[English] HUNTING LILA

Hunting Lila
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‘First-hand?’ A smile was pulling up the corner of his mouth.

‘You know what I mean. I put two and two together.’

‘And came up with three. Lila, we don’t do anything to do with drugs. That’s what the FBI and the DEA and the police are for.’

‘Oh.’ I pondered that as he steered us onto the freeway. ‘Well, you won’t tell me anything so I have to infer from the clues you give me. Next time I’ll guess vice.’

‘And you won’t just drop it?’

‘Maybe. After you tell me I might.’

He shook his head and floored the accelerator. I looked behind, expecting to see tyre marks on the road. Instead I saw a black SUV hugging our bumper. Its windows were tinted and I couldn’t see the driver, though I could make out a blurry square shape behind the wheel. Jack veered suddenly into the fast lane but the car stayed on us as though we were towing it.

‘Er, I don’t mean to be paranoid,’ I said, ‘but there’s a car right up on our bumper.’

‘Yes, I know,’ Jack said calmly, veering back into the middle lane. I checked over my shoulder, but the SUV was still on our tail. ‘It’s OK, it’s one of ours.’

‘What?’

‘It’s one of ours, it’s been tracking us from the house. I had it stationed outside since you told me about Suki paying us a visit.’

‘Why are you in and out of the traffic then like you’re trying to shake it?’

‘I’m just messing with them. Keeping them on their toes.’

‘Hang on a second. I don’t get it. Why is the car following us? Why isn’t it staying at the house if you’re trying to catch her?’

‘They’ve been relieved by another car. These guys are following us back to the base.’

I turned to face forward, feeling an icy blast hit me from the air-con***ioning vent. I flattened the shutters and concentrated on the fact that we had an armed escort. I wasn’t sure whether that made me feel better or worse.

When we took the turn into the base, Jack held up his card to be checked.

‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘they’ve already run a background check on you, so you’re fine to come inside.’

Oh crap. How much of a background check? I wondered what they had found.

Still, it couldn’t have been too bad, because only a few seconds later two Marines carrying enormous guns waved us through the checkpoint.

Minutes later, Jack pulled up outside a modern-looking two-storey building. It was all dark glass and steel, completely incongruous with the other low brick buildings we’d passed. There were no doors, I noticed, just what looked like three giant glass cylinders. As I peered closer, a man in blue uniform appeared suddenly in one of them, looking just like a GI Joe toy in a cellophane box. The window of glass slid open and he stepped out into the sunshine.

Jack was already out of the car, walking around to my side. He opened my door and I stumbled out, my eyes still on the sci-fi building and its test tube doors.

‘It’s high security,’ Jack said, as he saw me staring.

‘Yeah, I figured. I’ve not seen that at Walmart.’

A spitting roar broke the air and we both turned to see a red motorbike pulling to the kerb behind Jack’s car. The rider raised a hand in greeting then pulled off his helmet. My mouth dropped open. It was Alex. And he was grinning from ear to ear.

Alex rode a bike? Since when? And, more importantly, when could I have a go on it?

As I stood there, swooning, he threw his leg over the body of the bike, unzipped his jacket and took a bag from out the back pannier, locking the helmet and jacket up in its place. This was the third time I’d seen him in as many days but still I remained staggered and slightly light-headed every time I saw him. The sinewy solidness of his shape made my heart beat like I’d drunk ten espressos washed down with a vat of cola.

He loped over to where we were standing.

‘Ready?’ he asked me.

‘Yes. I just need somewhere to put my bag and then I’m set,’ I answered, not able to prise my eyes from his lips.

‘OK, give it to me. I need to go change. I’ll leave it in the locker room.’

He took my bag and breezed through the sliding glass tube. I watched him disappear into the gloom.

I wandered over to the motorbike and read the word Triumph on the side. ‘How long has he had it?’ I asked Jack.

‘No. Over my dead body.’ Jack’s expression was hard.

‘What? I didn’t even ask that. I asked how long he’s had it!’

‘You are not riding this bike. Or any bike, for that matter.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because, Lila, need I remind you of the number of times you’ve tried to copy us and have almost died as a result?’

He was talking about the time I almost drowned swimming the three-hundred-and-fifty-metre diameter of the lake in pursuit of them. I rolled my eyes. ‘I was nine and I could easily have managed to swim that distance, I just hadn’t expected it to be quite so cold.’

‘I wasn’t even thinking of that. I was thinking of the tree you tried to climb in Grandpa’s backyard. And, hmmm, what about the sledging incident we all so fondly remember?’ He continued his lecture, giving a big sigh. ‘At some point in your life, Lila, you’re going to have to realise that you can’t keep up.’ He was staring at me like a lawyer who’s just presented a winning argument.

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It needled me just as much now as it had when I was nine. ‘And at some point in your life, Jack, you’re going to realise that I’m not a child anymore. I might be five years younger than you but that stopped being an issue a while back. Anything you guys can do, I can do too.’

I moved on quickly. ‘Anyway, I wasn’t even suggesting that I rode the bike on my own. He could give me a ride.’

‘Whatever. It’s not happening in this lifetime. I told Dad I’d keep you safe and the Alex you know is not the Alex who drives that bike. He’s not known to respect the speed limit.’

Now I definitely wanted to go on it. The thought of having a legitimate excuse for wrapping my arms around Alex meant I couldn’t have cared less about the danger, even if it meant almost certain death.

‘Shouldn’t you be warming up?’ He was almost as good as Alex at distracting me.

I sighed and started stretching out my hamstrings. ‘What are you doing while I’m being put through my paces by Lieutenant Wakeman?’

He smiled at the description of Alex. ‘While Lieutenant Wakeman is drilling you, I shall be going through some paperwork and following up on some leads.’

‘Suki-shaped leads?’

He tilted his head at me in wan amusement. ‘Possibly.’

