Read The Egg (Return of the Ancients Book 4) for Free Online Page B

instead of their weaknesses. Anyway, I could tell by his face that he was genuinely pleased by the news.
    “That boy is full of surprises,” he said, sending me a warm smile. “Well, if I don’t call in to Jack, he’s going to have every UFO club this side of the Rockies knocking on our door. I’ll catch up with you later, kiddo.”
    I watched him hurry down the hall to his bedroom to check in with his janitor friend, Jack. Jack may just be a janitor at a military base, but all of his kooky inventions had worked. And the thought of him watching over us, even from afar, was suddenly comforting.
    “UFO clubs?” Grace snorted, stepping over her lacrosse bag as it made a puddle on the floor. She moved to the refrigerator. “Well, at least he’s forgotten the chicken house coop idea.”
    Reminded of the Mesmers, I eyed the windows, wondering if we should just move ahead with converting the house into a chicken coop despite what Grace and Betty thought. Those Faraday caps had worked. And I knew the Mesmers were only regrouping. Who knew what they’d come up with next?
    After a moment, I noticed Grace’s dark eyes peering at me from over the top of the refrigerator door, and I jerked a little. For some reason, I felt guilty. I don’t know why. Looking around for a distraction, I grabbed the first thing I saw. It was a small purse-sized can of Lysol that had come as an add-on to one of Al’s bigger spray cans he’d been using in the garage.
    “I’ve been looking all over for this,” I said, holding up the small can. I promptly winced. I was horrible at hiding things.
    She was clearly suspicious of me. One of her dark brows lifted.
    In the awkward silence that followed, I jammed the mini Lysol can in my pocket as if it were some kind of contraband. She just watched me, absently tugging her ponytail. We were both rescued by the sound of feet stomping on the porch, and I glanced through the window to see that Betty was back.
    We met her at the door.
    “What did you get, Mom?” Grace asked, helping her with the grocery bags. Squinting into one of them, she wrinkled up her nose and pulled out a stalk of Brussels sprouts. “Little green balls of death.”
    “They’re very good for you, honey.” Betty greeted us both with a smile. “And they were on sale. They’ll go good with our meatloaf tonight. Sydney, can you bring in the bag of potatoes?”
    Jumping at the chance to escape, I mumbled a “sure" and ducked out the door.
    I was going to have to watch out for Grace and Ellison. I didn’t know if they were truly suspicious, but I didn’t want them to be. I sure didn’t want them to get mixed up in this mess.
    It was dark and still raining as I darted to the truck. Across the street, Rafael’s house was illuminated in a blaze of light. I could see people milling about through the curtains. It looked like he was having some sort of party, but I knew better.
    I glanced around, wondering where Ajax had absconded. And almost as if he’d read my mind, he jumped up to my side from the surrounding darkness, nearly giving me a heart attack.
    “That’s not funny,” I practically growled at him, jerking the bag of potatoes from the truck. Recalling the time I’d painted his toenails with neon nail polish, I sent him an evil grin. “Remember, I get even.”
    He clearly followed my thoughts. Jumping back, he immediately sniffed his nails as if to assure himself that they were still their properly polished black.
    But then a series of lights flashing from Rafael’s curtained window caught both of our attention, and making my mind up all at once, I hurried back into the kitchen to dump the potatoes onto the countertop.
    “I think I’ll take Ajax for a walk,” I informed Betty in as normal of a voice as I could.
    “OK, honey,” Betty acknowledged from where she stood by the sink, washing the Brussels sprouts.
    As I left, Grace deflated into a chair by the table, heaving a loud sigh. “Why does everything healthy