CHAPTER ELEVEN: Deaths Traps in Suburbia

-

“Carly hasn’t approached you yet, has she?” Mitchell sat down beside me on the stairs as I waited for Nick to arrive at school.

It was officially the second week into school, and I had learned that Nick was an insanely slow driver—well, that, or I was an insanely speedy driver (he liked to say it was the latter).

The stalking assignment last Tuesday had gone fairly smoothly albeit the ride home was tense. After that day, Nick had begun to try and make an effort to strike up conversation, but for some reason I found that it was hard for him. Now, I’m not really social, or a very chatty person, but thinking of things to say wasn’t hard, especially since we knew almost nothing about each other. It seemed like a part of him was actually refraining himself from making conversation. With me. It was only and always, with me.

But I liked that he was making an effort, and I enjoyed the fun side to him. It distracted me from thinking of things like how much I missed the comfort and stability of the Academy, or the questions about Dani’s whereabouts, and how Kaci was doing. He was such a good distraction, sometimes I wished we could stay lounging on the couches in the family room forever.

A lot can happen in a month. A lot more can happen in a week. And that terrified me. How long were we going to be stuck in Highland Park? Undercover, and on a mission? And what would happen next?

I forced out smiled. “Nope, not yet.”

Last week, bright and early every morning, Carly would bounce up to me in all her liveliness, and ask to sit with her at lunch with Nick. There was never a reason to say no (other than how much I disliked the admiring looks she sent him), so I always agreed. Mitchell wasn’t too excited about that; he told me he missed me sitting at his table. Which was weird, because I’ve only sat with him and his friends once. And we talked in the classes that we were together, so it wasn’t like we never saw each other.

He grinned. “Good! So you want to sit with me at lunch today, then?”

I grinned when I spotted a familiar banana-yellow Porsche Cabriolet drive into the lot. He was probably pissed off, because I had purposely taken all the car keys and left that one for him to drive. He didn’t like the car, but I loved it. I was determined to make him like it, too.

“Cassie?” I quickly averted my attention back to Mitchell.

“Sorry, zoned out,” I smiled apologetically. “You were saying?”

“Want to sit with us at lunch today?”

“Uh…” I managed, distracted again as Nick got out of the car and flipped his dark hair out of his face, the sun shining brightly against it. He slammed the door shut and scanned the school yard, eyes quickly landing on me. He sent me a smirk, then oddly, a glare when he saw who was sitting beside me.

Taking my lack of response negatively, disappointment and horror spread across Mitchell’s face. “Oh, no! Carly beat me to it again?”

Looking back at him, I processed his words and quickly shook my head. “No!” I laughed, trying to focus. “Sure, I’ll sit with you at lunch.”

He grinned at me. “Great!”

I nodded. “How was your weekend?”

“It was alright,” he shrugged. “Had a tennis match on Saturday, slept all day Sunday. The usual. What about you?”

“Slept in, lounged around; did nothing,” I said, waving it off as a boring weekend. I also watched your house through camera footage, followed you to your tennis game, followed your parents out to dinner, and followed your little sister to the movies with her friends, I added in my head.

The warning bell rang, and we both got up. “See you in Chem,” he said, grabbing his bag.

“Later,” I muttered, furiously searching the crowd for Nick—or purple, because he was wearing a rather flamboyant purple jacket today.

“Oh, Cassie?” I turned around to see Mitchell still standing where he was two seconds ago.

“Hmm?”

“There’s a party at my house Friday night, you in?” he asked, looking hopeful.

The first thing I thought of was: didn’t he have an errand day Friday?

Then I thought: damn, now we have to figure out their second errand day besides tomorrow.

And finally: this would probably be a good chance to snoop inside their house.

“Sure, that’d be great. Who’s going?” I asked, offering a bright smile.

“Everyone,” he smirked. “Spread it.”

I nodded and waved as he disappeared within the mob of students trying to squish in through the front doors.

“Boo!”

“Shit!” I cried, whirling around and then glaring at the culprit.

“Never gets old,” Nick chuckled, spinning me back around and guiding me inside with his hands on my shoulders.

“One day you’ll catch me and I won’t be scared,” I said, confident that it was going to happen.

He laughed. “Right. And that’ll be the day I won’t fight for the remote,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“Counting on that,” I sang as we headed for first period.

