“Who was that?” I asked, my throat constricting with something I couldn’t quite describe.
“My uncle. He and my father don’t get along.” Jack didn’t offer any more explanation, and in the back of my head, somewhere behind my mind’s acknowledgement of the way my skin was humming and the rising ball of lovely dread in my stomach, I realized that Jack’s uncle sounded very familiar.
“So,” Jack said.
“So,” I repeated.
He inched toward me, and the look in his eyes made my heart jump.
All thoughts of voices gone, I stepped backward. Slowly, he advanced on me, and I backed up until my shoulders were pressed against the paneled wall. Trying to concentrate on something other than Jack’s lips, which were moving closer to mine by the second, I pressed my hand firmly against the wall, finally slipping the bug I’d been sent here to plant into place.
Mission complete.
“Care to share your thoughts with the class, Ev?” Jack asked. His face was so close to mine that I could feel his breath on my cheeks.
My thoughts were as follows.
He was going to kiss me.
I wanted him to kiss me.
I hated that I wanted him to kiss me. Howone of those girlscould I get?
Kissing him would be wrong. He was my mark. I was using him.
The entire Squad would probably watch this footage on repeat as soon as April’s party was over.
In that moment, I made three impulsive decisions.
I grabbed the charm around my neck and twisted it, turning the camera off completely.
I leaned forward and beat him to the punch, planting the world’s biggest, longest, hottest kiss on his mouth.
And then I punched him in the stomach, turned, and ran. It wasn’t until I got far enough out of the office and away from Jack that my mind started working again and I realized why the voice on the answering machine had sounded so familiar. I’d heard it before. It was a voice that had told us to infiltrate and bug the building I was standing in now.
Jack’s uncle was our Charlie.
CHAPTER 33
Code Word: Fire
Despite my postrealization, postkiss stupor, I made it out the big glass doors and into the elevator before Jack realized what (or rather, who) had hit him. Thanks to my nimble fingers pressing the “close” button with great fervor, the elevator doors closed just as Jack started to come after me, and I made it out of the building and into the parking garage before I realized that I was completely and utterly screwed.
I hadn’t driven here. Jack had. Jack, whose father was the head of the evil law firm. Jack, whose uncle was apparently the voice behind our orders. I shook my head to clear it. What was with me and forgetting about Jack driving? And I called myself a secret agent. I ran out of the garage, knowing that Jack wouldn’t be more than a couple of minutes behind me.
Jack, who was quite possibly the best kisser known to womankind.
“Need a ride?”
If you’d told me that I would ever, ever, under any circumstances be glad to see Chloe Larson’s little red car, complete with an eye-rolling Chloe in the driver’s seat, I would have suggested you get your head checked. But there she was, and I wasn’t about to look a gift cheerleader in the mouth. I ran to the car like a madwoman, flung open the door, and jumped in.
“Go,” I said. “Go, go, go!”
Thrill Driver that she was, Chloe needed no more encouragement, and seconds later, we were flying down the street. Fearing for my life, I grabbed for the seat belt.
“How’d you know?” I asked. Forget what I said about the whole looking the gift cheerleader in the mouth thing. My mind was doing some quick mental additions, and the fact that Chloe was Cheerleader Ex Number Two on the Jack front had me more than a little suspicious. Had she been planning on crashing our nondate? Or had she heard what I’d heard on the answering machine and thought to get me out of there fast? “And what were you doing so close to Peyton?”
Chloe was silent for a moment, and then she fessed up. “When your video feed went dead, I got a little worried.”
