share everything with that person, no matter what.”

“Easier said than done.” What if the Guardians kept their secret because their creator told them to?

“I know”—she pointed at Will’s phone—“I’ve avoided telling Will the truth for a while now.”

She did exactly what I always said I wouldn’t when it came to being honest with how I felt about someone.

And I acted no better than Derick did when his ability scared him.

I spun the device around in my hand, breathing in through my nose, trying to control my emotions.

“Did they do something to you? Whatever it is, whatever they threatened you with, you have to tell him, Abs.”

Why did she just call me by my nickname?
“I—”

“Hell, babe, you have to go home and tell the police.”

Holy shit.
Abs
.
Babe
. I grabbed Megan’s hand and held it, squeezed. “You recognize me?”

“Of course I do.” Megan squeezed back. “Not sure why I couldn’t yesterday, or a few minutes ago. I’ve felt drugged, like my mind was in some kind of weird fog or I was dreaming.”

The Safe Zone
. I glanced back at the condo and jumped to my feet. “I have to go.”

“Wait.” Megan grabbed hold of me and pulled me back down. “I thought you were dead, Abby. Just stay here and talk to me for a minute.”

I have to tell Derick.

“You don’t understand, Megan.”

“Explain it to me, then. What made you guys choose Longboat?”

Will’s phone buzzed, and BEACH HOUSE flashed across the screen.

“Are you going to answer it?” she asked.

I nodded and pushed the TALK button. “Hello?”

“
Run
,” Will said, breathing heavily into the receiver.

“Why?” Glancing back at my condo, I noticed footprints rushing toward us without a body attached.

Megan followed my gaze and shrieked, stumbling to her feet. She grabbed my hand and yanked me the other direction. “What the hell?”

“Run, Abigail.” Derick’s voice wrapped around my heart like a vice, squeezing the warmth right out of me and paralyzing me with fear. He appeared for a glimmer of a second, revealing blood and cuts all over his face and chest and arms and— “Run, now!”

A gunshot rang out, and we ran, Megan screaming like a maniac, the phone still up to my ear, Derick’s hand pressed at my lower back, urging me forward.

“Because my father discovered who you are,” Will whispered.

hat do you mean he discovered who we are?” I stopped in the middle of the beach, carelessness taking over my senses.

Megan kept running, wailing at the top of her lungs, her blonde locks whipping through the salty ocean air.

“We have to go.” Derick glanced from me to Megan, his eyes wide and surrounded by swollen red skin, then he looked behind me. “Her screaming is going to get us killed.”

I glared, hoping he realized Megan was
not
to blame, and pressed the cell phone closer to my ear. “Will, answer me before we get shot.”

“Derick’s parents gave that condo to my dad years ago, like when I was twelve. They told him one day two kids would show up and need his help. Why Derick’s parents trusted
my
dad, I have no idea. Anyway, they must have crossed him recently, because he did some research and stumbled across a man who had information about you.”

“
Boredas or Ruckus
.” Who else could it be?

Derick grabbed my arm and yanked me forward, forcing me to move. “They’re catching up. Make it quick, Abby.”

“I don’t know his name, but according to these files he left on the counter this morning, whoever it was said he’d reward my dad if he returned you… or your bodies.”

A shell cut into the bottom of my bare foot and I stumbled forward, my heart hammering. “Our bodies?”

“Good old Carl Banaan is not opposed to earning blood money, Abby”

Half a million in blood money.
The dream I had of Ruckus and Boredas talking, trying to separate me from Derick—it really was a premonition. For whatever reason, I remained calm. A couple humans chasing after me didn’t freak me out nearly as much as the thought of my otherworldly kidnappers, but this time I had more than myself to worry about. “Will, Megan’s with us.”

Silence.

Another gunshot sounded; Derick and I ducked but kept sprinting as fast as we could. My knees ached and wobbled and I nearly toppled face first into the sand, but he held me up, kept me safe.

“
Where are the cops
?” I wondered aloud, gasping for air.

“My dad probably paid them off before he came over,” Will said. “Listen, can you get to your car?”

