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“Try Raven,” I said.
Corey pulled the phone away and then started typing at it. “I sent them all a message about what we’re doing. If they call back, they can catch up but we should go. I’m calling a cab. We can go grab the SUV.”
“They’re watching it.”
“If it hasn’t been towed, we have to go get it. Henry and his team are probably at work by now, anyway.”
I got in a fast shower, got dressed, and ate a quick couple pieces of cold pizza while waiting for the cab to arrive.
I waited with Corey downstairs. He had shadows under his eyes and his hair was messed up, but he was smiling.
“How are you so happy in the morning?” I asked, smoothing out the cotton shorts and black T-shirt I’d put on. With the flip-flops and the phone tucked into my pocket, I was hunched over and basically leaning against him.
“I feel it,” he said, smiling down at me. “We’re about to solve this case. We found a missing piece.”
“We haven’t found it, yet.”
“Almost there,” he said, and then pointed to where the cab was pulling up.
Cabs were always timely.
We loaded into the back seat. Corey gave him directions so we could pick up the SUV.
When we got there, the party house was quiet. There wasn’t a car in the drive.
“See?” he said. “No one. He went to work.”
At least we had that going for us. Corey pulled out his keys and in a few minutes, we were on our way to Kimble.
We ended up at a ritzy apartment complex. There were fountains and two pools with a hot tub, manicured lawns and the buildings were all kept up.
My jaw dropped open. “I don’t like her.” I said.
“What?” Corey asked. “Who are you talking about?”
“The mom,” I said. “The dad and Sara had a little apartment. She lives here?”
Corey shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe she’s got a boyfriend who has money.”
“Maybe.” Still didn’t like it. If Axel was right and Sara lived with her dad, even if it wasn’t officially on paper, and the mom lived in a ritzy apartment and still asked for money from Fred…what kind of mother was she?
“Outside,” Corey said. “We’re looking from the outside.”
“Okay, okay,” I said. “I’ll hate her after we figure it out. I still can’t forgive her if she’s the one that caused them to run off in the first place. She started all this.”
He smiled. “I can give you that.”
We pulled into the parking lot, trying to figure out where to go. Corey parked by the front lobby. “Let’s walk it,” he said.
We hopped out, looking around.
“If someone asks,” he said, standing on the sidewalk beside me, “we’re checking it out because we’re looking for an apartment here.”
“I wouldn’t want to live here.”
“Pretend,” he said. He reached for my hand, holding it. “Come on, girlfriend Kayli,” he said with his eyes all wide and his cheeks bunched up.
I laughed. Crazy.
We took a walk through the complex. What if Future took off without us? We turned a corner, checking out the line of cars in the lot, some parked under carports.
“Kayliii!” A harsh whisper said from behind us after we turned a corner. We both turned.
Future was standing so close, she could have touched one of us. I jumped back, hand on my heart. “Jeez,” I said. “What?”
“What are you doing?” she asked. “You’re going to attract attention.”
I looked her over. Future was wearing yellow spandex shorts and a blue halter with half her boobs spilling out the top. If she had a cape, she’d be a superhero. I raised my eyebrows and blinked at her.
“Future?” Corey asked.
She squinted at Corey. “What? Brandon got out? Where’s the other one? The one with the funny eyes?”
“This isn’t Brandon,” I said. “This is Corey. His brother.”
Her mouth popped open. “Holy shit fuck. Twins.”
“Yeah,” I said.
Corey blushed. “It’s not that weird, is it?”
“No,” Future said, waving her manicured finger in the air. “No, no, no. You,” she pointed at me, “are now my new best friend. You’ve got the hot guys, the crazy intel into these cool cases, the sweet cars…”
“Like the van?” I asked.
“Shit yeah, the van,” she said. She reached out, tugging the sleeve of my T-shirt. “But your clothes are ugly. That’s why you need me. For pretty clothes. We’ll work this together. We’re team F and K. We’re team F-uc-K You, We’re Awesome.”
