***This chapter is dedicated to Solecism for the awesome review of Beautiful Heist! Thanks again!***
Chapter 4
You’ve Got Some Serious Explaining To Do, Mister
I was in a daze as I reached up to place my hand in John’s, still staring at him like I thought he was going to disappear at any moment. The stinging of my face was what told me that I wasn’t dreaming or hallucinating or anything like that. And another thing that told me all of this was real? I probably wouldn’t have been having that fuzzy, warm feeling spread through my chest and stomach as John helped me stand.
“You don’t have to save me all the time, you know,” I murmured, brushing myself off with one hand while keeping hold of his with the other. I swallowed hard, peeking up at him through my lashes. Since when did I become shy around him?
Oh, that’s right. The last time I saw him.
When he told me he loved me.
I was staring at his mouth, which was still curved up into a half smile.
“Seriously, what are you doing here?”
“Besides coming to get you before the Knights do? It’s time.”
It’s time…What did he…?
Forget the shyness. I was staring wide-eyed now. “You mean you guys found the first scroll? I get to come back?”
John nodded, wrapping his arm around my waist to pull me up against him. “Yeah, we found it and you get to come back. We made a deal, didn’t we? Besides, Elena’s been pestering me about just giving in before we found it and coming to get you. Especially after those texts and calls…”
My cheeks flamed as I looked down at the collar of his button-up shirt, my mind going over all of those texts and calls he was talking about. So he was getting them…and hearing and reading my loneliness and longing in every one.
He laughed, leaning down to press his forehead against mine. I couldn’t help but look straight into his eyes, not when I could feel him staring straight at me.
“You were never alone, Em. Someone was always there watching you. No one would have let anything happen to you with the Knights practically dozens of feet away from you every day,” he said, tightening his hold on my waist. “But now no one’s going to have to be watching out for you in the shadows. You’ll be with me.”
His smile softened as he pulled back just a hair, looking down at my mouth. I knew what he was going to do before he started leaning forward again, his breath brushing softly across my face.
“Alright, you two. We’ve got no time for that right now.”
I jumped and peeked over John’s shoulder to see Stella and Ren standing there. Stella was eyeing me, but Ren was watching her, almost like she was expecting her to fall over any moment. Well, more like at the bruise that was blossoming across her right cheekbone and the blood from the cut on her lip. I’d never seen the girl look so…disheveled. But then again, she did just get into a fight with a guy twice her size and currently slumped back against the wall, his head dropped to the side, a trail of red dripping down from his nose.
“Oh, my gosh, are you okay?” I gasped just as John turned around. “Your face…”
Stella just shrugged. “Nothing a little makeup won’t hide. And I’ve definitely had worse. Now,” she said, narrowing her eyes at John. “You. I told you I had this handled. Why wouldn’t you just wait for us in the car with Ren like I told you to? We were almost there.”
John smirked, crossing his arms over his chest as he raised a brow. “You’re looking at the wrong guy.”
Stella’s eyes flicked over to Ren, who was glaring at John. “Thanks, man. Now I’m going to…”
“You obviously don’t know me very well, Lawrence Travers. Since when do you think I can’t handle myself?” she asked him, poking a finger to his chest.
Ren just held up his hands. “Well, when you hear police sirens and people screaming…”
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” John snorted, grinning at me.
“Oh, don’t you think that that will be your excuse. Who was the one who went through defense training? Me, that’s who. You were the one who wanted to be into all the tech stuff…”
“Okay, guys,” John said, stopping Stella in her tracks. She just looked at him, glaring. “We need to get going. So if you don’t mind, save the married couple fighting for the road, though I don’t want to hear you guys bickering the entire way either.”
“Fine,” Stella said, before stomping off in the direction of the street where a black sedan was parked. Ren, shaking his head but smiling, followed after her.
I felt John grab my hand, lacing his fingers through mine before he started tugging me in the direction they’d gone.
