Abby POV
"How are you doing Red?" I was sitting on a bench in the main foyer, an open book in my lap. I continuously moved my lips to make it look like I was reading, but I was actually waiting for Rylee to respond in the comms.
Gracie and Kodi were busy asking Mr. Smith for some extra help on their COW homework, attempting to keep him from walking out into the hallway and seeing Rylee. She was moving over to Dr. Fibbs classroom (a danger in itself) to sweet talk him into lending her a firewall-proof laptop that students were not really allowed to have.
I skimmed the page of my Cultures & Assimilation book, remembering that I actually did have a reading assignment to do, and then asked, "Bronze Beauty, Diamond, do you have visual? Anyone approaching?"
I highlighted a random sentence in my book, smiling to myself. Girls were milling around me, waving and smiling. I waved and smiled back, not allowing myself to wince when a sudden burst of static came through in my ear.
"I'm almost there," Rylee sang suddenly, "He seems to be doing a highly dangerous experiment and I just so happen to be flammable." I fought the urge to smile. "That's the spirit Red."
Kodi laughed, presumably at something Mr. Smith said and then responded, "I think we can move onto the next problem." Rylee grunted and mumbled, "Don't rush me."
"Abigail!" I looked up to see the boys walking up to me.
Jason with that god-forsaken grin on his face, stuck his hands in his pockets and winked at me. He still hadn't mentioned it to anyone. "Hey Dr. Fibbs," I heard Rylee trill and I knew she had her puppy dog eyes out and hands behind her back. I smiled up at the boys and shut my book. There went my first cover.
"Study session over," I announced.
Gracie snorted, "Like you were even studying."
Making a mental note to kick her later, I crossed my legs and asked, "How can I help you boys." "We were going to see if Cook would spare us a bag of crisps each and then we were going to do an impromptu sparring session in the P&E barn before dinner. Do you know where the other girls are? We wanted you all to come with us." Matt looked over me with scrutinizing eyes.
"What are you doing?" "Studying," I said sweetly.
"Sure."
Jason titled his head to the side.
"Where are the others?"
"Gracie and Kodi are getting some help from Mr. Smith and Rylee is doing an extra credit assignment with Dr. Fibbs." "Extra credit...with Dr. Fibbs? What even is extra credit in espionage?"
"A multi-passenger van with three hundred miles to the gallon," I said pointedly.
Jason chuckled. "We still have that van."
"We're going to go then," Lane pulled Derrick and Matt's arms, "just come to the barn as soon as you can." Jason stood and turned to the guys, "You guys go ahead. I'll catch up in a minute."
As they moved away, he gave me a flirty look. Oh no.
"So Abigail-" Oh God I was on comms...the girls were going to kill me. I smacked my knees loudly and by the groans I heard, I knew it was loud in the girl's ears. He didn't even blink and attempted to keep talking.
"How about we head to the-" I put a finger to my lips and he gave me a quizzical look.
"What," he mouthed. I tapped my ear and he squinted his eyes at me.
"Oooh now that is interesting," Gracie murmured as Mr. Smith finished explaining an equation.
"The P&E barn when you're done studying? I know you'd kill me if you didn't get a perfect score." I nodded and smiled. "I'm almost done."
That was my cue for hurry on up. Rylee was currently moving on behind Dr. Fibbs towards the computer container and thanking him profusely for the computer. Kodi and Gracie were almost complete with Dr. Smith and I knew that Rylee had a minute at most. I stood and took a hold of Jason's wrist. I pulled the comms unit out of my ear and covered the mouthpiece.
"I haven't told them yet," I said in a low voice, "about anything." Jason frowned. "Obviously your attention has been occupied; what exactly have you been doing?" I couldn't hear Gracie snapping at me through the comms and I replied, "I'll fill you on everything once I get answers.
Right now just don't mention kissing me." He stepped closer to me and I was pleasantly overwhelmed with his cologne. "You're not ashamed of me now are you Goode?" His eyes drifted to my lips and then back up to my eyes. I sucked a tooth and pushed him in the chest.
