Joan the Made (Throwbacks Series, Book 1)

Chapter 29

As Harriet, Justus, and I silently walk back to the dorm, goosebumps rise on my arms. The knowledge that Harriet might have caught the attention of Strand's CEO is terrifying.

The pounding pain in my head returns full force, and I fight my rising nausea. There is no way Justus is seeing me puke twice in one night. No romance survives that.

Inside, Harriet gives me a hug, resting her head on my shoulder briefly. "We'll both be okay."

Harriet and I get on the elevator, and Justus slips in behind us. In spite of the pain in my head, the stress of trying to take down the headmaster, and my worry for Harriet, Sparkle, Mav, and almost every other Throwback I know, there's still room in a girlie corner of my mind to be excited that Justus isn't going home yet.

Harriet gets off on her floor, and when the elevator doors close behind her, Justus interlaces his fingers with mine. The contact speeds up my heart and relaxes the tension in my shoulders at the same time.

We walk to my room, and I stop at the door, touched that he walked me all the way home. It's something straight out of an old vid.

His fingers trace the letters etched into the wood. "It's like the students who lived here before you didn't want to be forgotten. They had to leave their mark behind."

Maybe because it's late, or because it's Justus, I open up. "Once I dreamed that the ghosts of all the people before me wrote their initials so that I wouldn't forget to find them justice for the wrongs against them. The weight of all those people's burdens is crushing me."

"You don't have to carry them alone."

"I know."

Justus only releases my hand long enough for me to scan my fingerprints and retina. "I'm not leaving until I'm sure your inside, safe for tonight."

That offer sounds a hundred times better than Addie's chicken noodle soup. Sparkle isn't back yet, and the knowledge that I have the boy I've been obsessing about alone in my room makes my heart pound. Justus takes a step closer to me and brushes my cheek with his knuckle.

His eyes darken when they meet mine. "I'm beginning to think that you personally exert a gravitational pull for trouble."

My gaze moves to his mouth. "Then you should probably run."

"The only direction I want to run in is toward you," he says, and when his fingers skim down my arm, it's almost as intense as if he kissed me.

I want to lean forward, close that distance between us, but I don't. Something isn't right, and it's more than the drumbeat of the headache that is blurring my focus.

My addled mind struggles to name what's bothering me. "I should have been with Harriet tonight. I stayed behind, and now she's in danger."

Justus looks as though I shook him awake from a very nice dream. "If you had been there instead of me, the two of you would never have gotten inside."

"We would have found another way," I say, trying to force my slow mind to work faster and analyze how we can prevent the same problem from happening the next time we follow the headmaster.

Justus steps away from me. "You need to rest so that you can make sure the next mission succeeds."

The earlier teasing warmth in his voice is gone.

My cheeks burn at how obnoxious and overconfident I sounded. I'd blame the headache, but I know that's only part of the problem. A part of me agrees with him. Things get done right when I do them myself.

"I'm sorry, Justus. Thank you for all you did tonight."

He nods and heads to the door. Before he leaves, he turns back. "Count me in on whatever you're planning, Joan. I can help. I need to know what you're up to, or else I'll be worrying about you every second of every day."