Paradox (Unearthly Paradox) (5 page)

I shrugged and turned my attention back to my tablet. I Googled “superhuman strength” and “black eyes.” What I came up with was anything but useful. Demons? I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing out loud.

The rest of the day was uneventful, just how I wanted it. Walking out to my car, I was met by Lilly.

“Sorry about lunch again,” she said. “Mrs Elliott had to give me my recommendation for my uni application.”

I waved her off. “Did she give you a good one?”

She nodded. “It should help me get into accounting as long as I don’t screw up my exams next week.”

“So you’ve decided what you’re going to apply for?”

“I think so,” she said, although the way she said it made me think it wasn’t set in stone.

“So, what are you doing this afternoon?” she asked as we walked through the school gate.

I wasn’t going to be studying, but I didn’t want to lie. I had no idea where the little bitch in my head had come from, but I had to shut her up before she had a chance to take up permanent residency in my mind.

Lilly started fidgeting with her fingers. The poor girl probably thought I was trying to come up with a reason to ditch her when she so clearly wanted to hang out.

Unlocking the car, I opened the passenger door and stepped to the side. “Want to come over for a while? I can drop you home later.”

A smile spread across her face. “Yeah, that would be great.” She hopped into the car.

As we left the parking lot, I saw the guys from the canal standing next to the driveway. Lilly’s smile dropped as Tyler blew her a kiss. Something swept over me—not fear but a predatory feeling. All I wanted to do was jump out and show him what he was, and even more, who
I
was. He needed to learn that he was at the bottom of the food chain and that I could crush him where he stood.

As I glared at him, Tyler’s face grew pale then he dropped his gaze. Submission. He may not have known that was what he was showing, but I did.

A beep from the car behind me broke my concentration.
Holy shit!
What the hell was wrong with me? I looked up into the review mirror as I waved my apology to the beeper. I caught a glimpse of my reflection—my irises were black. I did a double take, and sure enough, they were still the same.

On the odd chance it wasn’t an illusion, I quickly grabbed my sunglasses out of the holder and put them on before Lilly looked in my direction.

“I can’t wait ’til next week is over and I never have to see their faces again,” Lilly said as I pulled out onto the road.

“Are they that bad, then?”

“You should know.” She gave me a pointed look.

I didn’t want to go there just yet—even if she did. It was one thing to talk about what had happened to her, but it was quite another to discuss my situation and that some mysterious black-eyed, possibly demon guy had saved me. “I don’t know what you mean.”

I turned back to face the front. I could feel her eyes boring into the side of my head, but I refused to look in her direction.

She sighed. “If you say so. But just so you know, I’m here to talk whenever you’re ready.”

“Okay, thanks, I guess,” I said, pretending to have no idea what she was on about.

When we pulled into my driveway, Lilly’s eyes almost bugged out of her head. “You live on Hedges Avenue?”

“Yeah. Why?” I pressed the garage remote.

“Only because it’s one of the most sought-after real estate on the Coast.” She grinned.

“What?” I asked, with a smile on my face.

“Nothing much, only that Jett lives two houses down from you.”

I almost drove my car through the back wall of the garage. No wonder I’d seen him hanging around on the beach. And I had actually entertained the idea that was because of me. Boy, did I have tickets on myself.

“Breathe, Zara.”

I put the car in park, pressed the garage remote, and got out. “Come on.”

Lilly followed me inside. “What time will your dad be coming home?”

I dumped my bag on the couch. “He’s in China for a week or so.”

Lilly dropped her bag beside mine and looked around the room. “You’re staying here by yourself?”

“Yep. As usual.” I headed into the kitchen, where I found a note on the counter that said that my father would be going on to Tokyo for a week after he was finished in China. I didn’t recognise the writing and wondered who had left the note—probably one of my dad’s minions. “Time to get the locks changed,” I muttered.

Lilly came into the kitchen. “What?”

I shook my head. “Nothing.” I slipped the note into the top drawer then opened the fridge. It was full of food that hadn’t been there before I left for school. Maybe I shouldn’t change the locks after all. “Want something?” I stood to the side so she could see.

