Secrets Are For Keeping

Chapter Thirty-Three

"Stole it."

I glared at him, getting annoyed. The way he was acting, like this entire experience was a joke was starting to really grate on my nerves.

"Give it to me."

"Can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't just give things to people without getting something back."

I felt like punching him in the face. But if I ever wanted to get the key and my shoe back, I realized I might actually have to play by his rules. Even if that was the one thing I didn't want to do at the time.

"What do you want?" I asked while crossing my arms.

I only now realized how close he was to my age. He looked like he couldn't be older than seventeen years old, and if he was younger, than why wasn't he in school? Shouldn't he have also been forced into an inspection program just like everyone else?

"What everyone does." When he saw that I didn't immediately understand what he was talking about he continued. "Money."

Well, my hope of making it inside died in less than a second.

I had nothing on me besides the clothes I'd been wearing for the past five days. An unfortunately, that meant I had absolutely no money on me. And if that was the only thing that he actually wanted then there was no way I was going to get the key.

"I don't-," I said honestly.

"I know that."

"Then why'd you even ask?!" I responded, some of my anger coming loose.

"Because it isn't your money I want." He was playing with me, toying with my mind and not giving me any full answers. I wondered if I could actually just take him down and steal both the key and sneaker from his hands.

"Then what do you want?"

"I want you to steal one of the inspector's money instead."

Steal the inspector's money?

As if I wasn't in enough trouble already and possibly was about to be taken away the second I stepped inside.

"How?" I replied, eyes wide in shock that he actually believed his idea was possible.

"Actually, it isn't that hard. I'll give you the key and sneaker, then you have to go inside, find room D679 in the restricted hallway, then just waltz inside and steal it from the desk. The guy always leaves his money in the second drawer down, no locks, nothing to worry about. It'll be easy," he explained, and I was shocked he knew anything at all about it.

I dropped my arms to my sides, wondering if he was lying to me. If he was, I'd be taking a risk for no reason at all. But then again, why would he lie to me? His entire plan had been to force me to go in and get money for him. And what would be the point in telling me to go into a restricted room that didn't have anything he wanted in it? For amusement? I doubted he'd go through all the work of stealing the inspector's keys just to watch me do something idiotic.

"Why don't you just do it yourself?" I asked. He now looked slightly happier as he realized I was closing in on my only option. It couldn't be too hard. Just walk in and walk out right? Plus, I'd already done it before with Pepper when we went to see the laptop in the restricted hallway.

"I'm too lazy," he said, but he was obviously joking. For some reason, his eyes had saddened slightly after his reply, and then immediately went back to his previous look when he saw that I was staring.

"Fine. I'll do it." I held out my palm, face up, open to receive both the keys and the sneakers.

He paused for a second before handing them to me. "I'll be here tomorrow morning at one in the morning."

Then it hit me how much he was trusting me. He was already giving in on his side of the deal without having anything that would ensure that he would get what he wanted from it. I could just go run to the door and leave him alone in the morning air, never to return and complete my side of the bargain. Either he was an awful deal maker or he was just way too trustworthy.

"How do you know I'll come?" I asked, voicing my thoughts even though it was technically unnecessary since they were probably showing up on my Animus as I thought them.

"I don't." He again gave me that sad smile and I didn't know what to say. I turned my head back around to see if Kain was still there sleeping against the wall or if our discussion had woken him up. But no, he was asleep, head leaned in an uncomfortable position with it resting on his own shoulder rather than mine.

When I turned back around to face the blonde haired boy, he was gone.