Daring Hearts: Fearless Fourteen Boxed Set Read online

  She’d hurry with the closet and then got started up in the attic. After dinner, she would do the basement bathroom so nothing would be in the way of her going to the mall tomorrow. Kate pushed play on the audio book on her phone, wanting something to take her mind off her disappointment and the depressing idea that her mom was right and there wasn’t anything to find out about her birth parents. She dug into the closet, organizing the coats, gloves, boots, and other stuff inside it, making a pile of things to go to the cleaners.

  As she finished, the front door slammed shut. She paused the book. Fifteen-year-old Jori and thirteen-year-old Amelia rushed into the kitchen and opened the fridge door. Kate smiled at their predictability as she walked toward the kitchen. They pulled out the yogurt and carrots their mother had prepared for their snack and jumped onto the stools at the bar, chatting happily.

  “I know. He’s such a dork, right? I mean, who does that?” Jori said before lifting the foil off her yogurt.

  Kate popped into the room and said, “Yep. A dork. Definitely.”

  They startled and Amelia’s yogurt tipped over, spilling onto the counter. Laughing, Kate grabbed a paper towel and hurried over.

  “It’s not nice to sneak up on people,” Amelia said, scowling, her light brown freckles bunching on her nose.

  “I wasn’t sneaking. I just finished cleaning the mudroom closet.” Kate wiped up the yogurt, the sweet smell of strawberry wafting through the air.

  They both groaned. “Chores.” If they didn’t look so different, everyone would assume they were twins like their brothers. They walked with the same lope, they talked with the same music to their voices, and they had the same mannerisms. In truth, Amelia was two years older than Jori. It would be terrible next year when Amelia joined Kate at high school and left Jori at the junior high. They were inseparable.

  “Yep. Chores.” Kate grabbed her bag of carrots from the fridge and ate one. It was exceptionally crunchy and she quickly ate another, leaning on the counter near the crockpot where dinner cooked away.

  “Can you pretend not to tell us?” Jori batted her eyelashes and put her hands together as if praying. “We want to enjoy the spring weather. This is Texas, you know, and the heat will be stifling in less than a month.”

  Kate raised an eyebrow. “Sorry. Jori, you have the front closet, and Amelia, you have the game closet. If you hurry, you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy the cool weather.”

  “We can start with the front closet,” Amelia said, whipping her head back to look at Jori. A section of her short brown hair flew across her face. It wasn’t even a question in their minds if they would work alone or not. Kate loved that about them.

  “Sounds good,” Jori said, her dark brown eyes sparkling. “Kate, do you think mom and dad will let us go with some friends into Austin for a concert? Brian Kinney’s coming in July.”

  Kate squished up her nose. Her parents never would have let her go when she was thirteen or fifteen, but they didn’t seem to be as overprotective of her siblings as they were her. It might have to do with the fact that she was the first child, but it seemed to Kate that her parents held a different standard and different rules for them and her. “If you present it in the right way, they just might say yes.”

  They looked at each other and giggled. “Well, I’ll be up in the attic,” Kate said. “Could you let the boys know they have the closets in the family room downstairs?”

  “Yep!” they said in unison, their bright white teeth flashing as they smiled.

  Kate flipped through the cleaning binder, turning the pages with more force than necessary. She huffed and glanced back at the girls, still chatting away at the counter. Ten bucks said her parents would let them go. There’d be boys, too, and yet she had to sneak around with her boyfriend. Oh, well. She couldn’t explain it or change it. At the back was a zippered bag with several keys in it. She grabbed them out of the binder. A tingle swept through her. She loved surprising her parents.

  “I’m glad it’s you, and not me. I’d never go in there by myself. It gives me the creeps.” Amelia gave an exaggerated shiver.

  “No kidding,” Jori said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a ghost up there or something. It’s bad enough sharing a bedroom wall with it. Scary noises are always coming out of that room.”

