Page 56 of The Executioners Three
“What doyouuse to message people?”
“AIM, like a normal person.”
“Pshaw.” Freddie rolled her eyes. “But fine, you don’t have ICQ, so here’s my email too—though I swear to god, Mr. Porter, if you use this information for anything nefarious, I will destroy you.”
“First of all, you couldn’t destroy me if you tried.” He bent toward her. His blond hair flopped over his eyes. “Second of all, I won’t misuse your info. Itoldyou I’m not a Very Bad Human Indeed.”
Freddie bit her lip. She had no worthy retort for this, and like yesterday, his declaration was making her whole chest ignite with sparklers. She very much wanted to lean in and—
NO.
She jerked up taller.
BAD. BAD. BAD.She’d sworn a sacred vow, so what was she doing acting like this? Smiling and… andflirting? Divya would literally kill her, and it would be completely appropriate if she did.
“Listen,” Freddie said, her voice strained. “About the, um…” She swallowed. She couldn’t bring herself to say the wordkiss,and now she was blushing like a summer peach. “About what happened yesterday.”
“Yes.” Theo was staring at her very,veryhard. “About that.”
“I didn’t mean… That is to say…” Oh god, why was this so difficult? Freddie had made a promise; now she had to draw up boundaries. “We’re enemies, yeah?”
“We are.” His eyes narrowed.
“So yesterday was just…”Spit it out, Gellar. SPIT IT OUT.“It was, um, just a one-off. Right?”
Theo tensed. An almost imperceptible movement. Then his thumb started tapping. “Obviously.” He shifted in his seat.Tap, tap, tap. “I mean, what is it you said on Saturday? You have that effect on everyone.”
Freddie’s mouth went dry. She had no idea how to respond to a statement like that. Once more, it felt like he was complimenting her—and once more, it left her heart fluttering out of control.
It didn’t help that he was looking at her again with a face that had gone very still.
“Thank you for understanding,” she forced out.
“Yep,” he replied, and finally—finally—he looked away.
Freddie handed the notebook back to him. “I hope I hear good news about your grandmother soon.”
“Yep,” he repeated, completely withdrawn now. A statue over a gravestone.
They were enemies. This was what Freddie had wanted. Capulets and Montagues. Still, though—even though she knew it shouldn’t—her heart sank when she left the waiting area, trilling a goodbye…
And only stony silence followed behind.
Freddie tried very hard not to think about Theo Porter while she cycled away from the hospital. All the way through downtown Berm. Into the drugstore to buy new film. Then while she huffed past Fortin Park, lined with piles of raked leaves. And finally to the old church-turned-library that always flooded during storms.
She even sang “Tearin’ Up My Heart” in time to her pedaling. Not that it helped. NSYNC and Lance Bass could not scrub Theo Porter from her brain.
When she reached the library, Freddie triedeven hardernot to think about Theo—while she chained her bike. While she looked for newspapers. While she tried (and failed) to figure out the microfiche reader and then went searching for Miss Gupta in order to figure out said machine.
Even while Miss Gupta showed her how to insert the microfiche into the lenses, switch on the proper lamps, and print the resulting pages, Theo wasstillstuck in Freddie’s head.
The way he’d looked, all broken and beautiful, with his black eye and stitches. And the way his whole face had gone still when he’d said she had that effect on everyone…
“No,” Freddie groaned at the microfiche screen.Berm Sentinelheadlines from October 1987 glared back at her. “No, no, no—”
“Is everything alright?” Miss Gupta asked from a few aisles away. Her tone, as always, was cheery and helpful.
Freddie tried to mimic it as she called back, “I’m fine! Just fine, Miss Gupta!” Because of course she was fine. Theo’s gorgeous, beat-up face might’ve taken over her common sense, but she had come here on a mission. And when Freddie Gellar was on a mission, she did not rest until it was complete.
