Cassidy Jones and the Luminous (Cassidy Jones Adventures Book 4) (27 page)

My eyes skittered left to Dad, in the other chair, and then to Nate, perched on the fireplace hearth next to Emery. Dad and Nate were as unsettled by Jared’s wild scheme as Mom and I were. But I didn’t bother gauging Emery. I already knew he was cool with it. After all, he had spied on his dad when we’d thought Gavin worked for King.

“Yes, we can,” Emery answered for Gavin, then asked his dad: “Can you get a hidden camera in a button, or something along those lines?”

“It’s already on the list.” Gavin tapped his temple.

“Eileen has to be told,” Mom insisted.

“Told what, Lizzy?” Dad posed, looking as conflicted as she was.

Mom’s expression lost resolution. Bringing Eileen into the loop would mean we’d have to reveal information that my mom was unwilling to divulge—namely, that I was a mutant.

“My mom would think we’re all crazy,” Jared said. “Then she’d call my dad.”

I nodded in agreement. Eileen lived in the
real
world, where people you knew weren’t secret agents, and mutants were a far-fetched Hollywood creation. Without a doubt, she would call her ex-husband to try to get to the bottom of things.

“We have to keep in mind what we’re up against. Humanity depends on it,” Emery reminded, resorting to dramatics. He would do and say whatever it took to get everyone onboard. “We need concrete evidence of criminal activity, and evidence that this parasite is harmful. Jared is in a unique position. Don’t let his age be a factor, nor his lack of experience. Civilians are used by law enforcement to gather evidence against suspects every day. Let’s move forward on this—before more people get hurt.”

“Are you sure, Jared?” Dad tried one last time.

“I am.”

Nate patted Jared’s shoulders with respect. I still wanted to shake them.

“Then we have a lot to do,” Gavin said, ending the debate. He looked at his cell. “I’m running out of time to call in favors and get what we need.” He stood up. “Emery, you do your thing. Hack into whatever database you can to see if you can dig up anything we don’t already know about Grimm, the Luminous Water plant, and his residence. Drake, why don’t you poke around, too? Jared, call your father. Tell him you’re going to hang out with friends until the early evening, or whatever you think won’t spark suspicion. Hold him off from picking you up until eight p.m. Chazz, come here—”

Our heads twisted to the foyer. Chazz slithered from behind the wall on his belly. He stared at Gavin with round, surprised eyes.

Earlier, Mom had come home while Dad was busy taking Jared and Nate out of school, following Jared’s phone call. After getting the lowdown, she had given Chazz a bowl of cheese puffs and told him to watch television while we talked. The evidence of his snack was dusted across his face and smeared on his shirt, which apparently had served as a napkin.

Gavin grinned at him. “Well, come on. I have a job for you.”

“
Teen Titan
s is over,” Chazz explained, galloping up to Gavin.

“So you decided to hone your spying skills.” Gavin scooped him up into his arms. “You’d make an excellent field agent. Not even your sister detected you.”

Chazz beamed.

“Your assignment,” Gavin said, his finger bouncing from Jared and me to Emery and Nate, “is to keep them out of trouble.” He dusted off Chazz’s cheesy cheek, then set him down. “We’ll reconvene here at six p.m. sharp. Emery, prep Jared and set his cell up with GPS. That’ll be backup. He’ll be wearing a tracker, too. Drake and Elizabeth, I’ll give you a call when I’ve gathered everything we need. Call me if you run into an issue with Owen.”

The door shut behind Gavin and we all stared at one another for a beat. Then Chazz warned, bouncing his finger at each of us kids, just as Gavin had done, “I’ve got my eye on you.” Following this notice, he wheeled around and trotted out of the room, calling, “Athena! Where are you—
kitty, kitty, kitty
?”

“X-ray vision,” Nate joked, giving us an exaggerated wink.

“It feels like we’re in a police movie,” I whispered, then realized there was no need to hush my voice. Who would overhear me inside a soundproof surveillance van?

It was 7:15 p.m. Gavin had returned an hour beforehand with the van and spy gear for Jared—a jean jacket that housed a hidden camera, wireless transmitter, and tracker. For extra insurance, Jared also wore a seashell pendant necklace that concealed another camera and transmitter. The jacket was cool, but the necklace was lame, something a boy our age wouldn’t be caught dead in. When I pointed this out to Gavin, he brushed off my concern.

“Jared can be a trendsetter,” he’d said.