“We’d better head out if we want to get where we’re going before dark. We have a few hours of driving ahead of us,” he told me.
“And where exactly are we going?” I questioned, looking up at him. “London? Wait, what about school? I can’t just leave now when I’ve only been in classes for a month. What’s going to happen if I just don’t show up on Monday?”
“Relax, would you? That’s what Stella’s been doing all morning. She withdrew both you and herself and packed up your dorm. We’re sending all of your stuff back to your parents’ house…which is where we’re going right now.”
Wait, we were going back to New York?
“Yes, we’re going,” John answered, giving me a smile.
Either he knew how to read my mind – I seriously wouldn’t have been that surprised if he could, actually – or I said that out loud.
“Yeah, you said it out loud,” he laughed, pulling me toward him as we walked toward the car parked along the side of the street to kiss my temple. Stella and Ren were saying something to each other as they got in the back.
John opened the door for me and waited until I was inside before closing it. I watched him as he crossed in front of the car, looking all around probably to make sure no one was following us. I was having an extreme case of déjà vu.
Well, apart from there being another couple in the backseat who was currently bickering back and forth, Ren saying how much more she could have gotten hurt and Stella saying how she could take care of herself.
And from what I’d learned from being around the two of them, it was better not to take sides…
Though after seeing what I had, I would have definitely sided with Stella.
“What did I say about the bickering?” John asked, sliding in behind the steering wheel, closing the door silently behind him as he started the engine. He looked over at me with a smile. “We’re not even driving yet and it seems like I’m already having to tell the kids to stop fighting in the backseat.”
I smiled slightly as we started moving, looking back at Stella, who was sitting behind John. She was in pout mode, complete with her arms crossed over her chest and bottom lip sticking out slightly.
“Well, he’s the one being an idiot and worrying about me too much,” she complained before looking over at Ren with narrowed eyes. “John can back me up. I’ve beaten him before.”
“Once,” John said, looking back at her in the rearview mirror. “You beat me once. And it was an illegal move.”
“You’re the one who taught it to me! And you didn’t say anything about it being illegal either or that I couldn’t use it…”
I looked between both John and Stella, even Ren, who had produced a first aid kit and had moved over to get a closer look at the bruise on Stella’s cheek and the cut on her lip. When he reached out to start cleaning it, she just swatted his hand away. He wasn’t giving up, though, and she gave up trying to stop him just a few moments later.
Even though I knew that Stella and Ren weren’t Knights, I was still trying to wrap my hand around the fact that they were a part of the Brotherhood. I mean, how could I think the worst when it came to those two? They were my friends…how could I have thought that they were the enemy?
“So why are we going to New York?” I asked, looking back over at John a few minutes later as he turned onto the road that would take us to the interstate. “And just so you know, I don’t like the fact that you’re practically kidnapping me for a second time.”
He grinned over at me, reaching over to take my hand in his, resting it on my leg. “You know you enjoy it more than you admit. And the reason we’re going to New York? Well, we’re going to hide out at your house for a few hours before catching our flight back to London. The Knights are following a false lead. They think we’re heading to the airport in Boston when we’re actually heading to New York and leaving from there.”
I grimaced. “But why do we have to go to my house? Can’t we just, I don’t know…hang out at a Starbucks for a few hours? It’s New York City, so there’s plenty more places to go than my place.”
It was true. Why did we have to go to my house? Since it was almost three in the afternoon, we would be getting there when my parents and Jason would be there. And since Drake said he was going to be helping Jason with his senior project, he’d more than likely be over there, too…
Dear God. It was apparently time for the boyfriend – that’s what John was…wasn’t he? – to meet the family and quite possibly the best friend.
“You know,” John started, breaking out of my internal freak out. “I’m surprised you haven’t started yelling at me for not telling you who Stella and Ren actually were.”
Ren snorted from the backseat. “Just make sure to lock the doors or she might jump out of the car and run, even if we’re moving.”
