Hush Money (13 page)

“Ok, spill. How long have you been in my
head? What do you know about me? Who have—”

“Before you ask me something that’s just
going to be really insulting, I’ll just tell you, ok? I’m not in
your head. Your head, his head, practically every head in this
town—you’re all over the place. You’re all constantly yelling out
your thoughts at me. So if you’re going to expect me to apologize
for hearing your mind chatter for the last decade or so—and girl,
you think a lot—you can just forget it.”

Well, that stopped me. “Yeah, yeah, all
right. I get it. Sorry.” And I did get it. We were born this way,
and it wasn’t like we could just snap our fingers and turn off the
Talent.

“You say sorry and you’re still thinking you
don’t trust me.”

“You see why I feel this is a problem?”

Heather just grinned at me. “If it makes you
feel better, I usually try not to listen to you because I know how
private you are. But sometimes I just can’t help it.”

There were probably a lot of fascinating
tidbits I could ask her about, but I needed to stick to the
important stuff. “What happened back there…what I did…do they know
it was me?”

“The agents? No. They don’t have the first
clue what happened. It was all a blur to them. As for the other
kids…they’re wondering. They’re going over it in their heads and
trying to figure it out. Some of them think that the way you took
charge, the way you kept your head—they think that was your Talent
and someone else must have rearranged the furniture.”

“And all these kids…are they all
Talents?”

Heather thought for a moment. “Yeah, ok, I
can’t tell you that. It’s not ’cause I don’t know who is and who
isn’t. There are very few people I don’t hear, but I don’t think I
can tell you something like that. It’s not that I don’t trust you,
Joss,” she added quickly. “I know who you are, what your principles
are, and that you’re probably about the most trustworthy person I
know. But I have my own rules and I need to stick by them.”

I supposed that, given how much Heather knew
about how many people, that pretty much made my trustworthiness
epic. But if that wasn’t going to get me a pass on her rules—which
I had to respect her for…

“What I
can
tell you,” she continued,
and I was kind of embarrassed knowing she was hearing what I was
saying and what I wasn’t, “is that the reason there are a bunch of
Talents with us right now is because there’s a feeling of kinship
among them. You felt it when everything started to go crazy—that’s
why you knocked the Taser out of that agent’s hand. That’s why,
when you started barricading us in, Jessica joined us instead of
slipping out the door. I think we all want to hang out with people
who are like us, you know? Well, not you, but most people—and I get
why you’re like that. I mean, with Emily and all. But actually,
even you
want
—”

“Things are going to go better between us if
you don’t do things like analyze my memories and tell me what I
really want, k?”

“Yeah. Sorry. I knew that. Well, what I was
saying was that the desire to find other Talents and sort of, I
don’t know, bond and band together…that’s just out there. It’s
been
out there. Everyone needs people to share their secrets
with. But right now, with this group, it’s more. It’s like they’ve
had a taste of their own power—”

“Oh God,” I groaned.

“No, it’s not like that. I mean that they saw
how we could all stand together to protect one of our own. I mean,
Joss, we totally
saved
Phil. From
NIAC
. We saved one
of our own from our own personal boogeyman squad. Not everyone is
clear that that’s what they’re feeling, but that’s the gist of it.
They want to organize, they need the security of that. And they
want someone to take charge. They want—”

“Don’t even.”

“—you. I know, you don’t want any part of a
group anything. The very idea scares the crap out of you. It
totally goes against your training and just your whole personality.
And then, in a way, it totally doesn’t. It’s kind of also like
totally who you are—inside. It’s like your destiny.”

This bit of insanity effectively rendered me
speechless. I just turned and started walking back. I had pretty
much caught on to the fact that my spoken responses were not really
necessary—nor necessarily wanted.

“That’s not true,” she said, tagging along
behind me. “Of course I want to hear what you choose to say. But
also I have to say that what you just thought about me was really
not very nice.” She threw up her hands when I turned to glare at
her. “Not that I’m the thought police or anything.”

We were nearly back to the others I saw a
pair of headlights coming around the bend.

