Chapter 19 — Nicholas

Seth seemed subdued in the days following Ace’s escape, so I showed him the news article I had found that morning in an attempt to cheer him up.

“They’ve got the whole city looking for him,” I said. “It’s only a matter of time before he’s caught.”

Seth shook his head. “Ace can be resourceful. It’s not a good idea to underestimate him.”

He almost sounded proud.

Ace didn’t show up to school that day. Josiah did, however, and he seemed as normal as ever. When Cheryl asked him about Ace, he didn’t bat an eye. Still, I didn’t rule out the possibility that Ace had gone to the Sargon manor.

Considering that Andrea Griffin had been the person who broke him out of prison, it made sense that he would be wherever she was. Seth assured me he had people watching her, but Ace hadn’t shown up at her house once.

I was sprawled out on the couch doing math homework when my mom came in with a huge bag of candy in her arms.

“Andrea,” she called over her shoulder. “Don’t just stand there. Come help me with this!”

“I’m not sure if I’d be welcome in the house.”

“Excuses, excuses. Meanwhile, my muscles are dying.”

Andrea laughed and hurried forward to take one end of the bag. One of her nails caught on the plastic and tore a small hole. As they dragged it to the pantry, a trail of candy spilled out behind them.

“Mom,” I said.

She didn’t hear me. When I poked my head into the kitchen later to check on her, I saw her chatting with Andrea at the counter.

Mom waved me over. “Come join us, Nicholas.”

“We’ll bore the kid, Diana.” Andrea smiled. “Our old lady gossip must be pretty dull.”

“You’re not that old yet,” I said.

She turned to Mom. “Look at him lying through his teeth. You’ve taught him so well.”

Her easy laugh had no trace of guilt in it, as if she had forgotten about Ace.

“Have you seen the news lately?” I asked.

The mirth vanished from my mom’s eyes.

“Yes, Hollywood’s power couple is threatening divorce again.” The warning hung like a thundercloud.

“I’m not talking about celebrity gossip.” I said. “I’m talking about Ace.”

“Nicholas!”

Andrea laid a hand on Mom’s arm. “It’s alright, Diana. I’m aware of what my son has done.”

“Surely you know where he is,” I pressed. “You’re his mother.”

“He doesn’t acknowledge that himself half the time,” she said.

“He must have reached out to you. With a price on his head, he’s running out of places he can stay.”

Mom glared at me in a way that promised a long lecture later. “Andrea is a guest. Stop treating her like a prisoner in an interrogation cell.”

I had to try one last time. “Are you certain you don’t have the slightest clue—”

“Nicholas!”

I fled to the living room, running head first into Seth.

“Whoa there.” He held out his hands. “Where’s the fire?”

“Mom and Andrea are gossiping like teenage girls in the kitchen,” I said.

“Andrea? As in…”

“Ace’s mother.”

Seth walked to the doorway. I trailed after him, wanting to see what would happen, but not willing to get scolded again.

Seth kissed Mom on the cheek. “Hello, ladies. Andrea, if you don’t mind, I want to ask you a few questions about Ace.”

Mom smacked his arm. “Seth!”

Andrea looked exasperated. “For the last time, I don’t know where he is.”

He shook his head. “It’s not about that. Can we talk in private?”

She considered it for a moment before nodding.

“Are you sure?” Mom asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Andrea said. “Discussing Ace won’t send me off the deep end.”

Mom walked out of the kitchen. I pressed myself against the small space between the doorway and the wall. She didn’t notice me.

“I can’t stop thinking about what you told me,” Seth said. “Were you telling the truth?”

Andrea nodded.

“Could you be mistaken?”

“I had tests done,” she said.

How did this relate to Ace?

Seth let out the breath he had been holding. “So, he really is…”

They sat in silence for a while. Seth was slumped down, and Andrea was tense like she was about to bolt.

“What was he like?” Seth finally asked.

“You’ve met him before.”

“No, not right now. What was he like as a child?”

“Why do you care? You’ll kill him anyway.”

“Please, Andrea,” he said.

I held my breath and edged closer.