“I thought they were Knights,” I admitted, my face heating up with embarrassment. “I don’t know how I could have thought that, but I did. Being a part of the Brotherhood makes so much more sense to me now.”
“I’ve known the two of them since we were kids,” John explained, glancing over at me ever few moments. “It took a few days, but I finally convinced Ed that we needed someone with you at all times at school. And since I knew Stella would be able to take care of any immediate threats if there were to be one right in front of you, I suggested her. Ren was watching out when you two weren’t in your dorm, staying far enough away to not attract any attention, but be there in an instant if Stella couldn’t handle a multi-person attack.”
I heard Stella snort from the backseat and I looked at the two of them. Stella had somehow produced a compact and was hiding her bruise with concealer. She must have felt me looking at her, because she closed it and smiled at me.
“I still can’t believe you thought that I was a Knight, though. I mean, seriously, Emmy? Like I said before, if I were, it wouldn’t have taken me a month to off you. I would have done it that first night in your sleep.”
“And that’s not creepy at all, babe,” Ren murmured, rolling his eyes before he looked at me. “But she’s right, Em. It wouldn’t have taken us this long if we were. We were sent here to protect you, not to kill you. You can thank that pitiful man you’re sitting beside. He’s the one who pretty much threatened us with our lives if anything happened to you under our watch. And that if the Knights didn’t kill us, he definitely would. Slowly and painfully.”
“Damn straight,” John muttered. His eyes were narrowed at the road when I looked over at him, eyebrows raised.
Yeah, that smack on the back of the head I’d been meaning to give him since the last time I saw him in New York? Perfect time.
“Ow, Em! What the hell was that for?” he cried after I pulled my hand from his to do exactly that, though I could see the laughter in his eyes.
“A few things actually. But don’t be threatening them!”
Stella and Ren were cracking up in the backseat while I continued to glare playfully at John. Before I could stop him, he reached over and poked me in the ribs. He started tickling me then…which was totally not a good idea since he was still driving. But I caught his hand in both of mine, keeping him away from me.
“Stop,” I laughed. “You’re driving, idiot. You’ll kill us all if you keep this up.”
He just simply grinned, twisting his hand in mine and twining our fingers together. Pulling my hand up, he kissed the back of it, smiling softly over at me. “I seriously don’t think you know just how much I missed this,” he said quietly.
I smiled back and I could feel those stupid butterflies in my stomach, beating away right alongside my heart. “Yeah…I think I actually do.”
...
Usually, when seeing the city after being away for a while, I got a rush. A rush of excitement, of happiness, of coming home. But this time? It was a rush of anxiety, of fear, of…dread.
Because I didn’t know how my family was going to react to meeting John…or vice versa.
I peeked over at him as he drove across the bridge, a slight smile on his face. He didn’t look nervous, but almost a little…smug.
“Do you remember the way?” I asked, still looking at him. “And I didn’t tell you this the last time, but it’s a little creepy how you found out where my house was.”
He snorted. “It wasn’t that hard at the time. All I had to do was follow the camera crews following you.”
And he did indeed remember the way to my house. I looked out my window as he pulled alongside the curb across the street, seeing the light in my dad’s office on. Great. That meant that they were all probably home. And by what time it was, they’d probably just finished dinner. Dad always did stuff for work afterward and Mom would sit in his office with him, reading academic journals and critiquing everything anyone wrote.
“I don’t have my key with me,” I said, looking back over at John. “We’ll just have to do this the old fashion way and ring the doorbell.”
I led the way up the steps to the front door with John right behind me and Stella and Ren behind him. It was definitely strange, ringing the doorbell of my own house, but I hadn’t taken my key to me to Boston. My body was tense, too, ready and waiting for Dad or Mom to open the door. Maybe even Jason. God forbid, Drake…
A hand pressed against the small of my back and the tension left my body. The only thing it didn’t help with was my heart racing in my chest.
I could hear footsteps nearing the door right before it swung open, revealing Dad standing there, a curious look on his face before he realized it was me…along with three other people behind me.
