Heart of an Assassin (Circle of Spies) by Laura Pauling Read Free Book Online Page A

mean my date with Will meant nothing, but I doubt Malcolm would see it that way.
    Damn. Will would arrive any minute, and Mom would expect me at the table. “Not good timing.”
    “Come with me to the boat. We can talk further about…you know. Our plans.” He leaned farther over the sill and curled a strand of my hair around his finger.
    “Savvy?” Mom called out.
    “I’ve got to go!” I tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let me. “We’ll talk later. Wait up for me.” Then I slammed the window down. Why couldn’t life be easy for once?
    The door opened.
    “What are you doing?” Mom demanded, standing in the doorway like my jail warden.
      “Just catching some fresh air.” The lie slipped out easily.
    “I expect you at the table sooner than later.” She turned to go.
    “Mom?”
    “What?” Her voice tightened as if she knew what I was going to ask.
    “Stop sheltering me like I’m some sort of child.” She didn’t move so I continued. “Tell me everything and let me work with you. I promise I’ll follow directions.”
    “Savvy.” Her voice was condescending and tinted with frustration. Her back stiffened and a slight shudder passed through her body probably at the idea of an honest conversation. Clearly that scared the crap out of her. My question was answered. Any desire to press her for the truth drained away.
    “Never mind. But I’m not coming to dinner. I feel kinda sick,” I said.
    “Fine. Get some rest.” She left without another word.
    Working with her to protect Constance was not an option. I slipped out the window, praying Malcolm was long gone, and let the cool evening air wash over me. My fresh start.
    Out front, someone whistled the high notes of some obnoxious merry tune. I ran to the front of the house and intercepted Will. He stepped back and studied me, his arms crossed and his left eyebrow slightly raised.
    “Hmm. Someone needs a night on the town.”
    “Let’s go. Don’t ask,” I muttered.
    He hooked his arm into mine and led me to his compact car. Nothing flashy like I expected. “I thought we could go into the city for the evening.”
    “Athens?” I’d lived here for almost half a year and had yet to visit this city.
    “That okay?” he asked.
    “No problem.”
    On the drive into the city, we didn’t say a word. I tried, several times, to start up some banter or witty conversation with Will, but my heart wasn’t in it. I’d left it back in my room, where Mom had shot me down. When I left Paris with her I’d hoped for a better life, a safer life. More importantly, an informed life. I wanted coffee talks and board games. I wanted field trips to the off-grid spots in Greece that typical tourists wouldn’t know about it, but that Mom had researched. We’d spend time together, catching up on the past few years and forgiving. Instead I was left with the options of either taking action or wilting away in my bedroom while Mom dated Constance.
    I sensed Will’s perusal when he outright studied me every few minutes as if he was trying to read my thoughts and know my heart, my intentions.
    “I’m not blind. I know you’re looking at me,” I said.
    My voice was flat and lifeless. I wasn’t here to flirt, not in the true sense of the word when it came to a boy and a girl. And not with the guy who’d shot me in the leg last year. But I had to bury the feelings of outrage and the desire for revenge, for now.
    “Just gauging what kind of restaurant you might like tonight. And I know just the place.”
    “Fantastic,” I said, without a trace of sarcasm.
    I needed to turn off my emotions and become Savvy the Spy, the one who lives the cover of a happy, well-adjusted teen, the one who lures the enemy in with honest lies and then cracks open the wealth of knowledge in his head and steals slivers of information. Without him knowing, of course.
    We parked on the outskirts of the city. I stepped outside and the air felt different. No cool sea breeze or smell of salt.