Nick was an absolute monster when it came to TV. I preferred cartoons and music channels, and he strived for drama and reality. While I was okay with shows like Gossip Girl—which he loved, strangely—and House, it was the reality shows drove me crazy. Big Brother made me want to strangle the houseguests because of their stupidity, and Survivor made me wish that a great big bear would appear and chomp their heads off.

-

xoxoxo

-

“Cassie!” Britney exclaimed happily as I headed towards their table at lunch.

“Finally decide to show your face?” Jenna joked, taking a bite into her sandwich.

I sat down and removed the plastic lid of my salad “Yes, I’ve finally decided you’re all worthy enough for my presence,” I smirked.

“Are you going to Mitchell’s party Friday?” Clancey asked, opening up a notebook and taking out a pen.

“Yeah, are you guys?” Once the words left my mouth they all stopped what they were doing and looked at me like I just spoke in a foreign language. I quickly checked to see if I did—because, you know, as a spy you have to be somewhat fluent in over twenty languages—and when I was certain I had spoke in clear English, I got extremely confused.

“What…?” I was beginning to feel awkward underneath their shocked stares.

“She’s new, remember?” Shelly finally said, going back to eating her granola bar. They all looked at each other and nodded, realizing that was true. Now I was annoyed.

Britney laughed from beside me when I huffed. “Don’t worry, you didn’t know,” she assured. “The Brookes throw a mad-crazy party at the start of school every year, and everyone always goes.”

“Why?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Because our parties are always the best?” Mitchell joked. Everyone laughed. I did, too, though I didn’t really find it funny.

“No, it’s just because they have one of the biggest house in this part of suburbia and it’s just tradition,” Britney supplied. Honestly, I was starting to like her more. She was nice when she wanted to be. And she was a great way to find stuff out without asking too much.

“What are you writing?” I asked Clancey when I noticed he was scrawling madly in his notebook.

“The guest list,” he answered nonchalantly. When I continued to stare at his actions, he explained himself. “We organize the people attending into VIPs and just normal people.”

“Wow, quite the party,” I commented, earning a proud smile from Mitchell. “What’s the difference?”

“Well, VIPs get to use the other levels of the house, and have unlimited access to hot tub,” he shrugged.

“Ugh, do we have to invite everyone?” Tanya grumbled, her beautiful chocolate brown face scrunching up. I hadn’t even notice her there until she spoke up.

“It’s tradition,” Jenna sighed. “There are soo much people I don’t want to see there.”

“Like who?” I asked, popping a garden tomato into my mouth.

She began to ramble on some names or another from the chess club—or something—when I felt a pair of eyes burn a hole in me to my left. I looked to see Nick staring past Carly’s shoulder directly at me. I raised my eyebrow at him, a silent question asking why he was looking at me so weird, so deep in thought. He answered with a shrug and cocked his head playfully to the side, earning a small smile from me.

“What are you looking at?” Jenna suddenly asked, snapping me back to the group.

Apparently everyone seemed curious, as they all moved to look in the direction I had been staring at.

“Carly is so lucky!” Shelly suddenly squealed from my left, her hands gripping my shoulder excitedly.

“I know!” Britney agreed, and I looked over at her in horror. What the hell?

“How?” I questioned, looking at everyone’s faces. They all gave me this ‘ohmygod, you don’t know??’ look.

“She’s sitting with your cousin,” Mitchell answered sourly. I didn’t fail to notice the dislike in his voice.

“And he is sooo good looking!” Tanya said, and the girls all agreed with the nodding of their heads.

“So hot,” Jenna sighed dreamily.

“And you live with him!” Britney exclaimed, pointing a finger towards me. “How is it like?”

“Does he walk around in boxers?”

“Does he ever have girls over?”

“How do you feel about that?”

“Are you close with him?”

“SHUT UP!” I exclaimed, holding my hands up defensively. “First of all, no, he walks around clothed. And his love life is none of my business. And secondly, he’s mine—er, my cousin, goddamit!”

Where had ‘mine’ come from?

They all stared at me blankly. “So?” Jenna asked, her brows furrowing in confusion.

“So?” I repeated incredulously—wondering why I was getting so worked up. “It’s sort of, you know, weird?!”

“How?” Shelly asked dumbly. I wanted to slap my forehead with my hands.