Lilly hesitantly picked up a packet of Tim Tams. “Do you have coffee?”

I cocked my head toward the machine. “What do you want?”

“A coffee?” she said with a laugh.

I rolled my eyes as I closed the fridge door. “Flat white, cappuccino, latte, or macchiato?”

“Latte, thanks.”

I turned on the machine and made two lattes. Once they were ready, we took our coffees out on the back deck. The sun was still up, and the beach was filled with the after-school crowd. I scanned the beach, looking for Jett.

Lilly sat down and put her Tim Tams on the table. “His house is two up to the right.”

Was I that obvious? Well, I didn’t want to be that girl. “Whose house?”

She threw her head back and laughed. “Don’t pretend you weren’t just looking for Jett.”

My face heated as blood rushed to my cheeks. “I wasn’t looking for him.” When I felt my skin return to normal, I turned around and sat on the chair next to her, which just so happened to be facing toward Jett’s house.

“Sure you weren’t.” She opened the Tim Tams and picked out a biscuit.

I put my elbows on the table and rested my chin on my hands. “Is he really in the mob?”

“I don’t know about Jett, but his father definitely is. Or I should say he’s the mob boss—only they don’t call it ‘the mob.’” She bit off one end of the Tim Tam, turned it over, and bit off the other end.

I looked over at his house. It didn’t look like a mob boss’s house, but then again, I didn’t know exactly what a mob boss’s house would look like. But I did expect the three-story house to be secured by big burly blokes dressed in suits and packing guns. All I saw was a house similar to mine. No guards—not even a dog. “How do you know all this?”

“Everyone knows.” She put one end of the Tim Tam into the coffee and sucked the coffee through the biscuit.

“That is so disgusting.”

Lilly stopped sucking and lifted her head. She looked as if she thought I was the one who was nuts. “Have you tried it?”

I chuckled. “No.”

She shrugged. “Then don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.” She put the Tim Tam back in her drink and continued to suck the coffee through the biscuit.

I waited for her biscuit to melt into the coffee before I asked my next lot of questions. “So when you say the mob, do you mean like the ones on TV? Guns, drugs… killing people?”

Lilly nodded. “They did this report about his family on TV a couple of months ago where they said that all the police have on them is circumstantial evidence. Apparently, they’ve never been convicted of anything.”

“How is that possible if everyone knows it was them?”

“I don’t know. Evidence goes missing. Witnesses disappear.”

My eyes practically popped out of their sockets. “Seriously?”

She nodded. “Of course, there’s no proof, but somehow the witnesses always disappear before the trial. And that’s if it even gets that far. I think most of the stuff they do just gets swept under the carpet.” Lilly nodded toward Jett’s house. “Speak of the devil.”

I turned to see what she meant. Jett walked through the back gate of his yard, carrying a board under his arm. He had a white tattoo that ran from his neck, over his shoulder and down the side of his chest, disappearing into his board shorts, which were hanging off his hips. All I wanted to do was tug them down farther so I could see the rest of the tattoo.
Oh, God.
It seemed that my taste in bad guys hadn’t changed. I tried to look away, but something about him wouldn’t let me. I felt like a cliché. I was a compass, and he was my north. I wanted to bitch slap myself for just thinking that.

He looked over at us, and I stopped breathing. I could’ve sworn something flickered in his eyes before they glazed over as an easy smile appeared on his face. He waved at us then jogged down the sand and into the water.

Lilly hit my arm. “Breathe, girl.”

I needed to suck in some air, but I didn’t want to prove Lilly right. What kind of girl stopped breathing when a guy smiled at her? Not me, that was for sure, especially not for someone whose father was probably responsible for multiple murders. Trying to appear casual, I leaned back and put my feet up on the chair beside mine. I picked up my mug and looked out at the beach.

“He’s over there.” She pointed at Jett, who was paddling out to sea.

God, that girl was good. I had never suspected that shy, reserved Lilly could be so outgoing. It pissed me off to think that those boys and girls had destroyed that part of her, but at least there was still hope. We only had one week of school left, and I hoped that after that she would never have to see them again.

