Three Wishes (2 page)

I took his hand and heat shot through me. Was that a jolt of genie power? I probably shouldn’t have touched him. Hopefully our contact hadn’t set off any alarms at the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E. headquarters. I knew next to nothing about safeguards against genie fraternization.

In a disturbingly deep voice, he murmured, “Give me a chance. Meet me in the backyard after practice. I’ll explain everything.” Then he looked me straight in the eyes and the glow expanded as he said, “It’s life or death.”

I knew I was being a fool to let him distract me, but somehow I couldn’t help it. This guy hadn't risked going to the house of a female genie just to play alternative rock in my brother's band. I couldn't imagine what had brought him here, and I was dying to know. “One chance,” I answered noting that he was even taller than Ian. Then I turned on my heel and left the garage, the snide remarks of Dylan and Austin reaching my ears as I left. Too bad my running shoes made stomping out an impossibility.

Yeah, he’d gotten rid of me all right. I suddenly had much bigger problems than my egotistical brother dicking me over with his band.

If the Oversight Committee caught wind of a male genie coming within one-hundred yards of me, one or both of us could be zapped to the other realm for all eternity. Which was why I’d never seen a male genie.

The Oversight Committee was the entire justice system rolled into one. They were the police, the judges, and the jury. Mom said their workload had increased twenty-fold in the last year.

My brothers weren’t genies. God help us if they had those kind of powers. Neither one of them had ever managed to follow the rules. In my family, the genies ran in the female line and skipped a generation. My grandmother was a genie, and my mother wasn’t. Mom worked for the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E. though, as well as being my mentor. She’d been Grandma’s assistant and quickly worked her way up.

In a family like Leo’s, genies were male. They didn’t skip a generation either. Traditionally, male genies had been volatile, dangerous, and explosive. There was a lot of infighting. A teenage guy with a genie’s powers rebelling against his powerful genie father…Well, you could see how problems arose.

Female genies were supposedly moody and volatile as well. Since I had the red hair and the temper to go with my family’s Scots-Irish descent, I was watched closely. The Oversight Committee was convinced that I was going to be trouble due to my mixed heritage.

If anyone found out that Leo was here, I’d be so screwed. Female and male genies were forbidden from interacting. Too much power in one place, and if they bred, well, no one knew what the result would be.

Mom said male genies exuded sexuality and preyed on that weakness in females. I’d thought she was exaggerating, but now I was not so sure. A raw energy had surrounded the guy in the garage.

Life or death, he’d said. I didn’t necessarily believe it, but I couldn’t be sure. Mom kept a lot from me. Something could be going on that I’d want to know about. Until now, I’d only had Mom and Grandma. The part of me that was frustrated with being protected all the time couldn’t send Leo away without finding out what he wanted to say.

I checked the kitchen clock as I opened the fridge to pull out some orange juice. It was already 5:30, and Mom wouldn’t let them practice past 7:00. I poured a big glass and took a gulp. I could work off some tension on my drums. Luckily they were still in the game room. I hadn’t dragged them out to the garage yet. I’d thought I could talk the guys into helping me carry them, but no point now. Apparently I couldn’t get them to take me seriously at all.

I climbed the stairs to the bonus room over the garage. With a grin, I thought about the guys down below trying to play their music while my drum beats permeated into the space. Their practice was not going to go well.

I’d worked up a sweat by the time the clock on the digital receiver read 7:00. I definitely felt much more mellow. Setting my drumsticks on the table, I took another sip of orange juice.

Well, Leo. Let’s see what you have to say.

I took the stairs two at a time and rushed out the front door. After glancing around to see that the guys were already leaving, I ignored them and walked around the other side of the house to the back yard.

Through the dim landscaping lighting, I saw Leo sitting in our tree house, his legs dangling over the side. He looked much bigger than he had in the garage.

“Make yourself right at home, why don’t you?” I snapped.

He shrugged. “It looked like a good place to talk.”

Ian and I had begged for that tree house for years. Maybe I hadn’t been up there lately but I didn’t like this intrusion. I climbed the rungs of the ladder and crawled through the hatch. Standing in front of this rare creature with arms crossed, I said, “What do you think you’re doing? Why did you show up here? At my house?”