I glanced at Derick and cringed at his lips pressed together, his bloody, cut up lips, then said, “Yes. Derick can get us back to our car.”

“Meet me at the park by Mote Marine. Megan knows where it’s at.”

My foot burned like hell, but I couldn’t stop running. Moving forward would keep us alive. Hopefully. If the last thing I did was keep Megan safe, at least I’d be doing what Guardians were meant to do: protect humans. “See you soon.”

“Be careful.”

“Megan,” I yelled, pushing the END call button and then pocketing the phone. “Stop running.”

She turned and screamed, pointing in our direction, clearly—and reasonably—freaked out by our pursuers, but she waited.

I took hold of her hand, then checked over my shoulder; the secret service rejects barreled toward us, their faces hard masks of killer determination. “Derick, can you make the three of us invisible long enough to get to our car?”

“I-invisible?” Megan trembled like someone going into seizures, but I tried not to stare and instead squeezed her fingers, hoping my touch would somehow soothe her.

Though, I doubted that would work.

“I don’t have the keys.”

We’re going to die. “I didn’t even—”

“We’ll have to go back inside the condo—all of us. I’m not leaving you alone.”

I nodded and glanced over my shoulder again; the men were about ten feet away from us, but they were no longer running.

“Where’d they go?” Agent Number One shouted, spinning in circles, the foamy surf rolling over his shiny, black shoes.

Megan blanched. “Why can’t they see us? They’re right there, close enough to—”

“Shh.” They stood close enough to hear us if Derick’s invisibility didn’t also cloak our voices. Reaching up on my tiptoes, I put my mouth by his ear and whispered, “How will we hide our footprints?”

Derick leaned into me, then whispered, “Just run, and don’t look back.”

We took off toward the condo, holding hands, our feet kicking up sand. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead, my skin screamed at me to dunk my foot under water, and Megan looked ready to hurl at any moment, patches of white hiding her tan cheeks. Running on the trail by the pool surrounded by screaming families huddled together, we passed through someone’s abandoned game of shuffleboard and then squeezed along the side of the building near a small grove of tropical trees.

“I changed my mind. Stay here,” Derick said, backing out of our hiding spot. “I’ll go in and grab the keys. If I’m not back in five minutes, find another place to hide, then call Will and have him pick you up.”

“Derick, wait.” Lunging forward, I grabbed his hand. I couldn’t let him go, not without a ‘good luck’ or a ‘be safe’ or something. Who knew if he’d make it back? Who knew if we’d see each other again? We fought, and I was… “I’m sorry.”

He kissed me, his lips pressed thin and barely brushing mine, his hands forcefully pulling me against him, enough so that I felt the tension in his muscles, the fear—the side of Derick I didn’t know. “Me, too.”

I chewed my lip, watching him disappear. Something else bothered me, grating on my nerves, on my emotions, something we were forgetting, but I let him go. We didn’t have time to worry.

We only had time to move.

“A-Abby?” Megan whispered, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. “Am I losing my mind? Is any of this real? How did Derick… how did he… did he
disappear
? Why are Will’s dad’s bodyguards shooting at us? What’s going on?”

“We’re not from here, Megan.”

Her light blue eyes widened as though she understood we weren’t human, then narrowed to slits, diminishing some of her innocent beauty, changing a part of her, probably forever. No one could ever return to normal after this. For Derick and I to act so selfish as to think we could escape here, be happy and free, then return to normal just showed how naïve we were.

“What do you mean?”

“I think it’s best if we leave it at that, okay?” Checking all around us for said bodyguards, I took a seat next to Megan and then wrapped my arms around her shoulders. “And apparently one of the men who kidnapped me got in touch with Will’s dad and offered him money for me and Derick.”

She nodded, tears streaming down her face. This information obviously didn’t come as a shock to her, and come to think of it, after meeting Carl—assuming the creep I’d met earlier was Mr. Banaan—I understood why. Thankfully,
actual
shock—or my warning—prevented Megan from asking why anyone would go through such great lengths to kidnap me…
twice
.