Lies I Told(58)

I glanced at the map, grateful for my quick-thinking parents. Drawing the Fairchild property as an example for the landscapers was a better excuse than I could have managed.

“Well!” Harrison rose. “I’m sorry to disturb you on a Sunday morning. I told Rachel that I would look into her concerns. As I’m sure you know, she and Logan Fairchild were an item for a while. I think she still has a soft spot for him. I figured she was off base. We all enjoy having you here.”

There was hand shaking and more small talk, but I barely managed to nod and smile in the right places.

I was in trouble. We all were.





Forty-Four


“What the f*ck were you thinking?” My dad was practically shouting, as close to losing it as I’d ever seen him.

I dropped my head into my hands, wishing I could disappear into the floor of the War Room. “I’m sorry.”


“Stop saying you’re sorry,” my mom said, her voice soft. “Just tell us why you did it. Why on earth would you keep that ID card, let alone carry it around with you?”

I glanced at Parker, wondering if he was as pissed as everyone else. There was nothing but sympathy in his eyes.

I looked at my mom. “I don’t know. I just . . . it’s hard sometimes,” I finished softly.

“What’s hard?” my dad demanded.

“All of it!” I shouted. “Making new friends every four months and lying and moving and keeping our stories straight and saying good-bye.”

“That’s the job, Grace.” My dad’s voice was firm.

“Well, she didn’t exactly sign on for the job, did she?” Parker’s voice was low and hard.

“She did,” my dad said, danger in his voice. “She signed on when she agreed.”

Parker folded his arms across his chest. “After you adopted her. Did you really think someone who’d been in the foster system, someone who’d waited years for a family, would walk away when she finally got one?” He shook his head with disgust. “She was just a kid. You knew exactly what you were doing. With both of us. We were your biggest con.”

For a minute the room seemed wired, ready to blow, a bottomless silence opening up between us. Then my dad got up, pacing to the window. He turned his back on us.

I looked over at my mom. She was chewing her lip. It was a small gesture, but it gave away her nervousness. I wondered if it was shame or anger that colored her cheeks.

“Well, it’s too late now,” my dad said without turning around. “We’re too close to abandon the job.”

“And it would only bring us unwanted attention,” my mom agreed. “Better to stay the course. Get it done and get out.”

My dad rubbed the five o’clock shadow at his jawline. “We’ll have to leave right after we get the gold. With the Mercers on our tail and the link to Arizona, we can’t afford to play dumb for a few weeks after the theft like we usually do.”

I swallowed hard. It was my fault we’d have to make a quick getaway. My fault we were under the magnifying glass.

“What about Rachel?” I asked, trying to focus on the problem at hand.

My dad turned around. “What about her?”

“What if it’s not enough? What if she’s still suspicious?”

“Then she can be suspicious,” my dad said. “She’s done all she can do.”

“For now,” Parker said. “But Grace is right; what if she pushes the issue?”

“She’s only going to seem crazy if she does that now,” my mom said. “Something tells me she’s smart enough to know that.”

“Right, which means she’s smart enough to see through the explanation you gave Mr. Mercer,” Parker said.

My dad crossed the room and planted his hands on the table. His gaze was piercing, his eyes too bright.

“Well, then,” he said, “we better get back to work. The sooner we get the gold, the sooner we can be out of here. And I think we can all agree that sooner is better than later.”





Forty-Five


I stared out the window as Parker sped to school the next day. He was driving too fast, inviting unwanted attention with a possible speeding ticket, but he didn’t seem to care. The earth was rumbling under our feet, the veneer cracking on our carefully constructed facade.

He pulled into our usual parking spot and cut the engine. For a minute we just sat there, watching Logan and the others mingle around the BMW.

“You okay?” Parker asked softly.

“Fine,” I said. “Thanks for going to bat for me.”

“No thanks necessary. You reap what you sow. And Cormac and Renee are reaping big time.”

I shook my head. “It was my fault. I violated protocol.”

He exhaled in a rush of air. “Do you hear yourself? You ‘violated protocol’? Does that sound like something a normal sixteen-year-old would say?”

I reached for the door handle. “Normal for us.”

I exited the car before he could say anything else and plastered a smile onto my face as Logan came toward me. I didn’t know whether to be scared or relieved that Rachel wasn’t standing with the others. I was torn between wanting to keep her in sight and wanting to pretend she didn’t exist. Wanting to pretend none of it existed.