He nodded toward the house. “Your mother isn’t home yet, is she?”

“Any minute now. Why? What do you know about my mother?”

“I know she works for the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E., and I know she’d recognize me for what I am.”

I tapped my foot impatiently. “What are you doing here? What do you want with my mother?”

“Not your mother. You. My dad’s in trouble, and I need your help.” His deep voice made my brother’s seem prepubescent.

“I don’t even know your dad. How could I possibly help?” Not that I wanted to.

“Would you sit down, please? And listen?”

With a grunt, I folded my legs and sat on the wooden slats. “I’m listening.” The cold from the wood immediately permeated my jeans and made me wish I’d grabbed a coat.

Better prepared in his leather jacket, Leo turned to face me. “My father is on trial with the Oversight Committee. In two weeks, he’ll be banished to the other realm for crimes he didn’t commit.”

Banishment to the other realm was irreversible. Leo would never be able to communicate with his father again. From what I knew about the trials, his father didn’t have much chance of being found not guilty. My dad could rant for weeks about the lack of civil rights for genies. “What crimes?”

“The last five people my father granted wishes to have all had their lottery tickets cloned. Half the winnings went to someone else.  So basically, someone stole half of the money.”

I nodded. When people asked for a million bucks, or more frequently, a billion, we delivered winning lottery tickets to them. My mother’s office handled most of the deliveries. In the past we’d used a lot of inheritances or forgotten stock certificates, but with a lottery in every state, we’d started going with the lottery angle.

“You’ve heard about the thefts?” he asked.

“No. Nobody tells me anything.” Mom shared just enough information to allow me to do my job. “Was it only the tickets delivered to his clients?”

Leo nodded. “Just his. And he didn’t do it.”

“He’s your father.” I tugged my sleeves over my hands. The thin sheen of sweat had turned icy. “Would you really admit it if he had stolen the tickets?”

The glow in Leo’s eyes flared with his intensity. “Yes. My father isn’t an angel. But he’s not a thief. He’s been framed.”

God, he was beautiful. I know it was partly that whole genie animal magnetism thing, but he was more than eye candy. He was like soul candy. Just sitting there with him made me feel good. Focus, Jen. Focus.

“Why would anybody frame him?”

“I don’t know. The people who claimed the winnings, the ones with the cloned tickets, all had ties to my father's past. None of them remember claiming the money, and none of them have the money now.”

“How in the world do you think I can help?” I braced myself because he could only be here for one thing—access to my mother’s office.

“I need to know who’s framing my father. I need to find out who had access to the information about those deliveries.”

“I don’t have that information.”

“No.” He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them. “But your mother does. You could slip into her office and tap into those files.”

I stared at him like he was nuts. My mother would see that as the worst sort of betrayal. “You think I’ll do that for a complete stranger? Just because you’re an older, sexy guy?”

A hint of color rose in his cheeks at my inadvertent compliment.

“I don’t even go for the bad boy type.” I’d had a minor crush on Derek, but he just wanted to be a bad boy. Leo was the real deal, from the wrong side of the tracks. Forbidden. And smokin’ hot.

“All I’m asking is that you think about it. Don’t bust me to Ian. Let me hang around and do the Armpit Hostages thing until you’re ready to help.”

“And if I’m never ready?”

He glanced down at his hands. “At least I tried.”

He wouldn’t just let it drop. We both knew it.

“Think about it, Jen. If someone is dirty, your mother could be the next one he targets. Or you. Wouldn’t it be better to know what’s going on?” He paused for a moment to let that sink in. “At least ask your mother who has access. What could that hurt?”

“I don’t know.” I was curious about who was monitoring me. I could probably find a way to ask.

“What are you doing after school tomorrow?” Leo asked.

“Why?” Now, I was starting to shiver from the cold.

“I want to show you something.”

“I’ll think about it,” I said. I may as well let him plead his case. I’d already agreed to let him hang around, and that alone could get me in huge trouble.