“Em? Sweetie, what are you doing here?” he asked when I stepped forward, wrapping my arms around his waist to hug him. He kissed the top of my head, but I knew he wasn’t looking down at me. “Who…?”
“Uh, Dad? Do you think we can come in before we start talking? Because…well, just in case,” I said, pulling back to look at him. He was eyeing John, Stella, and Ren behind me and I saw when he recognized John.
“What’s going on?”
“We really should go inside, sir,” John said from behind me. “Like Emmy said, just in case.”
Dad nodded, stepping back through the doorway to let us all inside. I looked at John, who was beside me instead of behind me then, and he gave me an encouraging smile. What exactly he was planning on telling my parents, I really didn’t know. But when he met my mom, since he’d only really met my dad before…well, that was going to be an interesting experience.
The last time that she’d seen him, she had just realized that he and I were…together. You could say that it kind of gave that piece of information away when they’d seen us kissing across the street. She really hadn’t seen his face then, so maybe she wouldn’t recognize him. But that next morning…well, Mom had kind of bombarded me with questions about him. You know, because I’d never really had a boyfriend before and the fact that she was my mother… Let’s just say that Dad had stepped in on that one, telling her that I would tell her when I wanted to.
And I guess that time was about to be right now, even though I really didn’t want to be.
Because when the four of us were inside and the door closed behind us, I saw Mom coming down the hallway from the kitchen. Her eyes brightened when she saw me, but then turned confused when she saw the people behind me.
“Emmy, honey, what are you doing here?” she asked, though she was looking at John, Stella, and Ren. “And who’s this?”
I felt when John was going to step forward, but I wrapped my hand around his wrist, stopping him. There was no way that I was going to let him introduce himself. No way. I was doing all the talking.
“Well,” I started, stepping in front of John to try and – unsuccessfully – hide him. “This is my roommate, Stella Devereaux.”
Stella stepped forward with a smile on her face, holding out her hand to shake both my parents’. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. Emmy’s told me so much about you.”
“And this is her boyfriend, Lawrence Travers,” I continued.
Ren did the same as Stella. “You can just call me Ren. And it’s nice to meet you both.”
I paused a moment, and John took that to his advantage by twisting his hand in my hold, threading our fingers together. I saw Dad’s lips curl up into a slight smile as he looked at him, and he wrapped an arm around Mom, who was looking up at John…oh, gosh, I didn’t even want to think about that look she was giving him.
“Mr. Alexander, it’s nice to see you again,” John said, smiling at Dad as he shook his hand.
“It’s good to see you again, too, John,” Dad said, his smile growing as he looked down at John’s hand wrapped around mine.
Mom was looking down at our hands, too, and I internally groaned when she looked like she was going to burst with happiness. John turned his attention to her then, holding out his hand.
“And you must be Mrs. Alexander. It’s nice to finally meet you. My name is John Raymond.”
“Please, call me Holly,” Mom smiled, staring up at him.
“Holly,” John grinned back, and I had to fight back the urge to cough ‘kiss-up’ at him.
“Where’s Jason?” I asked, trying to direct Mom’s attention away from John, though it was definitely not working since Dad had to answer.
“Drake was helping him figure out what he was going to do for his senior project. They should be here in a little while actually. They’d gone to get something to eat afterward.”
“And we have plenty left from dinner. Are you guys hungry? I made pasta with grilled chicken if you want any…”
My mouth almost immediately started watering since I pretty much hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. I was surprised that my stomach didn’t start growling either.
“Sounds delicious,” Stella said with a bright smile.
Mom and Dad led the way into the kitchen where Mom had apparently just started putting up everything from dinner. I looked over at John as we walked and he looked back with a mischievous smile on his face.
“You just love that my mom practically adores you even though she just met you, huh?” I scoffed, rolling my eyes.
He tugged me toward him to kiss my temple, making my heart skip a beat in my chest. “Looks like I can charm both of the Alexander women the first time I meet them.”
