Free Latitude Zero by Diana Renn Page A

You’re not becoming Catholic, are you?”
    Kylie reached out and touched it. “Is that real gold?”
    “I think it is. It’s heavy.”
    “I’m not sure. Kind of seems like metal.”
    “Well anyway, it’s not mine. It’s a loaner.” For some reason I felt funny telling them who’d given it to me. I slid the crucifix on the chain so that it hung over my back instead, and so they’d stop staring at it. “It’s jewelry, guys. It’s not that weird.”
    “Not judging. Just noticing,” said Kylie, not taking her eyes off the necklace.
    We were together now, yet separated by an invisible screen. Something had shifted in me at Chain Reaction. I was now a person capable of doing devious and harmful things.
    “You look like hell. What happened?” asked Sarita.
    I sighed. “Did you hear about the big bike crash on the cancer ride in Cabot?”
    “I did.” Sarita’s eyes widened. “I saw the news on my phone when Kylie was driving here. I thought of you right away. I heard el Cóndor got hurt. Didn’t we meet him, when you dragged us to one of Jake’s races?”
    “You did meet him. And yeah. He got hurt. Bad.” I took a deep breath and plunged in to the whole story, since my mom was in her photography studio out back and couldn’t hear the details. As I talked about bandit riding on the cancer ride, I couldn’t meet Kylie’s eyes. I would have understood if she walked out.
    But she didn’t. Neither did Sarita. They both hugged me. They expressed alarm about the man in the woods, and agreed with my theory about him: he was a fence, a middleman between a bike thief and a black-market sports memorabilia collector who wanted the young cycling protégée’s bike.
    “So what happened to Jake?” asked Kylie.
    “I didn’t see him again after he took off. My phone battery died, so we didn’t talk.”
    “Asshole.” Kylie glowered.
    “May I?” Sarita pointed to my phone, charging in the wall.
    “Go for it.”
    Sarita scrolled, wide-eyed. “Fifteen messages! All from Jake. Stalker.”
    I took the phone from her hand, and Sarita and Kylie read over my shoulders.
    The first text from Jake had come in at 10:05. I’d have been leaving the medical tent with my mom around then.
    Hey. Where RU? Hit mile 20 and realized u weren’t there.
    “It took him
twenty miles
to realize you weren’t behind him?” said Kylie.
    That did kind of hurt. I had to force myself to read the next messages.
    What happened 2U? Heard there was big crash. Tessa? U OK? Call or txt me.
    OK I stopped by med tent. They said girl w ur descript went home w mom. Wouldn’t give name but sounds like u. Hope its u. Call me OK??
    RU home now? Almost called house. Trying to respect parental situation. CALL ME.
    Tessa. I’m so sorry. PLEASE get in touch. Let’s fix this.
    Call me as soon as you get this, K???
    “Please tell me you’re not going to call him,” said Kylie.
    “I’m not. He can wait for me now and see how it feels being dropped.”
    “Good,” said Sarita. “Put us out of our misery. I know he’s got this romantic side with those moonlight picnics, and he’s adventurous, and smart. But I hate the other side of him. The side that makes you feel so bad about yourself. It’s not right.”
    A new text buzzed in.
    Sarita lunged for my phone. “I’ll get rid of him for you.” She frowned. “Who’s this?”
    I looked at the screen. The message came from a number I didn’t recognize. It had a whole bunch of zeros in it, and no name.
    YOU LITTLE LIAR.
    Then a second buzzed in:
    YOU DECEIVED ME. YOU WILL PAY.
    I chilled. I’d never gotten any kind of message like that before.
    “Oh my God. Who sent you this?” exclaimed Kylie, leaning in to see.
    “I don’t recognize that number. It’s not in my contacts list. It doesn’t even look like a real phone number.” Maybe the message was a wrong number.
    The phone vibrated again.
    YOU MADE A BAD, BAD MOVE.
    AND I KNOW WHO YOU ARE.
    So much for the wrong number theory. I