The Keeper: Alexa LeGardien Read Online Free Page A

about what the man was saying. She could see his lips move and hear his voice in the distance but the more he spoke, the more her eyes drifted away towards the unopened box. It was like it called out to her. Somehow, it felt like it belonged to her. Like it was hers to open.
    The small man snapped his fingers. “Miss LeGardien. Are you still listening?”
    Her eyes turned right back to him. “Um . . .”
    “You’re not exactly what we expected. You arrived late, you smoke openly, you’ve been arrested, and you’re not well composed . We highly doubt your role in this. However, your parents were spectacular, so here’s to hoping it’s genetic.” He held out his pipe like a cheer and popped it back in his mouth.
    His statements made no dent on Alexa’s emotional expressions. What he said made no sense to her, and she knew nothing of her mother and remembered nothing of her father. “I thought there was a no smoking policy or something along those lines.”
    The man in the sweater cocked a smile to the right of his face. “No smoking for you is what I meant.” He turned to Matt, indicating that he meant no smoking of both of them. “The name’s Leeman. Don Leeman.” It was then that Alexa noticed that he’s accent was of an English origin.
    “Good to know,” Alexa said absentmindedly. She brushed past him without turning back and headed straight to the box. She picked it up immediately to admire it. It too, had a lock but not for the key she’d gotten from the envelope. Its keyhole was visibly bigger, it seemed to be suited for a regularly sized key. She reached out her thumb to feel the edges around the lock.
    Leeman stopped her halfway. He pulled out an ancient looking key from his clock pocket and held it directly in front of her face pointing upwards. This key looked valuable, Alexa thought, it probably was. It was smooth all around and was gold plated. It looked almost brand new which was odd, seeing as it was obviously an old key.
    “You must first ask yourself if you’re ready. If this path is for you.”
    “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She really didn’t but even more notably, she still thought this was a prank being played by a sick person because they somehow waved her dead parents a lot in conversations. “Don Leeman, is it?”
    “That’s right,” he confirmed at the mention of his name.
    “Do yourself a favour and give me the freaking key. Let’s get this sick game over with. P.S. That is a terrible British accent.” She quickly grabbed the key from his grasp and held it towards the keyhole.
    “I assure you my accent is quite real. Now remember. Ask yourself: are you ready?”
    She looked at Matt who looked right back at her with a look that said ‘I don’t know, Alex, maybe we should quit while we’re ahead.’
    “Oh, I’m ready,” she said, disregarding Matt’s worrisome expression.
    —             —             —
    “W AIT!” Matt shouted right before she inserted the key. “We don’t know what’s in there. This could be one of those cases where curiosity actually kills .”
    “Or it could be a pop-up Jack saying ‘Gotcha’.” She turned to Leeman. “Why don’t you just tell us what’s in it?”
    “I think you know what’s in it,” he said, conveying a little bit of mystery in his tone.
    Alexa kept her eyes locked on the metal box. “Well, I don’t.” She answered truthfully.
    “I think we should just go.” Matt spoke slowly to her.
    “And who are you?” Leeman asked Matt with a levelled voice.
    Matt patted his hands down his jacket before speaking. “The name’s Coleton, Matthew Coleton.” He mimicked the way Leeman had introduced his name. Sufficed to say, Leeman was not impressed. Alexa snickered in the background.
    “Yes . . . Matthew, whatever the name is, you shouldn’t be in here. As a matter of fact, you weren’t even meant to be here. That was not the plan,” he said, murmuring the last