Chase (13 page)

Gaia dug in her bag for some Chapstick, and the door to the bathroom swung open with a loud creak. She didn't look up until she realized that whoever had walked in was standing a few feet away, glaring at her. Gaia's eyes fell on a pair of three-inch-heeled black leather boots and she sighed. It was definitely an FOH.

Let the verbal diarrhea begin.

“So, Gaia, I have a question for you,” she said. It was Megan. Gaia glanced at her, then continued her Chapstick search.

This should be good
, she thought.

“What the heck did you do to Tatiana?” Megan asked, taking a few clicking steps toward Gaia. “I saw her last night, and she was
not
acting like herself.”

Gaia lifted her face. Megan now had her full and undivided attention.

“You saw her last night?” she asked, pulling her bag off the counter and draping it over her shoulder, painful lips forgotten. “Where? When?”

“Here. Around seven,” Megan replied, crossing her arms under her Miracle Bra-ed chest. “So why is it that everyone who gets involved with you drops off the face of the earth, huh? Sam Moon . . . Heather Gannis . . . now Tatiana . . .”

Heather hadn't dropped off the face of the earth, but now was not the time to argue semantics with
this fairly brainless specimen.
It made no sense—Tatiana lurking around school at an hour when she knew Gaia wouldn't be there. Unless she was planting something. Like a bomb, for example. But no. Tatiana would never be that careless. She would never do something that would attract so much attention. Not when she could take Gaia out quickly and quietly by simply following her after school. So what was the point? Gaia needed answers.

“What was she doing here?” she asked.

A slow, knowing smile spread over Megan's lips and she turned to the mirror, leaning in and turning her face from side to side, scrutinizing her perfect makeup.

“I promised her I wouldn't tell,” she said, smirking.

Her eyes were dancing with the knowledge that she had information Gaia wanted. And Gaia was sure she was going to let it out. A person like Megan lived to let others know exactly how
in the know
she was. Gaia crossed her arms over her stomach and waited, eyebrows arched. This was the moment she'd been waiting for—the moment that one of Tatiana's so-called friends would slip up and expose her. But Gaia wouldn't give the twerp the satisfaction of begging for gossip.

Megan looked at Gaia out of the corner of her eye, then swung her blond hair behind her shoulders and turned to face her.

“All right, if you
must
know,” she said, as if Gaia had been interrogating her, “she was leaving a note for Jake Montone.”

She smiled and watched Gaia carefully, waiting for some kind of reaction. But Gaia was nothing if not good at masking her emotions—in this case shock, glee, and disappointment all rolled into one. A note for Jake. So he
did
know something. It seemed Gaia had chosen the right person to get dose to in order to find Tatiana. A small victory.

Still, part of Gaia couldn't help wishing that Jake wasn't, in fact, involved. Part of Gaia just wanted him to be her friend. No espionage attached.

But there was no point in wishing for that now. Jake
was
involved, thanks to Tatiana. And Gaia knew what she had to do.

“Oh, don't feel bad, Gaia,” Megan said with false sweetness. “You didn't really think that a guy like Jake would go for a hygienically challenged person like yourself, did you?”

But Gaia didn't even register the insult. She was too busy scanning her brain to see if she knew what class Jake had next. She brushed by Megan and out the door into the thinning crowd in the hallway. Damn. The bell was about to ring. It would have to wait.

But luckily, thanks to Jake himself, she would have plenty of time to pick his brain that afternoon at the karate match.
Gaia smiled.
Her fingers and toes were tingling with excitement over this latest lead, but she could squelch it for a couple of hours. This afternoon Jake was all hers. Maybe being a joiner wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Too Easy

“POINT! BLUE!” THE REF SHOUTED
, thrusting his arm in Gaia's direction from the edge of the mat. The crowd in the bleachers cheered and applauded, and Gaia heard Jake's voice above the rest, shouting, “Yeah! That's it! Finish him off!”

The rest of the team was sitting on the bottom riser, but Gaia could see Jake from the corner of her eye,
standing in front of the others, completely focused.