  Kate shook her head. “Oh, brother. It’s only an attic. And there’s no ghost in there. Or anything scary for that matter.” She skipped out of the room and headed upstairs.

  The attic wasn’t one you had to climb a ladder to get into. It was accessible from the second floor by a door that looked like it led to a closet. Except this was a very large closet. Kate pulled out the key Mom had left and jammed it in the stiff lock. She’d only been inside the attic once or twice when her mom had been in there, and it felt a bit strange to go in without her.

  Once inside, she flipped on the light switch. Dust swirled around her feet as she walked across the bare floorboards to plug in the vacuum. “Ghosts,” she mused, a grin taking over her face. The air was stale and hot. After a quick trip sucking up the dust from the floor and the boxes, she started working on the boxes. Her mind drifted to the depressing letter and her search journal and she sighed, complete hopelessness filling her. She shook her head and with one quick swipe on her phone, the audiobook began again. She would not dwell on the dead-end news anymore. She couldn’t if she wanted to keep her sanity.

  She opened the first box and matched up the contents with the list on the outside of the box. Several of the items had been used throughout the year and were not candidates for the garbage or good will. She thought nothing had changed in most of the boxes for years. The rule of the house was that if you hadn’t used an item in the last year, it was sent to charity, thus the organized and tidy house.

  Kate liked to imagine that one day she’d find a new box, full of cool treasures. It never happened, but it didn’t stop her from pretending. She kept working, opening one box and then another. She was about to finish the entire left side of boxes when the tornado twins burst into the attic with flashlights.

  “It does have lights, I told you,” Stetson yelled over his shoulder at Jarem. Most of Kate’s friends called the two seven-year-olds T1 and T2 because they couldn’t tell the boys apart. Kate could, however. Stetson had a slighter build and a wicked glint in his eye. He was the ringleader and Jarem, the happy follower. Both had jet black hair and a sprinkle of freckles over their very white faces.

  She clicked the audio book off. “You two know you’re not supposed to be up here. Are your closets clean?” Kate gave them the look that said get the heck out, but Stetson said, “We came to help. Honest.” His big dark eyes perused the attic. Kate was sure his thoughts were on how he could wreak havoc in there and suddenly, with a bellowing yell, he came at her. Jarem, not wanting to be left behind, joined the charge. “Monster in the attic!” Stetson screamed. “Kill the monster in the attic.” Kate knew one thing for certain, she was about to be tackled. The force of the two running into her sent her tumbling back into the rafters and beyond to the wooden walls.

  Her shoulders slammed into the large wooden panel. Ignoring the twinge of pain shooting through her back, she started tickling the boys. They squealed and laughed, but did not retreat. She fought for a good attack position and finally rose up on her knees and pinned Jarem. Stetson climbed on her back. Holding on to Jarem, she stood. Stetson hung on for dear life, his hands clasped around her neck. She carried them to the door and walked them out onto the carpeted second floor. She rubbed up against the wall, and Stetson fell to the ground. She let go of Jarem, and they both fell into a giggling mess.

  “Oh, no, I’m dying. You got me.” Kate stumbled back. “But I’m leaving a poisonous barrier to keep you from entering my deathbed.” She pretended to spray something all around the entrance to the attic. “If you cross it, you will die.” She stepped back into the attic and heard Stetson say, “Come on. Let’s go make a potion that will counteract her poison.” The two
giggled and planned, their voices fading as their feet pattered down the stairs. She rubbed at her neck and arms. She hoped she didn’t end up with bruises. Those boys were out of control. And they better have already done their chores or she’d be in the doghouse with her mom. She looked back at the boxes and realized she only had two left to check. She would finish the last two and then make sure the boys had done their work.