Alex emerged from the building at that point and I lost my train of thought. He was in running gear this time. Marl grey shorts and a white T-shirt that proved my earlier theory about his body. He was perfect. He knelt to tighten his shoelaces and the sharp pain in my shoulder alerted me to the fact I was still holding my stretch. I let go and started to rock back and forward on my toes, flexing my calf muscles.

‘Ready?’ he said, looking up at me through his gold-tinged lashes. His eyes were dancing blue.

I took in a big gulp of air and nodded at him.

‘Let’s go, then.’

Jack waved us off and walked into the building.

9

Alex let me set the pace, which was lucky as my sprint could barely equal his casual jog. I fought the temptation to look at him, keeping my eyes fixed on the far less appealing stretch of shimmering tarmac ahead.

He led me through a couple of back roads lined with identikit houses until we came to a footpath that led along the western perimeter of the base. We didn’t talk much. I was mulling over the questions I had for him, wondering where to begin. Once the footpath opened out Alex slowed his pace to run beside me. The ground was uneven and once or twice I careered into him and he had to reach out a hand to steady me.

‘Watch your footing,’ he said. ‘I don’t want you breaking your leg out here, I don’t have a sledge to pull you back.’

‘Hah hah,’ I answered, while picturing myself falling over and twisting an ankle just so Alex could carry me back. There was quite a lot I’d suffer to be that close to him.

I dragged my mind back to the task at hand and asked my question. ‘Why did they do it?’

Alex kept running, staring straight ahead. I waited. He very slightly lengthened his stride to pull ahead of me. I quickened my pace to keep up.

‘If you know who they are, Alex, surely you know why they did it.’

Again, nothing, just the sound of our feet hitting the ground like thunder. I cast a glance towards him. His face was stony. He was pulling ahead again. I reached out and grabbed his arm. I wanted him to slow down. But he actually stopped completely instead. I pulled up sharp, still holding him. He shifted his body to face me and I let go.

‘Do you know?’ I said.

‘Yes.’

‘Then tell me,’ I demanded.

We were standing facing each other on a narrow track, there were low shrubs in the cracking earth and a few trees here and there but we were out of sight of any buildings or people.

‘Lila, what I tell you has to stay between you and me. You have to promise. I’m betraying Jack by telling you. He wouldn’t forgive me easily. But I think you deserve to know some of the details. I can’t tell you everything, so don’t push for more than I’m willing to give up.’

I lifted my chin and watched him carefully, trying to read his expression.

‘Come on, let’s go over here.’ He turned and walked a few metres to a boulder lying just off the path. ‘Sit.’

I jogged after him then lowered myself to lean against the rock. He stood over me and I had to tip my neck right back to see him.

‘You asked me yesterday who killed your mother. I can’t tell you that. But I can tell you why.’

I sucked in a breath. Alex paused, concern flickering across his face. I nodded at him to go on. He hesitated a fraction of a second, then said, ‘Your mother was killed because of what she knew.’

I stared at him. We were both motionless. ‘I don’t understand – what did she know?’

Alex took a breath. ‘You know what your mother did for a job?’

‘Yes, of course.’ Why was he asking me this? ‘She worked as an adviser.’

‘For who?’

‘For some old senator.’

‘Actually, she did more than just that.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Yes, she was a political adviser. But she was also investigating something on behalf of homeland security.’

‘What – why? Why would she be doing that? My mum didn’t know anything about security. She was an adviser on political issues – she worked on environmental stuff.’

‘I can’t give you details. The information’s highly classified.’

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I ground my teeth. ‘Just tell me what you can, then.’

Alex frowned at me, his eyes pleading for leniency.

‘She discovered something about a group of people –’ I could see he was struggling to censor the information. ‘She discovered something that could have had enormous ramifications for the government. Not just for government but for the public too, for everybody.’

Now it was my turn to frown at him. ‘You sound like the script of a bad B movie.’

Alex bit his bottom lip. ‘I realise how this must sound.’

I raised my eyebrows at him a little more.

‘Lila, just listen and then make judgements.’

I tried to lose the sceptical face.

‘Your mum discovered something. And it was enough to cause the people she was about to. . . expose, shall we say . . . to kill her.’

It took a minute for the words to sink in. I played with them, trying to move them around like an anagram in my head, my mind riffing on the same checklist as before – drugs, corruption, organised crime – but making no sense. What could she possibly have discovered? It all sounded so absurd.

‘What did she discover?’ I asked.

‘I can’t tell you.’

If I heard him say that one more time I thought I might start unconsciously throwing things – not that there was anything much to throw out here, unless I tried uprooting a tree. Then the rational part of my brain suddenly burst into action, and my heart reacted by stuttering wildly.

‘But, Alex, if Mum discovered something and was killed because of it . . .’ I almost couldn’t finish the sentence, ‘. . . what about you and Jack? If you know it too – what about you?’

He gave me a half-smile that faded into nothing. ‘You don’t need to worry about us, Lila.’

I stared at him, wondering whether he realised how crazy he sounded.

‘Have you told the police? Shouldn’t you be telling someone? The FBI, maybe? So they can do something?’ I wasn’t leaning on the boulder anymore, I was standing looking up at him, shouting. ‘If you know who killed her and you know why – why aren’t you involving them? Why aren’t you leaving it to the professionals?’

Alex was looking at me and his half-smile returned again. I didn’t get it.

‘Lila, what do you think we are?’

I was confused.

‘Jack and I are professionals. We’re more highly trained than the police and the feds. We have better equipment and more intelligence than any other government body. We’re using all that to help us find your mum’s killers.’

Now I had stepped into the realm of disbelief. But just as I was about to open my mouth to say something sarcastic, a shadow fell across his face and I saw him differently, as a stranger might. Not as the Alex from my childhood but as Lieutenant Wakeman. It was like those pictures of dots that you stare at until the hidden image leaps out at you. He was actually intimidating to me all of a sudden – like he’d just grown another six inches.

‘Is that why you joined up in the first place?’ It was all falling into place.

‘Yes.’

Suddenly Jack’s decision to drop out of university became clear.

