Cryostorm (17 page)

His computer sat open in front of him, but he palmed his cheek and stared blankly out the large window. Anyone could have crept up on him. Any Agent in particular. Instead, me, Georgia, Tim, and Lois did.

I stopped at the edge of his table, and he hadn’t even flinched.

“Hey, Zach.”

That
got him moving. He shot straight in the seat. His left hand brushed the glass, and it toppled over. I jumped out of the reach of the dark soda. Zach grabbed the glass and set it upright, never taking his stare off me.

Those bright gray eyes bore into me, and I took another step back. Georgia’s hand rested on my shoulder.

“Hi, Zach,” she said. “How are ya?”

He never took his gaze from me as his mouth opened, then shut. He scooted out and stood, towering over me like he’d always done, but yet, not as tall as I remembered.

“Mandy,” he whispered.

He reached for my hair but stopped and brought his hand to his shadowed chin. “Black.”

“Needed a change.” I smiled.

“Rambo.” His eyes welled. “I remembered that movie. Dad’s favorite.”

Tears stung. Both at the mention of Dad and that he remembered such a small fact I’d mentioned once or twice while I hung out with him. Everything around me disappeared as I looked at his broken, disheveled body.

“You’re alive,” he whispered.

I nodded. He yanked me into a hug so tight the air knocked out of my lungs.

“You’re alive.” He rocked back and forth, petting my hair. Drawing in a deep breath, he pressed his lips against the top of my head. “I can’t believe it. I—”

His body tensed and I did, too. Had an Agent walked in?

“Hi, Zach. Nice to see you again.” Nate’s voice was close.

Zach didn’t let go of me, only turned to the side, for a better view I guessed. Nate looked from me to Zach, then back.

“Oh, looks like we have some spilled soda.” A short, brown haired waitress scurried toward our little mob scene with a clenched jaw and towel in hand. “The friend you were waiting for brought some company, huh.” She glanced at Zach, then back to me. “He’s been waiting hours. Glad you finally made it. I was getting worried about this fellow.”

He hadn’t stopped looking at Nate. Both stood tall, gazes locked, but Zach held me tighter and tighter.

“It’s okay, Zach,” I whispered and gave a gentle push against his chest.

“Can I get you guys something?” the waitress said.

“No thank you, Ma’am, we just came by to pick up our buddy here,” Nate said. He reached out to me. “Ready?”

I went for Nate’s hand, but Zach pulled me back. “Wait, Mandy, I need to talk to you.”

Nothing like causing a scene. “Okay. Let’s all go outside to the car and we’ll talk. Come on.” Once more I pushed against his chest to get some distance, but he didn’t release his arm around my shoulder. “Zach.”

Nate’s nostrils flared, and his fists clench.

“Zach, let’s go.” One final push finally separated us. He winced at my added force. “Outside.”

He reached for my hand but I grabbed Nate’s. We hurried past the barrage of onlookers and out the front doors. I welcomed the cool air against my flaming cheeks. I’d been in the diner for less than ten minutes but it’d already begun feeling claustrophobic.

Zach hurried out behind us, followed by Georgia, Tim, and Lois. Nate gave a quick scan of the area, then veered to the left. The Jeep came into view. Last spot on the back row. Only one other car parked in that row, right next to ours. Seemed empty, but when Nate slowed his pace my nerves went haywire.

“Tim. Scan the area.”

“What?” Zach asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Looking for Agents,” I said. “It’s okay.”

“Why would any be here? You’re dead. I—”

“You could have been followed,” Nate said. “This whole situation is dangerous.” He glanced over his shoulder toward Zach. “You’ve put us all in danger.”

“Hey—”

“Stop. It’s okay. Zach, where’s your car?” I asked.

“Rode my bike.”

“Zach. It’s freaking winter, what—” I shook my head. “Never mind. Where is it?”

“It’s faster, gets better gas mileage. Less stops.” He shook his head, staring at me without breaking the connection. “I had to get to you. I—when you—how?”

“Shit, man,” Tim said. “He can’t drive that dumb thing to Colorado.”

“Colorado?”

“Shut up a second,” Tim said. “Nate. We’re clear for now, but we need to move. Just throw him on the roof. Clock’s ticking.”

“Screw you, Tim.” Zach lurched forward. “I didn’t ask you to come. I wanted Mandy to come here. What have you guys done? Where have you been all this time? Making me think she was dead.”

