Secret

“Collateral damage. Kate lost sight of our goal here.”

Gareth nodded. “It happens.”

And it did. Not often, luckily, but their connection to human-ity sometimes left them vulnerable to the weaknesses of others.

Silver had been doing this long enough to have lost any em-pathy for humans.

So had Gareth.

He gathered his papers and slipped them back into his briefcase. “Are you ready to get out of here?”

Silver nodded. “What is our plan?”

Gareth stood. “Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Make it look like you’re having trouble breathing.”

One thing Silver had always been good at—following orders.

He pressed a panicked hand to his throat and sucked in a long rush of air.

Gareth’s power latched on to that air, feeling it move into Silver’s lungs, making them expand, exchanging oxygen for carbon dioxide.

Silver felt that power. His eyes snapped open.

“Again,” Gareth said, keeping his voice even, reassuring. His power filled the air in the room. This was all part of his plan.

“I’m going to call for help in a moment.”

Another breath.

“One more,” said Gareth. He moved toward the door. “Hold it. Pretend you can’t breathe.”

Silver inhaled, a breath full of Gareth’s power. He held it.

Gareth gave the element a little push, quadrupling the pressure inside Silver’s chest. He felt the other man’s shock. His sudden fear. His pain.

But his death was silent. Air rushed out of his mouth, but it was too late.

Once his lungs burst, he couldn’t make a sound. He collapsed forward onto the table.

“Forgive me,” said Gareth. “A dirty trick, I know. Thank you for your years of service.”

Silver was drooling on the table. He wasn’t dead yet, but it wouldn’t be long.

“What did you call Kate’s death?” said Gareth. “Collateral damage?” He leaned close. “Funny. I call it failure.”

CHAPTER 1

Nick Merrick set a wide piece of flagstone into the sand, shifting it back and forth to lock it in place. Despite the late October chill in the air, the sun beat down on his back, making him regret his long-sleeved black T-shirt. He pulled the red Merrick Landscaping cap off his head to wipe sweat away with his forearm. His hair was already damp, and he still had half a path to finish.

He yanked the hat back on and fed some power into the air, asking for a breeze.

The wind was overly happy to accommodate, sending a gust through the trees to scatter leaves and blow sand into the grass.

Nick swore.

Quinn shivered and huddled down in her fleece pullover.

“Frigging wind.”

Nick glanced at her. She was sitting on the slate stone bench his older brother had installed yesterday. “Cold? Go sit in the truck.”

“But I’m helping you.”

Nick smiled. She hadn’t left the bench since they’d gotten here. “Oh. Okay. I didn’t realize you were helping.”

“Not with the landscaping. I can barely pick those rocks up.”

She turned to lie flat on the bench, letting long blond hair fall almost to the grass. She stretched one leg up to the sky. Next she’d be pulling it back toward her chest and putting her ankle next to her ear. Crazy dancer. “I’m helping you keep up illusions.”

Illusions. Nick lost the smile and flung another stone into place. “Are you sure you’re not avoiding going home?”

“Okay, so maybe we’re helping each other.”

He made a noncommittal noise and reached for another stone.

“Seriously,” said Quinn. “Your brother gave you crap for bringing me along, didn’t he?”

“Not really.” And Michael hadn’t. If Gabriel or Chris had tried to drag a girl along on a job, Michael would have pitched a fit. But Nick was the dependable one. When he’d mentioned that Quinn was riding along, his older brother hadn’t batted an eye.

Then again, Nick had told Michael a little about Quinn’s epic fights with her mom, which seemed to have gotten worse since her family’s home was destroyed in a fire. Maybe Michael was cutting her some slack, too.

“Huh,” said Quinn. “Maybe I should accidentally leave panties in your room or something.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

“You sound pissed.”

Nick put another rock into place and rolled the tension from his shoulders. “I’m not. I’m just . . . you don’t need to go over the top.”

“Panties are over the top?”

He didn’t even bother answering that.

“Come on,” she said. “If you don’t want your brothers to know you’re into guys, a little lingerie left in your bedroom might be just the ticket.”

Nick slammed another rock into the sand and didn’t bother answering that, either.

Quinn was relentless. “Have you seen Adam since that night I caught you kissing?”

“No.” At least not in reality. But Quinn’s dance partner had occupied nearly every waking moment of Nick’s thoughts. And a lot of the sleeping moments, too.

Adam was the first—the only—boy he’d ever kissed.

Nick’s brothers had no idea. They still thought he was infatu-ated with Quinn. And Quinn was all too happy to keep up the

“illusion,” as she put it.

“Have you talked to him?” Quinn pressed.

“No.” But he read over Adam’s last text message about twenty times a day.

When you know what you want, I’ll be right here.

Nick knew what he wanted, all right. He just wasn’t sure he wanted to want it. His life was already complicated enough. He reached for another stone.

“He asked about you,” said Quinn.

