Duality: Vol 2, Euphoria (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) (25 page)

“We need to get outta here, like now,” said Jasmine.  “We can chat in the car.”

“Dude, we got serious wheels.  Sick ones.  Wait ’til you see.”  Kootch held the door open for us girls and then cut Malcolm off on his way out.  He was right on my heels.

“It’s probably better if I drive, though.  Butts was the driver on the way up and we had a couple near-misses.  Tell her to let me drive, Rae.”

“Shut up, Kootch, I did just fine.  We made it here, didn’t we?”  Jasmine pushed open the main door to the outside, turning left on the sidewalk.

I waited for Malcolm to catch up so we could walk together.  I didn’t want him getting too far away from me.  I was totally paranoid that someone was going to swoop in and steal him away and I’d never see him again.  My father might be in custody, but none of his other friends were.  They could be anyone, anywhere.  The paranoia was almost suffocating.  Having Malcolm near made it bearable.

“Aw, aren’t you guys so cute together,” said Kootch in a gay voice.  “Let me take a little picture of that.”  He took a shot with his camera before Malcolm could push him away.

Jasmine lifted up her key ring and pressed a button.  The lights of an SUV flashed up ahead.

I nearly vomited in my mouth when I saw it; it looked exactly like the one we’d barely escaped from.

“Whose car is that?” asked Malcolm, suspicion lacing his voice.

“Someone in our group.  I don’t know who.”  Jasmine stood at the driver’s side door out in the street, frowning at us over the hood.  “What’s wrong?  Why do both of you look like you just saw a ghost?”

“Because,” explained Malcolm, “her father trapped us in one of these earlier today, and we’d be really happy never to be in one like it again.”

“It’s not the same one, dude,” said Kootch, opening the front passenger door.  “Trust me.  I’ve been clinging to life in this thing for the past two hours, and before that it was in the airport parking lot.”

I walked up to the back door and got in, once Malcolm had opened it for me.  I could tell immediately that Kootch was right.  It wasn’t the same car.  The interior was slightly different, and the dashboard wasn’t the same.  It was a newer model with more gadgets to play with.  The stereo looked especially awesome.  “It’s okay,” I said to Malcolm.  He was standing outside, looking very nervous.  “It’s not the same car.”

He gestured for me to scoot over and joined me in the back.

“How come it was only two hours that you were in the car when it took us fourteen or whatever?” I asked, buckling my seatbelt.

“We flew into O’Hare and took the car from there.  Got stuck in traffic.  Talk about a nightmare.  My life flashed before my eyes about five times along the way, and believe me, it was depressing.  I need to get laid more before I die.”

Jasmine started the car and moved the shifter into Drive.  “Cone of silence, Kootch.  No one wants to hear about your dry spell.”

“Psshhhh, dry spell.  I’ll have you know there’s no such thing as a dry spell in
my
world, Butts.  The ladies are texting me twenty-four seven to get a piece of my action.”

“Oh yeah?” she asked, pausing long enough to snatch his phone out of his hand. “We’ll see about that.”

“Hey!  Give it back!”  He reached over to take it from her, but she tucked it under her left leg before he could get it.

“Hands off the driver,” she ordered.  “I’m pulling into traffic now.”  She put on her left blinker and turned the wheel.

“Oh, shit.” Kootch rushed to buckle his seat belt.  He grabbed the handle above the window and put his other hand on the console between the two front seats.  “Hang on, guys.  Things are about to get interesting.”

“Shut up, ding dong,” Jasmine said, pulling out into traffic.  The blaring of a horn caused her to slam on her brakes.

Malcolm and I were thrown forward a little, our heads flopping forward and back with the unexpected stop.

“A-hole!” Jasmine shouted at her closed window.  “Totally wasn’t my fault.”  She was speaking to anyone listening, all her concentration focused outside at the lane of traffic she was attempting to merge into.

I looked at Malcolm and caught him smiling.  I guess there’s nothing like Jazzy Butts and her terrible driving to wipe away the fear of Influencers coming after you.  I grinned at him and accepted the sweet kiss he leaned forward to give me.

“Happy?” he asked, mouthing the word at me.

I nodded.