“Back off, man,” Tim said.

Zach jumped to the side, grabbed my wrist and yanked me away from Nate.

“Zach, no. What are you doing? Stop.”

“Did they take you? Force you to leave? Are you okay?”

We stopped a few feet from the gang. Nate watched with narrowed eyes.

“Zach. Calm down. We chose to die. You’re not supposed to know I’m alive. No one is. We were to never come back or contact anyone again.”

“You went to our chat room. You went—”

“That was a mistake. I’ve upset the entire group and hurt Nate in the process. Not to mention endangered us all, even you. Why did you come here?”

“I had to find you, Mandy. You died. They identified you from dental records. DNA.” He yanked me to him again. “You’re alive. I’ve been so—you were gone. Just gone. I—” His voice cracked.

He was truly broken.

“So you hopped on your bike and headed to Minnesota? How—?”

“Jess saw what happened. Heard about it online. He’s been searching for you since you died. He didn’t buy it that you were gone.”

“Scott?”

“Not sure. Don’t really hang around them. Only Jess, but he sees Jasmine and Scott all the time to make sure no one came sniffing around town. He says they know you and Georgia died and that I was being unreasonable and Jess shouldn’t be feeding into it.”

He squeezed me tighter. I left my arms to the side. I wasn’t really sure what to do. The sun was nearly set, darkness was creeping in, and we needed to leave. Six people in a Jeep would be tough. Me and Georgia were smallest, we might be able to sit in the back.

“Zach. Let me go.”

“No. Never.” He tightened his hold.

“Zach. I’m serious. You need to let go of me, you’re squeezing the breath out of me.” Not really, but what was I going to do, karate chop him? He was beside himself with . . . with grief I guessed. Relief maybe?

He released his grip around me, and I stepped back. Georgia, Tim, and Lois had filed into the Jeep and turned the car on. Nate watched Zach and me but stayed by the Jeep. God I loved him. So calm, even with Zach pawing me like he was. And after I’d lied to him.

“Now that you’ve seen me, know that I’m okay, you need to come to Colorado with us.”

“I’m in. Wherever you’re going, I’ll go.” He reached for my face, but I stepped back. “It’s not like that, though, Zach. You’re only coming because we’re in some serious trouble and there might be someone there who can help us.”

“Agents, they know you’re alive?”

“Worse. You’re aunt does, too, and she’s throwing everything she has at us.”

“Everything?”

“No more darts, Zach. Real bullets. In Minnesota, her Agents rained down on us with live ammo.” An image of me falling over the edge of that building flashed, and I couldn’t hold back a full body flinch. “It was bad. And now that you, like an idiot, zoomed up here, you’re involved again.”

“I don’t care. I’m still in shock that you’re alive. God, I went to your funeral. Thought you’ve been dead this whole time. Georgia, too.” He glanced toward the Jeep. “I’m no good without you, Mandy.”

“I can see that. You look like shit.”

“Thanks a lot.” He shook his head. “So, you held onto my birthday present this whole time. You contacted me in our private chat room.”

“Didn’t believe I stumbled into the room?”

“Can’t really. Well, it’s really hard to, anyway. And Rambo? I knew that right away.”

Boy, I wasn’t very bright was I?

“Why’d you come to the chat room if you weren’t supposed to be in touch with anything from your past?”

“I heard you were doing poorly.”

“That’s an understatement. I think Dad was ready to have me committed.”

A chill rattled my bones. “Look, let’s go. It’s cold out here.” I turned toward the Jeep.

“Wait. Tell me something.” He drew in a deep breath. “Why’d you keep that gift all this time. Even after you were supposed to be dead and never contact anyone from Trifle again.”

I showed him my back. No way I wanted to answer that. Didn’t need to be encouraging him anymore. He’d already said he loved me earlier today in the chat room.

“Mandy.”

“Zach. Like I said, I’d heard you weren’t doing so hot and I got worried for a second. Lapse in judgment and look what happened. Now we’re in more danger than ever.”

“I don’t even care about that right now.” He darted around and stopped in front of me. “I think you did it because you still love me.”

Chapter 24

“G
otta pee,” I said. It wasn’t a total lie, but I had to get out of this Jeep.

Not only was I cramped in the
way
back, considering there wasn’t a seat, just an itty-bitty space for me to sit while Zach, Georgia, and Lois took the back seat, but I couldn’t stand the thick, heavy silence that polluted the car.

