Free Five's Legacy by Pittacus Lore

dear and holy. I’ve seen men in Indonesia who can tell you your darkest secrets. Women in the Caribbean who can resurrect animals. Nothing surprises me. You don’t have to tell me about yourself or your history. But you don’t have to hide anything either. I’ll never look at you like you’re a freak. Whatever power or gifts you have, it means you’re stronger than most people, right? It means you’re someone who is going to endure. To survive. And that’s why you’re here now.” He gestures back and forth between us. “We have a lot to offer each other. If we worked together, we’d be unstoppable.”
    “What about Emma?” I murmur.
    “Emma has a family. Her foolish brother, yes, but parents and a home as well. You, on the other hand, are alone, aren’t you?”
    “What makes you think that?”
    “Cody, I run a very tight ship when it comes to my business. I do thorough background checks on everyone I work with. You, my boy, have been something of an anomaly.”
    It occurs to me that he hasn’t seemed shocked at all by anything that’s happened. My powers, or Emma’s leaving.
    “You’ve been following me.”
    “You need to work on your stealth.” Ethan pushes his dark hair back behind his ears. “That’s something I can teach you. And from the looks of it, you could use quite a bit of hand-to-hand combat training as well. But most important is that ability you seem to have. You can move things around just by waving your hands.”
    “Telekinesis,” I say.
    What am I doing? I should go, should jump out of the car and disappear into the darkness.
    But Ethan already knows. And I suddenly realize he’s the only friend I have now. The way Emma looked at me—I know there’s no going back to her now. I’d be surprised if she ever talked to me again. Besides, all this talk of training—maybe this is actually a really good thing. Ethan is obviously a powerful man. If he can train me to be like him, I can use that later. I mean, I can always leave, right?
    “People like you and me are different, Cody,” Ethan says. “You’re special. I knew it the moment I met you on the beach. I could tell that you were the talented one of your little duo. You’re powerful, but I can help you become someone that people truly admire and respect. Would you like that?”
    “Yes,” I say. I don’t even really have to think about it.
    “Good,” he says with a smile. “We have a bright future ahead of us.”
    The driver turns towards a towering wrought-iron gate. It parts, exposing a long driveway leading up to a house that looks like something out of a movie about Hollywood millionaires.
    “What is this place?” I ask.
    “Your new home.”

CHAPTER NINE
    I T’S KIND OF STRANGE HOW QUICKLY TIME GOES by after Ethan takes me under his wing. I tell myself I’ll stay a day or two, and then weeks pass like nothing. I keep thinking, “I’ll leave tomorrow.” But it’s always tomorrow and never today, and I stay.
    There are no more courier assignments or picked pockets. I live in luxury.
    With a place like Ethan’s it’s difficult to imagine going back to sleeping on rooftops or in a shack. His house has everything you could ever want. A library, game room, beachfront view—there’s even a little movie theater in the basement, which is where I spend a lot of my free time. Everything’s locked and unlocked with a little key card I carry around in the expensive wallet Ethan bought me. There’s a staff that cleans up after me. And there’s a cook. A cook . He’s probably my favorite person in the house. Aside from Ethan, who watches movies with me almost every night.
    I like to remind myself that Rey would have wanted me safe. What could be safer than a place like Ethan’s? A compound . Ethan sets me up in a room bigger than our entire shack on the island. I practically have the whole second floor to myself. Everything I could possibly want. Things I didn’t even know I needed . We never had floss on the