“So what happened with you guys?” asked Kootch as Jasmine finally pulled succesfully into traffic.  “We were all set to go to school today and then Mr. Butts pulled the plug on it and asked Super Kootch to come out and save the day.”

The car jerked a couple times and horns blared once again.

“Um, well, we kind of ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time,” I said, borrowing the detective’s words.

“That’s not what I heard,” said Jasmine.  “I heard you guys didn’t follow orders.”  She shook her head in disapproval.  “You’re always supposed to follow orders.  Don’t you know anything about working with military people?”

“No.  We don’t, actually,” said Malcolm.  “It was no big deal.  We just went out for sushi.”

“How’d you end up in the subway with a bomber?” asked Kootch.  “Do they serve sushi in the subway now?”

“How did you guys find out about that?” I asked, wondering how they could possibly know something that the rest of the world was just finding out.

“Eyes and ears, Rae, eyes and ears.”  Jasmine looked at me in the mirror and winked.

“Why did they ask you guys to come?” asked Malcolm.  “No offense, but it seems kind of risky for a couple of kids to come out here and get involved in this.”

“Yeah,” I added.  “Are your parents aware of the fact that we were kidnapped?  I mean, that’s not something most parents would involve their daughter in.”

“And the neighbor,” said Malcolm.

Jasmine went right at the intersection, not using a turn signal and pissing off someone behind us.  I felt like ducking at the sound of the horn.

“There’s been a breech of some sort,” Jasmine explained.  “I don’t know what exactly, but somehow your dad’s group found out about where you were and how to get to you.  My parents couldn’t risk sending someone who might be the problem.”

“Your dad could have come himself,” Malcolm said.

“Ha!  After what you did to him in the panic room?  No way.  He’s too vulnerable to the mind-fuckers.  I’m not.”  She looked over her shoulder and gave us a sly smile. “I’m a Neutral, remember?”

“Kootch isn’t,” I said, my face getting a little hot over the memory of him attacking me during our innocent kiss experiment.

“True.  But he
is
persistent and a huge pain in the ass when he wants something.  Picture the attack he launched on that poor Ding Dong at my house and you’ll understand how impossible it was to keep him from going on this trip.”

“My dad’s gone for a week.  He’ll never know I’m missing.”  Kootch reached over to mess with the radio buttons but Jasmine slapped his hand away.

“Unless you get killed,” said Malcolm, sounding angry.  “Then he’ll notice you’re missing.”

“No one’s going to get
killed
,” said Jasmine.  “The threat level is minimal, otherwise they never would have bought him the ticket to come with me.  They figured he could carry my luggage and crap like that.”

“Which I did.  I’ve earned my keep.”  Kootch turned around and grinned at us.  “Threat level’s a little higher than that cuz Butts is driving, but I’m planning on wearing her down and taking the wheel pretty soon, here, so no worries.  Just relax and we’ll get you to your new home in no time.”

“Where’s that?” I asked.  “Our new home?  You guys are taking us?”

“Rooooaad triiiip!” yelled Kootch, putting both hands in the air.  “Roller coaster, whoooo hoooo!”

Jasmine went over a small bump in the road.  “I’m going to log onto a secure site later and get our destination,” she said.  “My parents are putting it together on their own without the involvement of the group.  They want to be sure the location won’t be compromised.  This one, here in Chicago, was a seriously bad choice.  They’re coming up with the game plan alone … no outside involvement.”

“What about the scientists and crap they wanted us to talk to?” asked Malcolm.

“That’s on pause right now.  They said maybe after everything blows over.  Right now we just need to get you to your safe place and leave you alone for a while.”

“I guess that’s good,” I said, feeling a little sad that our time with Jasmine and Kootch would be short-lived, but happy that Malcolm and I were going to be left alone.  I hoped it would be for a really long time.

“No one will know where you are but us,” said Kootch.  “And don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

Jasmine reached over and patted him on the shoulder.  “Agent Double-oh-Ding-Dong on the case, people.”

He pushed her hand away, hanging onto her finger a little longer than necessary.  “Hands off the merchandise, Butts.  Unless you want a piece of it … then maybe we can negotiate.”

She yanked her hand away and put it back on the wheel. 
“Ew.
  Vom-alert.”

She turned the wheel to the right, but even before the turn was halfway done, I could tell something was off.  Malcolm took one look out his window and leaned over against me, cringing.

