Keeping Me (Spy Chronicles Book 2)(2)

“You had a completely screwed up life,” he says.

I shrug. “I suppose so. But it’s not like I’m normal now. I’m at spy school.”

“Yeah, you are,” he says. “At least now I know why you’re so skinny.”

“I’ve gained a pound since I met the guys,” I say. “The doctor weighed me. I was kind of excited.”

“What do you weigh? Eighty pounds?” he asks, but not as an insult. I know he’s actually concerned. At least, it seems that way.

I don’t answer. “The doctor wants me to gain at least twenty pounds.”

“When are you getting sprung from this place?” he asks.

“Tomorrow,” I answer.

“Good. I’m ready for you to get back to school so I can show you some basic self-defense moves,” Sebastian says. “This all could’ve been avoided with the proper training. Well, okay, maybe not avoided. But with me as a teacher, even an eighty pound girl could give Nolan a run for his money.”

I frown. “I don’t weigh eighty pounds.”

“I read your chart,” he says. “You weigh eighty-four pounds, which is just sad.”

“Yeah, well... after I gain twenty pounds, I am going to kick your butt in class,” I say confidently.

“If you’re anything like your mom and dad, I have no doubts that you could give even me a run for my money.”

I grin. “Then that’s my goal—to be good enough to take you on in a fight.”

“That’s my goal for you, too. Because if you can take me down, you can take Nolan down,” he says.

I sit up straight, sitting Indian style. “You never liked Nolan, right?”

“Right,” he says.

“Can you show me how to do that?” I ask.

“How to do what?”

“Tell if somebody is bad,” I answer. “Like, I trust people. I trusted Nolan with my life. And he did this. I need to know who to trust and who not to trust.”

“How long have you known Nolan?” Sebastian asks.

“Like, a week,” I answer.

“That’s your problem,” he says. “You don’t give people trust right away. You have to let them earn it.”

“I trust you,” I say.

“And I earned it. I saved your life,” he says.

“Nolan rescued me from Florida,” I say.

“Okay then. Don’t trust me,” he says. “Let me prove to you some other way that you can trust me.”

“How are you supposed to do that?” I ask. “You don’t even like me.”

He laughs.

But maybe he’s right. Maybe I do trust too easily, and Nolan just proved that I shouldn’t do that.

“I can’t believe that everybody in the world is evil. There are good people, too. There have to be,” I say.

“You say that ’cause you’re one of the good ones,” Sebastian says. “You’ve been tainted by evil your whole life, yet you’re so... pure.”

“Be careful, Bass. That sounded an awful lot like a compliment,” I say.

“Don’t worry. Unlike you, I don’t trust people until I know them very well,” he says.

“Who do you trust?” I ask.

“Myself,” he answers.

“That’s sad,” I say. “I’ll just have to prove to you that you can trust me.”

“Good luck, Princess.”

“Why do you call me princess?” I ask.

“You’re Michael Sinclair’s daughter, that means you’re royalty at our school,” Sebastian says.

“You usually say it like it’s an insult.”

“I assumed you were a spoiled rich girl,” Sebastian says. “I was wrong, but I like the nickname, so it’s sticking. Besides, now that you’re here, I fully expect you to live up to my first impression. It’s only a matter of time.”

Wow.

Sebastian Soto really does hate me.





Gage.





Later that day, Sander shows up at the hospital. When he lets Sebastian know that my dad said he could go, Sebastian basically ran from the room. He couldn't wait to get away from me. And I feel bad for him, having to spend time with somebody he doesn’t like. I just hate that’s it’s me that he doesn’t like.

Sander wheels me down to see Gage. He’s lying in a bed asleep. He’s in a medically induced coma, and will be for a few days while his body heals. He isn’t completely in the clear yet, but the worst seems to be over. They’re very hopeful he will make a full recovery, though it’ll be a while before he’s ready to go out on Spy School missions.

“Hey,” I say to Gage, even though he can’t hear me. Or maybe he can. I don’t know. “I’m sorry that you got shot. I sort of feel like it’s my fault. It should’ve been me, not you.”

Sander smacks me on the back of the head.

I turn to glare at him.

“What? Gage would’ve smacked you himself if he were awake,” he says. “It’s not your fault and you know it.”

I grab Gage’s hand and hope he doesn’t mind. He’s not awake to protest. “You need to get better so you can beat up Sander for me. Or better yet, I’ll just learn how to fight well and beat him up myself. Bass told me that he wants me to be good enough to take on Nol...”