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  UNTOUCHABLE

  (Book One in the Untouchable Trilogy)

  by

  Lindsay Delagair

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyright 2011 by Lindsay Delagair

  Published by Lindsay Delagair at Smashwords

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be reproduced, copied, sold or distributed. If you would like to share this book with another person, please direct them Smashwords.com and have them purchase their own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  UNTOUCHABLE

  PROLOGUE

  He pushed the money across the table. “Are you sure you can handle this assignment? It’s different from what you usually do.”

  “I can handle it.”

  “You realize you’re going to have to get close.”

  “Yeah, I know. No shot from across the parking lot.”

  “That’s not what I mean.”

  “I know, I know. This one is all about trust.”

  “People tend to get attached to those who trust them. I’ve seen entire plans ruined because someone couldn’t pull the trigger.”

  He slowly thumbed through the money. “I’ve never botched a job and I don’t plan on starting now. When will I get the other two-hundred thousand?”

  A cell phone slid across the table. “This is our only contact. You call me when the job is finished and I’ll tell you where to get the rest of the money.”

  He studied the cell phone for a moment. “So who is she really? This is a little more cloak and dagger than usual.” The question was being ignored. He knew better than to repeat it.

  “Did you have any problems getting the papers?”

  “I never have problems with paperwork. You know that.”

  “Just making sure. Your associates are the best in the business, but one never knows when a tie might get cut.”

  “No, not even if I wanted to. It’s just too lucrative to switch careers now.”

  “How long?”

  “How long will it take? Depends on how trustworthy I look.”

  “You have at least six weeks. If it isn’t finished by then—well, I guess I’ll assume you couldn’t do it. In any case, someone will finish the job—and you. No hard feelings, but with fifty-thousand dollars down, someone’s gotta pay for it.”

  The top of the gun was pulled back to chamber a bullet. “Like I said, I can handle it.”

  CHAPTER ONE

  I pulled my little blue Volkswagen into the school parking lot and turned off the engine, but left it on accessory so I could sing a little bit longer. Jewels, the varsity cheer captain, was waving furiously to me from her little Kia. She began to dance in her seat as the base from her stereo became loud enough to pummel me through steel and glass. She motioned for me to come over and join the fun.

  I really didn’t feel like getting my eardrums smashed this morning, but you don’t turn down Jewels when she wants something. With that, I unplugged my iPod and slipped it into the pocket of my hoodie and gave her the signal like, “Hang on a minute, I’m getting there!”

  “Hey!” I shouted as I opened the door and tried to slip into the passenger’s seat. The force of the music was so hard on my chest that it literally felt like an invisible pair of hands pushing me back, warning me not to come closer. I saw her lips move, but I couldn’t make out what she said. “Jewels, turn it down! I can’t hear you!” I yelled into the base-reeking void.

  She cocked her head slightly sideways as she wrinkled her little Barbie nose. Her hand went straight for the volume and turned it down. “Wha—What’d you say?”

  “You know you are going to be deaf by the time you hit twenty,” I warned, sliding into the seat. “And, your dad would flip if he caught you playing the radio that loud,”

  She threw her head back like some little demon-possessed monster and laughed, “He hasn’t got a clue! Why do you think I park next to you every day? He thinks you’re the one with the bad taste in music.”

  “Ah, that’s just great, Jewels. I listen to Christian rock and he thinks I’m into K-fed. No wonder he gives me the evil eye during lunch.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Leese. He’s the principal; he gives everyone the ‘evil eye,’” she said, making quotation marks in the air. “He just does that so everyone will think he’s mean and tough and that way they won’t get out of line.”

  “Yeah, I’m a real dangerous…”

  “Oh, Momma!” Jewels exclaimed, cutting me off and jerking on my arm.

  “Ouch! Jewels—you’ve got my hair, Jewels!” But I could see by the look on her face she hadn’t heard a word. I followed her eyes to where a guy was climbing out of a black 370Z two rows over from us. With all the muscle he had, he really didn’t look like someone who should be called a student. He was dressed in blue jeans and a Hollister shirt, neither of which had an inch to spare. He reached back into the car and pulled out a folder of papers and glanced around as if he had no clue where he was going.

  “OMG!” Jewels sputtered, “He must be new.”

  “Jewels, people don’t normally talk text language.”

  She was still ignoring me. “Come on! We’ve got to go show Mr. Hunk where the office is.” She sang out the last two words.

  “No, no thanks. I’m not going to be late for class to get the latest guy you are drooling over to the office.”

  She looked up quickly into her rear-view mirror. “I’m not drooling—am I?” She wiped the corners of her perfectly lip-glossed lips and smiled. “You’re a stick-in-the-mud! See ya later.” And with that she practically skipped across the parking lot to meet Mr. Hunk, or whatever his name would turn out to be. I knew I’d meet up with them later because once Jewels sank her claws into a guy, she didn’t let go easily.