I sighed. “Is it bad that I think the mobs boss’s son is hot?”

Lilly laughed. “No. It just means you’re human.”

Maybe not, but I wasn’t going to tell her that.

The sea breeze died as the sun disappeared behind my house.

Lilly kicked back her chair and stood. “I guess I better get going.”

“Unless you want to stay the night?” I asked, surprising myself.

“I would love to, but my mum would kick my ass if I don’t come home and study for exams.” She pushed her chair in. “I’ll call you if she lets me out for good behaviour.”

I smiled, thinking how nice it must be to have a parent that actually cared. I got up and followed Lilly inside. She picked up her bag and headed for the front door. “I’ll see you later.”

“As if I’m going to let you catch a bus home.” I grabbed my keys and purse.

“You sure?” she asked. “I mean I don’t mind catching a bus.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Nobody likes taking the bus.” I went into the garage with Lilly following.

“Thanks,” she said.

When we got in the car, I asked, “Where to?”

“I live over in Broadbeach Waters. Off Monaco Street.”

“Sorry, I don’t know where that is. You’re going to have to give me directions.”

Lilly lowered her sunglasses from the top of her head to cover her eyes. “You know this car has GPS, right?”

I took a left at the end of the street. “Yeah, I plan on figuring out how to use it one of these days.”

She reached out, brought up the satellite navigation system, then began pressing buttons on the screen. “There you go. Now you’ll be able to find your way home.”

I slowed at the traffic light. “Which way?”

“Right.”

“So do you have any preferences to where you want to stay for Schoolies?”

“You’ll need to turn left at the next light. And I don’t really care where, as long as it’s in Surfers. I don’t want to have to find transport back to the hotel.” As I turned left onto Monaco Street, she added, “Two streets up on the left then first right.”

I followed her instructions and pulled up in front of a single-story Balinese-inspired house that I presumed was on the water by the canals that we passed on the way over.

“Thanks for dropping me home.” Lilly pressed a button on the screen. “The car will tell you how to get back.” She grinned and hopped out of the car.

I leaned over and said, “Thanks.”

“I’ll call you if I can come over.”

The way she said it, I was pretty sure I would be spending the weekend alone. “Have fun studying.”

She rolled her eyes. “Seeya.” She closed the door and headed up the path to her house.

By the time I got home, I wanted to rip the damned Sat Nav out of the dashboard. The voice telling me where to go seriously grated my nerves. I didn’t like being told what to do—even by a computer.

When I pulled into my garage, the voice kept repeating, “You have arrived at your destination.”

For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to turn the damned thing off. I was sure it had malfunctioned. I couldn’t be that technologically impaired. “Stupid friggin’ idiot!” I yelled as the voice continued.

“You always talk to your car?” a sexy voice asked.

I whipped my head around. Blood instantly flooded my cheeks when I saw Jett leaning against the garage wall. “I wasn’t—” I shook my head and waited for the colour of my cheeks to return to normal before I got out of the car. “There’s something wrong with the car’s computer chip. I can’t get the Sat Nav to turn off.”

He started toward me. “Let me take a look.”

I sucked in a sharp breath as he brushed past me and sat in the driver’s seat. Within seconds, the annoying voice was silenced. “There you go.”

I leaned into the car. “How the hell did you do that?”

He turned his head to look up at me, and I just about stopped breathing. Our faces were only inches apart.

“Um… never mind.” I straightened, refusing to be so easily infatuated. “I won’t be using that thing ever again.” I stepped back, put my hand on the car door, and waited for him to get out.

An easy smile spread across his face. He turned the engine off, got out, and casually leaned against my car as if he belonged there. The self-confidence he exuded was like nothing I’d ever seen. I guessed that kind of thing only came with someone who had as much power as his family did. Thinking about his family’s business should’ve sent me running, but Jett made me feel anything but scared. Maybe it had something to do with him possibly saving me from being raped. Victims were known to form attachments to their rescuers. But the problem with that theory was that I wasn’t sure he had been my hero.

I noticed Jett was staring at me. “What?” I was happy for him to look at me for the next ten hours, but I didn’t want him knowing that.