“Thanks,” Leo said. Then he stood, and squeezed his large form through the hatch.

I watched him walk to the front of the house and then slipped down the ladder.

I’d never kept anything important from my mother. Helping Leo would be a really bad idea. So why was I thinking about doing it anyway?

Chapter Two

Mom gave me a sharp look when I slipped into my seat at the kitchen table. Both my brothers had already started digging into the chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and cole slaw Mom had picked up on the way home.

Sean, my younger brother, was pretty much a dirt-covered freak obsessed with poop and farts. So far he seemed to be controlling nature’s urges long enough to gnaw on a chicken leg.

“You’re late,” Ian said, around a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

“You’re talking with your mouth full,” I snapped back. Leo had me flustered. I’d never broken any rules before. I grabbed a biscuit and the container of mashed potatoes before the human garbage disposals could hog them.

“Where were you, Jen?” Mom asked, filling her glass with water and ice. “I called and called.”

“Sorry, Mom. I was out back.”

My father leaned back in his chair. “Jen, your brother says you two are having an argument.” He’d hung his blazer on the extra chair like usual, but he still wore his shirt and tie.

“If you mean the backstabbing brother who won’t let me play in his band? Then yes.”

“Dad, it’s a total drag having her around all the time. We found this guy, Leo, and he’s perfect. He fits our image. He rides the sweetest Harley.”

Leo rode a Harley? Now that I thought about it, he did have the bad-boy-in-black-leather look about him what with the five o’clock shadow and, you know, leather.

“Wait just a minute, Ian,” Mom said, “I thought you agreed to give Jen a shot.” Mom shared my coloring and my temper.

“He says I can't be in the band because I'm a chick.”

“You are a chick, and you don't fit our image!”

“I can’t believe the sexist drivel you’re spouting.” Ian was pushing the wrong buttons for my dad, the civil rights attorney.

“Is he a better drummer?” Mom sat down and reached for some chicken. “I highly doubt that he is.”

Thanks for the support, Mom!

Ian just grunted and gnawed on his chicken.

“Your mother and I will have to discuss this, Ian,” my dad said.

“Whatever,” he mumbled through his food.

Ian knew they wouldn’t force him to let me play. And his argument that I would miss practices and shows was unbeatable. I’d have genie duties, and I’d miss out. That’s exactly why I’d never auditioned for any of the drummer positions on RokrGirlz, the Atlanta email loop for female musicians in high school and college. Leo wouldn’t because he wasn’t working for the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E. yet. Not that he intended to keep playing with them.

Ian’s band was my only real chance. Maybe I should help Leo so he’d get lost.

Suddenly, I wasn’t very hungry. I dipped a biscuit in some mashed potatoes and tried to choke it down.

After dinner, I typically spent time on the phone with Alex before I did my homework, but Alex wouldn’t answer my call tonight. So I needed to email an apology and cross my fingers that she bothered to read it. Then I’d do my homework. After that I could try to figure out this situation with Leo.

Whatever was going on with his dad couldn’t be worth risking my future. Could it?

If only Dad hadn’t pounded all those ideas into my head about civil liberties and the harsh inequality of the genie justice system. Dad always told Mom that he wasn't spending his whole life fighting for fairness just to have his daughter live a life with no rights. As a genie, I was bound by genie rules, and the whole innocent-until-proven-guilty thing wasn’t exactly in line with the thinking of the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E. Genies were held to be dangerous and powerful. My great great grandmother had lived her life confined to a bottle. I had freedom, to some extent. But breaking rules or committing crimes would get me banished to the other realm. I’d never see my friends or family again. I wasn’t too clear on what the other realm was like. I just knew it was genie jail, for life.

I logged onto my laptop and signed into my email to touch base with the outside world. Wow. RokrGirlz had fifty posts today. Something big must have happened on the loop.

I opened a post at random.

Saxygirl had written: Jen. What gives? LOL. Breakdown lately?

Huh?

I clicked on another post, hoping for an explanation. What had I done?

DrumMermaid said: Girl. I thought this site was drug free.

Drugs. Breakdown? Me?