Exposed (3 page)

Skyler, man, you underestimate me
, she thought.
You have no idea who you're dealing with
.

Since her mom had been killed five years ago, Gaia had been attacked, chased, and confronted by some of the world's most dangerous criminal masterminds—several of whom she even considered family. And here she was, still, for better or for worse. She'd be damned if she'd let some rich prep school snob be her undoing.

She sidled up closer to him and sighed comfortably.
You're not even going to know what hit you
, she decided.

Gaia stumbled suddenly, hardly knowing what had hit
her
. Gazing up at Skyler, she'd stomped directly into a pedestrian walking toward them. She looked up, and her spirits instantly sagged. Standing in front of her, looking pressed and polished as always, was Megan. Megan had been one of the toptier Friends of Heather back when Heather Gannis had ruled the Village School. But Heather had gone blind
(Just more fallout from my pathetically complicated life
, Gaia thought miserably), and Megan had ascended to the presidency of the social hierarchy.

Megan and her hen party couldn't seem to decide how they felt about Gaia. For the most part, they weren't impressed, but they were clearly somewhat taken by Gaia's admittedly inexplicable ability to land some very sought-after boyfriends.
Never mind that my relationships have a life span shorter than
that of an ice-cream cone in August
, she thought glumly. And when Gaia and Liz had begun to hang out, the FOHs had taken a more acute interest in Gaia. But their interest tended to wax and wane depending on the circumstances of their own lives at any given moment, and at the present it seemed like they were dead set on seeing her falter. Which, hey—Gaia didn't think they'd have to wait long. That didn't mean she needed to put up with Megan and her bull, though.

Except that she did. For Skyler's sake. Skyler needed to think that Gaia was still caught fast in Megan's thrall, desperately seeking approval.
Ick
, Gaia thought, pasting an insecure grin on her face.

“Hi, Meegs,” she said brightly. “Shopping?”

Megan shot Gaia a look that suggested she'd just taken a whiff of raw sewage. “No,” she said dryly, “the bags are merely an illusion created by your mind's eye. Out with boyfriend number two, are we?” she asked snidely, indicating Skyler with a jerk of her head.

That was the other fun thing about the FOHs these days. They had the idea that Gaia was cheating on Jake.

Of course, Gaia was spending practically every waking moment with Skyler, while she hadn't seen all that much of Jake. And she had been keeping her cell phone shut off at Skyler's suggestion.

And then there was the matter of a little thing
called the prom. Which she had told Jake she would be attending with Skyler.

Come to think of it, it was easy enough to see how these rumors had gotten started.

Under normal circumstances, Gaia would have told Megan off and walked away or simply ignored her. But these weren't normal circumstances. Until she got to the bottom of the Skyler mystery, Gaia had to maintain her fearful persona on all fronts. Just to be on the safe side. “Skyler's just a friend, Megan, you know that,'” she said softly. “You know I'm totally into Jake.”

Megan's eyes flashed with envious anger. “Actions speak louder than words, Gaia,” she snapped. “You better hope that
Jake
knows how ‘into' him you are. For the sake of your relationship,” she warned darkly. “Not that I care,” she added as an afterthought, flouncing off haughtily.

Like hell you don't
, Gaia thought, knowing full well that once she was out of Gaia's range of vision, Megan would call half the school to report that she had caught Gaia Moore in the red-hot act of cheating on her man. She suppressed a sigh. She really
did
hope that Jake trusted her.

She hoped that Skyler did, too. She turned to him, smiling hesitantly. “Ugh.” She grimaced. “She's awful.”

“Thank God I've got you,” he said.

“I'VE GOT AN IDEA,” SKYLER suggested, toying with the wineglass that sat in front of him on the wooden table.

Compliance
As promised, he had lured Gaia to Vino. It was the perfect place—tucked away in the cozy recesses of Bedford Street and too European to care about carding. The restaurant had a warm, relaxed vibe to it, and most nights patrons who were lucky enough to snag a table made a practice of camping out for hours at a time. Skyler had suggested a drink after their encounter with Megan, and Gaia had gladly accepted. Now she ran her fingers around the rim of her glass of Chianti. Getting drunk wasn't going to help her cause any. “What?” she asked, smiling at Skyler.