“Yeah, how?” Tanya questioned. “If I had a smokin’ hot cousin like that I’d do him the second we were alone.”

To say I didn’t get images would be a complete lie. Now I’ve never really seen Nick without a shirt or anything, but it was easy to say what was underneath his wife-beaters and v-necks could not possibly be a disappointment. He was definitely toned, you had to be if you were a spy with all the physical stuff we did, and his bare arms were enough to make your legs jelly—

I quickly stopped myself before my mind ventured further.

“You’re imagining him naked, aren’t you?” Britney accused, smirking like a fox.

Glad that they couldn’t see me blush underneath all the makeup I wore, I raised an eyebrow at them. “No. That would just be gross; he’s my cousin, after all,” I said, trying to keep my tone even.

“Don’t you know some people marry their cousins?” Jenna shared, tapping her chin in thought.

“Yeah, that was like what? Hundreds of years ago?” Clancey laughed, and then went back to discussing the list with Tanya and Shelly.

“People still do now,” Jenna defended.

“And it’s made fun of,” Mitchell rolled his eyes. Then he quickly changed the topic. “So Cassie, been to big house parties before?”

I rolled my eyes as if it were obvious. “Of course. Lots back in New York and L.A.,” I answered, shrugging casually. “They have great ones in Toronto, too.”

“Toronto?”

“In Ontario, Canada; it’s amazing. It’s almost like downtown New York, except with less taxis,” I chuckled.

“Well,” he frowned. “My party certainly won’t compare, but it’ll be fun anyway.”

“It better be,” I winked, and hid my surprise and confusion when he offered me a really large grin in return.

Lunch passed by quickly, and I certainly did not fail to feel the hole Nick had stared into me.

-

xoxoxo

-

“Ah, fuck!” I cried lamely as I received my Chemistry test back. Mitchell looked over like I expected him to, and offered me a sympathetic smile.

“Failed again?”

I nodded, pretending to be miserable. “Chemistry is so hard. How am I supposed to know what color lithium hydromide turns when it’s burned?”

“It’s hydroxide,” he corrected, chuckling.

“See!” I exclaimed, waving my arms frantically. “I even get the terms wrong!” I leaned back in my seat, exasperated.

“Aw, it’s okay,” he said, sitting down in the empty seat in front of me. Professor Brookes always gave us ten minutes of quiet chatter after he handed back a test. “I can help you study for the next one.”

I ignored his suggestion purposely, so I didn’t seem too forward or desperate. “What color does lithium hydroxide turn when it’s put under a flame?” I asked, staring at my test paper, pretending to be interested in knowing the answer. “I mean, normal lithium turns crimson red when burned, but what about when it’s mixed with hydroxide?” I added, knowing full well that the answer was exactly the same.

“Red,” Mitchell said, showing me his perfect test paper.

I sulked. “Damn you and your Science nerdyness,” I said, and stuck my tongue at him playfully.

“So then let me help you study for the next one,” he persisted, looking at me fully.

It was then I realized how good looking Mitchell really was. His dirty blonde was always in disarray, and his bright, hazel eyes were always showing a mixture of emotions. When he was annoyed, they’d turn a dark color. When he was happy, they seemed to shine. Right now, though, it just a strange hazel-blue-ish color. This was the first time I’d ever seen it.

Shrugging, I stuffed my test paper away into my bag. “I don’t know…I don’t want to be taking up your time or anything. You always seem so busy with your tennis practices and stuff.”

He shook his head and laughed. “Dad always has tests on Mondays. I’m free Sundays.”

I tapped my chin in thought. “You tutor me—I get smart. What do you get besides a wasted Sunday?”

He laughed and leaned closer. “A chance to spend alone time with you?”

Thinking now wasn’t a bad time to test the waters, I leaned in just a little bit, and cocked my head to the side. “What a waste of a Sunday,” I sneered.

He came in closer and we barely had any space between our faces anymore. “I would hardly count that as a waste,” he whispered, staring at my mouth. “It could be…”

“…fun?” I finished for him, licking my lips in a seductive manner.

He smirked, satisfied with my answer. “We don’t have to wait for Friday.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing tonight?” It wasn’t so much that we could have fun (I don’t think I ever wanted to have ‘fun’ with Mitchell), but I wanted to know his weekly schedule. Because of the party planned for Friday, I was desperate to know when their errand day would be switched to.

