One kiss couldn’t hurt. Besides, it was hard to think of her questions, of anything, really, with him so close, with his rich brown eyes on her. She put a hand on his chest, unsure whether she meant to push him away or pull him closer. “You’ll explain everything?”
He leaned toward her. “Yes.”
His lips came down on hers, not a soft kiss like before. This kiss was insistent, his lips pressing hungrily against hers. A shock went through her at his touch. She felt warm, dizzy, and so uninhibited. She pulled off the gloves and let them drop onto the ground. Somehow, she didn’t care about them anymore. She ran her hands across the front of his shirt, feeling the muscles beneath the fabric.
He lifted his head, groaned, and suddenly his hands grasped her wrists, stopping her. He stared at her, breathing hard. He looked so flustered that she smiled. Perhaps he was right, and they were getting too carried away in a public place.
His voice came out low and serious. “What’s your deepest secret?”
“I suppose that I’m in love with you, and I probably shouldn’t be.” Her words were braver than she’d intended, as though her lips had spoken without her permission. The declaration was out in the open now. He knew and still stood here with her, still held onto her. She must not have scared him off.
“You love me?” His eyes widened with surprise. “You hardly know me. You just said so yourself.”
She went up on her tiptoes and kissed him lightly, teasing his lips. “Apparently I know you well enough to love you.”
He kissed her for one more moment, then stepped away, still keeping hold of her wrists. “Are any of the harvesters Empowereds, and if so, what are they?”
“My father is a psychic.” She gasped as the words left her mouth. Realization hit her with a cold, horrified slap. “You gave me truth serum.” How had he done it? He still wore his gloves. And then she knew the answer. “It was on your lips.” She wanted to crumble. She wanted to kick him. He stood too close for the latter, and she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of the former. But the betrayal was as good as a gut punch.
“You were right,” he said with a tone of regret. “You shouldn’t be in love with me. Anyone else?”
“No.” She didn’t want to speak to him and yet the word sprung from her mouth. If she didn’t get away from him, he’d know about New Salem too. He’d do something horrible. She thought of screaming, but it wouldn’t do any good. No one would hear, and she’d have to stop the moment he asked her another question. She thrashed, trying to free herself from his grip. “The government sent you, didn’t they?”
“Sorry, sweetheart. Turns out, I don’t have time to explain everything after all. Why is he working as a harvester when he’s a psychic?”
Enzo’s brown eyes, which had looked at her with so much affection, had grown hard and dark. She yanked her wrists,twisted them. He was too strong. Words tumbled from her mouth against her will. “He’s finding people to join him. I can’t believe he ever trusted you.” She spit out the last part, tears constricting her throat.
“People to do what? Is he going to fight the government?”
“Only if the government fights him.” She stomped on Enzo’s foot. It did little in the way of damage. With the way he pressed against her, she couldn’t lift her foot far, and he wore thick boots.
“What is his goal?”
“To build a city.” It took all of her willpower not to say more, not to tell him everything about New Salem. Next, he would ask about the location. She had to get away. He had a hold of her wrists, but their closeness had its advantages.
“Please.” She looked upward as though pleading with heaven, then slammed her head into his.
He stumbled backward. She wrenched her wrists free and delivered a kick to his knee. He went down, cursing.
She sprinted toward the cornfield. She had to find her father and tell him what happened. Enzo was a spy. He’d forced her to reveal her family’s secrets.
Her arms pumped, and her feet spit up dirt and debris. Faster, she needed to go faster. She was gasping, crying. Enzo’s footsteps pounded the ground behind her. The kick to the knee hadn’t slowed him for long. How much of a head start did she have? A glance over her shoulder told her it wasn’t enough. He was going to catch her.
Charity bounded down a row of corn. At the first sign of an opening on the left, she pushed through the row to another, then plowed through another row. It wasn’t the best way to lose him. The waving stocks would give her away, but he’d have to slow down to follow.
The truth serum only lasted for seven minutes. She couldn’t let him catch her before then.
She cut through another row, then another, and ran straight for a bit, listening for his footsteps. The sound of her own desperate feet and labored breaths blotted out most sound. Had she shaken him? She looked over her shoulder and didn’t see him. But that didn’t mean much.
He knew her father was somewhere in the orchard with Milo and Gregor. He would go there looking for her father. She had to reach them first.
The end of the cornrow came into sight, widened. And there was her father with Gregor. Her brother held a ladder against a tree and her father perched high on its rungs.
“Dad, run!” she yelled. “Hide!”
He and Gregor turned to her with startled, worried expressions. “What’s wrong?” her father called, climbing down the ladder.
He wasn’t moving fast enough. He needed to jump. “Enzo knows!” Her strength was giving out, her strides becoming slower. She stumbled toward her father, had to make him understand. “He has truth serum.”