At that, I snorted…and a little too loud apparently, since Mom looked back at me, that goofy smile still on her face. “Well, I wouldn’t say that you charmed me the first time I met you, per se. You know…since you kidnapped me at gunpoint and all.”
“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”
“Never.”
Stella was trying to let Mom help her with something, but she just shooed her to the barstools on the other side of the kitchen island. She and Ren sat down, watching as Mom turned on the stove where the pasta was still in the pan to heat it up. I just leaned back against the countertop of the island and John stood beside me, not exactly touching me but not far enough away to keep me from feeling him so close.
Dad was leaned against the countertop between the stove and the refrigerator, looking between Stella and Ren where they were sat, and John. I think Dad knew that Stella and Ren were a part of the Brotherhood, just like John was. And maybe he was even a little dumbstruck, seeing as he had three members of one of the most secret societies of all time sitting – or standing, in John’s case – in his kitchen.
You could say it was an awkward silence as the four of us ate while Mom and Dad pretty much just stood there and watched us. I kept glancing over at John, seeing him give me those secretive smiles. It was almost as if he were gloating again at how much my mom seemed to like him, even after just meeting him. I was thinking that she didn’t realize just who he was.
You know…the guy who kidnapped me back in Paris a few months ago?
But by the look that seemed to be permanently stuck on her face, she probably wouldn’t have cared, even if I told her that fun fact.
“So what exactly is going on?” Dad asked, breaking the silence beside the sounds of forks scraping against plates. “Why are you all here?”
“Well, you see,” I started, but I really didn’t know just how much I could say. Even though I knew exactly what my parents knew about the whole mission I’d been on for the Brotherhood, I didn’t know how much of this they could know, though I knew it probably wasn’t going to be much.
So I looked over at John, hoping that he could take over since he knew more about this than I did. He’d barely even told me anything, even on the almost four hour trip to my house.
“Ever since Emmy’s been…back to her normal life…she’s been followed,” he stated. I knew he wouldn’t tell them just who was following me because they didn’t know anything about the Knights. “I’m not going to say by who, exactly, just that they’re…particularly interested in Emmy since what happened a few months ago. But I’ve had some of my people watching her, including having these two…” He nodded over at Stella and Ren, who gave them both smiles. “…be in close proximity to her for her protection. Nothing’s happened in the month that she’s been at school…until earlier today, that is.”
“The news,” Dad said. One look at his face and I could see his mind working the pieces together. “There was a supposed ‘random’ shooting in Boston this afternoon that critically injured a man…”
Stella grumbled under her breath. “I knew I should have aimed a little more to the right…”
I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing when I saw my mom’s wide-eyed expression as she looked at Stella, who was still in her dress, looking every bit the Southern Belle she was, though she didn’t see the gun she more than likely still had in its holster on her leg.
“Anyway,” John continued with a slight smile. “The only reason that they decided that today would be the day to try and kidnap Emmy today was because of a certain something that we were able to obtain, something that they want. We have reason to believe that they were going to kidnap Emmy to try and bargain with us in getting it.”
“I would ask what they – whoever ‘they’ are – want from you, but I’m pretty sure that you wouldn’t be able to tell us. Need to know, right?” Dad said, an eyebrow raised.
“Exactly,” John nodded, before looking at me and then back at my parents. “Since we’ve got that piece of information, we felt that now would be the time to…to bring Emmy here back in on the action, just like we promised her before. She’s officially withdrawn from school and all of her things will be here tomorrow, so…”
“What do you mean, bringing her back in on the action?” Mom asked, looking between me and John before her eyes settled on me. “Emmy, you’re dropping out of school because you want to help them with whatever it is they’re doing? I thought this was all over when you came back. You didn’t say anything about…”
I started shaking my head, cutting her off before she even finished. “Mom, do you realize that I’ve been waiting for this for months now? If it had been up to me at the time, I wouldn’t have come back here after we finished with the first…”
Dad was the one to cut me off, the look on his face making me swallow the rest of my sentence. “Emmy, I think your mother and I should talk to you about this, just the three of us.”