“Ouch. Speaking of the thought police, here
comes your dad. And, um, he’s kind of pissed at you.”

I wondered if telling me my dad’s thoughts
really fit in with Heather’s avowed principles, but then, as soon
as he got out of the car, it was pretty obvious. And it was obvious
just by being obvious, if that makes any sense. Because Dad
wouldn’t show that anything was wrong if he could possibly help it.
I could tell he was way agitated by the way he had swung around
drive, pulled the car in front of the van and braked hard, leaving
the back end half in the road and the lights on. He got out and
started scanning the kids nearby, looking for me. I’d say I felt
about half guilty about what I had caused, and half dread at having
to deal with it.

I cringed some more when Dylan walked up to
him. They were caught in the lights of the van and we had been
sticking to the shadows, so even though Dylan gestured in the
direction we had walked, I was pretty sure they couldn’t see us
yet. When Dad started to turn, Dylan quickly moved into his path
and said something else. Dad became visibly belligerent, and I
picked up my pace.

“I wish I could tell you, what they were
saying.” Heather said in response to my thoughts.

I didn’t bother to answer. And what was up
with Dylan? His behavior was bordering on bizarre. He’d paid more
attention to me in the last few hours than in the last ten years
put together. Maybe I should have liked it, but…

“I wish I—”

“Yeah, yeah. Save it, Principle Girl.”

I saw Dad catch sight of us, and I waved for
good measure. He brushed Dylan off and started toward us.

“Jocelyn, what the Hell are you involved in,
young lady? Do you have any idea what’s going on over the police
band right now? The scanner’s been non-stop with tales of your
exploits—er, your friends’…”

“I know, Dad. I’m really sorry. Wrong place,
wrong time.” I said quickly, covering. Dad would have known my work
when he heard about it, but for him to actually attribute it to me
in front of others…This was really bad. “I tried not to get mixed
up in it, but everything happened so fast. Can you take me home
now, so I can tell you what happened?”

He swallowed hard, looking around us with
jerky movements. He looked scared as well as angry, and my heart
squeezed. I took his arm and started to steer him back toward the
vehicles.

“Joss, hang on.”

Dylan had snagged my hand, stopping me in my
tracks. Not because he had grabbed on hard, but because he was
touching me, and I couldn’t make myself pull my fingers out of his
light grasp if I’d wanted to. Which, apparently, I didn’t. And
knowing that Heather knew all that just added a layer of
mortification. I managed to look up at him anyway.

“Are you sure you’re going to be ok?”

For the blink of an eye, I wasn’t sure what
he meant, and then his eyes flicked over my shoulder to my dad and
back to me. In that instant I was pissed enough on Dad’s behalf to
pull my hand away. I shrugged out of his jacket and held it out.
“Of course,” with enough sting that I think he actually flinched.
Of course I instantly regretted it, but I wasn’t in any position to
try to figure out what he might have meant or try to smooth things
over. I wasn’t even sure I should.

I wasn’t sure of anything except that I
wanted to lie down in the quiet for a while, and before that
happened I had a lot of explaining to do.

Then Kat ran up, with Maddy and Elizabeth in
tow. “Joss, you’re leaving? Well, thanks for—” Kat stumbled, and
she was looking over my shoulder. I imagined Heather was back there
making some kind of sign to stop her from saying something stupid
and getting me in more trouble. She gave this nervous little laugh.
“I was going to say thanks for coming to my party, but I realized
how stupid that was.”

Dad tugged at me, and I started walking away.
“Um, I guess I’ll see you guys at school.”

“I’ll call you!” Kat waved.

As soon as we got in the car Dad said, “No
phone. No visitors. You’re coming right home after school every
day. It’s school and the store for you from now on. I
knew
this party thing was a bad idea.”

“I’m grounded?” It was a strange thing for me
to have said because what he was describing was just life as usual.
I’d been grounded since age 5.

“You’ll see it that way if you want to, but
I’m just doing what I need to do to keep this family together. Some
day you’ll understand that.”

Now that we were in the car and headed home
he seemed a bit calmer already.