Kootch leaned over far to the left too.  “Jesus, Butts!  You nearly took the side of the car off!  Watch it, would ya?!”

She jerked the wheel to the left, pulling the car away from the vehicles that were parallel-parked on the side of the street. We narrowly missed taking off someone’s door, I think.

“Stop freaking me out!  It’s your fault!  I was fine!”

Malcolm whispered in my ear.  “I feel like we’re being rescued by Lloyd Christmas and his friend Harry.”

I giggled, covering my mouth when Jasmine looked at me in the rearview mirror.

“Anyway, we have intel if you’re interested,” said Jasmine, picking up speed.  We were getting to the outskirts of the city, where the roads were wider and less congested.  The entrance to the highway hopefully wasn’t too far away.  I knew I would feel a lot better about Jasmine’s driving when there were fewer obstacles to get in her way.

“I’m interested,” said Malcolm.

“Me, too,” I added.  I hated being in the dark.  I felt like I had half the story, which wasn’t enough to put it all together.

“Okay good.  Because I’ve been carrying these secrets around in my head all day and it’s about to kill me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Kootch, clearly offended.

“Because, you didn’t have a need to know.”

“What’s different now?”

“Nothing.  But if I tell you to plug your ears, I’m sure you’re going to refuse and tell me no, so I won’t bother.”

“Good.  Because I’m telling you no frigging way am I
not
listening to this.”  He folded his arms and leaned into the corner of his seat.  “Go ahead, Buttsy.  Impress us with your badass intel.”

“So, after you left, we found out that Rae’s dad is part of this group.”

“He’s not my dad.”

“Whatever.  Your dad-who-isn’t-a-dad is part of this group.  They’re funded by a corporate think tank of some sort.  At least that’s what they look like on the outside.  It’s some kind of brain trust that analyzes the economy and the stock markets around the world.  But what they
really
do is search for evidence of psychic influence.  We think their plan is to use people who can mind-screw to affect the financial world. Maybe even politics.”

“Say what, now?” asked Malcolm, moving so he was closer to the space between the front seats.

“She’s saying if they find out about you, they’ll want to recruit you for their Dr. Evil pit crew,” said Kootch.  “Kind of badass when you think about it.  Can you imagine?  Some dude wants to be president and he shakes Malcolm’s hand at a rally or something and falls into a pile of quivering tears two seconds later.  Not very presidential material, you know?  They could totally bust up a campaign.”  He was snorting at the image he’d created, but I could tell Malcolm didn’t find it any funnier than I did.

“Are you kidding me?” Malcolm asked.  He sounded lost and angry at the same time.

“No,” said Jasmine, all business.  “As uncool as that little image was - thanks for that, Kootch - we think it’s exactly what they’re trying to do.  It’s limitless, really.  With Rae they could influence the moods of voters, investors, world leaders … anyone.”  She looked at me in her mirror.  “The power they’re talking about is scary shit.  Super real and super awful, all at the same time.”

I nodded, feeling sick to my stomach.

“We’re not the only ones,” said Malcolm.  “There are others kind of like us out there.”

“Yeah.  We know,” said Jasmine.

“What?  Why didn’t you tell me that, Butts?”  Kootch was sitting up straighter, leaning towards her.

“I told you, Double-Oh … need to know.  You ain’t got the
need
, so you ain’t got the
know
.”

“Man, that’s bullshit.”  Kootch slumped back in his seat and looked out his window.  “You guys are always shutting me out.”

Jasmine patted him on the leg.  “Not anymore.  Look at you now … riding in the rescue vehicle … being the muscle of the operation.”  She grinned, knowing full well what she was doing.  She handed him his cell phone, only letting it go when he yanked on it.

“I
am
the muscle of this operation,” he mumbled, sitting a little straighter.

“No doubt.  Hopefully we won’t need it for anything but lifting luggage, but you never know.”

One second after the last word was out of her mouth, Jasmine bumped into the car in front of us that had slowed down without her noticing.

Chapter Thirty-Six: Malcolm

MY UPPER BODY FLEW TOWARDS the seat in front of me, my seatbelt locking up and keeping me from going too far.  My neck was going to be sore later from the whiplash for sure.