Andrea sighed. “He was such a sweet boy. He took care of me I couldn’t myself. He said his life’s goal was to make me smile.”

Seth chuckled. “What happened to that?”

“I guess he got a taste of real life. I’m afraid that was my fault.”

His voice wavered. “Do you have pictures?”

“Not with me, but yes.” She rubbed her eyes. All of a sudden, she looked like she had aged ten years. “Seth, whatever your grand plans and ambitions are, stay away from my son.”

“He’s mine too.”

“You sure haven’t been acting like it.”

“Well, you would hardly win any mother-of-the-year awards either.”

“Ace won’t acknowledge you, Seth, and I know how volatile both your tempers are. A confrontation won’t end well.”

“We’ll see about that, won’t we.” Seth tilted his head. “Have a good evening, Andrea. It’s nice to see you becoming such close friends with Diana.”

I hurried to my room before they could catch me eavesdropping. My head was whirring like a machine, trying to process everything I had heard.

Beyond the literal words spoken, it struck me as odd that Andrea seemed worried about Seth hurting Ace, instead of the other way around. She knew her son was an assassin and a well-trained one at that. Why would Seth frighten her then?

I recalled what Ace had told me at the police station. He had been panicked and desperate, but he hadn’t appeared to be lying.

I shook my head. Seth had given me far more reasons to trust him over Ace. There was also my mom to consider. She had always been a good judge of character, and if she cared enough about Seth to marry him, then it showed he was sound.

But the look in Andrea’s eyes was hard to dismiss.

I added Jacen and Caela beside the two names from the decoded note and got to work. After a night with nothing to show for my efforts, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing what the universe was shouting at me.

The next day, the sun seemed far too bright. I picked up an iced coffee from the cafeteria, but it did little to alleviate my headache.

“You okay, Nicholas?” Alex poked me in the side. “You look like you’re about to fall asleep standing.”

I stifled a yawn. “I was going to if you hadn’t woken me. Stayed up all night doing homework.”

Not school homework, but still.

“You need to relax, man. Halloween’s tomorrow! Elliot sews our costumes every year so we’re going to his place after school to try them on. Just bring fifteen bucks to cover the cost of the fabric. If you don’t have cash on you, you can pay them back later.”

“I’ll take the money out of my lunch account.”

“You can do that?”

“Yeah, the cashier lets me when I smile and compliment her outfit.”

Alex let out a low whistle. “Wow, you’ve got the lunch ladies wrapped around your finger. They won’t even let me get more mashed potatoes when I offer to pay extra.”

At lunch, I chatted with my friends about our plans for Halloween, traitorous EAGLE directors and murderous crime lords pushed far in the back of my mind.

Lexi pulled up a picture of the city on her phone. “In order to maximize the quality—”

“And quantity,” Delaney interjected.

“—of candy collected, we should map out our trick-or-treating route.”

Alex tapped on Castle Hills. “Everyone here will be at the Sargon manor wearing masks and getting drunk on champagne.”

“The upper class is also out.” Elliot pointed to the surrounding neighborhoods. “A good portion of them think they’re too pretentious for Halloween.”

Lexi bumped him with her shoulder. “Sounds like your people.”

I pointed to the slum areas. “The ghetto is out too. There’s too much criminal activity for us to be safe at night, not to mention any candy we get will either be cheap or drugged.”

“Melbourne seems good,” Delaney said. “It’s upper middle class. They’re the people who buy good candy and aren’t too snooty to pass it out.”

“You guys really have it down to a science,” I said.

Lexi tossed her hair. “Not to brag, but yes, we do.”

I noticed a familiar street behind the neighborhood. “Hey, Seth lives close to Melbourne. When we’re finished, we could head over and watch horror movies.”

“Not horror,” Elliot said. “Ghosts, blood, and monsters scare the puke out of me.”

“Literally,” Alex added. “We took him to see a film about a killer clown, and he threw up in my popcorn.”

A loud crash came from the center of the cafeteria. An entire table was flipped over on its side with chairs scattered around it like a furniture crime scene.

“How dare you?” Cheryl screeched at Josiah. “How could you not invite me to your masquerade ball?”

