Frostbite (Touch of Frost) (13 page)

Georgia nodded.

“Okay, then. Back to my theory. You guys hooking up with Dan and Zach, then Georgia finding her best friend on the floor totally frozen. That explains the explosion of powers from you both. Mandy, you’ve known about yours a while and have been able to practice, but Georgia, this is a first for you.”

She nodded again. Her silence was starting to unnerve me.

“How do we handle her parents, Scott? It’s different for us since it’s just you and me. She can’t waltz up to her mom and say, ‘Hey, can you shoot fire from your hands?’”

“That’s true. How are we going to find out if they have any powers? Or any connection to the
Coats
?”

Georgia rubbed her hands together. “My folks are going to church tomorrow morning. You and I can snoop around Mom’s office.”

“It’s worth a shot.” I held her hands between mine. “You’re staying with me tonight.”

“What about your hike with Zach?” Georgia’s voice wasn’t much more than a whisper.

“I’ll cancel, no biggie.” As much as I wanted to hang with Zach, Georgia needed me more. No way would I leave her hanging.

Georgia stood in the middle of the room fingering her crimson locks. I’d venture a bet hair-dye wouldn’t cover up the new color. Why didn’t Mom have blue hair, though? I ducked down so I could get into Georgia’s line of sight. Tears flowed. Her lip quivered, which sent my eyes burning. I pulled her into my arms.

My best friend. My only friend. She was fire. I was ice.

She sniffled and said, “My mom was right. You
are
trouble.”

FIFTEEN

“T
his sucks.” Georgia slumped onto the desk chair. The leather groaned beneath her weight. “There’s nothing here.”

“No way. There’s got to be something.”

“We’ve looked through this house for over an hour, girl.”

I turned a circle, scanning every inch of the cramped office. Besides a massive cherry wood desk in the center of the room and a chair in the corner, it was bare. Boring antique paintings decorated the walls. Then again, boring and antique kind of described Georgia’s mom. This was the last room in the house, but we’d found nothing in that stupid desk.

“Wait. Does she have a safe somewhere? Or a fire box? Maybe a safety deposit box at a bank?”

Georgia shrugged. “She has a work safe where she keeps her real estate stuff.”

“Well,
duh
, where is it?”

“In the closet.” Three steps took Georgia to the small closet. “It’s on the floor. It’s, like, a hundred years old, I think. But I don’t have the combination.”

“Oh girl. You are a goody-goody, aren’t you?” I laughed. I didn’t really know how to get into it either besides ripping off the door, but that’d be pretty obvious.

“We can’t break it, then she’ll know. You’re going to get me in a lot of trouble.” Georgia hugged her chest, then rocked side-to-side.

I steadied her by the shoulder. “If she’s like us, we have to know. We have to find out.”

“Let’s ask her.” She bobbed her head up and down. “We could tell her everything.”

“No way.” I turned to the closet. “We’ll end up in the psych ward if she’s clean. I would venture to guess they have
needles
in the psych ward.”

I leaned into the small space to check out the safe. It was square, black, like painted metal, but time had worn down the shiny covering, not to mention the dings and dents in the paint. The right corner tip was chipped off.

“It looks old, not that I’ve seen a ton of these things before.”

I picked up the massive pile of steel, or whatever they’re made of, and set it on the desk.

“That looks really heavy. How’d you do that?”

“Oh, yeah. Never mentioned that yet. I’m a little stronger than the average person.”

“Will I get strength?”

“I have no idea. If we can get into the safe, maybe we’ll find out.”

Georgia slouched against the desk. “But how?”

“We’ve seen movies before. How’d they get into it?”

“Charlize Theron did it by touch. Right?”

I laughed. “That’s the movie I was thinking about, too. What if I freeze it?”

“That’ll break it for sure, then mom will know.”

“Maybe she’ll think it was a break-in. Scott’ll vouch for us and say we were at my house.”

“Girl. I don’t know. I have a bad feeling about this.”

“How bad do you want to find out?”

Georgia looked at her fingertips. “Do it.”

I turned my attention to the safe. Two silver hinges protruded from the side of the scratched onyx door. The large, chrome handle seemed like a good place to start with the cool down. Or maybe the hinges? Freeze them off? Or maybe the turn-dial thing.

I opted to press my palm flat across the front of the safe door. Georgia was right, the safe had to be a zillion years old by the looks of the dents and dings. Not that I was an expert, but hopefully, since it was old, it would be easy to break into.

My fingernails flared blue. Georgia gasped behind me.

The icy tint crept past my knuckles, then frost engulfed my entire hand. The ice crackled as it spread onto the door, covering the hinges and the dial. I glanced at Georgia. Despite huffing white clouds of breath, she didn’t shiver or anything.

My concentration intensified, and I hoped to hear something snap soon. Anything to clue me in to when I should stop. All I heard was the ice crackling. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

“Try it now,” Georgia said.

I gripped the handle and cranked. It gave way, and the door creaked open.

“Did you break it?”

“I don’t think so. Can’t tell.” I pulled it wide open. At this point I didn’t really care if I broke anything. I just wanted to know what was going on with us and answers might lie inches from my fingertips.

A book sat in the small space. No papers. No stacks of money like I’d envisioned. I watched way too many movies.

“Just a book?” Georgia asked.

I reached in and snatched it, then closed the safe. It didn’t latch.
Damn it
, I’d probably broken it. “It’s not shutting.”

“Well, we’re in deep shit already, let’s get out of here.”

I handed the book to her, then tried to shut the door again. It kind of stuck but hung crooked. If someone looked closely or tried to open it, they’d notice right away. I hoisted the safe into my arms and stepped to the closet.