‘But I still don’t understand what your job has to do with any of this.’

He looked uncomfortable, like I’d caught him out. ‘We’re using intelligence, like I told you.’

‘Yes, so you keep saying, but I still don’t understand why.’ My temper was pricking at the edges of my voice.

Alex looked away, staring off towards the ocean.

I tried a different tack. ‘That girl, Suki, who is she?’

‘She’s someone we want to talk to.’ His face was still unreadable.

‘Why? Is she anything to do with them?’ My mind was frantic. Who knew Suki was such a fountain of knowledge? She hadn’t looked like she even knew her times tables.

Alex shook his head, ‘No. She just might be able to help us with our enquiries.’

I knew that was a line detectives used when they thought someone was guilty as sin but didn’t have enough evidence to prove it. Yet.

‘Could you be any more cryptic?’

‘Yes.’ He was being serious.

‘What can I say to make you change your minds about this vengeance mission you’re on? Tell me and I’ll say it.’

He looked at me a little sadly. ‘I’m sorry, Lila. We’re not going to stop. It’s about more than just your mum now. That was the reason we joined up. We hoped it would lead us to finding her murderers. And it almost has. We’re very close.’ He looked at me, his eyes burning, the amber in them flaming. ‘But, Lila, it’s more than that now. We’re fighting something bigger than them, and we’ll keep fighting even when we’ve caught them.’

I stayed silent. The processing filter part of my brain was on overload. Nothing more could go in. What were they fighting? And why? It was all becoming so unreal I wondered for half a second if perhaps I was still kneeling on a south London street in some catatonic state and was imagining all of this.

‘Come on, I’ve told you all I’m going to tell you. Let’s get back.’ Alex reached out a hand and the gentle pressure of his palm in mine was a reality check. Energy leaping around like that could only be in a real world, not an imaginary one.

‘But . . .’ I tried to pull two coherent words together but my vocabulary was melting at the sight of a strip of lean, tanned torso that Alex was displaying as he stretched his arms up over his head. Another pang of fear, mingled with desire, tornadoed my insides.

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‘No, Lila. I brought you on this run because I knew you were going to ask me questions and I wanted you to ask them away from Jack. But I’ve told you everything I can on the subject and you’ve just got to trust me now.’

Of course I trusted him. I trusted him with my life. But there was so much going on that he wasn’t telling me about. Bad stuff, I was pretty sure. And I had completely and utterly failed to change his mind about getting involved. This so wasn’t working out as I’d planned.

Neither of us spoke, and Alex set off again, staring calmly ahead. We hit the tarmac and ran down the centre of the road. I was barely aware of the route we were taking or the traffic passing us by. I was too busy obsessing over the fact that my brother and Alex were throwing themselves into danger like it was a game. Like the consequences weren’t deadly. When in fact they were.

I stumbled and fell, crying out as I hit the tarmac, palms forward to break my fall. I stayed where I was, breathing hard, grit breaking the skin of my hands. The sticky black tar granules of the road filled my vision. Alex’s hands on my shoulders brought me to, and he pulled me easily up off my knees then turned my hands over. I realised he was talking to me and I shook my head, staring blankly at his moving lips.

‘Are you OK? Let me see.’ He brushed the dirt away gently, revealing some scrapes on the heels of my hands. I winced at the sting, like sticking my hands in nettles. He held on tight to my wrists so I couldn’t pull away.

‘You OK?’ he said again.

‘Yes.’ I couldn’t look at him.

‘You sure?’ he asked, not letting go of my wrists. The pressure was firm but I liked it, wanted him to hold me even tighter. It made me feel connected to him, anchored again.

I looked up at him. The expression on his face was so concerned that I knew he wasn’t asking me about my hands.

‘I don’t want you to do this,’ I suddenly blurted out.

‘I know,’ he said. I waited for the bit where he said, OK, we won’t, then, we’ll let the cops deal with it. But it didn’t come. A bird tweeted to fill the silence where his words should have been.

‘Lila,’ Alex’s voice was soft, ‘I told you yesterday, nothing bad is going to happen to us.’

‘Promise me.’

His eyes clouded and a muscle in his jaw contracted. ‘I promise you. Now come on, we need to clean you up.’

I brushed down my knees, which were sticky with scrapes, and sighed. My body was getting such a bashing at the moment. I eased into a jogging pace, the skin of my knees screaming in protest as it stretched and contracted until it just became one constant sting. It was only a few hundred metres back to the sci-fi building.

A group of men were out the front. From this distance, I couldn’t really tell them apart. They were all over six feet tall, with broad shoulders, and solid, tree-trunk legs. They were dressed identically, in black combat trousers, and T-shirts that clung tightly to well-developed six packs. I gave Alex a fleeting look – with his short crew cut and similar physique he should have blended with the crowd, but there was something about him that made him stand out. He was less square, more lean and graceful, and, to my totally unbiased eye, there was just no competition.

The group broke apart as we came near, and turned to face us. I slowed up, suddenly self-conscious of being the only girl, and looking such a wringing, filthy mess. Alex looked back over his shoulder, seeming to sense my reticence, then slowed his pace too and said, ‘Don’t worry, they’re just some guys from the Unit, I’ll introduce you.’

I looked at him warily and prepared myself. After a few more metres, we pulled up. I was panting and stood a little behind Alex, in his shadow, trying to brush the dirt off my shorts and wipe my hair out of my face. Then Alex turned, and I was suddenly in the centre of a circle being given the once-over. I felt myself cringe.

‘Well, I see you got all the looks in the Loveday family. Poor Jack. No wonder he’s been hiding you away on the other side of the world.’ The others started to laugh and I glanced at Alex. He was laughing too.

Another man, with arms so big and meaty that they hung out over his sides like he was wearing a lifesaver jacket, reached out a slab of a hand. ‘Nice to meet you. I’m Nick, I’m in your brother’s team.’

I shook his hand, feeling my stinging palm squashed within his paw. The other guys followed suit, bombarding me with a phalanx of arms and hands to shake.