And today was my lucky day. “Running errands and some Science convention in another city,” he grumbled as his face fell slightly.

I frowned, but inwardly I was dancing with joy. “When will you be back?”

“They usually last until three in the morning.”

“And your dad let’s you go? On a school night?” I asked disbelievingly.

“He loves it when Carly and I go to these things,” he shrugged. “Carly has to go, because otherwise she sneaks out. I have to go because dad says so.”

“Daddy’s boy, eh?”

He blushed.

But with this new information, my mind was churning with ideas. “Leave the window open for me,” I teased.

He raised an eyebrow, and I stared playfully back at him.

It took about ten seconds before he realized my ‘implication’ and he grinned mischievously.

“See you around,” I muttered, grabbing my bag and getting up from my seat. The bell rang at the exact same time, and I exited the room with a smug smile.

This was going to be fun.

-

xoxoxo

-

I danced into the family room (after changing into comfy home-clothes and ripping that goddamn wig off my head), extremely proud of what I did in Chemistry. However, I was met by a pissed off Nick watching a re-run of Gossip Girl. One that we’d probably watched over ten times together.

“What’s your favorite color?” I chirped, plopping down on the couch next to him. We asked each other random questions, as a way to get to know each other. But by the end of the weekend, we ran out of witty and thoughtful questions, so we decided to go with the basics now. It was easier for the both of us. I could stay focused on one topic; and Nick was able to answer without hassle.

He kept on staring at the TV, with much more concentration than necessary. For the first time since we started, he ignored my question. “I saw you getting cozy with Brookes in class,” he half stated, half accused.

I stared at him, wondering where his bitterness came from. “I found some valuable information,” I defended, frowning.

He looked only slightly interested as he turned and looked over. “Enlighten me,” he said indifferently.

Choosing to ignore his hostility, I sunk into my seat. “You know about the party on Friday, right?”

He nodded.

“And how Friday is their usual errand day number two?”

He rolled his eyes, but nodded all the same.

“Well, tonight is their rescheduled errand night; and they’ll be out later because they have some Science convention they’re going to. The whole family. Until three o’clock in the morning.” I didn’t mention how Mitchell might leave his window opened for me, because it seemed like wishful thinking—not to mention, incredibly silly.

His brows furrowed in deep thought and then it clicked. “So you’re saying we take this chance to snoop?”

I nodded. “Yeah. We have today, this Friday, and Sunday. We can tell Rosie later.”

“Sunday?”

“Tutoring.”

The animosity returned and he went back to staring at the TV with a pained expression.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said through gritted teeth. His grip on the remote seemed too deathly for nothing to be wrong.

I got up and he immediately spread himself out, now taking up the majority of the couch. Rolling my eyes at his childish act, I moved myself so I was blocking his view of the TV and kneeled down, leveling my face to his.

“What?” I asked again, now annoyed.

“Nothing.”

“Nick, what the hell.”

“What the hell what?” He was looking pointedly at my shoulder, avoiding my gaze.

I threw my hands up in aggravation. “There you go again! I’m going to go swimming if you decide to tell me.”

He didn’t say anything, and continued to avoid my gaze.

“I’m not a really good swimmer,” I lied, noticing him twitch slightly. “So I hope I don’t drown.”

He didn’t move, but I knew he was going to come now. One thing about Nick was that—strangely—he cared a lot for me. I didn’t know why, but I wasn’t going to question it because it was really comforting. I hope he knew how much I appreciated it.

Though, I don’t think anyone would enjoy having someone drown in a pool...

But either way, I wasn’t surprised by the time I got down from changing that Nick wasn’t in the family room anymore. I slid the glass door open and walked down the steps of the patio. The weather had been really nice lately—it was mid September and the days still felt like summer.

Walking to the edge of the pool, I stuck a foot in, to test the temperature. It was just right and I couldn’t wait to get in.

The glass door slid shut and I smiled. Turning around, I was going to say something extremely witty when my words got caught in my throat.

Nick stood there, without a shirt on, wearing only a pair of bright purple Hawaiian-print board shorts. And looking extremely sexy. My teenage hormones kicked in right about then.

And then it happened.

My legs gave out, and I lost my balance.