He held up his hands. “It’s not personal. Your parents haven’t been making any recent breakthroughs in their fields and their past research is becoming irrelevant.”

“You could have sent my family an invitation, regardless.”

“I’m not in charge of the guest list. You understand how my father is.”

“You should have fought him on my behalf!”

“There’s no way to win with him,” Josiah said.

“Grow a spine, Josiah! What’s the point of dating you if I’m not invited to any of your social events and lavish parties?”

Josiah’s eyes went cold. “I see.”

Cheryl seemed to realize she made a mistake. “Sweetie, I didn’t mean it. I just—”

“If you’re only in a relationship with me for my ‘lavish parties’ then I see no point in continuing it. It must be such a chore to put up with me for these invitations.”

“No, no, no, you’ve got it all wrong. I love you Josiah! I can’t live without you.”

“You don’t know half the things about me,” he said.

“I do. I really do. Josiah, please—”

He turned away. Cheryl burst into tears and latched onto his shirt. He tried to pry her fingers loose, but she held on for dear life.

It took two football players and a girl from the wrestling team to pull her off of him. Cheryl lunged for Josiah again, but he jumped out of reach.

One of her friends, a pretty cheerleader with blonde hair, dragged her back.

“Don’t make a scene, Cheryl,” she whispered. “You’re better than this. Think of what your parents would say.”

Cheryl slumped to the ground, boneless, her shoulders shaking with quiet sobs.

Lexi met my gaze, her face a mask of shock. “That was brutal. I didn’t know pretty boy had it in him.”

“I thought you wanted them to break up,” I said. “Shouldn’t you be happy?”

“We all say things we don’t mean.”

The school was abuzz the rest of the day. Even when the teachers tried to put a stop to it in class, people had their phones out under their desks, texting their friends in a frenzy.

“You’d think students have better things to do than discuss a break up,” I said as we piled into Elliot’s car.

His dad smiled at us through the rear-view mirror. “Some things never change.”

“I don’t get it though,” Alex said. “Josiah’s put up with far worse from Cheryl before.”

“Maybe those things accumulated. Today just sent him tipping over the edge,” Elliot said.

Lexi waggled her eyebrows. “Or maybe he found someone better.”

I looked at her. “You’re back to normal.”

She had been unusually subdued that afternoon. I should have known it wouldn’t last.

She waved a hand. “Oh, please. I think Josiah could have handled the situation better, but the two were hardly an ideal couple.”

“And Ace and Josiah are?” Delaney asked.

Lexi shrugged.

When we arrived at his house, Elliot took out five plastic bags from the closet.

“You know the drill, guys,” he said. “You can change in the bedrooms or the bathrooms but knock to make sure they’re empty before you go in. Don’t come out until everyone’s ready.”

I grabbed the bag he handed to me and locked myself in the guest bathroom to change. Elliot had made a replica of the black Jedi robes Anakin Skywalker wore in the third movie. I used the makeup compact to draw a scar over my eye before struggling with the costume buckles.

“Ready?” Elliot asked.

“No!” Delaney and Lexi yelled.

“Girls,” he muttered.

It took ten minutes before the two gave the affirmative. I opened the door and stepped out.

Alex grinned. “Looking good, Skywalker.”

He was wearing Jedi robes similar to mine, except they were tan instead of black.

“You’re not too bad yourself, Kenobi,” I replied.

Lexi was wearing the full on Queen Amidala regalia from the first movie with her makeup done to match. Delaney had used copious amounts of orange face paint and eyeshadow to match Ahsoka’s skin color. A fake blaster rested at her hip.

Elliot clapped his hands together. “Alright guys, tell me what you think.”

He had glued metal plating to a bodysuit that clanked as he walked. The gold matched his aviator goggles.

“You’re absolutely brilliant,” Alex said.

“Now let’s change back before we ruin these,” Lexi said. “They need to be in tip-top shape for tomorrow. Besides, I ran into your mother baking cookies in the kitchen, Elliot.”

His eyes widened. “Chocolate chip?”

“You know it.”

We were out of the costumes in a blink.