‘Hi, nice to meet you,’ I said to each one, noticing how most were a lot older than Alex, at least in their late twenties or early thirties. I wondered how that worked when he was in charge of them.

There was only one who was younger – he looked about my age. I thought he’d said his name was Jonas. Now he took a step forward, chucking me a dazzling grin. ‘You coming to Alex’s party?’

He had quick brown eyes and an easy grin. He was the least beefy of them all and slightly less intimidating.

‘Yes, I’ll be there,’ I said, looking again at Alex.

He was now standing a few paces back from the group, observing things. He had a faint smile playing at the corner of his mouth but his eyes had set into blue ice.

Jonas grinned at me like a jack-in-the-box. ‘Great. We’ll see you there.’ Another man from his unit got him in a headlock and dragged him away.

I felt my face redden. I really wanted Alex to rescue me from this – I felt like I was on display at Ripley’s Museum of Believe It or Not. He must have seen the expression on my face became he stepped forward into the group again. This time I felt the change in the mood, the men’s playfulness dropping a few notches as they quietened and moved closer, as though Alex was drawing them in. He hadn’t even said anything.

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‘Right, I’ve got to get this girl cleaned up,’ he said now.

There were no innuendos from any of the men, though I was acutely alert to them. Alex put his arm around my shoulder and started to turn away towards the doors.

‘See you around, boys,’ he said, steering me towards the building.

Just at that moment the cylinder doors whooshed open and a woman, as whippet thin and airbrushed as a model on a runway, strode out into the sunlight. The men behind me fell silent, a hush of awe descending over them. I felt myself shrink inwards as she came towards us.

Then I heard Alex say, ‘Hi, Rachel,’ and something in me snapped in two. I think it was the last vestiges of hope that he might one day look at me as anything more than Jack’s sister.

A wide and dazzling smile split the woman’s perfectly symmetrical face. She had high cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes that were almost as blue as Alex’s. She sashayed over to him, like a heat-seeking missile programmed with a new target. I almost expected her to swing one of her endless legs over his hip and wrap herself around him like ivy. She was wearing a grey two-piece skirt suit, which clung to her body, nipping in at her tiny waist. As she came close to Alex I saw she was almost as tall as him, though at least three and half inches of this was made up of steel-tipped stiletto heels.

I felt my heart **** in. She was so impossibly beautiful that Alex had completely forgotten I existed.

‘Why, hello, Alex,’ Rachel said, flicking her straight blonde hair over her shoulder. Her voice was husky, with a hint of the South.

I suddenly became very aware of how I looked. My clothes were like sticking plasters against my skin and I longed to rip them off and get into something clean, if only so I didn’t feel so much like a sewer rat standing next to an arctic fox.

‘What are you doing here?’ she drawled, her long vowels tripping over themselves to keep up. Her lips were glazed like morello cherries.

‘Just been for a run,’ he said.

Remembering I was there, Alex turned suddenly to look for me, seeming surprised that I was standing so close behind him. He moved out the way and Rachel’s gaze fell on me like a searchlight beam.

‘This is Lila,’ he said, ‘Jack’s little sister.’

Little? It felt like he had given me a paper cut down the length of my body.

Rachel’s gaze flicked over me, from my filthy trainers to my sweat-streaked, sun-baked face. For a brief moment she looked like she had just broken a tooth, but then she threw me a huge pearly-white smile and held out one manicured hand. ‘How lovely to meet you. Jack’s told me so much about you.’

I really wanted to say that he hadn’t told me anything about her, but I bit it back and politely shook her hand.

‘Rachel works with the Unit,’ Alex explained, smiling. ‘She’s our boss.’

I did a double take. She was the boss? She got to order Alex around? The reasons for hating her were piling up.

Rachel discarded me with a subtle turn of her shoulder and focused her gaze back on Alex, fixing him with her enormous cornflower-blue eyes. I looked back and forth between them, half a foot shorter than them both, feeling like a child being ignored by its parents.

I must have sighed, or maybe he heard the noise of my heart blowing up, because suddenly Alex glanced at me. ‘I’ve got to get Lila inside,’ he said and made to move off. ‘I’ll see you later, Rachel.’

Later? Another paper cut. This time it left an open wound.

‘Bye, Alex,’ she said. ‘I’ll call you. Enjoy your babysitting.’

It took a second before the comment sank in and when it did I drew in a sharp breath. My cheeks started to flare. I refused to turn back to look at her but I risked a glance up at Alex and caught the tail end of a frown. His mouth was set in a line. He threw me a glance too, no doubt to check whether I had picked up on the comment. When he saw me looking he shook his head dismissively as if to say Just ignore it.

Then two things happened almost simultaneously. A screaming, thunderous, splitting noise ripped through the sky. It seemed to flatten everything to the ground with its vibrations. And then, with bewildered shock, I realised that it wasn’t the noise flattening me, it was Alex’s weight pressing me hard into the ground. I was on my knees and Alex was bent over me, pinning me to the floor, his arms braced against my head and his chest angled against my side. I couldn’t work out why at first, my only thought that he had been hurt, but just as I started to panic and push against him, Alex uncoiled and stood up, pulling me harshly up with him.

The noise was still piercing my eardrums, making my brain feel like it was being spliced in two, and everything seemed to have slowed down. I could see the men from the Unit running in different directions. It was like watching them through strobe lights. Some had their guns in their hands and some were reaching to unholster theirs. It took me several seconds to put two and two together. The noise, the panic, the guns – someone was attacking them. Us, I realised with shock.

I was being jerked forcefully away from the noise, which was coming from the building. Alex’s grip was a steel tourniquet around my arm and he was holding me flush to his side. He was half running and I was stumbling and tripping into him as he yanked me towards his bike, the pain in my head making it all but impossible to put one foot in front of the other.

I felt myself lifted up into the air and then somehow I was on the back of the bike. My legs automatically gripped the leather seat to stop myself from sliding off, but then Alex was in front of me, his back a wall against my face. He kicked up the stand and fired it up. As I felt the thrum of the engine underneath us, Alex reached back with his arm and grabbed my hand, pulling it around him and pressing it hard against his waist.

