Fearless: No. 2 - Sam (Fearless) Read Online Free PDF Page B

and brought out the red sealed envelope. "Here. I was looking for you because I wanted to give you this." She smiled shyly. She shrugged. "It's kind of stupid, but ... whatever." Her voice was soft enough to be intimate and directed solely at him.
    He had to come two steps closer to take the card from her hand. This required him to turn his back on Gaia.
    Sam glanced at his name, written in flowery cursive, and the heart she'd drawn next to it. When he looked at Heather again, his eyes were pained, uncertain.
    He cleared his throat. "Why don't you walk with me, and I'll open it when I get to my dorm?"
    Heather nodded brightly. "Okay."
    He pressed the card carefully between the pages of his physics book and anchored the book under his arm. Heather took his free hand and laced her fingers through his as she often did, and they started across the park.
    Sam said nothing to Gaia. He didn't even cast a backward glance.
    But Heather couldn't help herself. She threw a tiny look over her shoulder. Then, without breaking her stride, she planted one fleeting kiss on Sam's upper arm, just the place where her mouth naturally landed on his tall frame. It was a casual kiss, light, one of millions, but undoubtedly a kiss of ownership.
    "See ya," Heather said to Gaia, silently thanking Intelligence for dealing her yet another effective strategy.
    It was funny, thought Heather. Intelligence and Cunning so often ended up in the same place.

NOT YET
    WHAT GOOD WAS IT BEING A TRAINED fighting machine when you couldn't beat the hell out of a loathsome creature like Heather Gannis? Gaia wondered bitterly as she stomped along the overcrowded sidewalks of SoHo.
    What a catty piece of crap Heather was. No, that was too kind. Cats were fuzzy, warm-blooded, and somewhat loyal. Heather was more reptile than mammal -- cold-blooded and remote with dead, hooded eyes.
    Gaia was supposed to be smart. When she was six years old, her IQ tested so high, she'd been sent to the National Institutes of Health to spend a week with electrodes stuck to her forehead. And yet in Heather's presence Gaia felt like a slobbering idiot. She'd probably misspell her name if put on the spot.
    "Oops. Sorry," Gaia mumbled to a man in a beige suit whose shoulder she caught as she crossed Spring Street.
    Trendy stores were ablaze along the narrow cobblestoned streets. Well-dressed crowds flowed into the buzzing, overpriced restaurants that Ella always wanted to go to. Gaia strode past a cluster of depressingly hip girls who probably never considered wearing boots with capri pants.
    Gaia caught her reflection in the darkened window of a florist shop. Ick. Blah. Blech. Who let her out on the streets of New York in that sweater? Exactly how fat could her legs look? High time to get rid of the --
    Suddenly she caught sight of another familiar reflection. He was behind her, weaving and dodging through the throng, staying close but trying to avoid her notice. His face was beaded with sweat. One of his hands was tucked in his jacket.
    Oh, shit. Well, at least you couldn't commit fashion blunders from the grave, could you?
    She walked faster. She jaywalked across the street and ducked into a boutique. She wanted to see whether CJ was just keeping tabs on her or whether he intended to kill her immediately.
    Gaia blinked in the laboratory-bright shop. The decor was spare, and the clothing was inscrutable. In the midst of all the chrome shelving and halogen lighting there seemed to be about three items for sale, all of them black. It made for poor browsing.
    CJ stopped outside. He knew she knew he was there.
    "Excuse me, miss." An impatient voice echoed through the stark, high-ceilinged room.
    Gaia spun around to see a severe-looking saleslady pinning her to the floor with a suspicious look. Salesladies in SoHo had a sixth sense for whether you could afford anything in their store. It was a superhuman power. It deserved to be investigated on
The X-Files
. This particular woman obviously knew