Free No ordinary hero (Keepers of justice # 1) by Dee J. Stone Page B

spy .”
    Man, X really is serious. I hold up my hands. “Hey, I’m not calling you a liar. I believe you.”
    “Me , too,” Stretch adds as he gathers the last bit of chips into his mouth. “What are we gonna do about him?”
    “Who’s he spying for?” I ask.
    “The ShadowBlades.”
    As in our former arch nemesis? I can almost feel my eyes pop out of their sockets. “What? There are no Blades anymore. The League took them out four years ago. Killed Vlad, their leader.”
    X shakes his head. “Yeah, we did. He must have a successor. I’ve seen their logo on the emails and documents. A curved silver blade cutting through the center of a black V. It’s them.”
    Stretch ’s face pales and he grabs another bag of chips. “We gotta tell Samson.”
    “No,” X says. “We keep this to ourselves.”
    “X, this isn’t something we can figure out on our own. We need to tell my dad.”
    X is quiet. He doesn’t seem too happy.
    “I’m with Kale,” Stretch says.
    X shrugs. “Fine.”
    The room gets so quiet. I can feel the fear and tension growing and getting stronger. “This is starting to freak me out. We’ll talk to my dad after dinner. I just hope we’re not too late.”
    ***
    I can’t sit at the dining room table during dinner pretending to be okay when Lightning’s on Dad’s left. He has the look on his face that he always wears—loyalty and trust. Screw that. I want to wring his neck, but that’d be stupid.
    “It’s ridiculous,” I mutter to X and Stretch, keeping my voice down so Pri zm on my left won’t overhear. “The way he’s smiling to my dad and nodding and being ‘his most trusted man.’ What a fake!”
    Stretch doesn’t say anything as he gobbles down his plate of mashed potatoes. X nods. “ Watch your back. No one is safe here.”
    “I wonder how long he’s been undercover,” Stretch says. “He only joined the League four years ago.”
    “Right after we defeated the Blades,” I realize. “We’re such idiots. They must have wanted revenge right from the start. The question is: why are they taking so long?”
    “The Blades need to gather an army,” X says. “Most of them died that night or fled, didn’t they?”
    It makes sense. Lightning’s been spying on us for four years, trying to learn anything he can about us. He knows how to breach security and all our secrets. Man. We really are screwed.
    I bend closer to them. “We need to tell my dad fast. The longer we wait the stronger they get.”
    X is staring at the table. He’s got that intense look on his face.
    “You okay?” I ask.
    “They’re planning something,” he says in a monotone. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s going to be big.”
    “An attack,” I say. “They want revenge. Or maybe they want Lindsay.”
    X shakes his head. “It’s more than that. I can feel it. I doubt it’s Lindsay. That’s too easy.”
    “Yeah,” Stretch says. “Lightning has known about her for a while and they would have taken her by now.”
    “Maybe they want a war between the humans again, ” X says. “Although, I don’t think they’d need to spy on us for that. I don’t know. It must be about revenge.”
    My heartbeat accelerates. “ So we’ve got Lindsay blowing up the world, and an attack by the Blades.”
    I don’t know which is worse.
    ***
    After dinner, the guys a nd I head to Dad’s office. X isn’t so thrilled with telling him about Lightning because he doesn’t think Dad will believe us. But I’ve got this feeling he will. I mean, my father trusts me, now that I’m proving myself with Lindsay. He’ll know I’m not fooling around or looking for attention or whatever.
    Dad’s on the phone and motions for us to come in and sit down. Stretch and I do while X leans against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.
    We wait. Stretch twists his fingers around each other, which is completely disgusting to watch. X’s eyes roam around the office, focusing on all the pictures and plaques on