"Of course not. The girls are just...extreme." He ran his thumb over my lips, causing my knees to go slightly weak, and said, "Well then you explain everything in extreme detail. Meet me after curfew?"
I bite my lip and nodded. With a smirk, he took off after the other guys. I rolled my shoulders and was extremely grateful that no one but a bust of Professor Buckingham witnessed me at my weakest.
I pushed the comms unit back into my ear and said, "I got rid of the problem. Are we good?"
"That is a very handsome problem Shadow," Kodi teased.
"Are we good," I growled.
"I've got the computer," Rylee responded, "now you owe us an explanation."
I closed my eyes and wished that I was anywhere else in the world. When I opened them, I saw all three of my best friends, arms cross and hips cocked. I was in trouble.
"You two what!" I shh-ed her and rubbed my face.
"Jason and I kissed...a lot."
The decibels of the squeals that teenage girls emit should be used as torture tactics. Kodi grabbed my shoulders and shook me.
"Why didn't you tell us as soon as it happened?"
"Because," I shook her off, "The whole 'Abby doesn't know' bit was a little more pressing to me than Jason and I's canoodling." More squeals. "Okay okay," Rylee shut the lid of the computer a bit," was there full on lip locking involved?"
I wrinkled my face and then nodded. The squealing reached an all-time high and I covered my ears. "Stop it please! You're going to sic every dog within fifty miles on the school!" Gracie kicked her legs up into the air.
"I can't believe this! Abigail Goode, the never had a boyfriend, never been kissed shadow suddenly lands the hottest guy in the business. Kodi hasn't even had boyfriends as hot as Jason.
"She put her hands up and to Kodi said, "No offense."
"Surprisingly, none taken."
I fell back on the bed and sighed. "It was amazing too. Like every second of it just felt right ya know?" The memories of Jason grabbing my waist and kissing me slow caused me to giggle.
Rylee just shook her head at me in amusement. "As much as I love listening to dirty details about teen romances...we have a very anonymous group that seems to be targeting Abby that is also being hidden from her."
Rylee opened up the laptop and then plugged something into the side of it. My eyes grew wide as I took in the abnormal USB. "Do I even want to know where you got that?" She laughed but didn't respond.
Kodi rocked back and forward, a habit she had when was deep in thought. She shook her head, her short hair swayed back and forward with the movement and thought out loud, "I know it's not hard, but how many terrorist groups are big enough to scare Cammie, Zach, and Matt but not important enough for us to know of them."
I furrowed my brow. "Usually when that happens, it means that they're older and based on the fact that the name is latin and has a very ominous name, I'm pretty sure they're older-than-the-Circle old," I mused.
"That's absolutely terrifying then. What group dates back past 17th century Ireland that's still around? I call that some dedicated membership."
Rylee began hacking away at the computer furiously and I began to worry that Dr. Fibbs wouldn't have a keyboard to use afterwards.
"These codes are hard to break," she got out after three minutes and 46 seconds of silence, "I might need help just to avoid alerting the CIA that I hacked into their most classified files."
"I'm starting to think their defenses just aren't that good," Kodi sighed. Rylee looked up at her defiantly, "No. I'm just that good. I'm in, I'm just trying not to let them know I'm in."
Gracie and I shared a look and I groaned.
"No."
"Abigail, he's the best! You know it too. We could be in safely and no one would be the wiser."
Rylee's eyes grew wide and she blurted, "Abby go get him. I might not be able to get out and then they'll trace us." I groaned and stood.
"Fine."
I left the room and briskly walked to the main hall. I could hear the boys laughing and I stood in the shadow on a tapestry as they walked past. As they boys neared, I waiting before lunging and covering Derrick's mouth with my hand. Before he could shout and alert the others, I dragged him behind the tapestry. He shook my off angrily.