Sure, it was pitch-black nighttime, and Georgia and Lois were sleeping, but still. The tension made the silence that much worse. Even with headphones. I pressed menu on my iPod and sat up.

“Hello?” I said.

“Ten miles,” Nate said.

I caught a glimpse of his face in the rearview mirror. Now there was quite a distance between us and it was totally dark, but I swore I saw him wink. So who was throwing all that tension out into the darkness?

Zach probably. He’d been known to do that while we were dating. Couldn’t blame him. I was scoping Nate while technically still dating Zach, so actually, I was a heel. But still, he needed to grow up. He hadn’t stopped staring at me or trying to touch my hand or arm since we’d found him. Again, I couldn’t blame him. Last time he’d seen me, I was a splat of charred human flesh beneath massive helicopters in Jasmine’s backyard. And his mom had just been killed.

I needed to cut him some slack, but I couldn’t have him pawing me like that in front of my boyfriend.

I pressed play again and pushed up the volume until it hurt. I knew it was totally bad for my ears, but I needed to drown out all this thinking.

Felt like only minutes passed, and the car jostled. I popped my eyes open and pressed pause. The dim roadside light poles flew by overhead as we exited the interstate. A rest area. These places gave me the creeps more than any other, but only at night. During the day some of these had pretty sweet views. Like the sunset stop in Arizona. Loved that one.

But at night, it was like they morphed into a cheap horror flick stage.

Absolute darkness surrounding an isolated structure where total strangers stopped to pee—talk about creepyville.

I glanced at my phone. Nearly midnight. We had to be getting close. I was never known for patience or riding well on long drives, and it was starting to prickle beneath my skin.

The parking lot was pretty empty, minus about fifteen semis, but if they were in their cabs and there was space behind the building, maybe I could let off a little steam before crawling back in here. That’d help.

The car jostled to a stop in a spot slightly beyond the last light. I’d asked why once, and Nate had said we didn’t want to be beneath a bunch of lights so people had clear views of us.

Yeah, never would have thought of that. Tim took the customary quick scan, followed by Nate slowly getting out of his side and looking around. He tapped the car top signaling it all clear. Georgia and Lois burst out of the backseat and that left me room to climb over. Zach held out his hand to help me.

“I got it. Thanks.” I aimed for the open door Lois and Georgia went out and saw Nate standing near it. On my hands and knees on the backseat I looked up. His big smile greeted me. “Hey, you.”

He turned and bent down and gave me the perfect angle to jump onto his back. I loved his piggyback rides. Made me feel like a kid—fun and carefree.

I coiled my arms around his neck and clenched my legs tighter. He’d shed his massive jacket, so only our sweatshirts separated us. That was way better.

The cool air flushed out the stale air that had taken residence in my lungs.

I snuggled into his neck and nipped at his skin. “So how much longer?” Jeez I sounded like a bratty kid.

“Maybe about five more hours. Depending on weather.” He hoisted me up and despite the cold air surrounding me, my tummy tingled with warmth. “Aspen might be having a snowstorm, though. Last weather check said there was a chance.”

“Wonderful.” I pressed a kiss to his neck. “You doing okay? Maybe you need me to drive.”

“I don’t think I’ll fit in that cubbyhole very well.”

“True.” I glanced around. “Let’s go out back and I’ll throw some ice at you a while. I’m so cabin feverish.”

“You weren’t the only one who needed to stop.” He loosened his grip around me as we approached the restrooms. “But hurry up and I’ll meet you out back in three minutes.”

Georgia laughed. She’d been walking beside us. So lost in my moment of fun with Nate I’d forgotten about everyone else. Of course Zach being there shocked me right back into reality.

“Come on, Georgia.” I grabbed her hand and hurried into the restrooms.

Within the promised three minutes, I stole around the corner of the building and ran smack into a snowball to the gut. “No fair! I wasn’t ready.”

I ignited my hand and threw my own, homemade snowball at Nate. Then another. And another.

“Talk about not being fair. You generate them faster than I can make them.” He ducked behind a sign reminding us all to pick up after our dogs.

I glanced around. Only the bright moonlight spilled over us. The crisp darkness that had a hint of silver splashed over the tall trees that backed up to the rest area. But between us and the wall of trees there was a pit of darkness.