“Dad, nothing you…”
“Em, your father’s right,” John agreed. I looked over at him, narrowing my eyes to glare. He smiled apologetically. “You need to talk to them about this, no matter what. They’re just worried about you.”
Of course, they were right. I needed to talk to my parents about it. But no matter what, I was going. I just had to make them see that this is what I wanted, what was good for me. Sure they knew just how important all of this had been to me, after everything that I’d told them when I’d gotten back the first time.
I followed behind Dad to his office, leaving John, Stella, and Ren in the kitchen to finish their plates, Mom right beside me. She wrapped an arm around my waist, giving me a squeeze and a smile of reassurance. Just by the look in her eyes, I knew that she understood just how important all of this was to me, even though she didn’t know much.
So when I was pretty much standing alone in front of my parents, Dad sitting behind his desk and Mom in the chair she always took in front of it, they were staring me down like I was going to tell them everything as to why I wanted to go with John.
And that’s pretty much what I was going to have to do.
“Dad, I’m going to say pretty much the exact same thing that I told you the last time this was going on,” I said, looking at him straight in the eyes. “I want to help them. Before, when we were working on the first of the…mission or whatever you want to call it, I told them that I was going to help them until the very end. And that’s what I plan on doing. Sure, I thought the last time was going to be it and I was going to come back to my normal life, but that…that’s…”
Mom laughed, her blue eyes twinkling. “Sweetie, you might have come back to your normal life, but we could see that everything changed you. And now, seeing you with that John…goodness, I can see why,” she grinned, winking at me. “How come you never told me how handsome he was? And so tall…all those muscles…and those eyes…”
I held up my hands, grimacing, in a gesture for her to stop those…disturbing words coming out of her mouth. “Okay, Mom, you seriously need to stop. That’s just gross, you hitting on the guy I’m…that I’m…well, I don’t really know what we are, to be honest.”
Just two people who love each other, is all, if one of them would tell the other already…and vice versa actually. I mean, the guy hadn’t even given me a proper kiss yet and I’d been with him for hours now! Where was my kiss?
“Emmy, honey, it’s as plain as day how you feel about the guy,” Dad said, smiling despite himself. “And like I said before, I can see the way he looks at you. Not to mention the night you got back, when we saw the two of you across the street…”
My cheeks immediately flamed at the memory, in both embarrassment and the feeling I got remembering that kiss…
“I want to help them,” I said, trying to switch the subject back to where it was supposed to be. “I told them I was going to help until the very end and I plan on doing exactly that, no matter what it takes.”
“But the risks,” Mom started, her expression shifting from dreamy to concern. “The last time, you were…shot. What happens next? Something worse? What if you end up…?”
I knew what she was going to say. What if I ended up dead?
Well, that wasn’t going to happen. Not just because I wasn’t planning on letting it, but I had quite a few people who would have my back, front, every side of me, protecting me from exactly that.
“Nothing will happen to her,” Dad said. His eyes hadn’t left me, a thoughtful look in them, but then he looked over at Mom. “I’ve only met John once before, but I could tell even then that do almost anything to keep her safe. And how, after seeing how they are with each other, I’m pretty sure that he would even lay down his own life to protect her.”
“I’m sure that he would, but I still can’t help but worry…”
“She’s our daughter. We’re supposed to worry about her…”
“But…”
“Holly,” Dad sighed.
Mom narrowed her eyes at him, challenging. “Brian.”
They were staring each other down, but neither of them seemed like they were going to be backing down any time soon. They weren’t going to budge a bit.
Remember, Emmy, when you thought that you and John couldn’t possibly be any more like your parents? Yeah, you were totally wrong.
Mom sighed in defeat, knowing that Dad was right. She turned to me, giving me one of her motherly looks. “There’s no changing you mind whatsoever, is there?”