I shrieked, and plunged in the water, making a great big splash. The cool water that slapped against my skin was, no doubt, painful, and I knew it was going to leave a red mark afterwards.

I surfaced quickly for a breath of air, and went back down right after, unable to keep myself up. I flailed my arms and legs around for ten seconds, testing the swiftness of the water. Once I composed myself, I began to swim around underneath, completely at ease.

Surfacing again about thirty-seven seconds later, I coughed and wiped the water from my face. Nick was sitting crossed-legged on the edge of the pool, his eyes locked on what I was wearing. I blushed about ten shades of red and tried to ignore his stare.

“Swimming lessons?” he finally managed.

“For six years,” I beamed.

Nick gave me a peeved look.

“I got you to come, didn’t I?” I said, swimming up to him. He looked even better from my perspective. Green eyes sparkling, dark hair shining—much like this morning in the parking lot. Except this time, he was half naked.

And it sure wasn’t a disappointment. Nope, not in the least bit.

“I could leave,” he shrugged, but contradicted himself when he dipped his feet in the water, letting them soak.

I swam closer and propped my arms on his lap, crossing them there. His breath got caught in his throat. “But you won’t,” I said, positive that he wasn’t going to.

He leaned back on his hands and looked around in our backyard, purposely avoiding my gaze. “Don’t you think people would see us?”

“So what if they do?”

“They’ll see that your hair is different.” He reached out and began twirling a strand of my wet hair around his finger.

“I dyed it,” I mumbled, distracted by his—questionable—adoring expression.

“But your eyes are different,” he argued, a smile tugging at his gorgeous, pale pink—uh, lips.

“I wear hazel contacts,” I answered. I expected him to say something along the lines of ‘What if they asked you to show them?’ but he didn’t.

Instead, he tilted his head to the side. “Your eyes aren’t hazel.”

“Yes, they are.” Who was he to tell me my eyes weren’t hazel?

Then he got up, shaking my arms off of his lap and smiled.

“Where are you going?” I scowled.

“Into the water,” he answered, plunging in—though much more smoothly than I had. A large wave of water splashed onto me and I couldn’t help but laugh as I waited for him to resurface.

When I couldn’t see him, I frowned as my eyes scanned the entire pool—

“Boo!” he shouted from behind me.

“Shit! Ihateyou!” I exclaimed, my words running into each other. He laughed.

I tried to swim away but he caught my arm, and pulled me back towards him. I did everything in my power to not stare at his body for too long. But it was so…tempting. Perfectly toned, but not to the extreme (six-packs scared the crap out of me; they looked like fucking mountains!); and slender, but still muscular.

So I guess I didn’t do a good job of not staring because Nick’s smile was teasing as he lifted my chin up, forcing me to focus on his face. “Your eyes are green,” he continued, wrapping his arms around my bare waist underwater, causing me to shiver.

“N-no, they’re n-not,” I said nervously, my words faltering. I was glad we were in the water, because if I did something embarrassing I could just dive down under and say I slipped.

But then he did the worse possible thing he could possibly do in a situation like this—he pulled me closer to him, so that our bodies were touching. My arms found their way around his neck and locked themselves together, too afraid to let go. I wanted to do nothing more than cry out in pure agony, now, for the torture he was doing to my hormones was just too much.

He leaned down, closer to my face. “No, I’m pretty sure they’re green,” he muttered lowly, his eyes scrutinizing mine.

I leaned back and away from him slightly. “Your eyes are green,” I said anxiously, pointing at his eyes, trying to distract myself. Then I pointed to mine. “Mine are hazel-green-ish.”

“Jaymie, your eyes are green. I can see them right now—you can’t,” he pointed out, tugging me back gently.

“I’ve never had green eyes before,” I stated dumbly, too dazed to say anything else.

He scrunched his face up in thought. “I’ve always thought you had green eyes.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Huh…?”

“Yeah, they’re always green,” he peered at me curiously underneath his dark lashes, “when you’re with me.”

I stumbled a little underwater and he tightened his grip around me. “Really now…?”

“Don’t you think that means something?” he inquired unexpectedly, his face only an inch away from mine.

That’s when I started to freak out.

Now I would be lying to myself if I said I wasn’t enjoying this—I was. A lot. Too much, maybe, but I was. But the thought of Nick so close to me, barely an inch away from my face, it scared me. It scared me because the two words that drove me absolutely insane popped into my head.