Still, no teenage male would wear it.

After conducting an equipment check in the house, Gavin, Emery, Dad, and I, outfitted in black, went out to the van. Gavin had parked it several houses down the street, opposite the direction Mr. Wells would be coming from. Gavin and Emery began the process of getting cameras set up and testing Jared’s equipment from its current distance. Dad and I watched them work from foldout captain chairs, which were black like the rest of the van’s interior.

“Gavin, the people who owe you favors own cool stuff,” I commented, admiring the state-of-the-art panels that were loaded with dials and switches.

“I make sure of that,” he replied as he adjusted a dial.

Dad’s mouth turned up into a cursory half-smile. His eyes narrowed on two of the three monitors that had just turned on, displaying our street outside the van.

“Emery,” I said.

“Yes?” His fingers flew over his laptop’s keyboard.

“We could’ve used this set-up a time or two.” I flashed Dad a grin that I hoped would calm him. Dad was torn. He didn’t like leaving Mom and my brothers alone for even a few seconds with Owen Wells, but he had to be in the van, ready to roll, when Owen left our house with Jared.

“Why would we need this, when we have our buddy Jason?” Emery joked.

“What is it with you? Do you enjoy having a thorn in your side, bleeding you dry?” I returned.

“Shall I answer that for you, son?” Gavin joined in.

I peeked at Dad to see if we were offering him some comic relief. No such luck. Apparently he didn’t find Jason Crenshaw’s shakedowns entertaining.

“We’re online,” Emery announced. A shaky image of our fireplace mantel filled his laptop screen and the third monitor, which displayed slightly different views since footage was being filmed from two different cameras hidden on Jared. He was obviously pacing the living room.

“And we have audio,” Emery said. “Can you hear me, Jared?”

The image of our mantel jolted. Emery’s voice coming through Jared’s hidden earpiece had startled him.

“Guess you can.” Emery grinned. “I’m turning down the volume. Is that better?”

“Yeah. Thanks,” Jared’s voice flowed through the van’s speakers. The room spun on the screens, capturing blurry images of my mom and brothers in the living room as Jared pivoted on his heels, facing the foyer now.

“Jared, it all looks good—audio, visual, GPS,” Gavin assured him. “The street is clear. I’ll let you know when your dad is coming, so calm down about that. Take a deep breath, and let’s run through everything again.”

Jared continued to pace as he and Gavin reviewed cover stories, what to say and what not to say, and backup plans in case of equipment failure. Dad and I sat silently, while Emery worked on his laptop. Jared’s cameras filmed the rest of our family sitting on the sofa like lumps, too. Part of me was itching to get on with this. I hated feeling useless.

On the monitors, headlights swung onto our street. Dad stiffened, and I blew out the breath I’d been holding in. Mr. Wells’s Porsche rounded the corner.

“Is it?” Dad whispered, unable to see the vehicle clearly.

“Yes,” I confirmed.

“Your father is here, Jared,” Gavin told him.

“He’s here,” Jared repeated to my family.

Nate nodded, wide-eyed, and Mom shooed Chazz from the room. Chazz let out a howl of protest and threw himself on the floor.

“Chazz, what are you doing?” I shouted at the screens as Mom and Nate jumped to their feet, scolding him. Nate tried to pick Chazz up, but Chazz grabbed a leg on the coffee table and kicked at him.

“They’re going to blow this!” I couldn’t believe Chazz was having a tantrum when so much was at stake.

“I’d better get over there,” Dad said, starting to stand.

“Stay put, Drake,” Gavin ordered. “You can’t bring attention to us. Give them a moment. They’ll pull themselves together. Jared, tell Chazz I’m giving him an assignment: Keep watch for other cars from the attic window until he sees you and your dad drive away.”

The second Chazz heard Jared say “assignment,” the kicking and screaming ceased. He climbed to his feet, rubbed his runny nose, and listened intently, bobbing his head. Before Jared had finished talking, Chazz shot off for the stairs, and not a moment too soon. Jared’s dad had just parked in front of our house.

“They did not need that,” I said to Dad, exasperated, as we watched Mom straighten her hair, trying to compose herself. “Come on, Nate, wipe that irritation off your face,” I willed, while Gavin told Jared that his dad was coming up our front walk. I’d been so frazzled by Chazz’s behavior that I hadn’t even taken time to evaluate how Jared was holding up.