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‘Hold on,’ he said.

10

It wasn’t quite what I’d had in mind when I expressed a desire to get a ride on Alex’s bike. I was too terrified to take anything in, least of all his proximity. I closed my eyes and let the roar of the bike overtake the sound of the siren, which quickly faded into the distance. The wind was whipping my hair round my face but I couldn’t unlock my hands from around Alex’s body to push it back. The pain in my head receded with the decibel level, until it was just a faint vibration against my skull.

After what seemed like only a few minutes I felt the bike slow. It turned a few corners and then came to a gentle, rolling stop. I prised my eyes open. We were in front of Jack’s house already. I felt Alex’s warm hand on top of mine and realised that I had him in a vice-like grip. My fingers were clasped so tightly together it took the gentle pressure of his thumb to unhook them. He slowly shifted around so he could see me.

‘Are you OK?’

‘I think so.’

He climbed off the bike. I wasn’t sure how to get down, so tightly was I glued to the seat. Alex lifted me off as though I was an infant, which I now realised was exactly how he saw me. Rachel’s words still smarted in my ears.

‘What just happened?’ I asked.

‘I’m not sure. It was an alarm. But I have no idea what triggered it.’

‘So why the great escape?’

‘Because when an alarm sounds, it’s usually a good idea to run.’

I frowned at him, then remembered Jack. ‘Where’s Jack? Will he be all right?’

‘He’ll be fine.’

But he was already pulling out his phone. He hit the speed dial and then was speaking to the other person, Jack I presumed, as his first words were, ‘Yes, she’s with me. She’s fine. Yes . . . On the bike . . . Yeah. Definitely the last time.’

He looked up suddenly and scanned the street. I followed his gaze to the black SUV sitting on the kerb with its windows up. ‘Yes, they’re here. I’ll let them know. Call me when you have something. I’ll stay till you’re back.’

He hung up. ‘Stay here,’ he said.

So he really was babysitting me – Rachel had been right. And now he was ordering me around like a child. My nostrils flared but Alex didn’t notice, he was already striding towards the car. Maybe I was just a burden to them. Both he and Jack had made it clear that they didn’t really want me here. But I didn’t need this level of looking after. It made me want to scream.

The window of the car whirred down and I saw Alex bend his blond head to speak to the driver.

I looked around me and thought about it for one second. Then I stood up and walked to the front door, pulling out my key. I unlocked the door and went inside. As I tapped in the security code on the alarm, Alex ran up the steps and into the house.

‘I told you to wait for me.’

‘I know.’

‘So next time wait for me.’ His eyes were granite-hard.

I glared at him. ‘I’m not a child, Alex. You can’t tell me what to do.’

He ignored me, pushing past into the kitchen. He shoved the door, letting it fly into the wall, and then crossed quickly to the back door, checking it. I rolled my eyes at the dramatics and walked up the stairs towards the shower. I was hot, angry and tired – but most of all I was heartbroken. A shower wasn’t going to fix that.

The bathroom door slammed behind me and the shower started running before I realised what I was doing. I sank to my knees in disgust at myself. I couldn’t even manage to keep control of my ability. This day couldn’t get much worse. I stripped off my jogging gear and climbed into the shower, drenching myself and letting the grime run off me. Rachel’s perfect glistening smile and seductively half-closed eyes appeared in my head. Enjoy your babysitting. I was still fuming when I got out. I wiped the mirror with the back of my arm and looked at myself. I was no competition for Rachel. She was a perfect match for Alex. They had looked like a golden couple standing next to each other. And she had another major advantage that I lacked – he was allowed to date her.

A knock on the door interrupted my musings.

‘Are you OK in there?’ Alex sounded tense.

‘Fine.’

I could have sworn the doorknob turned a fraction of an inch.

I got up before he could come in to check and yanked open the door. Alex was leaning against the frame. He looked tired, stress etched around his mouth. Babysitting me must be such a chore.

‘How are your hands and knees?’

I had forgotten all about them when Rachel had appeared. Now I turned my palms over and saw the blanched skin flapping free in places.

‘OK,’ I said, walking straight past him to my room and closing the door behind me. He didn’t follow. I wondered if he would just hand over his duty to one of the ‘guards’ outside. I sank onto the bed, pulling the towel around me, and felt tears well up out of nowhere.

The hairbrush on top of the dresser began to move, pretty much of its own accord. I wasn’t even aware that I was doing it until it was hovering in mid-air by my head. By then it was too late. It hurtled through the window like a missile. The smash, when it came, threw me sideways off the bed, glass splintering at my feet.

I stood for one moment, frozen, waiting for Alex’s footsteps on the stairs and for him to burst angrily in on me – but nothing happened. I tiptoed to the door and eased it open. I could hear Alex’s voice but it was muffled. He was pacing the front veranda talking on his phone. Probably to Rachel. Organising a date no doubt, for when he was done with babysitting.

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I turned back into the room. This was my chance. I threw on a clean pair of shorts and a T-shirt, and with one backwards glance at the football-sized hole in the window, I was out of there.

I took the stairs as quickly as I could, jumping the step that squeaked the loudest. Then I snuck through to the kitchen, unlocked the back door, stepped out and closed it gently behind me. I put my flip-flops on as I went down the steps and ran to the bottom of the garden. I wasn’t sure what lay behind the house, probably another garden, but I planned to hop the fence and cut through to the road behind.

I didn’t know where I was headed but the ocean seemed as good a place as any. At the fence, I peered back towards the house but there was no movement, no yelling, just a great big hole in the upstairs window. I grabbed a tree branch and hoisted myself up until I was perched on top of the fence and then I jumped down, landing in a crouch in the garden of a house almost identical to Jack’s. I ran quickly to the side of the house and edged my way down the alley alongside it, lined with rubbish bins. I peered around the house’s veranda on the lookout for any black cars with tinted windows but there were none, so I began walking westwards fast, towards Harbour Beach.

