Authors: Meg Cabot
Tags: #Romance, #Fantasy, #Young Adult, #Science Fiction, #Mystery
Sanctuary (21 page)
Dr. Krantz cleared his throat uncomfortably. Special Agents Johnson and Smith exchanged nervous glances.
“Ask me what?” I knew, though. I already knew.
“Jessica,” Special Agent Smith said. “We all seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot with you. I know how you feel about coming to work for us, but I just want you to know, it won’t be like it was with … well, the first time. Dr. Krantz has been doing groundbreaking work with … people like yourself. Why, Mrs. Pierce and Malcolm here are part of his team.”
Mrs. Pierce smiled at me kindly above the baby bootie. “That’s right, dear,” she said.
“It just really seems to me,” Special Agent Smith said, reaching up to fiddle with her pearl earring, “that you would enjoy the work, Jessica. Especially considering your feelings about Mr. Henderson. Those are the kind of people Dr. Krantz and his team are after, you know. People like Jim Henderson.”
I glanced at Dr. Krantz. He looked a lot less intimidating in his hospital gown than he did in his usual garb, a suit and tie.
“It’s true, Jessica,” he said. “Someone with powers like yours could really be a boon to our team. And we wouldn’t require anything from you but a few hours a week of your time.”
I eyed him warily. “Really? I wouldn’t have to go live in Washington, or anything?”
“Not at all,” Dr. Krantz said.
“And I could keep going to school?”
“Of course,” Dr. Krantz said.
“And you’d keep it out of the press?” I asked. “I mean, you’d make sure it was a secret?”
“Jessica,” Dr. Krantz said. “You saved my life. I owe you that much, at least.”
I looked at Malcolm. He was absorbed in his video game, but as if he sensed my gaze on him, he looked up.
“You work for him?” I asked, gruffly. “You like it?”
Malcolm shrugged, ” ’s okay,” he said. Then he turned back to his game. But I could tell by the way color was spreading over his cheeks that working for Dr. Krantz was more than just okay. It was a chance for this otherwise average-looking kid to make a difference. He’d wanted to seem cool about it in front of the others, but you could totally tell: This kid was way psyched about his job.
“How about you?” I asked Mrs. Pierce.
“Oh, my dear,” the old lady said, with a beatific smile. “Helping to put away scumbags like that jerk Henderson is what I live for.”
After this surprising remark, she turned back to the baby bootie.
Well.
I looked at Dr. Krantz. “Tell you what,” I said. “I’ll think about it, okay?”
“Fine,” Dr. Krantz said, with a smile. “You do that.”
I told him I hoped he felt better soon, said goodbye to the others, and drifted back across the hall.
So? Stranger things have happened than me joining an elite team of psychic crime-fighters, you know.
And it
had
felt pretty good when I’d seen them wheeling Jim Henderson in on that gurney… .
Inside Rob’s room, Mrs. Wilkins had been joined by her brothers and Just-Call-Me-Gary.
“Oh,” Rob’s mom said, as I came in. “Here she is!”
Rob, his hair looking very dark against the whiteness of the bandage around his head, and the pillows behind his back, smiled at me wanly. It was the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. Instantly, all thoughts of Dr. Krantz and the Federal Bureau of Investigation left my head.
“Hi,” I said, moving toward the bed. I had, for the occasion, donned a skirt. It was no velvet evening gown, but judging by the appreciative way his gray-eyed gaze roved over me, he sure thought it was.
“Well,” Rob’s uncle said. “What say we check out this cafeteria I’ve heard so much about, eh, Mary?”
Mrs. Wilkins said, “Oh, yes, let’s.” Then she and her brothers and Just-Call-Me-Gary left the room.
Hey, it wasn’t subtle. But it worked. Rob and I were alone. Finally.
It was a little while later that I lifted my head from his shoulder, where I’d been resting it after having become exhausted from so much passionate kissing, and said, “Rob, I have to tell you something.”
“I didn’t ask you,” he said, “because I didn’t want you getting in trouble with your parents.”
I looked at him like he was nuts. For a minute, I thought maybe he was. You know, that Mrs. Henderson had scrambled his brains with that mashed-potato bowl. “What are you talking about?”
“Randy’s wedding,” Rob said. “It’s on Christmas Eve. No way your parents are going to let you go out on Christmas Eve. So you’d just have ended up lying to them, and getting in trouble, and I don’t want that.”
I blinked a few times. So
that
was why he hadn’t asked me? Because he’d thought my parents wouldn’t have let me go in the first-place?
Happiness washed over me. But still, he could have just said so, rather than let me think he had some other girl in mind he wanted to take instead… .
I didn’t let my relief show, however.
“Rob,” I said. “Get over yourself. That’s not what I was going to say.”
He looked surprised. “It wasn’t? Then what?”
I shook my head. “Besides,” I said. “My parents would so totally let me go out on Christmas Eve. We don’t do anything on Christmas Eve. It’s Christmas Day that we do church and present opening and a big meal and everything.”
“Fine,” Rob said. “But don’t tell me that you’d tell them the truth. About being with me, I mean. Admit it, Mastriani. You’re ashamed of me. Because I’m a Grit.”
“That is
not
true,” I said. “
You’re
the one who’s ashamed of me! Because I’m a Townie. And still in high school.”
“I will admit,” Rob said, “that the fact that you’re still in high school kind of sucks. I mean, it
is
a little weird for a guy my age to be going out with a sixteen-year-old.”
