“I think she’s perfect how she is.”
“I agree.” I loved that new friendships wereforming. I looked at Hank. It was all thanks to him. The worldcould be changed if we could put one of him in every school inAmerica.
Viktor met me after school, and when helooped his arm through mine, he slipped something in my pocket. Ipretended not to notice. “You ready for tonight?” He spoke with aquiet voice.
“I think so.” I answered, matching hisvolume.
“Good. Don’t worry. Everything will be okay.I’ve given you a cell phone that you’ll need to keep on you all thetime during lifting periods.”
I put my hand in my pocket and looked up athim like I was startled. “How did you get that in there?”
He pushed a sharp breath out of his nose,pressing his lips tight together in a show of what he thought wascool. “I’m good at things like that. You’ll have to either sneakout or tell your parents you have a study session or something.You’ll get a text with a time, place, and a particular vehicle foryou to lift. It will also have a link that you press once you startthe lift. You’ll then follow the directions the phone gives you tothe drop off. Mikado will be there to assist you today in casethere’s a problem.”
“Mikado? Like the Mikado here at school?” Ihad to play along, and a good part of me was glad I hadn’t beengiven Jericho as my partner. The bad part was that Mikado had triedto warn me away from this, and I’d not listened. He’d probably beupset about it.
“Yes. However, you won’t treat him like afriend here at school. You can’t let it seem like you two worktogether or even see each other outside of school.”
I nodded.
“It’s very important that you don’t giveyourself away or anyone else on our team.”
“I understand.”
“Do you?” He squeezed my arm, hard.
“Ouch!” I jerked my arm away.
“Sorry,” he said. “I just have to be certainyou understand this is not a game, and there are strict rules thatmust be followed.”
I looked at my shoes and then up at him. “Idon’t want to let you down, Viktor, but I’m new at this, what ifsomething goes wrong? Am I out then?”
“It’s not going to happen. It can’t.Alexander is my uncle, and anything you do reflects on me now.Don’t make any mistakes.” He leaned toward me, his facereddening.
Not the right move on my part to play theunderdog. He wanted someone who would make him look good, like aFerrari or Mustang. I’d have to be more direct. “I do know what I’mdoing. I guess I’ll be okay. Are you sure your uncle will like me?Maybe if I could spend some time with him, he wouldn’t scare me somuch.” If I was to be a Ferrari, then he’d want to show me off toeveryone. It was time he did just that.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. Succeedtonight and maybe, just maybe I can arrange to have you to dinneror something.” His green eyes flashed.
I smiled and leaned on him. The thought ofdinner with Alexander Molgilevich sent my heart racing. If I couldget into his house, possibly sneak a peek at his files, hispaperwork, it could tell us a lot. This could be the break weneeded. “I’d like that,” I said.
“Now, can I take you out for a treat? It canbe our second date.”
“And when was our first?” I angled my headup toward his face. My arm still ached from him pinching it.
“Certainly you haven’t forgotten our dinnerat my family’s restaurant.” He pulled away from me.
“I thought that was business.” I suppresseda laugh.
“After dinner was business.”
I tilted my head to the side to question thestatement.
“All right. We won’t count that. Our firstdate can start right now. No business.”
“I don’t know. You said yourself that youruncle wouldn’t approve. I don’t want to upset him.” I chuckled andpunched his arm.
“You’re such a tease.”
“No, I’m not. I’ve told you straight up thatI wanted to get to know you better before there could be anythingbetween us. And besides, I just don’t know if it’s smart for me tostart work with the score in the negative for me simply becausewe’re going out. I want to be amazing at this job.”
“Leave my uncle to me.” His face wasresolute. “I’ve no doubt you’ll wow him.”
I stepped away from him. A gust of cold windwhipped my hair around, and I pulled my hoodie on. “I’ll do mybest.”
“Well, what if…what if I told him how I feltabout you first and got his blessing?”
“Could you? That would really settle mymind.” I shoved my hands deep into my pockets.
He chewed on his lip. “Perhaps if I broughtyou to family dinner on Sunday…”
“Seriously? Oh, you don’t think he’d thinkwe were railroading him, do you? I’d hate for it to backfire.” Heatspread through my chest in anticipation of truly getting aninvitation even if I had to be that Ferrari.
“Nah! Yes. That’s what we’ll do. You’llamaze him tonight, and I’ll bring you to dinner on Sunday. Not onlywill that ease his mind, but hopefully yours too.” He smiled. “I’manxious to get to know you better.”
“Me, too.” I leaned on his shoulder. Hewanted to get to know me better? What happened to the guy who triedto force me into a bedroom at Jericho’s? “Without anyone gettingbent out of shape because of it.” Inside, part of me wascelebrating while the other half cringed in fear.
“A rain check on our first date, then?Sunday at six? I’ll have to get you around five. He lives inBrooklyn.”
“All right, then. It’s a plan.”
“Just wow him tonight.” Agitation scored hisface again.
“I’ll do my best.”
“Good. See you at school tomorrow, and beamazing!”
I hurried into the subway hole with a markedspring in my step, and he headed for his car, whistling as he went.It shocked me to run into Carson at the bottom of the stairsleading to the