Nick dropped the stone on his fingers. He swore again and flexed them to ease the pain. “Yeah?”

“He asked how you were doing.”

Nick didn’t say anything, just rocked the stone into place.

“Hmm,” said Quinn. “What did I tell him about you . . . ?”

Nick’s heart tripped and stumbled along. He waited.

And waited.

Finally, he looked up. “There’s a pool around back. Don’t think I won’t drop you in it.”

Quinn smiled, but it was a little cautious, a little sad. “He asked if you’d be coming with me to the studio anytime soon.”

She meant the dance studio at the Y, where he’d first met Adam. Nick enjoyed watching Quinn dance, and he loved the way music coursed through the air to seep into his skin. Then he’d seen Adam, and it was like a missing puzzle piece finally snapped into place.

He’d loved watching Adam dance, too.

Nick grabbed a hand roller and flattened the next expanse of sand. “I don’t want to be a distraction.”

“I think you need a little distraction.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you’re completely stressed out.” Quinn rolled off the bench and walked behind him, putting her hands on his shoulders. She dug her thumbs into the muscles there. It almost hurt, but it felt good, too, so he didn’t stop her.

“Quinn, it’s fine. I have a lot on my mind.”

Like the fact that he and his brothers were still marked for death for the Elemental abilities they struggled to control.

Or the fact that a bunch of younger Elementals had nearly destroyed the town a week ago.

Or maybe that the Guide who’d come to town to kill them all was sitting in a jail cell, and could be released at any time.

Not to mention the stack of college responses hidden in his desk at home. Or his family’s struggling landscaping business, which was barely turning a profit now, to say nothing of getting through the winter.

Oh, and the fact that he was g*y, and one of the only two people who knew was sitting right here ragging on him about it.

“Why don’t you come to the studio tonight?” she said.

“I have a physics test tomorrow. I need to study.”

“Please. Like you couldn’t pass that in your sleep. And if you really needed to study, why aren’t your brothers doing this job?”

Nick shook her hands off and reached for another stone.

“Hannah was off tonight, and Mike needed a break. I offered.”

“Of course you did.” She paused. “And Gabriel? Chris?”

“Busy, and busy.” His youngest brother, Chris, had plans with his girlfriend. And Gabriel, his twin, was trying to catch up on math so he could apply for firefighter school in the spring.

“Come on,” said Quinn. “You know you want to.”

He did want to. A lot.

A lot more than he wanted to admit.

Too complicated. He shook his head.

“Come on,” said Quinn. “You could bring your textbook.

Wear some glasses. He’d probably think it was sexy.”

Nick told himself to stop imagining it.

Quinn grinned. “Nicholas Merrick. You are blushing.”

“Seriously. Pool. Out back. Get ready to be all wet.”

“If you don’t come with me, I’m going to tell him to stop pining, because you’re not interested.”

“You are not going to tell him that.”

“Yes. I am. In fact—” She pulled out her cell phone. “I’m going to tell him right now.”

Her hands were flying across the keys. Nick was on his feet yanking it out of her hands before he even knew he was moving.

She didn’t fight him.

Then he looked down at what she’d typed. Not a message to Adam. A message to him.

You deserve a break, too, Nick.

He sighed. “I don’t know.”

Her voice gentled. “I know you still like him.” She paused.

“It’s not a date. It’s an hour in the studio.”

An hour watching Adam dance. He’d almost come undone the first time. But eager butterflies were hanging streamers for a party in his stomach. “All right. I’ll come with you.”

“Yay!” She clapped.

“You seem overly enthusiastic. Like you said, it’s an hour in the studio. Nothing might happen.”

“Oh, it’s not that.” She smiled sweetly. “Really, I needed a ride.”

Nick grabbed her and flung her over his shoulder. “That’s it.

Pool.”

She laughed. “You’re excited. Come on. Admit it.”

He set her on her feet, but didn’t let her go. Up close, he could look into the blue of her eyes. She was very pretty, with enough curves to draw attention. She whined about being fat all the time, but dance kept her body toned and muscled.

After catching him with Adam, she’d offered to continue playing the role of his girlfriend. It let him keep his secret from his brothers, but it also kept her from going out and meeting a guy who would care about what she had to offer.

This whole setup was so wrong. “I hate using you,” he said.

“Do you want to have an epic breakup?”

“You deserve to date a guy who likes you.”

“So do you.”

Nick clamped his mouth shut and turned back to the path, slapping the next stone into place.

“We can stop if you want,” said Quinn. “I’ll go back to nightly screaming matches with my mother, you go back to screwing easy girls so you look like a total player.”

“Quinn. I was not—”

“Maybe you weren’t sleeping with them, but you were using them just the same.” At his fierce look, she gave him one right back. “They might not have known the truth about you, but it doesn’t make it any different.”

“I wasn’t using them.”

“Yes. You were.”

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