Gaia waited in a fighting stance, feet spread apart, knees bent, hands fisted. She watched her opponent drag himself up off the ground. He was sweating, he was bleeding from the lip, he was gasping for breath. Gaia coolly blew a shock of hair away from her eyes. This really was
too easy.

Most of the people Gaia fought had a lot more heart than this guy. Or a lot more desperation, more likely. Or just a lot more evil in their blood. Whatever the case, the difference between the street thugs and drug dealers and Loki operatives she'd fought in the past and this guy with his cropped hair and square jaw was dear. All those other people were fighting for a real reason—
survival, revenge, loyalty.
This guy was probably fighting because his girlfriend was in the stands somewhere, waiting for him to prove his manhood. Wasn't gonna happen.

“Finish him off!” Jake shouted again.

That was another new thing for Gaia. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a cheering section for a fight. Her opponent approached her tentatively, his brown eyes begging her to just finish this already. Pathetic. But she could oblige. She was deathly bored.

He made a move to punch, and Gaia lifted her leg and kicked him clean in the jaw, not very hard. He fell on his ass, and the crowd went crazy.

“Point, blue! Match, blue!” the ref shouted, lifting Gaia's arm in the air.

Gaia grinned as her gaze fell on Megan and her pep squad, who cheered her victory, although with less enthusiasm than they had for Jake's win. Then her eyes traveled left and she saw Ed sitting there, clapping grimly. A cute Asian girl sat to his right, cheering and nudging him with her shoulder, trying to get his attention. But Ed didn't even flinch.
His eyes were fixed on Gaia.

Her heart twisted painfully, and the smile fell from her face. The girl clearly had a crush on Ed, but he probably had no idea. Ed was clueless when it came to his own attractiveness. And the way he was looking at her . . . She couldn't tell if he hated her or was dying for her to acknowledge him. But it didn't matter. Ed was not going to be in her life. Not anymore.

She tore her eyes away and watched her teammates as they streamed over to her, gleefully whooping and clapping. Her win had also won them the meet, a meet that had been back and forth all afternoon. All she wanted in the world at that moment was to see Ed smile again—to see him happy—but there was nothing she could do about that at this very moment. She wasn't sure there was anything she could do about that at all. She had never made anyone happy in her life.

“That was amazing!” Jake shouted as he rushed over to her.

Gaia's eyes widened in surprise as he grabbed her up in his arms and spun her around in a victory hug. The
contact itself was unexpected, but so was the sudden flip her heart executed when Jake tightened his grasp on her. She laughed against her own will, looking down at the smiling faces of her new teammates. For once she was a true celebrated hero. Maybe the victory was a silly one,
but it felt good nonetheless.

Jake replaced her on the ground, and his smiling face was just inches from her own. But the second she looked into his eyes again, she remembered. This guy was getting secret notes from Tatiana. He might even know where the girl was hiding. This was no time to dwell on heart flips or on the thrill of victory or on the fact that Ed was stalking out of the gym right now, Asian girl in tow.

“We should go out and celebrate,” Jake said.

“I'm in,” Gaia replied, not missing a beat.

If Jake knew anything, she was going to find out what it was. And she was going to find out today.

Internal Warning System

“SO . . . SOLID FIGHT,” JAKE SAID
, taking two ice-cream cones from the guy inside the Tastee-Freez truck and handing one to Gaia.

She took off half the ice cream from the top in one bite, shedding sprinkles all over the ground as she
turned away from the truck. They strolled into the south entrance to Washington Square Park. It had turned into a seriously warm afternoon, and Jake had his jacket slung over the top of his duffel bag at his side. Gaia had slipped on a thin white T-shirt after her postfight shower, and she was still flushed from the heat of the water.
Jake had to concentrate to keep from staring at her.

“Solid fight?” she said, her mouth full. “What happened to ‘That was amazing'?”

“I was in the moment,” Jake said, shrugging one shoulder as he approached an empty bench. Her fighting
had
been amazing, but there was no reason to let her know exactly how much he admired her. There was something to be said for playing one's cards close to the vest.

“So . . . what? You have criticisms?” Gaia asked as she sat down.

