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I tried to recall the last couple of days. Did I ever once mention the Academy to him? No, I’d made sure not to. He’d met Brandon, and without knowing it, met Corey, too. At the time, I was protective of it. I didn’t want any repercussions on the boys when I was flirting with danger with Blake. Would they have mentioned this Academy to him? Probably not. They wouldn’t even mention it to me until I questioned it further.
He knew now. He did have Doyle the hacker, and a lot of money. He found out about me, my real name. What else did he know?
How much did he know about the Academy?
Kayli: What do you know about it?
Blake: You said you didn’t meet Brandon until a couple of days before you met me. Was that true?
Kayli: Yes.
Blake: You don’t know who you’re dealing with. Trust me, sweetie, you need to get away from them. They’ll put you in danger. They may already have.
Hypocrite. Because they raided his boat? He was the one shipping drugs out of the country to dump them in a well.
Kayli: You tried to poison people.
Blake: Hush your mouth. You shot me. You wrecked my yacht. I think we’re even. Call me.
I groaned, putting the phone in my lap, willing to ignore it for the moment. He had no idea what he was talking about. Still, how did he know? It was a trick. Maybe I should turn off the phone, so he couldn’t trace the phone any more.
Maybe I should keep tabs on him, though. If I kept communication open, I could figure out his game. Better than being in the dark, wondering when he’d strike next. I didn’t care much for surprises.
Kayli: I can’t call right now.
Blake: I can’t text details to you. They can listen. Why are you coming to Florida? Are you after me again?
I guessed right. He was tracking. Doyle was on to me.
Kayli: Not about you. We’re heading for St. Augustine.
Blake: I’m in Palm Beach. I’ll meet you. Keep your phone on.
This was too close.
He tried to tell me before he was helping, a good guy. He tried to get drugs out of the country, drugs that were dangerous. He was targeting a village, where the drugs had come from, to return them. He wanted to poison the well, a warning not to do it again.
He said it wouldn’t hurt anyone, but he had lied to hide what he was really up to. Could I trust him?
I held the phone in my hands until the screen turned black, wondering if I should turn the phone off completely, cutting off his ability to find me. It could all be a lie, a trick to find me again and seek revenge.
I glimpsed at Raven. I looked back at sleeping Corey. I had a chance now to tell them about this. To ask them.
I knew their answer. Turn the phone off. They might insist on going back. Marc would barricade me into his room, maybe insist on flying me out of town, like they had before when they thought Blake was after me.
Were they trying to protect me from Blake, or were they trying to protect their Academy secrets?
I clutched the cell phone, my heart splitting with what I wanted to do. Part of me wanted to wait until Raven stopped somewhere, and take the opportunity to jump ship. Run. Don’t look back. I created the mess. If I ran for it, I’d find some quiet town, get a job, start new. The espionage. The secrets. I could leave it all. My own past could be forgotten completely. They’d forget about me, and fight amongst themselves.
Only there was Wil.
I glanced again at Corey, sleeping. He’d invited me in. Trusted me.
I left the phone on, but told myself I just wanted to see what Blake would do. I’d hear him out, learn what he knew about the Academy. If it looked like he was full of it, I’d tell Corey. He’d understand.
They’d want to find out what he knew. I wanted to know more about the Academy. Seeing what Blake had to say could have been the answer I was looking for. Either way, I’d find out.
If it was a trick, I knew where to kick Blake so he’d go down easy. Hopefully he wasn’t coming with a gun for revenge. I’d have to take my chances.
I folded into myself, pretending to sleep, but I couldn’t. My mind was alive, wishing the guys could have just been honest with me from the start. The lies were piling up around me, and every moment that went by, I knew eventually the towers would fall.
I would probably go down with them.
THERE WAS AN OLD LADY
I tried to text Blake again during the drive down to Florida, but he didn’t answer.
I sunk into my seat, with my arms over my stomach, pretending to sleep. Instead, I was glaring out the window, trying to smother the heat in my heart. Being put in the middle, trapped, didn’t sit well with me.
The four hour car ride down to St. Augustine was cut down to three, thanks to some stellar Russian driving. When we were close, we stopped at a big discount department store. Corey insisted I buy some shoes. I went off by myself as the guys went to find other things. I sorted through the shoe department and found a pair of flip-flops, the cheapest I could find.
When I showed up at the counter, the clerk had already scanned what the boys wanted to purchase and they were holding up the line waiting for me.
Corey took one look at my selection and cocked an eyebrow. “That’s it?” he asked. “Did they not have your size in anything else?”
“I only need one set of shoes.” I pointed to the boots I’d worn in. “I can only wear one pair at a time. These would work fine.”
“But you’re tripping in them. And flip-flops only work for so long. You need more. You can’t run in flip-flops.”
“I need to run?”
Raven sliced his hand through the air. “Don’t let her buy any more here. She needs Macy’s. She needs...what’s that other one called? That girly store. The one with the underwear.”
Corey made a confused face and scratched lightly at his eyebrow. “Victoria’s Secret.”
“No ... wait, is that the one that usually has the big displays right in the window? Half-naked with tits?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, then that one. Victory’s Sequence.”
“Victoria’s Secret,” Corey said.
“Yeah,” Raven said. He opened his wallet, pulling out cash to pay. “It’s what I said. Victoria’s Sequence. Don’t waste the money here. These will do for now, but she needs good shoes if she needs more than one.”
I had no comment for this, but Corey shared a small smile with me while Raven paid for our purchase. I hadn’t realized Raven had opinions about girl clothes.
When we got back out to the parking lot, Corey took the wheel while Raven sat in the back and sorted what we’d purchased, giving me the flip-flops.
I turned in the passenger seat. For some reason, I’d thought they’d been buying snacks or drinks. Instead, Raven started pulling out boxes of cell phones and some computer peripheral stuff. “What’s all this for?” I asked.
“Work,” Raven said.
“You mean this job we’re on?” I asked.
“We’re going to get back some money,” Corey said. He turned the SUV out of the parking lot, heading south. “This little old lady got scammed out of her savings. We’re going to help her get it back.”
Not what I was asking about, but I’d take what information I could get. “How are we getting this money back?”
Corey found the sunglasses Raven had been wearing and put them on. He adjusted them on his face, checking himself in the mirror and combed his hair with his fingers. “We have to convince her we can help. She’ll have to trust us.”
Watching Corey checking himself out in the mirror was adorable. I almost forgot to continue the conversation. “But how do we get it back? Shouldn’t we call the police about this?”
Corey shook his head. “If it’s anyone handling this, it’s probably supposed to be the FBI, and it’ll be hard to get her money back. These internet scams are pretty hard to track down and there’s millions of them.”
“So how are you going to get the money back?”
>
Corey turned his head, flashing a smile. “I don’t know yet. We’ll find out when we get there.”
That wasn’t very reassuring. Shouldn’t they have more details before they take on a job like this? How do they know it isn’t going to take that long?
St. Augustine, as we approached, was very much a tourist town of a different sort. Charleston was a tourist town, but it was refined. St. Augustine had billboards displaying ads for albino alligators, a Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum, a fort, and lots of shopping. Corey wound his way downtown, and I got eyefuls of palm trees and blindingly bright paint on homes and businesses. I’d never seen so many happy yellow and vivid pink buildings anywhere else. Very flashy.
I thought I could enjoy it more if I wasn’t worried about the people I was with, or the fact that I had a playboy billionaire chasing me using possibly illegal GPS hacking. At least I was getting a good view out of it.