“I understand it now, Dad, and you were
right. It was a bad idea. Things got out of hand
so
fast.”

“I went by the Dawson’s place first. Mr.
Dawson brought me inside, past the
police line
,” I cringed
appropriately at the way he said it, “and I saw what you’d done.
They’re getting pictures of every bit of it, and they’re talking
about tracking down more witnesses for statements.”

“I didn’t do all of it,” I said meekly. So
then I proceeded to give him a play-by-play of events, trying to
downplay as much as possible. But it was hard. I had to leave out
the whole thing about Heather wanting me to make decisions because
of what she saw in my head because that would have sent Dad right
over the edge. So I tried to make like I was just trapped with the
group and following along.

Until I got to the part where we made our
escape, at which point I think I was a little too into the story,
and too into describing the way Eric peeled out of the garage
backward as soon as the door would let the little car through, how
he swung it around without even slowing down and without hitting
the cars that were parked in the driveway, and then sped off across
two lawns before hitting the street and disappearing.

“And then you drove everyone to the rest
stop.”

“Well, Dylan drove.”

“Joss, you directed those kids to one of our
family’s safe zones, which has now been compromised.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but didn’t. He
was right. I had done that. I had been trained about what to do in
an emergency, how to keep thinking, how to assess options, and to
have places in mind in case I needed them. I needed a safe place to
take my group and so I used one of them. So yeah, the Marshall
family had one less secret meet-up point, but didn’t I count as a
Marshall? Wasn’t the point of it to be there in case any of us
needed it? I found myself getting angry and chose not to answer
while I calmed down.

“That Maxwell boy sniffing around you?”

“Dad! No! I mean…no. It’s not like that.”

“Good. I don’t like him. You just steer clear
of his type.”

I pondered whether “his type” meant “cute
boys”, “all boys”, or “humans”, but kept my mouth shut. And then I
pondered Dylan some more, and what was his deal tonight? I’d gotten
pissed because I thought he’d insinuated that I might not be safe
with my own father—who would tear lesser men in half to protect me,
I knew. Dad’s whole life was about protecting me, after all. But
when I thought about it, what it might look like to someone else
who didn’t know him, well…maybe it was kind of ok that Dylan was
concerned.

Or maybe it just violated all known Laws of
the Universe.

Joss

Grounded or not, when Sunday afternoon came
around both my parents needed to be in the shop for an on-going
sale and someone had to take Jill to a birthday party in the park.
Dad tried putting his foot down and grounding Jill too, but as she
never really took to that like I did, she just cried until she
turned purple. Mom suggested that I go to the store with Dad and
she would do the party, but Dad didn’t want me anywhere near the
store with all those shopping cops. So, having promised soulfully
that I would lead a blameless life evermore, I found myself sitting
under a tree a respectful distance away from the scary second-grade
set, waiting for Jill. The party had broken up, but she was still
playing with a few other stragglers, and I wasn’t in any mood to go
home anyway.

“I’m sorry about the other night. What I
said.”

I jumped and stifled a shriek. Dylan was
suddenly sitting next to me, like he’d just materialized out of the
air—or out of my brain. How out of it was I that I never even saw
him come up?

“I didn’t mean to startle you. I just thought
if you saw me coming you might leave.”

“I’m waiting for my sister.”

“Oh.”

There was an awkward silence, so I thought
about what he said.

“I’m not mad at you. The whole night
was…messed up.”

“Yeah.”

Another silence.

“Kat tried to call you. Your mom says you’re
‘not available’. Grounded?”

“I guess.”

“Sucks.”

“I guess.”
Duh. Come on, idiot. Say
something.
“What happened after I left?”

“I drove everyone home, then Kat and I drove
by her house but it was still crazy over there so we were driving
down to the river to just kill some time when we saw Eric, so we
picked him up. That was cool because it solved the problem of not
having keys for the van. But then Eric said we should wipe the
prints and leave it down there by the river in case someone wanted
to say we stole it, so we ended up walking her all the way back
home, and then the two of us went home.”