Read Online Guardian by Heather Burch - Free Book Online Page A

him. “You know, you’re not the only one who isn’t happy about being trapped in the middle of the ocean.”
    “I’m not the one complaining about it.” Sharp features and his unsettling gaze stared her down. “Why don’t you just stop playing games and tell me what you want?”
    Count to ten, Nikki. Just count to ten. “You’re a jerk, you know that, Zero? I was just trying to help, and you make it seem like I came over here with some hidden agenda.”
    She spun from him, but he reached up and grabbed her arm. “Didn’t you?” Zero’s grip tightened.
    “No,” she threw back at him.
    He squeezed harder. She could wrench away—she knew how to break a grip—but Zero was a Halfling. It was unnerving being trapped by him, his eyes calculating every thought inside her soul. “No,” she said again, feeling a distinct need to defend her actions.
    He continued his scrutiny.
    “I didn’t have a hidden agenda … did I?” Then it occurred to her. She was hoping to ask Zero if he could check back home and see if there was any new information on her parents’ case. Was she really that conniving? To think that she’d offer to do something nice for him in return for information about her mom and dad. “Maybe you’re right,” she murmured, and pulled ever so gently out of his grasp.
    Zero’s voice echoed behind her as she walked away. “Come back. I was just jerking your chain.” He laughed, but Nikki kept going. “Nikki!”
    Who am I becoming? She’d never been manipulative before. Then again, maybe she had, but no one ever noticed—including her. Now, surrounded by half-angel beings, her true colors were easily visible. When long, bony fingers clamped on her arm, she jumped.
    Zero spun her to face him. “You know, you really kill the fun of hacking your data when you’re so busy beating yourself up.”
    “I’m sorry, Zero. But you guys see right through me. It’s creepy and way too revealing.”
    His top lip curled up as his brows tipped down. “It was a joke, Nikki. You were trying to be nice, and I didn’t let you. Man, you need to lighten up.”
    “I’ll try,” she offered, but it was weak at best.
    “Come on,” he said, and led her back to his laptop. They sat in the nearby deck chairs. “There’s no new information on your folks.”
    Her heart sunk a little. “How’d you know?”
    “Vegan asked me to check things out for you. I just had to finish updating Ocean’s navigational systems first.”
    “Thank you.” No news, but the fact that the Halflings were concerned warmed her heart. “I really apprecia—”
    “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Look, don’t go getting all mushy on me or I’ll have to go back to ignoring you.”
    She nodded.
    Zero clicked a few keys then turned the laptop toward her. “Here ya go.”
    She looked down at the screen, but had to adjust it to see. No wonder Zero wanted her to block the light. “What is it?”
    “Math assignment. You can scroll through. I’ve got all your classwork on this laptop. Can’t promise how long the battery will last, so save often when you aren’t plugged in.”
    “I don’t understand, Zero.”
    “I tapped into your school’s files and lifted your assignments.”
    “Lifted?”
    “Yeah, I liberated them.”
    She shook her head, confused.
    “I appropriated them. Filched? Embezzled?”
    She had to wonder if these were terms Zero often used to describe his work. “You mean you stole them?”
    “If you want to put it that way.” He tilted his head, causing him to resemble a huge, white, curious bird. “Hardly a crime to steal homework. Answers maybe, but stealing questions? My conscience is clear.”
    Her finger trailed the edge of the monitor. “Why?”
    “When this is all over, you’ll want to go home, right? So I asked Vegan what she thought, and she said it’d be good to get your homework for you so you don’t get behind. Good job on the straight As last semester.”
    His words were blurring into one massive