But it was the tall girl who volunteered hers. “Here. You can use mine.” With a flirtatious smile, she flipped the thin, ornate braids of her hair behind her shoulder and produced her phone from the pocket of her very short shorts.
I tensed, ready to step in, but to Zane’s credit, he didn’t so much as blink. “Actually, it’s really dumb,” he said with an apologetic smile, “but we’re on a scavenger hunt and we need to borrow the phone of a girl in a green shirt.”
Elise swung her bag off her shoulder but hesitated.
Zane held up his hand in the Boy Scout salute or whatever it was. “I promise, we’re not calling China or a 900 line or anything. We just need to check in.”
Her friends nudged her, whispering endorsements. I held my breath, but then Elise shrugged, digging into her bag and pulling her phone out of a deep side compartment.
“You look so familiar,” the tall girl said to Zane as he stepped forward and took Elise’s phone. “Have I seen you somewhere?”
I barely kept from rolling my eyes. I am here.
The little blonde next to the tall girl with braids, her partner in staring at Zane, nodded. “Teri’s right. I know I’ve seen you before.” She frowned. “Are you on TV or something?”
Oh my God, seriously? Zane was handsome, there was absolutely no doubt about that. But weren’t they laying it on just a little thick?
“No, sorry,” he said, concentrating on Elise’s phone.
The blonde frowned at him. I could feel her certainty and confusion. This was not flirting, or not just flirting, anyway. She really believed she’d seen him somewhere, and recently. She was mentally flipping through her day, trying to place his face.
A small ribbon of dread began to uncoil in my stomach. I had a bad feeling about this.
“You don’t remember where you saw ‘him,’ do you? I mean, he’s always wanted to look like someone famous,” I said.
Zane raised his eyebrows at me, but I ignored him, concentrating on keeping my fake smile intact. I was good at pretending to be normal, when it involved being quiet and staying out of the way. Engaging people and getting them to give me information through regular social discourse, however, was not one of my specialties.
The blonde stuck her lips out in exaggerated pucker of thoughtfulness. “No…Maybe…no.” She pulled out her own phone from a sparkly bag strapped across her chest and scowled down at as she scrolled through images.
Zane turned to me and tilted the screen so I could see the list of names. There was an Adam in Elise’s contacts. No last name.
I nodded.
He hit send and held the phone up to his ear.
The ensuing silence in our little impromptu circle lingered too long, well past the comfortable point, even for me.
Fearing that would only draw more attention to whatever Zane would say on the phone, assuming Adam even answered, I tried to fill the gap. “So…you’re having fun in the city? Where have you been already today?” I figured that would be a safe topic of conversation.
But the blond girl was still frowning over her phone with the braided hair girl. The other two girls were already bored, talking amongst themselves and rolling their eyes with great enthusiasm at something.
Elise bobbed her head in assent. “Yeah, it’s been great. We’ve hit the usual places. Museums, Wrigley, Willis Tower.” She shifted her weight uneasily, glancing between her friends and Zane, who was holding her phone captive.
His head popped up sharply. “Hey, man. It’s Zane,” he said quickly. “Don’t hang up.” He gave me a thumbs-up gesture, which I took to mean that we’d reached Adam and that it was the correct Adam.
I let out a slow breath of relief. Thank God.
There was a long pause on Zane’s end, and I abandoned all pretense of conversation with Elise and/or her friends.
“No, it’s not what you think, okay?” Zane said, still trying to sound casual. “But this…scavenger hunt is more complicated than what we were told. The targets are different for everybody. We need to meet up and…get a game plan together.” Zane sent a questioning look to me, and I nodded quickly.
Even though Zane’s words weren’t anything conspicuous, the tension was building. Even the girls, who had no idea what was going on, could feel it, fidgeting as they waited.
“It’s not a trick, and I don’t care that you took my place,” Zane said. “But there are some things you should know. You need to stop what you’re doing and we need to meet.”
“You know, guys, we really need to get going,” Elise said to her friends, but in a loud voice that was meant for us.
Then something Adam said made Zane blanch.
Oh no. No, no, no. I knew all too well what that might mean for Carter. For Ford. For all of us. “Give me the phone,” I said.
“No,” Elise protested, reaching out as if she might try to intercept, even though she was on the other side of Zane.
Zane turned away from me, keeping the phone out of my reach. “Yeah, fine. You’re more qualified. Done. Agreed. Just tell us where you are,” he said. “We’ll meet you.”