“Georgia, can you melt the ice?”

“Oh, man. I don’t know. What if I start the house on fire?”

“You won’t. I’m here. I’ll watch you. Remember what you did with the glass at my house, right? If we let it melt on its own, it’s going to make a mess.”

“I’ll try.” She set the book on the desk then edged toward me, eyes fixed on the safe I’d placed on the floor. “So, do I just touch it?”

“Do what I did. Palm open right here.”

“Sure, easy for you to say. You’ve had four years of practice. I’ve had, like, five hours.” Georgia dropped to her knees in front of the safe and touched the door. She sucked in a deep breath.

I did, too. My heart started a boxing match with my ribs. “Think ‘warm up the door’ or something like that.”

She eyed me, and her brows raised.

“I know it sounds dumb, but it’s worked for me—sort of—for years.”

The hand resting on Georgia’s knee fisted, then relaxed. Her jaw clenched.

“Nice and easy. Breathe.”

Her chest caved, as her lungs deflated. “Oh, my gosh.”

“Keep focusing.” A light shade of pink colored her skin, and her nails flared.

The ice crackled, and her hand color intensified until it nearly glowed. Then, the ice turned to steam.

“Mandy?”

“Pull the heat back in. Concentrate.”

Georgia removed her hand from the door, and her nostrils flared. “Back off,” she whispered.

Exactly like I did when I was trying to shut down the cold. I just hoped her heat listened and didn’t spark anything—Wait a minute. The fire up in the woods, after I’d killed the
Coats.
Georgia must have done that.

I opened my mouth to tell her but snapped it shut. Then I’d have to tell her about the
Coats
that might be lurking around Trifle. No need to freak her out. She was doing so well with the heat.

Georgia’s eyes widened. “I can
not
believe I just did that.”

“You were great.” I closed the closet door. “Let’s get out of here.”

“I’m so freaking out. Sublimation, girl. Didn’t you take chemistry?”

“Sure, but you know
my
grades.”

“I didn’t just melt that ice. It completely skipped the liquid phase and jumped right to the steam!”

“Calm down, G. You’re wiggin’.”

“I know.” She paced in front of the door. “Now. If I could only remember how to breathe.”

“Let’s go.” I stole the book and dragged her out the door.

As we made our way down Main Street to my place, my cell phone buzzed in my back pocket. It sent every nerve in my body tingling. Man, I was jumpy. I dug it out, and Scott’s name zipped across the screen.

“Go ahead and answer. I’ll start going through the book.” Georgia veered off to the bench beside a drug store.

I tapped answer. “Hi.”

“Talk.”

“You might have to cover for us if anyone reports a break-in at Georgia’s house.” I glanced at Georgia. “We found a book. On our way to you now.”

“Keep your eyes open, remember.”

“On it.” I pressed end and scanned the deserted streets. Scents of donuts and coffee from the bakery at the end of the block whispered along the breeze. The bright morning sun was the only thing dotting the blue sky. But what I liked most…no
Coats
.

“I found something.” Georgia’s voice sent a jolt of fear right through my chest, and I had to cough to catch my breath.

I slumped onto the bench next to her. She held up a disc of some sort. “That was in the book?”

She nodded. “No writing or anything. Blank pages, then it was in the middle of the book.”

Clear cover. No label. “Looks like a DVD or CD.”

“Could be either. But your laptop can play both.” She stood. “Let’s get back to your place and try it.”

“Great, it’ll probably blow up my laptop.”

“It’s your turn to risk something. I’m going to get nailed for breaking into the safe. So there.” She stuck out her tongue.

We bolted to the apartment and found Scott sitting at the kitchen table. I held up the disc and waved him to follow us to my bedroom.

I sat on my desk chair, Georgia dragged another next to me, and Scott hovered behind us tugging at his bottom lip. My sweaty, shaky finger pushed the disk into the drive. I couldn’t catch my breath no matter how much air I gasped.

After a few clanks and a couple clicks, an icon popped on my desktop. No name. Only a white circle. I double-clicked it, and a message came up on the screen:
ENTER PASSWORD
.

I seriously wanted to punch something. Answers so close and the dumb computer asked for a password? What password?

“No.” Georgia flipped through the book. “There’s nothing in here.”

“Try Georgia’s name,” Scott said.

I typed it in, then tried her birthday, then her mom’s birthday. After the third entry, an error message flashed, stating we’d entered too many incorrect answers and had been locked out.

“Like we weren’t locked out before.” I threw my hands up in surrender.

Georgia looked at my brother. “Now what?”

“We’ve got to hack through it somehow,” Scott said

“How? My level of expertise on the computer is limited to Twitter, Facebook, and downloading music.”

“Mine, too.” Georgia slouched into the chair.

“I know how to run the register and my phone, that’s about it for me.” Scott dropped onto my bed. “Damn it.”

I looked at him.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Even Georgia’s dropping swear words.” I flicked her shoulder.

“I think the last twelve hours have merited my foul language.”

“Who do we know that can help?” I asked. “There’s got to be someone at school. Some computer geek or something.”

“Probably, but then they’d know what’s up if they read the contents,” Scott said.

“If it even holds anything.” I shook my head. “It could be a worthless piece of crap for all we know. Might be a list of your mom’s real estate deals.”

Georgia sat straight and pointed at me. “Hey, wait. You know who knows computers?”

“Don’t even say Zach does.” What were the chances?

“He
totally
does. Well, I’m not sure if he knows how to hack into things, but a couple of years ago he got busted for something with computers. I heard he sent a nasty message to someone at school. Rumor was that he sent it anonymously, but he got caught because someone ratted him out.”