Mr. Wells didn’t appear to be agitated or suspicious as he walked briskly to our porch. He didn’t even look around as he ascended the steps and rang the doorbell. My gaze cut to the monitors that displayed our foyer as everyone got into position. My mom headed down the hall to the kitchen, where she’d give the impression she was coming from when Nate answered the door. Jared sat at the hall tree, preparing to put his shoes on.

“Hey, Mr. Wells,” Nate greeted in an impressively easygoing voice. Jared gave us a great view of the Nikes that he tugged on, and our oak floor.

“Hi, Nate,” Mr. Wells returned.

We could see on the monitors displaying outside images that Nate pulled the door wider for him to come in. Jared’s cameras showed his fingers tying shoelaces.

“Elizabeth, how are you this evening?”

Mr. Wells entered our foyer. Dad’s nervous fingers drummed the arm of his chair.

“I’m fine. Thank you. So, you and Jared are spending the weekend together?”

I tensed. Mom’s tone sounded more challenging than inquiring.

Jared sat up, showing us everyone in the foyer. Mr. Wells didn’t appear taken aback by Mom’s tone, thankfully.

“We are. I’m looking forward to it.” He smiled at Jared. My muscles tightened. There was something about the way he’d looked at Jared that I didn’t like. “Ready?”

“Yep.” Jared stood.

“I’m not,” I muttered to myself.

~~~

“Jared, we have to talk this out,” Mr. Wells said.

His voice streamed through the van’s speakers while the hidden cameras on Jared filmed the back of the metro bus in front of them. The Porsche cruised down Queen Anne Boulevard, a couple of vehicles ahead of us. Up until that point, they had exchanged only a handful of words. Judging by Jared’s accelerated heart rate, which I could hear through the transmitter when I concentrated, he was nervous. Understandably so, since as far as he knew, the man he sat next to wasn’t entirely his father anymore.

“Jared’s heart is pounding,” I whispered to everyone in the van.

Gavin placed a forefinger to his lips, reminding me to keep quiet. He had plugged in a headset to the van’s console to communicate with Jared. To avoid confusing Jared with multiple voices, Emery had switched off our end of the audio, but turned up the volume so that Dad, who was driving the van, could hear the conversation in the Porsche, too.

Gavin had ordered no talking among us, unless necessary. Apparently, he didn’t deem a report on Jared’s heart rate necessary.

“Jared?” Mr. Owen repeated sharply when Jared hadn’t responded.

“What do you want me to say?” Jared fired back. He whipped around to his dad, the camera catching surprise on Owen’s face. I could only imagine the inner turmoil Jared was experiencing.

The surprise melded into annoyance. Mr. Wells returned acidly, “How about we start with what you were doing with my yacht?”

“Oh, no,” I whispered.

Gavin leaned forward, concentrating as he prepared to feed Jared lines if he froze up, or forgot the cover story.

“Crap,” Jared groaned. Over the transmitters, his voice came across like he’d been busted, just as he and Emery had practiced.

Emery smiled and gave Gavin a thumbs-up.

“Look, Dad, I’m sorry. I just figured you’d say
no
.”

“Darn right I’d say
no
!” Owen shouted, flicking Jared a glare. “I’m so furious with you—I’m at a loss of what to say! Tell me what you were doing! And no jerking me around!”

“I won’t!” Jared yelled back. “Okay . . . okay. I won’t,” he said, more calmly. “I met this girl at Cherry Street . . .”

Mr. Wells’s expression softened into amusement.

“She goes to the UW, and she thought I did, too. I don’t know why. Guess she thought I looked older . . .”

“And you didn’t clear up the misconception,” Mr. Wells finished for him, wearing a cunning grin.

“Why would I? She was hot. Really hot!”

Mr. Wells laughed. He had fallen for the lie.

“Somehow it came up that you have a yacht. She wanted to go out in it. Sorry. Obviously, I wasn’t thinking with my head.”

Emery grinned. I tossed him a dirty look. That last part was
so
his touch.

“What about Cassidy?”

“What about her?”

Mr. Wells chuckled. “You’re right. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”

I noted Dad’s jaw tighten in the rearview mirror. Owen Wells was scum.

“I know you’ve eaten, but I haven’t,” Mr. Wells said, not pursuing the subject of Jared two-timing me, probably because it was insignificant to him. “So, if you don’t mind, I’m going through Deluxe.”

“Go for it.”

Gavin muted the headset. “Drake, park at the 7-11,” he instructed, then switched the headset back on and praised Jared, using his codename.