Making the Grade (The Model Spy #2)

Chapter 21 - Off to London

"Zach!"

I whipped around. His voice was so clear, much clearer than the voices I had heard before. He could have been in the room with me. He could have been right behind me, smirking. Or he could have been crouched under the desk, waiting for me to finally notice him.

"Zach?"

Silence.

If the words hadn't sounded exactly like something Zach would say, I wouldn't have believed it. It was very, very possible that I could have been imagining everything in some anxiety-riddled hallucination. But the voice was definitely Zach's. Finally, everything started coming together, fitting piece by piece. At least this was one mystery I no longer had to worry about.

All this time, it had been Zach. It was him that told me about the phone in Jayden's pocket. It was him who helped Max save my life in the fire. It was Zach who sent the video to Fred. It was Zach who had locked Max out of his own computer. I brought my fingers to my lips and felt a warm blush inch its way across my cheeks. He had changed the password after Max had kissed me.

Zach had been watching me, listening to me, helping me. He was risking everything, the only job he had ever known, the only life he had ever known. He was breaking all of the rules, for Fred, for Max, and for me. For the same girl he could barely talk to and look at only a year ago, the one he swore he would never become friends with.

My knees were weak, my head was spinning. I smiled, despite the fact that Jayden and the rest were probably well on their way out of the country, despite the fact that it was nearly Tuesday morning and Saturday, the day Pillington threatened to kick us off of the case, was only a few days away. Suddenly, everything seemed possible. We would catch Jayden and Haylee. They weren't going to get away.

If Zach had been in the room with me at that very moment, I would have kissed him.

I took a good look at the door, narrowing my eyes, studying the best angle from which to kick it down. I backed up and took a running start. Using all of my strength, I flung out my foot. The ancient, wooden door splintered and flew from its rusted hinges.

"Yes!" I gasped as I tumbled from the room. "Ow, ow, ow." I stumbled in my heels and tried bracing the fall with my broken hand. My glamorous Charlie's Angels-esque escape may have been hindered, but my determination could not be crushed.

I blew my hair from my face. He may have been done talking to me for now, but he was still listening. "Thanks Zach."

I began to run through the empty halls of Marble Manor. "When all of this is over," I continued, "I owe you one."

The mood in Cheshire Hall had drastically changed during my absence. While some students still lingered in the dining hall, the noise and commotion had ceased. Most of the students had locked themselves away in their dorms.

"I already called my dad. He is meeting me at the station tomorrow morning," I heard a boy say to his friend as they tossed a bag of garbage outside of their door.

A couple sat together on the floor in the corridor. "This is my home," the girl cried into her boyfriend's shoulder.

The talk of tomorrow morning's plans continued as I opened the door to Max's room.

"Yes, I'm fine." Millie was speaking into her cell phone. Max was sitting on the floor, packing Millie's books into a suitcase. He had paused to page through a novel about werewolves and frowned. When I closed the door behind me, he lifted his head.

"Laura! What did you find out?"

"What we always knew." I showed him my bruised and broken hand. "A little help here, Dr. Spencer?"