"Anyone who knows how they work or where they work - anyone who knows anything . . ." As he trailed off, there was something new in his voice. He sounded tired in a way that had nothing to do with the hour.
"I know."
"They're tying up loose ends."
I tried to focus my eyes on the forest outside, the way the sun was just starting to color the sky. "Is that what I am?"
Zach stood and moved to my side at the window. Tears stung my eyes, and I kept my gaze on anything but him.
"Gallagher Girl," he said softly, reaching for me. "I don't know. But I promise we will find out."
A feeling swept through me when I thought back on the last year: Zach on a train racing through the Pennsylvania countryside; Zach lying beneath the bleachers in Ohio. And finally Zach gripping my hand, leading me away from a white van on a dark street in Washington, D.C. Zach standing between me and an attacker's gun, the attacker looking at the boy beside me and saying, "You?"
"You should be dead, Zach." I looked down and saw the way my shadow stretch across the floor between us. "That night - in D.C. - he had a clear shot. I should be gone and you should be dead."
"Gallagher Girl . . ."
"Why didn't he shoot you?"
"Everything that night happened so fast, Gallagher Girl."
"My name is Cammie!" I didn't think about all the people I could have woken, all the alarms that might have gone off. I just snapped, "How did you know about Boston? Why are you working with Mr. Solomon now? Are you my friend or are you my enemy, Zach?
Or, wait, let me guess, you can't tell me."
"I don't know why they want you. And for the rest . . . it's better if you don't know."
Need-to-know basis is a real thing. It exists for real reasons. But that doesn't mean I have to like it - and, coming from Zach, it sounded a whole lot different than it did coming from my mother.
"Why do you get to know?"
"What's the matter, Gallagher Girl? Jealous?"
"Yeah," I yelled, even though I'm pretty sure he'd be kidding. "I am."
"Cammie -"
"Time's up, Zach," I said. "Tell me when you know or -"
"Or what?" he reached for me. "You're not going to hurt me."
"I won't," I said, then risked a glance toward the door at the three angriest Gallagher Girls I had ever seen. "But they might."
Chapter Thirty-Five
PROS AND CONS OF HAVING REALLY CUTE
BOYS SNEAK INTO YOUR SCHOOL TO SEE YOU
CON: it's a little creepy.
PRO: When someone else sneaks in, you get a lot more sleep than when you have to sneak out.
CON: Impromptu visits by boys significantly increase the chance that they'll see you in your least cute pajamas.
PRO: Almost everyone looks good in moonlight.
CON: Five hours of very deep sleep is almost guaranteed to do very unfortunate things to your hair.