Strictly business.

I wanted to so desperately push them away, but they came back. I couldn’t hide from it—it was all around me. The house, the things lying inside it. And the fact Nick was also my operations partner really didn’t help.

I was beginning to think I didn’t only see him as an operations partner. I already knew I didn’t want to, but I realized that I don’t think I ever did.

…and that maybe the whole “I might be falling for him” thing is in fact, true…

Rapid breathing?—check.

Clammy hands?—check.

Unwanted thoughts?—check.

Staggering legs?—double check.

I could just feel anxiety signing the postcard, ready to send. Ready to attack.

“I’m giving you a chance to stop me,” Nick said, staring right into my eyes, but coming closer and closer.

Did I want to stop him?

Yes, I thought. But at the same time the word “NO” in bright red letters began flashing in my mind.

“Jaymie, you can push me away,” he whispered lowly, his warm breath brushing against my lips. “Stop me.”

Thinking about it, I really didn’t want to push him away, didn’t want to stop him. Pushing him away would have been the right thing to do, but I couldn’t take it anymore. Taking a deep breath, I slammed my eyes shut and felt his warm lips collide with mine.

Softly and tenderly, he kissed me. Careful to not take me by alarm, he did it slowly, making all the hairs on my back rise on end. He trailed the tip of his tongue along my quivering bottom lip, and I parted them, letting him enter. I tightened my grip around his neck, pushing myself against him and I was surprised by the way his body fitted with mine. How it felt so right.

Trailing his hands gently down my side, he lifted me up and I happily wrapped my legs around his waist. I felt him smile when I responded hesitantly, still taken aback by his lips moving with mine, his tongue toying with mine.

Oh, how much I was liking it.

My heart was slamming against my chest. A collection of butterflies exploded in my stomach—and somehow, they were well-trained in Olympic summersaults and cartwheels. My hands untangled themselves, only to get tangled up again in his beautiful, dark hair. I was colder now, having been in the water, but I didn’t care. The feeling of Nick with me like this, kissing me like he was, gave me a thrilling feeling. I never wanted to pull away.

But when we finally did, we were both gasping for air. How long had it been?

My mind drew to a blank.

I hadn’t been counting.

But I always counted.

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked when he saw the frown on my face. He began trailing kisses along my jaw line.

I struggled to breathe properly as I answered him. “I didn’t count.”

He stopped abruptly and looked up at me. Returning his gaze, I saw a playful smile on his gorgeous face. “Really?” he beamed.

“Do you know why?” I asked, extremely confused. Why hadn’t I been counting?

He grinned, his eyes full of mirth as he gently set me down again. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this happy. “Maybe,” he said, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me down so our bodies were completely underwater.

Laying my head on his shoulder, I snorted. “Enlighten me,” I mocked.

“Same reason that your eyes change color only around me,” he answered cryptically, kissing me on forehead.

I was left to wonder about that later, because he smiled and subsequently captured my lips again.

-

xoxoxo

-

“Do you think we should try climbing?” Nick huffed as we looked around the entrance of the Brookes’ residence. It looked a lot like ours, but just a bit smaller and with only two garage doors. Not that I was boasting…

It was nine o’clock, and already pitch black outside. We had told Rosie (via phone call and basement headquarter feed) about the plan, and after talking to someone about it, she let us go ahead. We weren’t supposed to go looking for the lab or anything—we were supposed to save that for future times. Instead, we were to snoop around their rooms, see what they liked and what they could be hiding. It all sounded so easy, but now we were faced with the task of how on earth were we going to get over the entrance and into their house.

I placed my hands on my hips and sighed. “Don’t you pay attention in covert operations?”

He stared at me, baffled.

“There could be traps planted at the top of fences, ledges, iron gates—all that stuff. If we just climb over we could be stabbed to death or something,” I explained, waving my arms around frantically.

He rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Right, because I’m sure they have death traps all over their house.”

“Well, if they have something important to hide, then they probably do,” I shrugged. “Kinda like us.”

Nick laughed as he looked around. Bending down, he picked up a couple of rocks, and proceeded to chuck them at the top of the brick fencing. We were both startled when sharp objects were produced, causing the round rocks to tumble off the top. Now if that had been flesh…

“Uhm,” he stuttered, taken aback. “So I guess you were right.”

