Summer Disaster - The Devereaux CaseFiles Book 2

Chapter 1

From the moment Ayah first kissed Red, she had signed an invisible gag order. Forever.

Two and a half months had passed and not much had changed. St Katherine's school was safe from closure. Molly and Gideon, Joanne and Leroy, Melody and Darius were all still in their relationships and all friends with each other. And her English teacher from last term, Reed Anderson was still the notorious criminal mastermind Yukio and the government agent Reed Devereaux. Everything was pretty much normal.

Except that Reed was at the other side of the world, chasing down a 'discovery' he had made. His job was for the Waynflete agency, a secret government sector who took jobs more complicated than the others could handle,or that needed a delicate hand. His job was much more detailed than she had originally thought. Reed was also much higher up in the ranking than she had thought. He didn't just retrieve the stolen goods and present them back to their rightful owners, but he travelled the world evaluating situations. He'd been called off the Russia job and was currently a part of a very large set up to find the leader of a true gang of thieves.

Ayah had been warned about all the precautions she would need to take because they were in a relationship together. Most of the people he dealt with had no idea Reed was less of a criminal than they were, but he needed them to believe that he was like them. She had been warned to be careful who she was talking to, not to trust anyone he hadn't personally introduced her to or that she had already seen around the school.

She wasn't to mention his name...either Reed or Yukio, and he was pretty adamant that she shouldn't leave the school grounds unless in the company of one of his crew. They could protect her if anything happened, but only if she didn't wander off alone. She didn't expect to need his rules or warnings but she let him rhyme them off as he drove her back to school with her luggage and kissed her goodbye. He would begone almost the whole year, but as long as she was in school Ayah hoped the time would fly by.

To be extra careful he had given her a new mobile phone for Christmas, along with a secret engagement ring that she wasn't allowed to wear on her finger. He had put it on a locket so that if anyone asked, she could claim it was a family heirloom and no-one would suspect what it really was. Reed insisted that she wasn't to give anyone the number for her new phone so he could contact her without worrying about the line being busy as long as she kept it strictly between the two of them.

Ayah wasn't even allowed to write in her diary in case it 'fell into the wrong hands'. She wasn't allowed to tell anyone who her boyfriend was because he had gone undercover as her English teacher the year before. She wasn't allowed to tell anyone that they got engaged that winter after knowing each other for only three weeks and two days.

Ayah couldn't tell them she had found her soul mate, the only person she would ever love for the rest of her life. She couldn't tell her friends, her best friends, that she was going to escape her crazy parents once spring term was over and be with Reed forever. That she would never having to worry about being married off to a stranger with no thought for her feelings. She shared her heart with Reed, but since she was a little girl she had shared her secrets with her diary.

But Ayah knew that it wasn't just that one term he was asking her to lock away inside her head. It was the rest of her life. In silence. With no diary. No confidant. Just Reed.

But it was worth it.

Ayah knew Reed wasn't likely to be back before at least six months passed. The explanation the teachers had, that he was in Brussels was a lie, as was the excuse of sorting out the estate and legal papers of a recently deceased relative. He'd explained it all to her, that he'd chosen Brussels as a lie she could continually use if she needed to.Not only was he not there, but it sounded reasonable. She could only keep quiet and listen to the lies.