  She sat down to work on the last two boxes and noticed the large wall next to her had warped in. “Great. Mom’s going to love this,” Kate grumbled aloud. She examined the wall; it was made up of sections of bare wood paneling sparsely nailed to the attic studs. The section she’d fallen against had come loose and the bottom corner gaped away from the studs while the middle of the panel bowed inward. Kate winced and started pushing at the bottom corner, trying to get it to lay flat against the stud again, but the wood was unyielding. She moved around trying to get a better angle, and something caught her eye—a baby pink lump on the floor behind the panel. She pulled the thin panel open a bit further. The pink color appeared to be some kind of large bag. She reached for it, but then heard her mom call her name.

  “Kate? Are you up there?”

  She started, her heart pounding hard into her ribs. She’d hoped to be done before her mom got home. She should have left with the boys. Now the surprise was ruined. She looked at the wall and groaned. She wanted her mom to be happy, not irritated with her. For a split second she thought she’d fess up to her mom about breaking the wall, but she didn’t want anything to ruin the surprise she’d worked so hard on. She moved the board, sliding it back into position. She heard her mom open the door and her feet hit the floorboards. Kate inspected the wall. She couldn’t tell it’d been disturbed. Quick as a snake’s strike, she grabbed hold of one of the last two boxes and opened it, her eyes lingering on the wall, her mind running in circles over what she’d seen. The cleaning would still be a surprise, though and her mom would love it.

  “Kate? You in here?” Her feet padded on the floor.

  “Yeah, Mom. I’m back here.” She pulled a few things out and made a show of checking them against the label of contents. Her heart thundered in her chest. Her mom was going to be so thrilled when she noticed what had been done.

  Her mom’s feet pounded quickly on the floor. Was she rushing? Could she tell the board had been moved? Why hadn’t she mentioned how clean the room was? Kate had expected an exclamation of joy. She held her breath and kept pulling things out of the box, head down, excited for her mom to notice her hard work.

  “You were supposed to do the hall closet today.” Her mother’s voice was flat. The shock of it made Kate look up. Was she mad? She resisted the urge to look at the wall, maybe the damage was worse than she thought. She should fess up and quick.

  “I already did that. And the boys came up and—”

  Her mom interrupted her. “I was supposed to work on this tomorrow.” She clenched her teeth, but still somehow smiled. Maybe she hadn’t noticed the board after all.

  “Yeah,” Kate said, her words tumbling quickly out of her mouth. “I wanted to surprise you and have this done before you got home.”

  Her mom seemed to visibly relax, but her eyes flicked to the board beside Kate. Kate kept her eyes on her mom. Was it out of place somehow?

  “I only have this one box and one more to look through before I’m done.” Kate smiled, hoping to lighten the mood and get a happy reaction out of her mom.

  Her mom’s teeth unclenched, but her eyes still held worry. She forced a toothy smile. “You must have worked really hard. Thank you.” Her lips pressed together, and she shifted on her feet.

  “Sorry, Mom. I thought I was doing a good thing.”

  Her mom’s eyes flicked back to Kate, and she shook her head. “Come here.” Her mom put her arms out, inviting Kate into a hug. She stood and took the offer. “It was good. I guess I was just shocked to find you here. And, truth be told, I don’t like you being in this space by yourself. It could be dangerous. I understand why you did it, but promise me next time you’ll let me know before you come in here.”

  “Sure, Mom. I can do that.” Kate pulled out of her mom’s arms and turned to work on those last two boxes. “I’ll finish up so you won’t have anything extra to do tomorrow.”

  She grabbed Kate’s arm. Kate turned with a quick jerk. Her mom was not the grabby sort.

  “No. It’s okay. I’ll get to that later. It’s time to eat.”

  “I’ve only got those two boxes.”

  “The food’s all ready.” She loosened her hold on Kate and took a step back.

  “Funny. I never thought you’d want me to stop working on a job before it was finished.” Kate plastered a grin on her face.

  Her mom huffed. “And don’t think it will happen again. It’s roast tonight. Your favorite.”

  Kate followed her out, unable to keep herself from snagging a last look at the panel. Her mom shut the door behind them and motioned for Kate to lock it. As she did, she could finally smell the promised roast.