By the time I made it to the main street, I was beginning to relax. There was no sign of Alex roaring around the bend on his bike to come and find me and bring me back. The bright green light of a Seven-Eleven over the way beckoned, so I crossed over and slipped inside the cool of the store, making my way down a skinny aisle towards the drinks.

I grabbed a can of Sprite and headed to the counter to pay. A grungy-looking old man was standing in the middle of the narrow aisle, checking out the dried noodle selection. I hovered awkwardly, hoping he would notice me and move out of the way, but he kept standing there muttering to himself.

I cleared my throat, hoping he’d take the hint, but he was engrossed in studying the ingredients list on the back of his noodle pack.

My hand was going numb holding the cold Sprite. I took a step forward.

‘Excuse me,’ I said, as I started to edge past the old guy, sucking in my stomach and flattening myself against the shelf as I inched by.

He suddenly looked up from his conversation with the noodle packet and fixed me with a dead stare. My earlier impression had been off; he wasn’t old, perhaps only in his early forties. He was dark-skinned with a dusty grey film about him. There were concrete shadows beneath his eyes and heavy creases around his mouth.

‘I need your help,’ he whispered, his voice scratchy as sandpaper.

My eyes flitted to the round mirror angled in the right-hand corner of the shop. The shopkeeper reflected back at me was oblivious, I could see the top of his bald head serving another customer. I really didn’t need to be helping out a crazy person conflicted over his choice of pot noodle.

‘Er . . . I’m not sure I’m the right person,’ I told him.

‘Yes, yes, you are,’ he said.

The man’s eyes were fevered and his breath in my face was smoke-hazed. I flinched slightly and edged further past him. I just wanted to pay for my can of Sprite and get out of here. The man twisted, blocking my path with his body, and I felt myself take a step backwards, the hairs rising on the nape of my neck. Something wasn’t right. He took a step towards me, his hand outstretched as though he was going to grab me, but then he paused, his head jerking up, looking at something over my shoulder. Before I could turn to follow his gaze he was off, shuffling towards the fire exit at the rear of the store, dropping his noodle packet on the floor as he went.

I turned to the front door, seeing a red shape through the stickered glass. Alex’s bike. My head fell back against the shelf. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t even been able to make it to the beach. Busted in a Seven-Eleven. God they were well trained. I put the can back and then scuffed my way over to the door.

On the kerb directly in front of me was Alex, leaning against his motorbike, his legs stretched out across the pavement and his arms crossed against his chest. His eyebrows were raised. He didn’t say anything. Just handed me a helmet. I took it and, sighing, put it on. Alex took a step forward to help me with the strap under my chin.

‘Get on,’ he said and I clambered on behind him.

11

As Alex accelerated off down the street, I flattened my body against his, gripping tightly around his waist. Ouch. Something was pressing against my stomach It had the pressure and bulk of ridged metal and I reared back an inch as I realised it was a gun. I was sure Alex hadn’t been carrying a gun earlier – I would have felt it – so where had he got this one from? And, more worryingly, why had he felt it necessary to bring a gun when chasing after me? What was he planning to do – shoot me if I resisted?

We slowed up outside a modern apartment block that shone in the sunlight and took a sharp turn into an underground car park. Alex tapped in a code to open the barrier and then we were out of the glaring afternoon sun and into the dank gloom beneath the building. He curved the bike around a few pillars and pulled up by a lift. He got off first, but I jumped down before he could help me. He stood and watched for a few seconds while I battled with the helmet then stepped forward to help me, biting back a smile.

A question was forming on my lips and he anticipated it. ‘My place,’ he said simply.

I nodded. Of course, it was just the kind of place I’d imagined.

‘Come on,’ he said, getting into the lift and pressing the button for the sixth floor.

* * *

Sara had been right in her description. Alex’s apartment was minimalist to the extreme. The floors were stripped pale wood. The walls were white with nothing on them. It had the echoey, freshly painted feel of a brand new apartment, right before the owners move in.

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Alex walked past me, beckoning me to follow him into the living room. This was a little bit better. There was a soft black sofa, a huge flat-screen television, a cream pile rug and a glass coffee table. But my eyes were drawn to the wall facing me.

It was made up entirely of glass, with floor-to-ceiling windows. There was an amazing view of Harbour Beach and the pier. I crossed over to look and gazed down at the little people scurrying on the street below, blading along the boardwalk and laid out on the beach like rows of boiled sweets. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a black SUV parked on the pavement opposite the main entrance. I wasn’t totally sure it was the same one that had been parked outside Jack’s house but it looked similar and I wondered what it was doing here, rather than keeping a lookout for Suki back at Jack’s.

‘I’m going to take a quick shower,’ Alex said.

I turned. He was watching me carefully. ‘Please don’t run off while I’m having it.’ The warning was implicit.

I nodded. ‘I won’t.’

He gave me a fleeting smile and then turned, a little wearily it seemed, towards the hallway again. I watched as he opened a door and disappeared from view. A minute later I heard the noise of a shower running. I tried not to let my imagination run off into the bathroom with him.

I hesitated for a minute and then tiptoed into the hallway, pausing in front of the open door. There was a double futon on the floor. Built-in mirrored wardrobes lined the wall opposite the bed. The only other items in the room were a stack of books skyscrapering the bed, and an alarm clock. The bathroom was en-suite and the door stood open, puffs of steam escaping. I guessed Alex was keeping both doors open so he could hear if I attempted another escape, so I tiptoed backwards into the living room and crossed over again to look out at the view.

The black car was still sitting against the kerb and, as I stood there trying to make out the number plate, the passenger door opened and a man in black combats and a black T-shirt got out. He was wearing sunglasses and he scanned the street back and forth, before throwing a glance up at the apartment. I stepped back quickly from the window, my leg banging into the glass table.