It wasn't too hard to smile at him. Despite her many misgivings, Gaia still found herself irresistibly drawn to Skyler's magnetic smile. He was a good-looking guy with a very easygoing charm. As far as undercover work went, this was pretty painless.

“Let's go back to my place and have a Brando fest. In the spirit of
Streetcar
, you know?” He grinned.
“Stella!”

“I don't know,” Gaia said reluctantly. “I'm really not supposed to stay out, and I've been pushing my luck with Suko lately. Eventually she's going to catch on to my ‘studying with a friend' alibi.”

“Come on, Gaia,” Skyler insisted. “Since when does Gaia Moore care what anyone thinks of her? Do you really expect me to think you give a crap what Suko wants?”

Gaia shrugged. “Say what you want, but I do have to live with her. Her opinion does matter. She could make my life very difficult.”

It was true: Suko could be a real battle-ax. But Gaia didn't care. She'd already figured out how to shimmy in and out of her bedroom window after curfew. And Zan, one of the other girls in the house, was always having unauthorized guests over. It wasn't as though it was impossible to circumvent the rules. Gaia simply didn't want to come across as
too
pliable.

Skyler took her hand. “Suko could make your life difficult,” he agreed. “True. But I really want to be with you. Isn't this—our time together—isn't that worth a little bit of a hassle?”

Not meeting Skyler's gaze, Gaia took a healthy sip of her wine. She appeared to be contemplating his words. Finally she looked up. “You're right,” she agreed. “We'll work out a story. I'm all over Brando.”

Skyler beamed at her as if he'd just won the lottery. Gaia almost hated to see how satisfied her compliance seemed to make him feel. “Excellent,” he enthused. “I'll get the check.”

It seemed like such a long shot—but then again, he didn't have any shorter shots left.

insecure and uncertain
JAKE MONTONE WAS AT THE END OF his rope.

Slim to Nil
Of course, being at the end of his rope was pretty much par for the course with his relationship with Gaia. Gaia just wasn't like other girls, to say the least. Other girls threw themselves at Jake, whereas with Gaia, Jake had practically had to chase her down to get her to agree to date him. Other girls worried about lip gloss and carbs, while Gaia studied karate and ate doughnuts like they were going out of style.

He loved it.

But lately some sort of change had come over his girlfriend, a change that wasn't exactly subtle. Where Gaia had been strong and self-sufficient, she now seemed insecure and uncertain. She was acting almost …
normal
. It wasn't fun.

And then there was Skyler.

He wasn't sure how exactly Skyler had become the white elephant in the room with him and Gaia, but somehow he had. Skyler Rodke was Gaia's new BFF, and she was practically blowing off her own boyfriend for him. This was problematic on a number of levels. The situation with Gaia was complicated.

Someone was after her. Gaia's uncle Oliver said so, and even though Gaia didn't trust Oliver, Jake did.
And while back in the day Jake wouldn't have thought that Gaia needed protecting, well—that was then. this was now. Jake was really getting off on playing hero.

So when Gaia hadn't shown up for classes that morning, Jake had gone after her. Sure, Gaia skipping out on school wasn't exactly a newsworthy event, but Jake was desperate to get through to her.

Jake's first stop was her boardinghouse on Bank Street. The chances that she'd actually be there were slim to nil. Under the best of circumstances Gaia tended to avoid the place, cramped and unpleasant as her bedroom was. She didn't love her housemates, two other children of agents who were far too accustomed to being shuttled from one locale to another, never knowing a true home. And Suko, Gaia's housemother, was practically an iron maiden. She ruled with a strong fist, and her house policies were virtually unbreakable. She wasn't especially fond of Jake, either, whom she viewed as a nuisance. So no, he didn't really expect to find Gaia at the house. But he had to start somewhere.

He pressed the doorbell and stepped back, waiting.

After a moment the door swung open inward. revealing one of Gaia's housemates, Zan.

