Read How to Save the World for Free Online Page B

closure. You might never get that, either, and on top of disappointing both of you, that could send her around the bend again. You do realize that, right?”
    â€œTrust me, if there’s one thing I do understand, it’s that,” Guy said, and he had a point. He’d had to live with the reality of his missing sibling for all of these years. “But she’s not going to agree any other way.”
    â€œIs that such a bad thing? Dr. Mobius is not a good guy, remember?”
    â€œYou’re just going to let a kidnapped man stay kidnapped, Gail?”
    I wrinkled my nose because he had a point. ­People being held captive and ransomed were my own personal hang-­up. “Ugh! Why do you have to be right?”
    Guy laughed and folded me into a giant hug.
    â€œI’m kicking him in the nuts as soon as we rescue him,” I said.
    â€œFine by me,” he said.
    I leaned back enough so that I could poke him in the chest. “And if you’re going with Brook, I’m going with you. I don’t trust her. Not negotiable.”
    He gave me a genuinely surprised look. “I thought you were going to, anyway?”
    â€œOh,” I said, my shoulders visibly deflating. “Okay, then. Be sensible about it.”
    He kissed the side of my head. “Always.”
    But before we could go back in, I grabbed his wrist. “Wait, do you even know where to begin searching for Petra?”
    Guy looked at the floor, not meeting my eyes. “I may have looked into some things over the years.”
    â€œYou don’t have, like, one of those TV show conspiracy boards with the strings and everything, do you?”
    â€œNo. Nothing that extreme. Just some files, and having some fresh eyes on those might help. Brook hasn’t agreed yet. I doubt she will, actually.”
    I squeezed his wrist. Thankfully, he was pretty much indestructible, as I sometimes had a hard time judging my new strength.
    â€œI’ll do it,” Brook said the second we walked back into the room. Her eyes were suspiciously wet and I noticed that a ­couple more pieces of the TV had been shattered. Angélica also looked far more annoyed than she had when we’d left.
    I pulled up short. “Seriously?”
    â€œI don’t want anything to do with Mobius when we find him. You leave me alone in a room with him, I will kill him.” Her voice stayed deathly calm.
    If nothing else, statements like that explained why she was currently in prison.
    â€œGot it,” Kiki said, looking a little weak-­kneed with relief. “You won’t have to deal with him. You just have to help us get him back.”
    â€œIn exchange for looking for Petra,” Brook said, glaring at Guy.
    â€œYou’ve got my word on that,” he said. He held a hand out to shake and I wanted to roll my eyes at him. Didn’t he understand where Brook’s powers originated?
    Luckily, she only shook his hand. “Then let’s do this.”
    I had a very bad feeling about this.
    But that wasn’t unusual, really. Not with my life.

 
    CHAPTER 4
    T he worst part about hostage situations—­that brief, pants-­wetting moment of terror at the beginning aside—­wasn’t the threats or even the pain or listening to the villains lose themselves in the poetry of their own terrible soliloquies. No, years and years of dealing with the villains of Chicago had taught me that there was something far worse: waiting.
    It was bad enough as a hostage, hanging out and anticipating that moment Blaze would come flying in, fists up and ready to face any number of weapons to come save me. Granted, I’d had my coping methods, which had been primarily daydreaming about all the TV I’d catch up on in the hospital. On the other side of the equation, waiting for the ransom call to come in, it was ten times worse.
    â€œGail,” Angélica said, and I got the feeling she was laughing at