  By the time I’d finished AP English, Psych II, and Macro Economics, I was starving and ready to dive into a grilled chicken salad. I had forgotten about Jewels chasing after Mr. Hunk until I stepped into the cafeteria. There she was, parading around with what’s-his-face on her arm, going to each of her friends (which amounted to the majority of the cafeteria) and making introductions. I had no desire to meet this guy before my stomach met a salad. I pulled my long brown hair from the pony tail holder and brought it around to cover the side of my face.

  “Hey, Lee…”

  “Shhh!” I motioned Kevin to keep quiet as I stepped into the lunch line. He looked perplexed until I mouthed the word, “Jewels.”

  “Oh,” he said with complete understanding.

  I had the first mouthful of ranch covered, mouth-watering Romaine and whatever it was that the school passed off as grilled chicken ready to put between my lips when I heard Jewels say, “There you are!”

  I paused mid-bite and then slowly lowered the fork. Taking a deep breath, I looked up to see her beaming a huge smile and standing beside Mr. Hunk. Oh, yes, with closer inspection he was exactly that. He looked like a jock; tall, broad shoulders, muscled arms and definitely some six-pack abs hidden under that brown and blue striped shirt. He smiled as I quickly wiped the drop of dressing that had made it to my lip before the interruption.

  “Evan Lewis, this is Annalisa McKinnis, but we just call her Leese. Leese, this is Evan. He’s new,” she added with that little quiver to her voice that told me she was barely keeping her enthusiasm under control. “Leese is new, too,” she went on. “Not really new like you, but she started a
t the beginning of the school year. She moved here from…” Her voice trailed as I realized she had forgotten where I told her I was from.

  I wanted to blurt out Palm Beach, but I had to remember that subject was taboo.

  “Alabama,” I said, putting out my hand.

  “Really?” He took my hand into his warm, firm grip. “What part? I have family in Alabama.”

  I withdrew my hand. “Nor—northern,” I stammered. “Birmingham,” I added for a pinch more credibility.

  “Yeah, that’s where my uncle lives. Where in Birmingham are you from?”

  “Jewels are you going to let Evan eat, or are you going to parade him around the cafeteria the whole lunch period?” I dodged.

  She glanced down at her watch, “Wow, we only have about ten minutes left. Are you hungry, Evan?”

  “Sure. Are you getting something?”

  “Yeah, I was going to get a shake.” She started to pull him toward the dwindling line, but he slipped out of her grasp and went for his wallet instead.

  He flipped out a ten and flashed a devastating smile. “No sense in both of us being in line. Would you mind grabbing me a burger?”

  “Oh—sure,” she fumbled, clearly unhappy with the prospect of leaving him alone even if it was only for a few minutes.

  “Unless you want me to…” he motioned toward the line.

  “Oh, no, no, that’s okay. I’ll be right back.”

  Evan sat across from me and continued where he’d left off. “You don’t talk like an Alabamian. Where in Birmingham did you say?”

  “Ah, Miss McKinnis,” came a commanding voice.

  I smiled at Evan because I was never quite so glad for the principal to approach. “Mr. Lykman,” I said, turning around in the chair to face him. “Did you meet…”

  “Yes, I did. Jewels brought him by my office this morning.” But his tone indicated that he wasn’t going to be distracted by small talk.

  I knew what he wanted to discuss. Bring it on, I thought. This has got to be better than making up stuff about Birmingham, Alabama, which I know nothing about.

  “I also heard your stereo this morning all the way from the parking lot to the main office. You do know there is a noise ordinance in the city limits, right?”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I accidently turned the volume the wrong direction and before I could turn it down, I saw Jewels rocking out to my music and…”

  He let a sound escape that was similar to someone blowing an annoying fly away from their mouth. “Don’t make a habit of it. You might find Officer Martin in the parking lot one morning.”

  “Yes, sir,” I mumbled as I finally placed my forkful of salad into my mouth. The bell would be ringing in a few minutes and I was still starving. Cute guy and principal watching or not, I was going to eat. Besides, how many questions can someone throw at you when you are stuffing your face?

  “Hey, Dad,” Jewels interrupted, as she placed the foil wrapped burger in front of Evan. “Is it too late for Evan to try out for spring football?”

  “No, that’s okay Jewels. I really don’t…” Evan started to say.

  Principal Lykman finally smiled because other than intimidating students, football was his focus. “You certainly look like you could do some damage on the field, Mr. Lewis. Did you play ball for Dawson High School?”

  “Ah—no, sir. I was into weightlifting.” It was Evan’s turn to look uncomfortable.

  I couldn’t figure out why. Could this possibly be the one guy on the planet that didn’t like football? Surely he had played some rough sports. He had a scar above his right eyebrow and another across his sculpted chin. I glanced at his hands and realized that his knuckles had taken a beating, or more appropriately, given a beating a few times. Surely this guy had played some kind of contact sport.

  “Well, you should try out anyway,” Mr. Lykman continued. “You have the right build for it.” He slapped Evan on the shoulder. “I’ll talk to Coach Cleveland and we’ll look over your grades from Dawson.”

  “Ah, I really…”

  “Great!” Jewels chimed in. “Now Daddy, leave us alone so we can eat before the bell.” Then she gave her ‘I like getting everything I want’ smile and said, “Unless you want to give us late lunch passes?”

