Read Priceless for Free Online

bitch eyes—you know, the drop-dead and leave me alone eyes that every girl acquires at some point or another—and today was no exception. The air crackled between us and I shifted my body so he got a glimpse of one of the blades on my hip.
    He nodded and turned around, completely silent. I felt like an absolute bully, but that didn’t mean I’d apologize. I would make up for it another time. Maybe bring him a new video game.
    It took Kyle close to ten minutes and some serious typing to get into the FBI files, but he cracked the codes. “You’re only going to have a few minutes to find what you’re looking for before I get traced.” His voice was all business now.
    He gave me his seat. And I started searching, hoping my proximity to the computer wouldn’t crash it. Today was my lucky day. There was a file under India’s name, and one under Berget’s. A large file under my own that I scanned quickly, but there was no mention of supernatural abilities.
    “You’ve got two minutes left,” Kyle said from behind me.
    “Okay, I’m almost there,” I said
    I did a search for ‘supernatural,’ and then ‘unexplained,’ with no results. “What’s another word for unexplainable or magic?” I muttered to myself.
    “Arcane.” Kyle grumbled at me. He was still pouting from being told to butt out.
    I typed in the word and the computer screen flashed before taking me to a section I hoped I would never see. The Arcane division of the FBI.

~7~
    “Y ou have got to be freaking kidding me!” Kyle exclaimed over my shoulder.
    “Damn it, kid, don’t you ever listen?” I snapped. “Forget it, just print this off, or save it for me, or do whatever you can in the last bit of time you have.”
    Kyle sat and the printer started up. “I’ve printed the entire section for you, but it’s over three hundred pages long so it’s going to take a while.”
    “How long’s ‘a while’ and are you going to have enough paper?” I sat back in the recliner.
    A while turned out to be over two hours thanks to his prehistoric printer. You’d think with all the upgraded equipment he had, he would’ve put out for a faster printer. The possibility of not having enough paper was bad, but worse was his non-stop questions, of which I answered zero. If he’d been just a few years older, I would have had a lot less difficulty with him. I would have just thumped him on the head and left him tied up in the bathroom. Being a kid gave him an immunity to my anger and my blades that he didn’t even realize he had.
    I ended up drinking the rest of the root beer and felt a sugar headache coming on fast. At least it would keep me awake.
    Kyle bundled up all the papers for me and wrapped them with two elastic bands. “Here. I think that’s all of them.”
    I took the bundle and tucked it under one arm.
    “So, what do you think the files are really for?”
    I looked up, surprised at first. Of course, he couldn’t believe the files were about the supernatural. That was an impossibility in his world of technology.
    “Just a code name for missing kids. The ones they can’t explain.” He followed me out to the door, neither one of us noticing the slight beeping on his security system until we were at the door. Or the pair of suits walking up on the camera monitors toward his back door. Not good; sloppy on both our parts. I blamed my inattention to the memories that this case was stirring up.
    The doorknob was cool under my hand and the slightest shuffle on the other side of the door caught my ear at the last second. I froze and looked over at Kyle.
    His face was pale and his eyes wide. He shook his head ever so slightly and I backed off the door. Together, we sidled back into the kitchen. Running back to his workroom, he checked his security monitors and let out a groan, hands clenched in his hair. There in black and white were two very dark grey suits, standing at his back door, discussing something. Probably us. Kyle grabbed my arm, his