"Do you want to explain why you just kidnapped me?"
He suddenly noticed his surroundings and looked at me bewildered. "Where did you even take me?" His hazel eyes were narrowed and looked as if they were burning. "Calm down. We need your help."
"With what exactly," he was interested.
"We hacked into the CIA's database for some secret files...but Rylee is having trouble trying not to alert them. Will you help?" He thought it over before asking, "What's in it for me?"
"The joy of knowing you helped someone without a cost?" He pursed his lips. I rolled my eyes. "Fine. I'll land you a date with Kodi the next time we go into town." He stuck out his hand immediately. "Deal."
"I'm sorry, you promise me to what now?" Kodi was seething.
"Relax princess, it's for a day. It's not like I'm ugly," Derrick's fingers were flying away at the keyboard, typing in codes at a mile a minute, "plus, I've dated heiresses, actual princesses, and a duchess- I know how to handle you."
Kodi was positively pissed.
Derrick was sweet- most of the time. He was just as arrogant, if not more now that he was able to one up Rylee, something that did not sit well with her (despite the look of awe in her face at his ease to administer codes).
Before Kodi was slug him in the face, I just said, "Derrick is the best Kodi. Besides, you might have fun."
"Fun? He's an arrogant son of a-."
"Okay," Gracie jumped up, "As we fill in Derrick, we need to think about what we're going to do with the information we find. Obviously if the entire Goode family is hiding something from just one member of the family...it must be bad."
Derrick glanced up at me and asked, "What exactly am I looking for again?"
I wrapped my arms around my knees and replied, "A group called the Uomini Morte."
His fingers froze. Rylee cursed and grabbed the computer from him roughly.
"Abigail, what do you know about the Uomini Morte?" "Nothing," I threw my hands in the air.
"All I know is that my family is keeping secrets from me and the only reason I found out was because I was climbing through the vents leaving-." The terror in his eyes disappear for a split second as he gave me a knowing look.
"You need to leave it that way. You don't know what you're getting into." "But you do," Kodi snapped.
"Yes I do Kodi Winters. It'd be best of you lot didn't play hero and let the real spies deal with this."
"We'll be determining who deals with this thank you," I retorted, my anger getting the best of me.
He ran his hand through his hair angrily. "This group is more dangerous than everything they've taught you in C&A and P&E. This is real stuff. People are tortured and then killed; like spliting you open and breaking every bone in your body while still keeping you alive torture."
The girls must have looked how I felt.
"So why was my family trying to keep this from me? Why would I even been kept in the dark about it?"
"One: you're reckless and have this 'I need to risk my butt' complex that no one particularly admires. Two: You and your mother are to be protected at all cost. If you truly believe Matt and your father would let anything happen to you, then you're highly mistaken. Three: The Uomini Morte likes to be secretive and fancy. They are one of four terrorist groups in existence today that hold onto their Latin roots and throw elaborate balls to hide their secret meetings. They like to send possible recruits intricate letters with their symbol on the back in order to get kids to join."
He frowned at me. "If all three of them are hiding this from you, that probably means you received a letter."
I suddenly felt very cold.
"It's not possible for them to not know I'm a Goode. That means I'm being targeted. Why though? They wouldn't have a personal vendetta against my family would they?" Derrick didn't respond.
"Derrick, they don't have a personal vendetta against my family right?" "It's not my story to tell." Kodi and Gracie both stood around him, ready to beat it out of him if they had to but he rolled his eyes.
"I'll access the files for you and make sure I set the proper codes to make sure you get out, but I'm denying my part in this wholly when Matt finds out." He continued for another six minutes before he handed the computer to Rylee.
As he stood, he said, "I'm serious Abby. This is not something you want to mess with." I stared him in the eyes and stood with him.
"I'm not messing with anything Derrick. I just want to know. How would you like to find out that your entire family has been hiding something from you?" He moved towards the door and scoffed.
"I'm a spy sweetheart- it's nothing new to me."