Keeping Me (Spy Chronicles Book 2)(32)

“That’s not a bad thing. You’re loyal. And you love people to a fault,” he says. “You’re smart. You just know things that other people don’t. You pick up on people’s emotions in an almost scary way. Like how sometimes, when I am feeling sad, you just smile at me the exact moment I need it. That’s an incredible gift.”

“I didn’t know I did that,” I say.

“And maybe you didn’t tell me that you think you’re too skinny and ugly just so I’d give you a compliment, but I want to tell you anyway. Somebody needs you,” Bass says. “You’re unbelievably gorgeous. Like, sometimes when I look at you, it’s hard to breathe. I’ve never met anybody more stunning in my life. And I’m just glad that I get to be here now with you, because I’m convinced that meeting you isn’t a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. I think it’s a one-in-a-million kind of thing.”

He looks back up at the sky.

And I lay there in stunned silence.

How can Sebastian make me so furious one second and make me want to melt into a puddle the next?





Lex Luthor.





After training with Sebastian, my dad actually let me take a break. He has been making me train from sun up to sun down, but I think he gets that I’m so sore I can hardly move at this point.

I know that training is important. I know that it can literally mean life or death. But all of this is really hard. I haven’t been trained my whole life like the rest of the guys. And the fact that I just recently started getting enough calories to function like a normal human doesn’t help either.

I’m reading a book on my iPad. My dad bought it for me. He also got me a phone, but I don’t ever use it.

Well, that’s not true. I did send a text to Sander. I know that his plane landed today and I wanted to make sure he made it okay. He texted back and said he was okay, but that he couldn’t talk to me again for a while. I will miss him, but I know his job is important. I know that the girl he is protecting will be safe because of him.

The rest of the guys are out. Apparently they are out in the woods with paint ball guns. They said it would be fun, but it sounds painful, so I opted to stay here. To be honest, I’m too sore to really run around in the woods. Except, now I’m bored. Not that the book I’m reading isn’t good, it is. I’m almost to the point where the guy and girl end up together, and I know that is going to be super-satisfying.

Finally.

After, like, three hundred pages.

“Serenity,” Dad says.

I look up when I see my father walking into my room. I lock my iPad and scoot up on my bed.

“What’s up?” I ask him.

“We need to talk,” he says.

“Okay,” I say, setting my iPad down. Whatever it is, I can tell it’s going to take a while, from the way his forehead is wrinkled. “What is it?”

“I asked the boys to leave this afternoon so I could talk to you. Alone,” Dad says.

Which makes me sit up even straighter. “What’s going on?”

“I want to talk to you about Protocol Lex Luthor.”

The words make my heart double in speed.

I have wanted to hear about this since I first heard the words uttered when we we’re in St. Louis.

“I’m sure by now, you know that I have a lot of enemies,” Dad says. “And most of those enemies were either trained by me or my father.”

I nod.

“Spy School does a lot of good. But the thing is, when you go there, you have a choice. You can choose to stay and work for the good guys, or you can leave,” Dad says.

“Why not just make everybody stay?” I ask.

“Because forcing people to do something they don’t want to do is more dangerous than just letting them go,” Dad says. “I don’t ever want anybody to feel like I forced them to work for me. I give them a choice. And I hope that they choose right. Most of the time they do. But sometimes...”

“They become assassins,” I finish for him.

“Exactly,” Dad says. “Some people are motivated by money. Or power.”

“Or family,” I say, in regards to Nolan.

“Yes,” he says. “Choosing right or wrong isn’t always black and white for everybody.”

Which makes me wonder... how grey did it have to be before Nolan went with his parents? Can I really fault him for choosing them over me? It hurts, but I don’t know the situation completely.

“When I was growing up, I had a best friend. Well, he was more than a best friend,” Dad says. “He was my brother. Not by blood. But we were practically raised together. We hardly ever spent time apart.”

“That sounds nice,” I say.

“It was,” Dad says. “His parents worked with my dad and everything was perfect. We both started Spy School together, but we were so well trained before we even went in. The two of us were the top of our class. Of course, I was always better.”

“Of course.”

My dad is the best.

I know that.

“The day came for him to choose. He could stay and work for Spy School or he could leave,” Dad says. “I knew what he would choose. His parents worked for Spy School. I was going to take it over. We were going to be best friends. Someday, I assumed, that his kid would be best friends with my kid.”