“I was completely not expecting that,” I mumbled. I had only been half kidding about the stabbing to death idea.

“Damn, so what are we going to do?” he scowled. Unconsciously, he reached up and scratched his nose, something he did reflexively when his hands were free. It was a rather endearing gesture, if you ask me.

Pulling myself from staring, I shrugged. “Maybe we could ask Rosie.”

“You know, I think she did this on purpose,” he said. When he saw the confusion on my face, he explained. “We sort of just jumped on this idea—not having really planned or thought it out. We don’t know how their house is planned, or how to get in.”

Catching on, I crossed my arms. “And she didn’t help us because she wanted us to see for ourselves…”

He nodded. “She’s sneaky.”

“No shit,” I laughed, walking back in the direction of our car. “Let’s go admit our wrongs.”

He laughed with me and took my hand in his. “And hopefully not get punished.”

We hopped in the backseat and Nick pulled out his red Blackberry (apparently, they decided to upgrade both our cell phones). I leaned against him, watching, as he entered his password and went through a million security checks before finally accessing the Headquarters database. He was just about to request for Rosie when the Blackberry started to ring a—really annoying—polyphonic ring tone.

He picked up, looking at me uncertainly. “Hello? Yeah…yeah, we have it…alright. Bye.”

“What?” I asked. “Who was it?”

He chuckled when he reached for the laptop we brought along. “Rosie,” he said as he started logging in.

In less than ten seconds Rosie appeared on the screen, smirking at us. “Learned your lesson, agents?”

I rolled my eyes and felt Nick do the same. “Yes.”

“You should always double check everything before setting your plan to action,” she scolded. “It’s not only helpful, but makes your actions clean and fast.

“But because of how good this idea is—not to mention, the time you’re given is very generous,” there, she gave a pointed look at me—remembering how I liked to ‘beat against the clock’ as she put it, “we’re going to let you continue on with this and I’m going to provide you with some help.”

“Thank you,” we both said, relieved.

“Alright, so I’m sending to both your cell phones right now the floor plan of the Brookes’ house. Did you bring trackers?”

I nodded as I fished out the two we had brought along. Mine was in the form of a hair clip—with small, gray flowers—and Nick’s was a small, wooden cross necklace.

“Good,” Rosie said. “Now once you activate those, you’ll be able to see where you are and where the other one is. You will also be able to see if there are other people in the house.”

“How?” Nick asked.

“We have sensors all around their premises; and they’re able detect the heat given off of a human,” she explained.

My Sidekick started to ring, at the same time as Nick’s Blackberry. We both picked them up and like Rosie said, the floor plan was waiting to be downloaded.

“We got the floor plan covered,” I began as I accepted the file. “But how do we get in? They have…death traps.”

“Death traps in suburbia,” Nick repeated, rolling his eyes. “Who knew?”

Rosie laughed, her eyes lighting up with amusement. “You can go in from the back,” she said, as if it were obvious.

“The back,” I deadpanned.

She nodded. “You have to go through to the neighbor’s backyard—the George family, I think—and climb over.”

“Are you sure they don’t have some like, barbed wire or something?” I asked uncertainly. The thought of possible blood made me feel uncomfortable.

“No, their backyard is completely void of any ‘death traps’,” Rosie chuckled, making air quotes with her fingers. Though it really shouldn’t be an amusing thought—death traps.

“How do we get in?” Nick asked, and stifled a yawn.

“I’m sure both are fit enough to climb through windows and break locks.”

I rolled my eyes. We waited for our downloads to complete when a thought popped into my mind. “Rosie…”

“Yes?”

“‘Sommer Mansion?’”

CHAPTER FACT: Originally I had planned for Jaymie and Mitchell to kiss in this chapter, but decided against it so I could so a more jealous side to Nick.

Alright, wow! Last chapter received the most reviews yet, and I'm so happy! I hope you guys keep them coming, because it really motivates me to write more and also means much faster updates. So I kind of left you guys off with a little of a cliffhanger (though don't get excited, I can tell you it's nothing too dramatic but it does get Jaymie thinking).

And how did everyone like the events of this chapter? Review with your thoughts! And it would help a lot that if you spot any spelling or grammatical errors, let me know; those pesky little grammar mistakes drive me nuts! Thanks for reading, and please review! xoxo