I wanted to make some protest about him being around while I was naked. It was the natural girl-modesty response. I stared at him, considering my options. He knew more than I did about this spy thing. I’d seen movies where there were bugs planted on people as small as a fly. Was that true? Could one be on me right now? I still had the boxers on and the T-shirt. In the struggle, Mack Truck could have put anything on me and I wouldn’t have noticed. It was something I hadn’t thought of. Suddenly my body was itchy, like a live bug with a tracer device had been planted on me and crawled all over my skin.
I needed to hurry. Axel was right, we didn’t have much time and we needed to get to Brandon. If this was what I needed to do, it didn’t help to just stand here.
I still put the fountain between me and the other boys until I couldn’t even see them anymore and I was sure none of them could see me. I was wondering why we were doing this out in the open, not that there appeared to be anyone around. There could be a lot of reasons, I supposed, but if we were quick, no one might notice us here anyway.
Axel followed. When I challenged him with a glare, he was completely unreadable. Either he was trying to keep things professional, or there was something else on his mind. Maybe he simply didn’t care about nudity when lives were on the line.
I put the new clothes aside and then started to strip. I was going to try to be coy, but he was the one who had to check for bugs in places I wouldn’t be able to check alone. I had to let him inspect me so there was no point in trying to be delicate.
Axel’s eyes never wavered. At first his face was blank, and stayed on my face.
I lifted the T-shirt and ripped it off, facing him full on and bare and his eyes stayed with mine. I challenged him, daring. I don’t know why I needed to, but it was like I was waiting for some reaction from him. Not getting one made me uncomfortable, like I wasn’t attractive enough to warrant some sort of approval.
Crazy girl stuff. Resistant to being naked in front of guys, but if you have to be, you want a compliment.
And my heart was wild because he’d once seen me nearly naked before. We’d even kissed, and fooled around a bit. Now it was like I was testing him to see if he’d lost interest. If maybe I wasn’t his type. I realized it must be hard for him to deal with someone like me, hot and cold like I’d been with the guys. Did I think they’d simply wait while I made up my mind?
And here I was, testing him. I wanted to poke his buttons until he caved. I wanted to prove to him, and to myself, that he was still interested.
I slipped out of the boxers, kicking them toward the fountain. At first he stood completely still, like he was waiting for me to do something. Give him permission?
“Do you have to comb my hair?” I asked.
He blinked, his head shaking slightly as if I’d disturbed some deep thinking.
And then there it was: His eyes did the sweep. He dropped his gaze quickly to my feet, as if trying to avoid looking directly, but once he looked at my feet, his eyes slid up slowly. He angled his head, taking in my calves, thighs, over my hips and stomach, to my chest. Very slow, very deliberate. He’d done the same to me with my clothes on, but now it was all in front of him.
Fair was fair: I’d seen him naked.
He met my eyes again. His expression was so hard to read, but I could tell he was struggling. That made me happy. Axel at least felt something when he saw me naked.
He moved forward with a comb he pulled from his pocket and did a finger twirl. “Turn around.”
This was familiar, too. He’d done this once before, with a brush, trying to collect my own secrets from me.
I turned where he wanted me, and he gathered my hair in his big hands. He started at the roots and worked the comb through. He circled me as he worked, trying to make sure he brushed everything down and got rid of every tangle. Locks covered my face. His fingers followed the comb, touching every strand.
I covered parts of me with my arms from the cold, and partially in preparation if anyone did come by. It was super early still, and the only light we were getting was from dim lamps still lit up and down the park and further out there was some ambient light from streetlamps and homes. Someone would have had to get really close to notice I was naked, and the park was deserted except for us. “Is this even necessary?” I asked, considering what was more awkward, being naked in public or Axel combing my hair for bugs.
I also wanted to avoid talking about us.
He was quiet for a moment, and then held out a palm.
Inside his palm were three dark specks. At first, I just assumed it was dirt or something. When I looked closer, they appeared to be little microchips.
“Are those them?” I asked. I couldn’t believe he found three already. “It’s not just dirt or something? I did jump from a moving car.”
“Trackers,” he said. “I’ve seen these before.”
“Are they working now? Are they GPS trackers?” I was wondering how they put these on. It must have happened while we’d struggled in bed or on the way to the car trunk. Tracking us from the start meant they were assured we couldn’t have jumped up and run off at some point.
“They aren’t really designed for GPS. They just send out a frequency,” he said. “There’s a local scanner out there somewhere that can pick it up. It wouldn't have enough energy for a satellite transmission but it can make it easier to follow you if they wanted to tail you. If they’re searching for you now, this is what they’re looking for.”
“How come they didn’t find me before? They were looking for me while I was keeping an eye on Brandon and they were talking to him.”
“You may have been close enough to Brandon that they were picking up the same frequency from him. These wouldn’t have that far of a range and they’re not very precise, but if they picked it up, they’d know they were close. It’s like playing Hot or Cold.”
“What if they’re following us now?”
“We want them to follow if they are, but we want them closer. We don’t want to make this easy for them. If you want to get to know your stalkers, you need to get them as close as possible and draw them out into the open, into the public areas.” He tossed the three units into the fountain and continued to comb my hair. “With these, they could stay at a distance and keep an eye on you. That’s not what we want.”
Sophisticated. This German and his pals were even smarter than I thought. Could I have ever survived this without Axel and the guys? Probably, but at least with them, it’d be easier. I’d not thought about bugs, and probably would have been picked up pretty quickly if they came across that signal.
I sucked in a slow, long breath and exhaled. I was fooling myself. These guys didn’t even need me.
Axel took his time, going through every lock of hair. The teeth bit into my scalp when he got close, but it was necessary, because the little trackers were really small. He checked behind my ears, in my ears, angled my chin around to look underneath my jaw. He wanted to make sure nothing else fell out and attached to my skin. I’d never caught lice going to school, but I thought the process to clean out those real bugs must be similar. Checking for metal bugs was like catching lice, but way more dangerous. That was a crazy thought.
Again a silence fell between us, and I stared at the dead fountain, almost falling asleep where I stood as he inspected me.
“Are you so worried about your brother that you’re avoiding me?” he asked quietly.
There it was. The question I’d been thinking he’d ask sooner or later. “No,” I said. I wasn’t in the mood to elaborate because if I said what I was really thinking out loud, he’d ask more questions. It was something some of the other Academy boys asked quietly, or sometimes in odd, roundabout ways and I distracted them with something else.
They wanted to know how I felt, and the truth was more complicated than they wanted to really know. I thought over time, I’d eventually get over how I was feeling, but that wasn’t the case. My feelings only grew stronger.
Af
ter I responded, and I didn’t know what else to say, I remained quiet, hoping he’d take a hint.
“You can tell me if you’re not interested,” he said. “Not trying to be passive-aggressive about it. I’m interested in you. I just want to know where I stand.”
I grunted.
“What was that?” he asked a little louder.
What an ass. He waited until I was vulnerable, naked and couldn’t run and he was going to corner me with something like that? Did he really need to know that badly? I had to remind myself not to let him brush my hair from now on. That seemed to be his way of saying we need to talk.
It was difficult now, though, to not simply give in. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to lean into him? To feel like I’d been missed and worried about, and just be held for a while? I’d felt so vulnerable since I’d been kidnapped, and while I wanted to hug Marc and the others, I didn’t, because hugging wasn’t what I did. I wanted to appear brave, to look like I was unshakable.