Subject Seven

Chapter Twenty-Two
Cody Laurel

Cody stared at the wall of the bus station and then fished in his jeans until he could pull out his cash. Almost two hundred dollars leftover from cleaning out his birthday money. He’d been planning on spending that on the new game system, but this was important. He couldn’t take the looks from his parents anymore. He’d thought being a possible drug user was bad, but being an attention-seeking whiner was worse in their eyes, even if they never said it.

“If this is someone’s idea of a joke, I’m gonna take lessons on blowing shit up.” He was careful to mumble the words under his breath. With the way his luck had been going, some loser would decide he’d been serious and call the Department of Homeland Security on his sorry butt.

The trip to Boston had been long and boring, but on the bright side of things, at least he got stuck sitting next to a fat man who didn’t believe in bathing and liked to talk about every bad relationship he’d ever been in. If he’d had just a little more courage, he’d have given the guy Dr. Keene’s number and sent him off to tell someone who cared in any way. Instead he nodded politely and tried to ignore both the stench and the words. He failed in both attempts. So now he was in a crappy mood and getting ready to take a cab across a city he’d never been to so he could get answers to questions he never even wanted to think about.

Good times, good times.

He waited for a few minutes before he finally got a cab. Once he’d sat down, he gave the man directions-the driver was pudgy, had tattoos up both arms like the sleeves of a colorful jacket and smelled of dubious smoke, but he was also quiet, which was a plus.

Cody didn’t want to think about how badly his folks were going to freak when they realized he was gone. A look at his watch confirmed they’d probably be finding out soon because they would both be on their way home from work.

They’d regret never giving him a cell phone like he’d asked.

He looked out the window as the taxi moved through the heavy traffic. It wasn’t quite time for the worst of rush hour, but it was close enough. Not that he had a set time for getting here. It didn’t matter all that much. He got to the hotel twenty minutes later and Hunter Harrison would still be waiting for him or he wouldn’t. If he was there, awesome- Cody could finally get some answers and maybe even a little peace. If not, well, either way his dad was probably going to blow a gasket.

Eventually the cab stopped in front of a hotel that looked like it cost more per day than he had in his pocket, and Cody counted out the amount he had to pay and then added three dollars for a tip. He had no idea if that was enough of a tip, but it would have to do. The cabbie nodded his thanks and a minute later he was pulling away, probably off to fire up another blunt.

Cody had never once taken even a puff of marijuana, but at the thought of what lay ahead of him, he thought maybe he could take up smoking the stuff as a hobby if it would calm his nerves.

“Yeah, that would go over so well with the parental units.” He spoke only to himself as he entered the wide, posh lobby of the hotel. Marble floors. He didn’t even want to know what that would cost. The elevators weren’t hard to find. He snuck through the lobby, feeling like the people at the front desk were going to call him out for being there with every step he took, and slipped into the first open car he could find.

Just as the door was starting to close, a thin, feminine hand slid between the doors and triggered the signal for them to reopen. Long nails, painted a purple color that would look strange on an adult. The hand was attached to a gorgeous teenage girl who looked around his age. Gorgeous. He tried not to stare, but it wasn’t happening. She had dusty blonde hair pulled into a ponytail and exactly the sort of body that tended to distract him from thinking about anything more complex than breathing. She had eyes that were blue and shaped like she was maybe part Asian. Exotic and sexy as hell. The smile she fired at him was enough to make his heart stutter through a few beats.

“Sorry.” She smiled even broader and looked him in the eyes. Cody resisted the urge to see if there was somebody standing directly behind him. The mirrored walls confirmed that he was the only other occupant. As a rule, hot blondes did not look directly at him and smile. Normally they were actively ignoring his existence. He knew by the number of times he’d tried to actually speak to them back at school. That particular exercise always worked about as well as convincing his folks that he was sane.

“Sorry? For what?”

“For stopping the elevator. I hope you weren’t in a hurry.”

He shrugged. Under most circumstances, speaking to her would have been impossible, but he was already tired and anxious, and instead of worrying about how she would shoot him down, he was worrying about the explosion when his folks realized he’d cleaned out his savings account. Fear of imminent death had given him temporary courage, so he smiled back and dared the impossible. He said, “Listen, the day I’m having, stopping for a pretty girl is about the best thing that could happen.” Okay, it wasn’t much by way of flirting, but for Cody it was positively living on the edge.

He reached to hit the button for the eighteenth floor and checked himself as her hand moved the same way. Seemed rude to fight her for the right to push the button when he was so busy sneaking peeks at her perfect ass.

She smiled again and moved against the wall as the elevator started rising. The higher he moved, the more nervous he became. He distracted himself by checking out the blonde’s reflection again. Yep. Still hot.

All the answers were so close.

Maybe. Maybe they’re close. Maybe Joe Bronx is behind all of this. Hell, maybe he’s gonna sell me into slavery. He looked at his reflection in the mirrored interior of the elevator and smiled at the notion. Short, lanky, geek haircut with emo bangs, dark hair and a skinny ass face. He was pretty sure slavers had a thing for hot future pinup models like the one staring at the buttons on the elevator wall. The average skinny nerd was hardly going to make them rich.

When the doors opened, he let the girl head out first and then started looking for the room number he’d gotten from the message. The girl headed the same way.

“You here to meet Joe Bronx?” He asked the question with an odd twist of nervous energy in his chest.

She looked back over her shoulder at him with wide eyes. “Are you him?”

“No.” He shook his head. “But the phone message said there would be more than one of us.”

The girl looked him over from head to toe, her expression unreadable. Finally she said, “I’m Kyrie.”

“Cody. Nice ta meetcha.” For lack of anything else to do with his hand, he stuck it out for her to shake. She took it and squeezed his fingers. Her hand was soft and hot and made him have the sort of thoughts that would have earned him a slap if she could read his mind.

He nodded to the door. “Ladies first.”

She swallowed and then knocked on the door to the hotel room.