I shook my head. “Definitely not.”
From out in the hallway, the sound of the front door opening made me look toward the office door. I knew the voices that were coming down the hallway before they appeared in the doorway.
“Mom, Dad, I’m back. And why are there people…?” Jason started before his eyes met mine, brightening. “Emmy! What are you doing here?”
He rushed forward and wrapped me in a hug. I smiled, hugging him back, and my eyes met Drake’s, who had followed behind him into the office.
“I thought you weren’t coming home for a few more weeks,” Jason continued after kissing the top of my head. I swore he’d grown even in the month that I hadn’t seen him. “What are you doing back now?”
“Yeah, you didn’t tell me you were coming back to the city when I talked to you on the phone yesterday,” Drake said, wrapping me in a hug next.
“Well,” I smiled, looking at the two of them. “It’s kind of a long story, but I’m sort of dropping out of school for a little while to…help someone with something.”
It was kind of funny seeing the two of their jaw drop almost simultaneously.
“What do you mean, you’re dropping out of school?” Drake asked almost furiously. “You can’t be serious!”
“I’m serious. I’m helping someone with something again, and I can’t really be thinking about school work when I don’t know where I’ll be in the next few days.”
I could see his mind working at my words, trying to piece together what I was saying. When he figured out just what I was saying, there was a knock on the office door and Stella was standing there, a slight smile on her face.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Emmy, we’re going to have to go here in a moment. We’ve got a…slight situation…across the street right now,” she said, and smiled apologetically to my parents. “I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander.”
“What’s going on?” I asked, walking toward her. I stopped just a foot away from her so that my parents, Jason, and Drake.
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she grimaced. “Knights. There are two of them watching the house from across the street. We don’t know how they found us, but we should have known that they would figure that we would come here. We’re going to have to get to the airport, but we’re still trying to figure out how. They’re watching the car.”
“Are you talking about the two creeps watching the house from across the street?” Drake asked from behind me.
I turned to see him staring at us, eyes narrowed. “Maybe,” I said, watching him. “How do you know they were watching the house?”
One eyebrow turned up. “I don’t know…maybe because when we passed them to cross the street, they pretended like they were going down the street. But when I looked back as I shut the front door, they were there again, trying unsuccessfully not to look suspicious.”
“So what do we do?” I asked, looking back at Stella. “Has John…?”
“Figured out what we need to do to get them away from the house?” John finished for me, stepping up behind Stella, Ren beside him. His eyes cut to Drake for a moment and I couldn’t help but notice the jealousy and dislike that I saw flare in his eyes. I had to fight off rolling my eyes at that. “I have, actually, but I’m going to need someone to go across the street and stay there. Since they obviously know what all of you look like, they’ll steer clear from the place if they realize that you know they’re there.”
“And what exactly would you need one of us to do?” Dad asked, standing up from behind his desk, obviously declaring himself the person who was going to do whatever it was. “Just go over and talk to them? Or just make ourselves be known?”
“Either,” John said, looking at him. “But we need to leave now before anything else happens. Plus, our flight leaves soon, so we would have had to go anyway.”
“I’ll do it,” Dad nodded as he walked around his desk. “I’ve had to do stuff like this before a few months ago with all of those reports. That, or I can just call the cops.”
“No,” John said, shaking his head. “No cops. Then they’ll know that we’re on to them.”
A few moments later, I hear the front door open as Dad walked out. The curtains on the windows were partially opened and I knew that I would be able to look out without having anyone see me if I stood just in the right spot. So when I peeked out to the street, I saw Dad walking down the steps, acting as if he was just going to go on a normal nighttime stroll.
The two Knights across the street took notice of him right as he stepped onto the sidewalk. They moved from their spot, walking hastily down the street before turning the corner, glancing over their shoulders once before they did. More than likely, they would be coming back around in the next few minutes.