Jake groaned. Zan was a total burnout and a flake. She also seemed to harbor a monster crush on Jake. Even if he hadn't been totally sprung on Gaia,
there was no way Zan would ever be his type. He just wasn't into the streaky-dyed-blond faded-rock-star look. And though he was generally up for a party, he wasn't into hard-core drugs, which Zan clearly was.

Even at this early hour she looked much the worse for the wear. Her eyes were caked with heavy black liner that was probably left over from the night before, and her garish red lipstick had migrated beyond her lip line, to a clownish effect. To say that her hair was tousled would have been generous.

Zan's eyes widened at the sight of Jake. Her pupils were dilated, he noted. “Hey, look who's here,” she said in a singsong lilt, stepping past the front door and onto the stoop. Her torn concert tee slipped off one shoulder,
Flashdance
style. Jake wasn't impressed. “Your girlfriend isn't here—though I'm sure you knew that.”

Jake gritted his teeth and tried unsuccessfully to mask his annoyance. He didn't want Zan to know just how badly Gaia was dissing him—but he
did
need to know where she was. “Do you know where she is? When she left?” he asked, aiming for casual and missing it badly.

Zan shrugged, giggling. “No idea. She never came home last night. Of course, that's also old news,” she said, referring to the last time Jake had come looking for Gaia only to find that she'd spent the evening with Skyler. “D'ya think she's with that other guy?” she asked mischievously.

Jake did indeed think that, which was just the
problem. He sighed and sat down on the top step of the stoop. He was back to square one, it seemed.

Zan seemed to take this as an invitation to join him. She lighted down just a few inches away, practiCally in his lap. She lowered her head to her knees. “I'm dying,” she moaned. “I think I took it a little too far last night, you know what I mean?”

“Uh, maybe,” Jake said, not eager to engage her in conversation.

“I know, I know—you're such a
good boy,”
she said to him in a mocking tone. “But believe me, if you'd just try Invince once, you'd understand. It's a killer hangover, but is it ever worth it.”

Jake didn't know and really didn't care. But he didn't have any leads on Gaia, either. “Yeah? How often do you do it?” he asked her.

“Oh, I don't know. A few times a week. If I could, I'd do it every night. It's crazy, feeling invincible like that. A perfect drug with the perfect name. Invince…” She repeated the name of the drug slowly, as though savoring the shape of the letters across her tongue. “It's like, no pain, no fear, no … nothing.” She rubbed her arms and shivered with pleasure.

“Neato,” Jake deadpanned, wondering why he was wasting his time with this crackhead. What help could she possibly be? And the stoop was making his butt cold.

“Hey,” Zan said suddenly, as if a lightbulb had gone
on over her head. “You wouldn't happen to know where I could get another hit?”

Jake looked at her and shook his head. “Nope. Never tried it. But don't you have a dealer of your own?” he asked, frankly curious. Why would someone like Zan need his help to score?

She nodded. “Uh-huh. But he's a little unreliable.” She laughed bitterly. “Calls himself God. What a trip. Of course, given the power he's got over me and half the city—well, maybe he
is
God. Or at least some god. Who knows? Anyway, he comes to the park a few times a week, but you can't, you know, just get in touch with him whenever you're jonesing. It's his terms or bust. Which kind of sucks.”

Jake suddenly straightened where he sat, mind whirring. “God. Does he deal anything other than Invince?” he asked, careful to keep the eager hitch out of his voice.

Zan shook her head. “Don't think so. Invince's, like, his specialty. That's what he's here for. Like a, uh,
godsend.”
She snickered at her own joke and then rubbed her temples regretfully—as if the laughter had been too much for her throbbing head.

“Okay, so, uh, when did he first hit the scene?”

“Um, I guess a few weeks ago. Around the same time that people started acting whacked out on Invince,” she said, sounding much more logical than usual. “Duh.”

Something in Jake's mind clicked. Oliver had told
him to be on the lookout for anything new, and Invince, well … that was new. Was it just a coincidence that Gaia had started acting insecure and timid at around the same time that half of New York City was dosed with fake adrenaline? It seemed like a long shot-but then again, he didn't have any Shorter Shots left. He turned and faced Zan again, earnestly placing one hand on her shoulder.

“Zan, when are you supposed to meet God again?” he asked, hating how desperate he sounded.