“Fu… Wa?” Corey said slowly.
“That’s not an acronym, it’s initialism,” she said. “So you have to spell it out. F.Y.W.A. FU for short. Sounds better.”
I pushed my palm to my forehead, dying on the inside from all this insanity. “Can we just find Mrs. Gunther please?”
“She’s in her apartment,” Future said. “You and I should go.” She looked at him. “Corey, right?”
He nodded, the twisted smile on his face telling me he was highly amused.
“Can you be our lookout? Just in case things get nasty. Girl fights are the worst.”
“No girl fights,” Corey told me.
Future tugged at my elbow, drawing me toward one of the buildings. “No promises,” she said, and smiled. “We might be in a cat fight soon if she isn’t willing to share some of you hotties.”
Oh boy.
Corey, red faced and rubbing his neck double time, backtracked a bit, finding a bench nearby that was next to a water feature. He sat on it, checking his phone, trying to look casual.
“Who brought you, anyway?” I asked as we were walking away.
“The rich one,” she said. “The one with the Mercedes.”
Shit. “Oh, yeah, him. Say, if you don’t mind, Corey shouldn’t…I mean…”
“Yeah,” she said, nudging me toward some stairs. She hustled up beside me as we climbed. “Don’t worry about it. He explained about this Academy thing.”
I wanted to smack the tar out of Blake next time I saw him. “He shouldn’t have said that.”
“Don’t sweat it,” she said. “I get it. For one, he’s fucking in love with you. I think Brandon is, too, from the way he kept telling me to back off last night. And you don’t want Blake and Brandon fighting. For two, you’ve got this Academy thing. I can kee
p a secret. He’s sitting back, watching our asses in case the Academy tries to take us down.”
“They’re not that bad,” I said.
“They were trespassing last night,” she said. “And I heard about the kidnapping. The one at the school? The vice-president that got kidnapped?”
“You mean the vice-principal?”
She went to a door and pounded at it with her masculine fist, making the door shake in the frame. “Open up,” she barked in her man voice. “Official business!” I was having a heart attack and she turned back to me, in her feminine voice again and calmly said, “Is it principal? Oh yeah. Been a while. I forget these things.”
When she turned toward the door, I eased a short step back, ready to run. Future was crazy.
I liked it, but I wanted to get out of shooting range just in case.
The lock made a scraping noise. The door opened.
Out peered the brunette escort from the night before.
My mouth popped open, my head tilted. “Uh.” Okay she had to have the wrong address.
“Hey there, Luanne,” Future said. She slapped a finger toward her lips in an innocent pose. “Oops, I mean, sorry.”
“What are you doing here?” Mrs. Gunther said, hand on her hip. She was in a skimpy kimono robe, her hair pulled back tight against her head and her eyes unfocused like she’d been asleep. She frowned at Future. “I told you to call me Vienna.”
“I don’t know why. Luanne’s a pretty name.” Future beamed. “Could I bother you for a minute? Girl on girl talk?”
I stared at Luanne again. She didn’t look like the same woman. With the long hair…was that picture I had seen at up to date? I squinted at her face. Her eyebrows were sculpted, her skin was tan. Was she wearing a wig last night? Maybe it was a wig in the picture and different makeup, too. No wonder I didn’t recognize her.
“No, not even fag on girl talk,” Luanne said. She looked at me. “Who are you?”
“She’s here to talk to you,” Future said. “Look, Henry wanted me to take her on as a runner, but I was telling her she’d probably make more as an escort.” Future looked at me pointedly.
I stared back at her with my best I’m going to kill you with a death ray glare. “Uh, yeah,” I said. I threw on a cheerleader accent. “Like, you know, Henry mentioned you…knew something about it?” I twisted a strand of my hair, trying to look nervous or cute or whatever. Mostly I was trying not to barf.
