Finding Sky

So my instinct had been right. ‘They’re trying to get to me through my parents.’

‘And through you to us. The Kel ys’ score with the Benedicts has grown longer since we took out two of their men at the warehouse. It might be the lead we’re looking for.’

Zed’s arm was draped around my shoulders. He now sat up straight, alerted to the dangerous situation that was brewing.

‘You can’t use Sky and her parents in this, Vick.’

Victor shut the lid of the laptop. ‘We’re beating our heads against a brick wal at the moment, not least on the whereabouts of the two escapees. The whole family should be behind bars, but we can’t even keep those we put there under lock and key. It’s frustrating to say the least.’

‘What do you think I can do?’ I asked.

‘I had in mind that you could wear a wire when you meet Maria Toscana Kel y.’

‘But she’l be walking into a trap!’ protested Zed.

‘Vick, she’s not doing that.’

‘Not if we know about it first—then we can reverse it, catch them instead. These people won’t stop coming after us until we get them. I’m thinking of her as wel as us—she’s one of us too.’

I toyed with the straps of my schoolbag. I could help the Benedicts if I did this. If nothing was done, they’d never be able to breathe freely. It was the least I could do as I had been increasingly panicking about the savant thing and was coming to the conclusion that the best thing I could do—the safest

—was to run. I’d have to tel Zed that I had no intention of being anything more than his temporary girlfriend. Very soon I’d go back to England and leave the savant world behind.

‘Don’t listen to him, Sky,’ Zed said softly.

‘But I can help.’

He looked resolute. ‘I’d prefer to know you’re safe and wel even if it means that the danger doesn’t go away for my family.’

‘What’s the use of that? We’l al be in a kind of prison—one run by Daniel Kel y.’

‘Oh God, Sky, don’t do this to me.’ Zed put his forehead to mine, his distress reaching me in black waves shot through with lightning flashes of silver.

He was so quick to protect me; it was about time he al owed me to return the favour. I wasn’t the frail damsel in distress he seemed to think; I had my own power, my own agenda. If I couldn’t be the brave partner he needed, the least I wanted was to make sure he and his family would never be harmed by these people.

‘No, I won’t be doing it to you, I’l be doing it for al of us—and because it’s the right thing. I don’t want it on my conscience that I did nothing when I had a chance to make a difference. Who else wil Daniel Kel y mind-mug if I don’t help stop him?’

‘Vick!’ pleaded Zed. ‘You can’t let anything happen to her.’

Victor nodded solemnly. ‘I promise. She’s one of us, isn’t she? I wouldn’t let those creeps get us, so I won’t let them touch Sky. And she won’t be going in without protection.’

Zed was stil unconvinced. In some ways he was like my parents, seeing me as too delicate to face the threats out in the world. I wanted to prove him wrong. I could handle this.

‘What kind of protection?’ I asked Victor.

Zed wasn’t having it. ‘Sky, just shut up. You’re not doing this. I’ve seen what these people can do—I’m not letting you get messed up in that.’

I thumped him in the ribs—hard. ‘You have no right to tel me to shut up, Zed Benedict. You act like I have to be kept in cotton wool. I’ve seen bad stuff too

—you know I have.’

‘Not like this. I don’t want it touching you.’

‘So it’s OK for you to fil your head with these horrors, but not me?’

‘Wel , yeah.’

‘That’s just stupid—and sexist.’

‘Zed, we need her,’ added his brother.

‘Keep out of this, Victor,’ I snapped.

‘Yes, ma’am.’

I glared at them both. ‘I’ve been wanting to say this to you for some time now. You need help, Zed, help coping with the stuff your family dump in your head. I know it makes you angry and frustrated and you take it out on other people, like the teachers, because you can’t reach the people who did the bad stuff …’

Zed tried to cut me off. ‘Just a moment, Sky …’

‘No, you wait a moment, I’m not finished. I happen to know rather more than most about what bad experiences can do to your head and you need time to sort yourself out without Kel y’s threat hanging over you. So to give you that, I’m going to Las Vegas to

… to kick Daniel Kel y’s butt.’

‘Wel said, Sky,’ Victor applauded as Zed glowered at me.

‘Now, back to business,’ I said briskly. ‘What protection did you have in mind?’

‘We’re not finished here,’ growled Zed.

‘Yes, we are. Victor, you were saying?’

Victor gri

I nodded.

‘This time it’l be Windsor Castle thick, rings of protection, OK?’

I smiled. ‘OK.’

‘And I have a few ideas of what you can do to that scum, Sean, if he goes sniffing around your emotions.’

‘Even better.’

Victor patted my hand. ‘I like you, Sky. You’re a fighter.’

‘I am, aren’t I? Hear that, Zed? No more Bambi comparisons. I’m a Rottweiler—with a temper.’

‘A very smal Rottweiler,’ said Zed, stil not convinced.

The biggest issue as the weekend approached was how much my parents should know about the set up.

As a mother herself, Karla was in favour of ful disclosure;

I

was

against,

knowing

they’d

immediately ban me from going and pul the meeting, tipping off the Kel ys that we were on to them. Victor agreed with me; in the end it was decided that he should have a talk with Sal y and Simon about the possibility of those behind the kidnapping stil being out there, without actual y naming Maria Toscana Kel y.

On Friday evening, my last day before the trip, I lay curled up on the sofa at the Benedicts’ house next to Zed while he watched basebal . He had an arm around me, the other digging into the large bowl of popcorn. Everyone else in the family had made themselves scarce, knowing that Zed wanted this time alone with me before sending me off to Vegas in the morning. Less interested in the mysteries of basebal than studying him, I gazed at the curve of his neck, the line of his jaw, and the slope of his nose. How could anyone be so outrageously … wel , the only word I could come up with was ‘hot’? It didn’t seem fair to the rest of us tepid mortals. I thought he was too hooked by the game to notice my study, but I was wrong. He started to laugh.

‘Sky, you’re being sappy again.’

‘Is sappy the same as the English soppy?’

‘I guess.’

‘But I like looking at you.’

‘I’m trying to watch basebal here—it’s, like, a sacred pursuit.’

I snuggled closer. How much longer would I be able to do this? ‘I’m not stopping you.’

‘You are. I can feel your eyes on my face almost as if you were touching me.’

‘You’ve got a very nice face.’

‘Why, thank you, Miss Bright.’

‘You’re welcome, Mr Benedict.’ I waited a moment, then whispered. ‘Now you’re supposed to say “And yours isn’t bad either.”’

He removed his attention from the screen to look down at my upturned face. ‘There’s a script for this?

What, in “Romance 101”?’

‘Uh-huh. One compliment demands one in return.’

He wrinkled his brow in thought. ‘Wel then, Miss Bright, you have a mighty fine … left ear.’

I pelted him with a handful of popcorn.

‘I blew it?’ he asked i

‘Yes, you did.’

He removed the ammunition from my reach, kicked his legs up on the sofa and pul ed me on top of him so I lay with my head on his chest, toes touching. I traced little circles on his chest, enjoying his shiver of pleasure. He was so different from me