“We need to go now,” John said, coming up behind me. “We only have a minute or two tops before they come back.”
Stella and Ren were saying goodbye to my mom and greeting Jason and Drake before heading for the door. John did the same, holding out a hand to her.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Holly,” he said with a charming smile. “Hopefully, the next time we meet, it won’t just be in passing.”
“Most definitely,” she laughed, and I could see the blush blossom across her cheeks. “You keep my daughter safe, even if I’d rather her be here or at school.”
“I will. She’s the most important thing to me, so, of course, I’ll protect her.”
Mom’s eyes went all glassy as she turned to me to wrap me in a hug. “My goodness, you’ve got yourself a keeper,” she whispered in my ear.
I had to laugh as I hugged her back. “I know,” I whispered back. “And I’ll see you whenever I see you. I’ll call if I can, though, just to check up, okay?”
She pulled back, kissing my cheek. “You’d better.”
I hugged Jason next and he hugged me back, telling me to be all badass like I’d apparently been the last time. I just had to roll my eyes and smile back. Drake, though…I knew by the look he gave me that he wasn’t too keen on the idea of me going with them. And he tried to convince me not to go, though his argument wasn’t very great.
“Don’t go with them, Em,” he said in my ear, hugging me. “I know you said you wanted to help them do whatever it is they’re doing until they finished, but that doesn’t mean that you need to risk your life for them…or him.”
“Someone a little jealous?”
“Maybe…but not in the way that you’re thinking. Can’t a guy worry about his best friend when she’s being a complete idiot and going off with these people, risking her life for them again?”
At that, I hugged him tighter. “Of course, you can. But tell me that you can see that John won’t let anything happen to me.”
Drake grumbled something under his breath. “That’s the problem…I do.”
I smiled as I pulled away from him, kissing his cheek. “I’ll call you when I can, okay?”
“You’d better,” he smiled.
Stella and Ren were already making their way to the front door when I walked up beside John, who had been watching me and Drake the entire time. I have him a reassuring smile, to which he reluctantly returned.
“Ready?” he asked. “Because we really need to be going.”
I nodded. “Ready.”
With one last goodbye to my mom, Jason, and Drake, we were out the door, Stella and Ren in front to keep a lookout for the Knights who had been watching us. Dad was walking back toward the house down the sidewalk and he gave John a nod, telling him that we were good to go. So once we were in the car, Stella and Ren in the back again and John and I in the front, we pulled off from the sidewalk and down the street. My head turned automatically, watching as Dad walked up the steps to the front door, where all of them stood watching as we turned the corner. Sure I was leaving them behind for a few weeks, but it was going to be just like it had been, like I was away at school.
If school was this dangerous and adventurous, that is.
***Well, hello there, my lovely readers!
Thank you for waiting patiently while I worked on school stuff. I'm just happy that it's done and my classes are almost over. My final for one is on Tuesday, but I'll still be in my other class for a few more weeks.
What did you think of this awesome chapter?!? Gosh, it's good to have John back. And you gotta love awkward moments between him and Drake! I was seriously waiting for that meeting for FOREVER, it felt like. Definitely worth the wait, though. :)
So...I've got a proposition for you all. If you give me 80 votes and 20 comments on this chapter by tomorrow, I'll upload either tomorrow night or Monday, depending on what's going on with school work and all. And in the next chapter, you get one of your favorite people: Elena! :D I don't want there to be multiple days between chapters like with BH and how this one's been going so far. I'm shooting for every other day to every two days for an upload. Truthfully? I want to get to the third book as soon as I can.
Because the ending of this one is going to blow your mind, just like it did mine when I had a genius moment while planning.
And then the third book...you guys might as well sharpen your pitchforks and I'm going to lock down my house...because I'm definitely going to be hunted down. I can feel it. There's going to be some MAJOR foreshadowing in this one as to what - and who - the main focus of the third book is going to be about.
And I....CAN'T...WAIT!!!1 >:D
So...comment and vote!!!1***