I looked down at him disgustedly. “You’re only two years older than me, nimrod.”
“Whatever,” Rob said. “Look. Do we have to talk about this now? Because in case you didn’t notice, I’ve suffered a head injury, and calling me a nimrod is not making me feel any better.”
“Well,” I said, chewing on my lower lip. “What I’m about to say probably isn’t going to make you feel better.”
“What?” Rob said, looking wary.
“Your dad.” I figured it was better if I just blurted it all out. “I saw a picture of him in your mom’s room, and I know where he is.”
Rob regarded me calmly. He did not even drop his hands from my arms, which he’d reached up to massage.
“Oh,” was all he said.
“I didn’t mean to pry,” I said, quickly. “Really. I mean, I totally didn’t do it on purpose. It’s just, like I said, I saw his picture, and that night I dreamed about where he is. And I will totally tell you, if you want to know. But if you don’t, that’s fine, too, I will never say another word about it.”
“Mastriani,” Rob said, with a chuckle. “I know where he is.”
My mouth dropped open. “You
know
? You
know
where he is?”
“Doing ten to twenty at the Oklahoma Men’s State Penitentiary for armed robbery,” Rob said. “Real swell guy, huh? And I’m just a chip off the old block. I bet you’re real eager to introduce me to your parents now.”
“But that’s not what you’re on probation for,” I said, quickly. “I mean, something like armed robbery. You don’t get probation for stuff like that, they lock you up. So whatever you did—”
“Whatever I did,” Rob said, “was a mistake and isn’t going to happen again.”
But to my dismay, he let go of me, and put his hands behind his head. He wasn’t chuckling anymore either.
“Rob,” I said. “You don’t think I care, do you? I mean, about your dad? We can’t help who are relatives are.” I thought about Great-aunt Rose, who’d never committed armed robbery—at least so far as I knew. Still, if being unpleasant was a crime, she’d have been locked up long ago. “I mean, if I don’t care that you were arrested once, why would I care about—”
“You should care,” Rob said. “Okay, Mastriani? You
should
care. And you should be going out on Saturday nights to dances, like a normal girl, not sneaking into secret militia enclaves and risking your life to stop psychopathic killers… .”
“Yeah?” I said, starting to get pissed. “Well, guess what? I’m not a normal girl, am I? I’m about as far from normal as you can get, and you know what? I happen to
like
who I am. So if you don’t, well, you can just—”
Rob took his hands out from behind his head and took hold of my arms again. “Mastriani,” he said.
“I mean it, Rob,” I said, trying to shake him off. “I mean it, if you don’t like me, you can just go to—”
“Mastriani,” he said, again. And this time, instead of letting go of me, he dragged me down until my face was just inches from his. “That’s the problem. I like you too much.”
He was proving just how much he liked me when the door to his room swung open, and a startled voice went, “Oh! Excuse
me!
”
We broke apart. I swung around to see my brother Douglas standing there looking very red in the face. Beside him stood, of all people, a very abashed Tasha Thompkins.
“Oh,” I said, casually. “Hey, Douglas. Hey, Tasha.”
“Hey,” Rob said, sounding a bit weak.
“Hey,” Tasha said. She looked like she would have liked to run from the room. But my brother put a hand on her slender shoulder. My brother, Douglas, touched a girl—and she seemed to regain her composure somewhat.
“Jess,” she said. “I just … I came to apologize. For what I said the other night. My father told me what you did—you know, about catching the people who did … that … to my brother, and I just …”
“It’s okay, Tasha,” I said. “Believe me.”
“Yeah,” Rob said. “It was a pleasure. Well, except for the part where I got hit with a mixing bowl.”
“Mashed potatoes,” I said.
“Mashed-potato bowl, I mean,” Rob said.
“Really,” I said to Tasha, who looked faintly alarmed by our banter. “It’s okay, Tasha. I hope we can be friends.”
“We can,” Tasha said, her eyes bright with tears. “At least, I hope we can.”
I held out my arms, and she moved into them, hugging me tightly. It was only when she got close enough for me to whisper into her ear that I said, softly, “You break my brother’s heart, I’ll break your face, understand?”
Tasha tensed in my arms. Then she released me and straightened. She didn’t look upset, though. She looked excited and happy.
“Oh,” she said, sniffling a little, but still reaching for Douglas’s hand. “I won’t. Don’t worry.”
Douglas looked alarmed, but not because Tasha had taken his hand.
“You won’t what?” he asked. He darted a suspicious look at me. “Jess. What’d you say to her?”
“Nothing,” I said, innocently, and sat down on Rob’s bed.
And then, from behind them, a familiar voice went, “Knock knock,” and my mother came barreling in, with my dad, Michael, Claire, Ruth, and Skip trailing along behind her.
“Just stopped by to see if you wanted to grab a bite over at the restaurant… .” My mom’s voice died away as soon as she saw where I was sitting. Or rather, who I was sitting so closely beside.
“Mom,” I said, with a smile, not getting up. “Dad. Glad you’re here. I’d like you to meet my boyfriend, Rob.”
About the Author
Jenny Carroll
Born in Indiana, Jenny Carroll spent her childhood in pursuit of air conditioning - which she found in the public library where she spent most of her time. She has lived in California and France and currently resides in New York City with her husband and a one-eyed cat named Henrietta. Jenny Carroll is the author of the hugely popular Mediator series as well as the bestselling Princess Diaries. Visit Jenny at her website, www.jennycarroll.com