  2

  Kate tossed and turned, unable to get the attic, the panel, and her mom’s reaction to her being in there out of her mind. If she didn’t get some sleep, she could kiss all the studying she’d done after dinner goodbye. Even an hour of losing herself while playing the piano didn’t help her anxiety. There was no way to avoid it—she’d just have to get back into the attic. She had to do well on her physics test tomorrow.

  She sat up, grabbed the headlamp sitting on her emergency bucket—you could never be too prepared, her mom always said—and headed out into the hall. The floor lighting made the headlamp unnecessary. She headed for the kitchen and the key, but as she passed the attic door, she couldn’t help but notice it was open a crack. She furrowed her brow and moved with quiet steps toward it. The door squeaked or rather moaned as she opened it. She froze, but remained alone in the hallway. She had locked it, hadn’t she? Was someone inside?

  She peeked inside. Totally dark. She walked in and whipped the door shut so that the sound was brief. In the darkness, she held her breath, straining for evidence that someone had heard, but the house was still. She flipped on her headlamp and padded to the far corner. Someone had been up there and moved the boxes around. Her mom? Had she come to check her work? Ten boxes were clustered in front of the broken panel now. She moved the five closest ones and then pushed on the panel, careful to work as quietly as possible. It didn’t budge. She tried again. It was solid. Squinting, she used the headlamp to illuminate the area. Six bright, shiny screw heads had been drilled into the board where the nails had been, holding it fast. She flashed to the other panels. All had screws in them. Perhaps all but this section had had the screws in them already and she hadn’t noticed. She couldn’t be sure.

  With her slippers, she swished the dust and wood shavings that must have come from drilling the screw holes. She glanced at the other boards and noticed the shavings near them also. Unease settled over her like fine dust, making her shoulders twitch. Her mom knew she’d seen the panel, and now she’d screwed it shut and tried to hide it with boxes. Why? Knowing her mom obviously didn’t want her in there almost made her turn around and leave, but a curiosity grew inside her. She needed to know what her mom was hiding. But a habitually obedient nature is hard to overcome; she needed outside support. She dialed Ellie, who answered on the first ring. Kate knew Ellie would be up watching My Not So Normal Life on the Jersey Shore. It came on every night at eleven and Ellie watched it without fail.

  “Hold on,” Ellie said. “It’s almost a commercial.”

  “Okay.” Kate tapped her foot, irritated at Ellie’s compulsion.

  “Talk fast. Amy’s about to tell her husband she wants a divorce, and I’m sure we’re about to find out where hottie Jace has been all this time. When my dad hacked the studio’s account, the script wasn’t there this time.”

  “Eeelliee. This is real life trauma you’re about to hear,” Kate said in a hoarse whisper. What w
ould happen to her parents if the television studio ever found out they were hacking into their accounts? This was the perfect example of money buying them whatever they wanted.

  “I’m listening!” Irritation laced her words.

  “I found a loose board in my attic, and I think my mom is hiding stuff behind it.”

  “Well go look behind it.”

  Kate could imagine Ellie’s determined and incredulous face. “I tried. Every board in the attic is now screwed fast.”

  “What?”

  “I think my mom was afraid of me looking behind it and so she shut it for good.”

  “They’re only screws. Use a screw driver to take them out, and check it out.”

  Kate should have known Ellie would suggest that. When it came to sleuthing, Ellie and her family were experts. They’d been chasing fame for so long, they’d learned every trick in the book to uncovering people’s secrets. No way they’d let some screws keep them from uncovering information.

  “I don’t know. If she was so worried about me finding something, maybe I don’t want to know what it is.”

  “Don’t be crazy. Of course you want to know what it is.”

  Kate’s parents had always emphasized self-restraint and obedience, and for the most part she’d fallen in line perfectly. Ellie constantly poked at her discipline, telling her it was unnatural for her not to act a little erratically. But this time, Kate couldn’t argue with Ellie. She really did want to know.