  Mr. Lykman’s face hardened. “No. Eat. You’ve got two minutes left.” He glanced down at his watch and then walked away.

  “Thanks Jewels,” I whispered as soon as her dad was out of earshot. “I’ve been basically told that the resource officer will be waiting for my music to get too loud in the parking lot.”

  “That was you?” Evan said with genuine surprise.

  I gave a fake smile, “No, it was Jewels. I’m just the scapegoat.”

  “Leese is the Christian rock singer. I’m the rapper girl,” she said with a wink and a peace-out hand sign.

  “You sing?”

  I simply nodded, as Jewels continued.

  “Yeah, Leese is really good. I got to listen to her at one of her Wednesday night Christian jam sessions…”

  “It’s called youth group, Jewels,” I corrected.

  “Well, anyway, I told her she should like try out for American Idol, but she won’t do it.”

  “Why not?”

  I smiled at him and shrugged, “I guess because I don’t like attention; I’m an introvert at heart.” This was a straight-faced lie, because I actually used to like the lime-light before my life went nuts.

  “So why did you take the blame for Jewels?” The whole concept of taking blame for someone else seemed to confuse him.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I shrugged. “One of these days she isn’t going to have me to park beside and then she’ll be busted.”

  “Why? Are you leaving?”

  I looked into those dark green eyes and wondered why the seriousness to the question. He was handsome, but I was sworn to secrecy and I wasn’t about to babble things to this guy I barely knew.

  “No. I mean, you know, like I might be absent one day.”

  The ear-splitting bell rang above the cafeteria noise and would (hopefully) end my uncomfortable conversation.

  “What class are you going to?” He asked me as Jewels grabbed his left arm and started pulling him toward the door.

  “French,” I smiled, completely confident that it was a class that anyone looking that tough would never be enrolled in.

  “Me, too,” he grinned as he laced his free arm through mine.

  Jewels wasn’t happy when she had to turn loose of him as we rounded the bend to the foreign language wing. “Well,” she sighed, “I’ve got to go to English. What’s your schedule like for tomorrow?”

  He fumbled in his pocket for the pink paper and then handed it to her. “You tell me. The schedule here is crazy.”

  “It’s not that hard to get used to,” I said, glancing over at his classes. “You have even and odd days, but every day you have first period. Today is even; one, two, four and six, and tomorrow is odd; one, three, five and seven.”

  “All right! We’ve got P.E. together tomorrow,” Jewels responded, never getting the point that he was as confused about the even/odd days as I was when I started. She looked up beaming, “If I don’t see you after school today, I’ll catch you in Government tomorrow morning. Bye!” And she took off down the hall, grabbing the arm of one of the football players as she went.

  Evan raised his eyebrows. “So, does Jewels have a boyfriend?”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, I guess she has several. You just happen to be the FOTM right now.”

  “FOTM?” He questioned as he held open the door for me to French class.

  “Yeah, you know, the ‘flavor of the month.’”

  “Oh, okay, I get it. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to have some pissed off guy waiting for me in the parking lot.”

  “No, I don’t think that’s going to happen, but if it did,” I paused, checking out the biceps as he handed the teacher his schedule. “I think you could
handle yourself.”

  “Damn right,” he responded and then became aware that he was standing in front of a teacher.

  My mouth gapped open and I felt the flush of embarrassment color my cheeks.

  Mrs. Knoosh’s eyebrows knitted together in a scowl. “I’ll not have any of that talk in my classroom, Mr. Lewis. I suppose you’ll be starting your first day with a referral.”

  “Je suis désolé, Madame,” he replied in French.

  “Ah,” she sighed, breaking out in a big smile and clapping her hands together. “Parlez-vous français?”

  “Oui, Madame—depuis que je suis un garçon,” he smiled.

  “Avez vous habité en France?” By this point she was beaming, evidently forgetting altogether his verbal blunder when he came into the classroom.

  “Non. Je suis de la Nouvelle-Orléans.”

  “Ah, oui—Nouvelle-Orléans. Je suis heureuse de vous rencontrer, Monsieur Lewis.”

  “Merci,” he responded in his flawlessly executed and accented French.

  “Annalisa,” she said turning to me, “Since Mr. Lewis is new perhaps you would be a good influence.” Her eyes cut quickly back to Evan, “Asseyez-vous dans le fauteuil à côté de Annalisa.”

  With that, Evan suddenly looked very pleased. “Merci beaucoup.”

  I was a third year French student so I understood most of what they were saying, but I was still in shock that Evan was apparently so good at it.

  “Wow!” I said quietly as we took our seats and the majority of the heads began turning back to face the teacher. “You certainly surprised me.”

  “Why? Don’t I look like someone who could speak another language?”

  “No, because she didn’t write you up for cussing.” I couldn’t help but snicker just a little because I really didn’t think he looked like someone that could speak another language, but I wasn’t going to let him off that easy, especially since he was evidently off the hook for his slip of the tongue.