Free Night Sky by Suzanne Brockmann Page B

a bite of an apple that she’d left out of her tightly tied bags. Like this was the perfect time and place for a snack. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to eat again.
    â€œI know about Sasha because she was all over the news for, you know, her fifteen seconds of fame,” she said with her mouth full. “Hundreds of girls go missing every day, Red. I’m one of the few who cares enough to remember their names. That’s how I know Sasha. And Betsy and Clarice and Lacey and DeNika and—”
    â€œDid you take her?” I interrupted her, with all of the rage and grief from the past week making my voice quiver. “Do you have her? Give her back!”
    â€œOh, Bubble Gum,” the girl said, shaking her head. “I wish it were that easy. And I swear to you, if I knew where she was, I’d tell you. But I don’t.” She sharply lifted her head then and said, “Police are on their way.”
    Only then did I hear it—sirens. But they were way, way in the distance.
    â€œI’d love to stay and chat some more,” she continued as she effortlessly lifted her two bags with one hand, apple still in the other, and started for the door, “but I gotta go. And I’ll repeat, FYI, that you and Wheels definitely don’t want to be here when the police show up. Not with your powers. That won’t go well.”
    Again with the powers, and again with that uneasy feeling in my stomach. Still, I laughed as we followed her. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about—”
    With lightning speed, she tossed her apple high into the air, then grabbed a heavy box of soup that was in a display right by the door, next to the ancient, broken Redbox machine, and flung it at Cal’s head. I reached out instinctively, grabbing the box in midair, right before it hit him in the face. I mean, right before. I could feel the tiny hairs on my arms tickling Calvin’s forehead. It was weird, because I was pretty sure I hadn’t been standing that close to him before she’d grabbed for the soup.
    â€œWhat the Hay-ell —” Cal started.
    â€œNuff said,” the girl interrupted him matter-of-factly. She caught her apple before it hit the floor and took another large bite. “Don’t worry, Scoot. Skylar’s learning. You’re not gonna die. At least not today.”
    â€œAre you okay?” I asked Cal even as I found myself thinking about the alarm clock and the cat poster, as the girl’s crisp voice again echoed in my head. A-bil-i-ties …
    Cal, meanwhile, had narrowed his eyes at the girl now walking out the Sav’A’Buck door before looking up at me. “I’m fine,” he replied. “Except my cray-cray limit has maxed out.”
    I set the soup down on the floor before following the girl into the parking lot. I had to know more. “Hey! Wait!”
    Calvin kept pace with me. “Really?” he was muttering. “We really want more of this?”
    The girl had stopped next to a huge motorcycle—the only vehicle left in the lot besides Cal’s car—but now she turned to face us. She was still munching away on her apple.
    â€œI don’t get you,” I said. “So I caught the soup box. I can catch. I’ve always been able to catch. Big deal.”
    â€œIt is a big deal,” the girl said as she stuffed the bags into the small back trunk of her motorcycle, then tossed the apple core across the parking lot. She kicked away the stand and climbed onto the bike. It made her look even more petite, but no less of a badass. “It’s a really big deal, Bubble Gum. If you’re not careful, they’ll come for you next.”
    And now it was the memory of that shadowy figure I thought I’d seen in Sasha’s room that made me shiver.
    Meanwhile, those distant sirens were getting louder.
    â€œGotta go,” she said.
    â€œWait!” I yelled as the girl