And everything suddenly became clear. The men in the black cars weren’t guarding the house, they were guarding me. Otherwise why would they be here at Alex’s place too? Everything fell into place and I laughed under my breath. Alex wasn’t babysitting me. He was protecting me.

I thought about it some more: Jack wanting to pack me off home as soon as possible; Alex suggesting I run at the base; the two of them obsessing over alarms and security; Alex’s secret service style take on babysitting. I felt such huge relief that it wasn’t me, after all – that it wasn’t because he saw me as a child.

Then I realised, with a bone-numbing sense of disquiet, that if they were protecting me, it had to be from something. Something so bad I required round-the-clock security from a team of highly trained men.

Suki? I laughed again and shook my head. Why would a team of men be needed to keep Suki away? Even I could probably manage to protect myself from her. It wasn’t as if she could run very fast in those platform heels. I wouldn’t even need to use my ability.

The shower turned off as I sat there reaching back over the last day or so and trying to remember any other suspicious moments.

A few minutes later, Alex wandered through in a clean pair of shorts and bare feet, water still trickling down his neck from his bristling hair. My stomach did a one-eighty flip as I caught sight of the ridges of muscle running down his torso. Then he pulled on a T-shirt and I sighed audibly.

‘Give me your hands,’ Alex said, sitting down next to me.

‘What?’

‘Give me your hands,’ he said again.

I offered them to him tentatively, my palms facing down, and he took them in one of his. My heart started galloping at his touch. He flipped my hands over and started to dab some antiseptic cream onto the scrapes I’d forgotten all about. I flinched at the sting.

‘So, are you going to tell me why you ran off like that?’ he said.

I stared at my palms and his fingers rubbing in the cream and, after about ten seconds of trying to get my thoughts in order, I lifted my face to meet his eyes.

‘Are you going to tell me why you followed me?’

‘Because I was worried about you.’ He frowned ever so slightly, as though that should have been obvious. He let go of my hands and they fell into my lap.

‘What did Rachel mean when she said “enjoy your babysitting”?’ I asked coolly, observing his reaction.

‘What do you think she meant?’ he asked. He looked like he was laughing at me and his tone suggested that I was being deliberately obtuse.

‘Listen, Lila, I’m not babysitting you. For one, you don’t need a babysitter, and two, I actually like spending time with you and Jack’s not paying me, so it doesn’t qualify.’

I punched him lightly on the arm and he deflected it with a laugh.

‘I believe you,’ I said. ‘I don’t think you’re babysitting me.’

Alex gave me a relieved smile, his defences relaxing.

‘I think you’re guarding me.’

‘What?’ he said, the smile vanishing, but then he threw back his head and laughed.

I had seen the change in his eyes, though – the way they had frozen and a shield had come down.

I persevered. ‘You’re not a babysitter, you’re a bodyguard.’

He stopped laughing. ‘You’re right.’

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Now it was my turn to be surprised. He’d ****d in so easily.

‘Of course we’re guarding you. The guys in the Unit would be all over you like lice if we gave them half a chance. Jack would kill them if he knew the way half of them were looking at you this afternoon.’

I’d been right after all. He was trying to cover it up. I didn’t feel happy to be right though. Instead, I felt a slow, creeping fear. ‘No, that’s not what I meant.’ I said, trying to stay cool. ‘You’re protecting me from something.’

‘Like I said, the only thing we’re protecting you from is the less than noble intentions of a whole lot of testosterone-charged men.’

I shook my head at him, frustrated. ‘No. I’m not blind, Alex, I can figure things out. The car isn’t guarding the house, it’s guarding me. That’s why it’s outside right now.’ I saw surprise flare in his eyes then disappear. ‘You didn’t want me to go for a run on the street, you insisted I come to the base. Neither of you will leave me alone for a minute. Jack’s acting weird about me staying and you’re sticking to me like glue.’

As I said this, I wished the reality was quite as literal as that. But Alex was shaking his head at me, so I continued. ‘I will find out, Alex. Even if it means sneaking off on my own again.’

This last bit was a bluff. There was no way I was letting him or Jack out of my sight again until whatever was going on was not going on anymore. But it got the reaction I was hoping for. His face darkened and his eyes, vivid ice blue now, cut into me. He leaned forward across the sofa and took hold of my wrist, holding it tight, his thumbs pressing into my pulse points.

‘You cannot sneak off. You can’t leave my sight.’

This was good. Great, in fact. I had been right. I wasn’t sure about what exactly, though it clearly involved something quite dangerous, with me as the possible target. But there was no panic at the news, only a surge of excitement at the thought of not leaving Alex’s side and relief that he wasn’t thinking of it as babysitting – not exactly.

‘Lila. Do you hear me?’ He was shaking me now and I focused back on him. His face was torn, the familiar frown line back in place. I wanted to reach out and smudge it away with my index finger.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Yes, I hear you.’ The seriousness in his voice pierced my buzz. Clearly some part of my brain that wasn’t overtaken by Alex’s presence was trying to have its say; maybe it was the survival part.

Alex let go of me then and stood up. ‘Look I need to call Jack and tell him where we are and’ – he looked irritated – ‘I need to tell him what I’m about to do.’ When he walked out into the hallway, I felt something pulling inside my chest, like a stretching elastic band.

About five minutes later, he came back into the living room. His expression was so serious, I flinched slightly at what might be coming. He crossed to the sofa and sat down on the edge, leaning forward and staring out of the window. He put his phone down on the table and then turned to face me.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’ve told Jack what I’m about to tell you.’ He paused as though replaying the conversation in his head. A little frown rippled over his forehead then disappeared.

I was still hugging my knees. The pain in my chest had eased from the minute Alex sat back down near to me, but I was still rigid with tension.

‘He wasn’t too happy but I convinced him it was our only option if we wanted to keep you . . .’

I thought he was going to say ‘safe’, but he said, ‘out of trouble’, and he looked up at me through his lashes. He wasn’t going to let me forget about running out on him.

I remained still, my eyes locked onto his.

‘You know we caught someone the other day? That first night you were here? Well, Jack’s team did.’

