Fugitives

By Jessie Newman

When Kate comes home and finds her parents missing, her whole world is turned around. She and her brother Mike have to embark on a journey to find her parents and uncover the mystery of their past. They find that discovering clues to their parents’ whereabouts and past, only leads to more questions than answers. The closer they get to finding their parents, the closer they are to losing everything they are trying to save. Will Kate be able to figure it all out in time to save her parents and clear their names as fugitives?

This is teenage spy fiction with a twist that will have you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jessie Newman
• Release date: Nov 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463917398

Book preview

Fugitives

Jessie Newman

Copyright © 2019 Jessie Newman

Published by Jessie Newman Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Jessie Newman using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Edited by Vanessa Finaughty for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

Website: www.reachpublishers.co.za

E-mail: [e-mail]

Jessie Newman

[e-mail]

Contents

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Acknowledgment

This book is for my brother Chad, who inspired this story and who inspires me every day. I would like to thank my family for always believing in me and encouraging me to finish this book and publish it for the world to see.

Prologue

Is this a dream? No, my eyes are open, but it must be. It feels so real, yet somehow like an illusion. How would we know? All of this could be a dream. My whole life. What if...? What if one day I just woke up and I had yet to start my life, and all this, all the things that have happened just disappeared, ceased to exist, never to be remembered by anyone? Then what? I mean, wouldn’t I know whether this was real or not? Or will I just go on in this in between state of sleepless dreams and wakeless illusions? I guess I’ll just have to have faith, and live my life to the fullest. And maybe, just maybe, stay alive long enough to find my reason. My reason for doing all this.

Chapter 1

So what are we doing tonight? Sarah asked me for the hundredth time.

Nothing. I told you I’m having dinner with my parents, I replied. I promised them I’d stay in tonight.

Kate Reid, come on, it is literally our last summer break before we go off to college. Come out and have a little fun with me, Sarah tried again, not giving up.

Sarah, I told you, I’m saving up to travel. This whole college thing is going to blow over soon. Why else do you think I have this crappy job? I asked.

Oh yeah, that’s right, you’re only going to college for a year to humour your parents. You think the whole idea of going to college straight after high school is arbitrary and you hate the fact that they are making you ‘conform to society and its ludicrous expectations’, Sarah said sarcastically, using her index and middle fingers to air quote the last part.

Yes, exactly. I think people should first actually experience living life before they do the whole college, then job and finally starting a family routine, I replied with a grin, much to her annoyance.

Sarah Collins has been my best friend since the first grade. She is beautiful, with golden hair and green eyes. She has a cheerleader build, but never wanted to be one. We were never part of the popular kids, but we made our own group. We have never been apart, until we decided to go to different colleges, she to George Town in Washington and me to NYU. It’s hardest on Sarah, because, despite the adventurous person she is, she is not too good on the whole ‘making friends’ part of that; she never knows what to say to people. Despite that, people are always drawn to her vibrant personality. She’s like a contradiction on her own.

So as to spend a bit more time together, we got summer jobs at the same place, a retail store in the mall.

Okay fine. Just keep in mind that while you’re eating Mac and cheese with your parents on a Friday night, I’ll be doing body shots with some oversized hunk, whose biceps both my hands couldn’t even fit around, she said in her most challenging tone, trying and failing to convince me to go out with her.

Okay, have fun, I said, smiling. Oh and you know I love Mac and cheese, so it’s not even a contest.

You’re so frustrating sometimes, she replied, trying not to smile as well.

Okay, I tell you what; it’s not body shots and biceps, but come and hang out with my brother and me tomorrow night. It’s going to be super chilled, just pool and beer in the garage, I offered, knowing she would say yes, mostly due to the fact that she had a little crush on my brother, Mike.

Okay, sounds good. I’ll tell you something, though; I do not know how I am going to survive without you next year, she said as she backed away to go and help a middle-aged man who had just walked into the store.

Me neither, I thought as I turned my attention back to the store’s accounting books that were always in a mess, thanks to our incompetent manager.

When Sarah and I had first started working here, he asked her out. When she said no, he tried to make a move on her. I punched him in the nose. The only reason we still work here is because I threatened to sue him for sexual harassment in the workplace. Since his dad owned the store, he backed off and mostly avoids looking me in the eye now.

My phone buzzed, bringing me back to the present and the books. I sighed, thinking it was a text from my boyfriend, Brad. I’ve been avoiding him. I’m trying to think of what to say to him, especially since I want to break up with him. Brad and I are just not a good match, and, as much as I believe in true love, I just don’t see our relationship going anywhere. I mean, I don’t know what he sees in me. I’m not ugly or anything; I’m just not his usual type. I have brown eyes, brown hair, a strong body and I’m an average eighteen-year-old girl’s height. Brad is a jock who should be with the cheerleading captain who has perfect blonde hair and manicured nails. So it came as kind of a big surprise when he asked me to prom at the beginning of senior year. We’ve been together ever since and way longer than I expected.

I pulled out my phone, seeing, to my surprise, Mike’s name pop up in the text; he wanted to know what time I got off work. He was in the mall and wanted to get coffee. Mike did things like this all the time. He is three years older than I am and, though he is only my half-brother, if you saw us together you’d never guess that was the case. My father got his girlfriend pregnant at age twenty-two. Wanting to do the right thing, he asked her to marry him, but she wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment, so she broke it off with him. She said she could raise the baby on her own with the help of her parents, who never really liked him anyway. So my dad moved on, to Mike’s mom’s best friend. My mother. They got married a year later and, a year after that, they had me. The worst part of all this was that it was my mother who had kept my father and me away from Mike. I could ask what kind of a person could do that, but the answer would be: my mother. It was all kept a secret from Mike and me.

Mike’s mother had told him everything when he was old enough to understand and demand answers as to why he had no father and why no one ever even talked about him. I was probably the only one who didn’t know a thing until I was sixteen and out of, who knows what? My mother just blurted out the fact that I had an older brother. Being the person I am, I couldn’t just go on living my life knowing I had a brother out there, someone who could be just like me, someone to whom I was supposed to be closest in this world, and I didn’t even know he existed. I saw it as a huge betrayal. So, even though it took a while, I went out and looked for him and I found him. As it turned out, he loved the fact that he had a little sister. I sat my parents down and told them I had found him and they couldn’t stop me from getting to know him, especially since it was entirely their fault. We have been close ever since and we try to see each other as much as we can. Since we live in New York, I on the Upper East Side and he on the Upper West, it’s not as if it’s down the street from each other. New York is a pretty big place.

I replied to Mike. I told him to meet me at the Golden Bean Cafe at 5pm and that Sarah was coming as well. Mike is tall and has an athletic build. He has short black hair and brown eyes. We look alike and we both look like our father.

Chapter 2

After coffee with Sarah and Mike, I only got home at 8pm, knowing I was so late for dinner with my parents. As I pulled up to the house, I noticed the lights were turned off. I thought perhaps they had just gone to bed early, because they couldn’t wait for me, but this was early, even for them. Also, Dad’s car was still out in the driveway, and he pulls it into the garage every night. I parked my car in front of the house and went in.

Mom! Dad! I shouted.

I flipped the light switch, but it did not go on.

Mom! I tried again.

No reply. Thinking that they must just be asleep already, I ran upstairs and tried their door. It was locked. That was strange; they never locked their door. I knocked a few times. When no reply came, I kicked in the door. The room was empty. The bed was still made and nothing seemed out of place. It was as if no one had ever used this room. I heard a noise just then, coming from the attic, which was strange, since we never used the attic, or