The Rebel

"What Trevor said makes some sense," Liz said, her arm still locked around Maria's waist.

"It's also what an intelligent kidnapper would say right now," Alex protested. He stared at Trevor over the top of Maria's head, his eyes narrow. "And no one is doubting Trevor's intelligence."

"And there's no one else who has a reason to take Kevin," Max added.

"Don't you have any real enemies?" Trevor asked.

"There's DuPris," Michael answered quickly. "DuPris would love to have another one of the Stones." He shot Max and Alex challenging looks, daring them to deny the truth.

"How would DuPris have gotten behind me in the wormhole?" Alex asked.

Michael shoved his hands into his pockets, fighting the urge to slam his fist into the cave wall. Alex was right. DuPris couldn't have been in the wormhole. "Who else?" he muttered. "There has to be somebody else."

"There is," Isabel said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her. Her eyes hardened as she spoke. "Kyle Valenti."

ELEVEN

"Michael, Liz, Trevor, Adam-you circle around back in case Kyle tries to bolt," Max instructed. "The rest of us will go straight to the front door."

He was almost surprised when the group split into the teams he'd specified with no argument. At least we finally found something we can agree on, he thought as Michael's team headed out.

For now. Max still had a bad feeling about Michael's brother. But it wouldn't hurt to check out the Kyle situation. He was praying that Kyle did have Kevin. If not, Max didn't know what was going to go down between him and Michael. And of course, Trevor himself.

He dug the heel of his hand into his forehead and twisted it back and forth, trying to get some relief from the headache that had kicked in during the drive to the cave.

"Max, let's go," Maria urged. "The others should be around back by now."

"Okay, let's do it." He led the way up to Kyle's front door and knocked. The door swung open immediately. Kyle smirked at them, appearing obscenely self-satisfied.

"Where is he, Valenti?" Max demanded.

"Kevin?" Maria shouted, trying to peer around Kyle. "Are you in there?"

"I'm glad you decided to tell me what I want to know," Kyle said.

Max charged forward, knocking Kyle back into the house. He slammed him against the wall of the front hall and jammed his forearm across Kyle's throat. "No, you're telling us what we want to know. Where's Kevin?"

He raised his fist and aimed it at Kyle's face. He was going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. It wasn't safe to use his power. "Talk," he ordered.

Before Kyle could say anything, Max heard the rest of the group burst into the back of the house. "You got him?" Michael shouted.

"Got him," Max called back. Not using my power isn't going to be any kind of problem, he thought. He could feel Alex crowding him, and a second later Michael, Trevor, Adam, and Liz burst into the hall, the fury coming off them like heat waves.

No, dividing Kyle into small enough pieces so everyone could get a shot at him-that was the problem. But Kyle, for some reason, didn't look worried.

"I'm not asking you again," Max warned him.

"You hit me, you never get Kevin back," Kyle said calmly.

Stalemate.

Max glanced at Michael. It was automatic. No matter what had been going on between them lately, when Max thought of backup, he thought of Michael.

"Oh, I'm sure that we could come up with something painful enough-long and painful enough-to get you squealing," Michael answered.

Kyle raised one eyebrow. "Possibly," he answered. He pi

"Don't let him mess with you," Alex told her.

"Kevin!" Maria shrieked again. "Are you in here?"

Max heard a sound. Very faint. Possibly nothing. But possibly-

Max jerked Kyle away from the wall and pushed him toward Alex. "Keep him here," he ordered.

"My pleasure," Alex answered. A second later Kyle was on the ground and Alex was kneeling on his chest.

Max started down the hall. He heard footsteps behind him. He glanced back. Michael and Trevor.

The thought of Trevor covering his back wasn't a happy one, but there was no time to battle it out. Max jerked open the first door on the left. Obviously Kyle's bedroom. Total sty. No Kevin.

Michael pushed past him and strode to the closet. He flung open the door. No Kevin.

Max rushed to the next room-Sheriff Valenti's office. Papers strewn everywhere. No Kevin.

"Kevin, if you can hear us, try to make a sound," Trevor shouted.

Where did the guy get off? He'd been on earth for like a day and he was-

Not now, Max told himself. He listened hard and thought he heard a muffled thumping. "What do you think? Under the-"

"Yeah," Michael answered. "Under the floor. There must be a crawl space."

He took the lead, Max and Trevor right behind him. As they entered the master bedroom Max felt a tingle from the consciousness. Some of the beings were interested in the texture of the bedspread.

Automatically he took a step toward the bed. Then he jerked himself away and turned down the volume on the consciousness as low as it could go. He could still feel the beings urging him to go over and run his hands across the material, maybe climb on it and roll around. But it was at a level he could ignore.

"Got it," Michael a

"I'm going in," Max said. He strode over and lowered himself through the opening. "Stay here. I'll hand him up to you," he told Michael.

He crouched down until his head was low enough to clear the ceiling of the crawl space. The darkness under the house was no problem for Max. He spotted Kevin almost instantly.

"Your sister's upstairs," he called as he crawled on his hands and knees toward the boy. Kevin gave a muffled cry through his gag. It looked like Kyle had stuffed a te

"Almost there, almost there," he told Kevin. Max felt a nail in one of the beams rip through his shirt and slice down his back. He ignored it. "Okay, got you." He reached out and ripped the duct tape off Kevin's mouth with one quick pull.

Kevin clawed the te

Max hadn't been expecting that question. "The guy's one sick little puppy," he answered, hoping Kevin wouldn't push the issue.

"Let's get out of here. Think you can crawl all right?"

Kevin gave him a duh look. "If you untie my hands and feet," he answered.

Max quickly untied the clothesline that bound Kevin. Maybe I should keep this, he thought. Give Kyle a little taste of what he did to this kid.

The second he was free, Kevin was crawling toward the square of light in the open trapdoor. He was faster than Max. Sometimes it helps to be small, Max thought as the same nail got him a second time.

"It smells like mouse poop down here," Kevin complained. He squirmed his way over to the trapdoor.

Max smiled. If Kevin was feeling good enough to whine, he was fine.

"Yeah, it does," Max agreed. "We're coming up," he called to Michael. But Kevin was already hauling himself into the closet.

A moment later a hand reached down to Max. He grabbed it and used it to pull himself up. Two realizations hit him as his head cleared the trapdoor.

It was Trevor helping him out.

And Trevor had his free hand in Max's pocket.

The volume on his co