I nodded.

‘So it seems we’ve stirred up a hornets’ nest. We hadn’t thought anything of it until you told us about Suki sniffing around the house. Then we wondered what they were up to, whether they might be looking to retaliate.’

Retaliate. I let that sink in but it still didn’t make much sense to me.

‘But who? Who did you catch? Who are they? And what’s it got to do with me?’

‘It didn’t have anything to do with you at all,’ Alex said, shifting slightly, ‘until you told Suki that you were Jack’s sister.’

‘But why does that matter?’

‘Tit for tat. It’s a possibility. We took one of theirs, they might be looking for a way to get back at us. In which case you could be – well – an option.’

‘An option? What, there’s a menu?’ My voice was rising. ‘Why me? Why not someone else – someone in the Unit or, I don’t know, surely there’re other people?

You can’t be keeping tabs on every family member of every person in the Unit!’

‘They won’t take any of the men from the Unit, it’s too risky for them and, more importantly, it wouldn’t be worth their while.’

‘Why?’

‘They know we wouldn’t negotiate if one of us was taken hostage.’

‘What? They wouldn’t negotiate if you or Jack got caught?’

‘No.’ He shook his head at me. I was stunned.

‘But why me?’ I whispered. ‘What about the others and their families?’

‘Lila, remember what I told you about us not being allowed girlfriends?’

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I nodded my head again.

‘This is why. It’s always a possibility that they find a way to get to us. It’s safer if none of us have family living nearby. No one is married or has children.’

I stared at him dumbfounded. Then I remembered something. ‘Sara – is she safe?’

‘She’s safe on the base. Jack’s staying with her now, though, until they find out what triggered the alarm.’

Another piece of the puzzle fell into place. ‘Is that why Jack doesn’t seem to want me here, either now, or when I talk about coming back for college?’

‘Yes.’

Despite what Alex was telling me about me being a possible option on the hostage menu, his confirmation of my suspicions made me feel deliriously happy. It wasn’t anything personal, they still liked me. Then I remembered that my whole approach to convincing Jack about coming back for college rested on my proving to him I didn’t need protecting. That was going to be a little bit tricky now. Hope was dying in me today on so many levels.

I looked back at Alex. ‘You still haven’t told me who these people are.’

Alex didn’t say anything, he was staring out the window frowning again. The possibilities were stacking up and I flicked through them in my head. I’d ruled out the drugs connection earlier, which left vice or the mafia or – I had run out of ideas. Then a sudden thought blindsided me – maybe they were my mother’s killers. I dropped my head onto my knees.

‘The people who killed my mother. Is it them? Are they the ones who are looking for me?’

‘No,’ he said.

I scanned his face for any trace of a lie. Alex held my gaze, his eyes blazing blue.

‘And Lila,’ he said, squeezing my collarbone, ‘we honestly don’t know if they are looking for you. It’s pure conjecture on our part. For all we know, they’ve given up and are halfway to Alaska by now. If I were them, I would be.’

I considered this for a moment.

‘You won’t ever tell me anything about these people, or Suki, or about my mother’s murderers, will you?’

Alex took another deep breath and looked at me, his expression torn. ‘I can’t, Lila. But I’ll tell you when we find them and it’s over. I’m so sorry that you’re in the middle of all this.’

My face must have been registering the terror I was now feeling – and the irony. I had wanted so much to be in the middle again. Because he shifted towards me and put his arm around my shoulders.

‘Hey,’ he said. ‘It’s going to be fine.’

I let my head rest against him, feeling the calm descend.

‘You’re with me,’ he murmured, ‘and I won’t let anything happen to you, ever.’

12

A loud buzzing noise shocked me awake, sending vibrations through my body. I felt a hand lift off my back and Alex move off the sofa where he’d been sitting next to me.

As he got up to answer the door, he looked back and said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s just Jack and Sara.’

I uncurled my aching body, kicking the blanket off me and pushing my hair out of my face. The dying sunset threw a few last notes of colour into the room. I wondered what the time was and how long I’d been asleep.

I got up, my heart leaping as I heard Jack’s voice in the corridor.

He came through into the living room, Alex and Sara following. Jack came right over to me and held me tight for a minute or two.

‘You OK?’ he whispered into my hair.

I just nodded my head against his shoulder.

‘So, what did you find out?’ Alex had crossed to the windows and pulled down the blinds. He flicked a switch and a sidelight came on, casting a warm orange glow around the room. Sara sat down next to me on the sofa, Jack perched on the arm.

‘It’s all good. It was a false alarm,’ he said. ‘We’re still not sure what triggered it, but it must have been an electrical fault because there was no security breach. We checked all the surveillance films and there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary.’

‘Least we know it works,’ Alex said with a little shrug.

‘Yeah, I guess so,’ Jack said. He looked at me now. ‘And you don’t need to worry about anything, Lila, you’re not in any danger. We’ve managed to pick up their trail. They’ve crossed the border into Mexico.’

I glanced at Alex. Did that mean he was free to let me out of his sight again?

‘If you know where they are, why don’t you arrest them?’ I asked.

‘It isn’t as easy as that,’ Alex said.

Man, how hard could it be? A whole unit of trained Marines hadn’t been able to catch my mum’s killers, and now they were telling me they couldn’t stop these guys, either. I was starting to wonder how good Marine training actually was.

‘Listen, can Lila stay here tonight?’ Jack said, diverting the conversation. ‘I have to get the window fixed in her room.’

I glanced sheepishly at Jack. He was giving me a look.

‘How did you manage that one?’

‘Um, well, I . . .’

‘It’s cool,’ Alex cut in, saving me. ‘Of course Lila can stay. I’ll drop her back tomorrow morning.’

I peeked at him through my lashes, grateful for the save. Maybe he realised I didn’t want to explain to my brother that I broke a window because I was pissed with him and his boss.

Jack stood up and motioned to Alex and the two of them wandered off into the hallway. I looked at Sara and she smiled at me.