“A couple, maybe,” he said nonchalantly. “But we don't have to talk about that now. We should be celebrating.”

“We are,” Gaia replied with a smile, lifting her cone slightly, as if in a toast.

Jake smiled back, then looked out across the park. Was it his imagination, or was Gaia a bit easier to be with this afternoon? She seemed friendlier somehow—less closed off. Was it even remotely possible that the connection he'd felt the day before hadn't been one-sided?

Usually Jake would be up front about his feelings
and just say something direct, like, “So, do you want to go out with me or what?” But somehow he didn't think it was time for that yet. He wasn't sure it would go over with Gaia the way it had gone over with girls in the past. There was something about her that made him . . .
nervous.
He wasn't used to that feeling, and he wasn't sure what to do with it yet.

But there was something else he wanted to talk to her about, anyway, and this good-mood thing might prove to be beneficial. He was just turning to her to ask her what was up with Tatiana when she cut him off.

“So . . . have you seen Tatiana lately?” she asked.

Jake's
internal warning system
went off and he looked away again. That question was just a little too out of the blue to mean nothing.

“Why?” he asked the park, before taking another bite of his ice cream.

“Just curious,” she replied lightly.

Jake shook his head. “What the hell is going on with you two?” he asked. “What are you doing, playing some elaborate game of Charlie's Angels?”

Gaia turned her intense blue eyes on him. “So you have seen her,” she stated.

“Yeah, I've seen her,” Jake replied, growing angry. “And she told me that she wanted to see
you.
Said it was a matter of life or death.”

Gaia's face flushed from hairline to jaw and
she crunched into her cone.

“What is up with you guys? I thought you were friends! You were living together, for Christ's sake!” Jake blurted, as miffed that the light, happy vibe was ruined as he was over the fact that no one was telling him anything. He chucked the rest of his cone into a nearby garbage can and ran his hands through his short, dark hair.

“Come on, Gaia,” he said, clenching his jaw. “Tell me what's going on here.”

Gaia took a long, deep breath and let it out slowly. Jake could practically see the gears in her head turning. She was deciding what to say to him. Deciding whether to trust him or not. Why was she so afraid? He hadn't known her for long, but he'd never done anything to earn her mistrust.

She turned toward him again, and for one moment Jake thought she was going to talk to him. Really talk to him. Tell him what was going on and ask him for his help. It was pretty clear to him by now that one of the two girls in this situation really needed it.

Come on, Gaia
, he thought.
Trust me.

“Just . . . tell me where she is,” Gaia said.

Jake deflated.

“I don't know where the hell she is!” Jake blurted. “This is ridiculous,” he said, standing and grabbing up his bag. “I'm not going to get in the middle of whatever it is you two have going on. I've got my own crap to deal with.”

Gaia narrowed her eyes. She stood up and squared
off with him,
toe to toe
, as if she were going to challenge him to a fight.

“One word of advice,” she said tersely. “Don't trust Tatiana.”

Jake threw his arms up and took a step back from her, laughing sarcastically. “How am I supposed to know which one of you I can trust when neither one of you is telling me shit?” he said.

His heart was thumping painfully, and he realized with a start that he was actually hurt. Hurt that she wouldn't trust him. The knowledge only pissed him off even more. He barely knew this girl. How had he managed to let himself get so involved?

Gaia picked up her bag, slung it over her head, and threw back her shoulders. “You're just going to have to figure that one out on your own,” she said. “It's up to you.”

Then she turned on her heel and walked away.

Damn.
Damndamndamndamndamn.

I'm doing it again. I'm doing it again, even though I know I shouldn't be.

I think Jake's telling me the truth. I think he really doesn't know where Tatiana is and I think he did just tell me basically everything that mattered from their conversation, whenever it took place, wherever it took place. (She wants to see me–a matter of life and death.) There is nothing about this guy that isn't earnest and honest, even if he is the cockiest asshole ever to walk the earth. But at least he doesn't try to hide it. He is who he is. No apologies. How can you not admire a person like that? How can you not trust a person like that?