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There was scuffle of feet from inside the apartment, then the scraping of metal as the door was unlocked and then opened. “Mrs. Bernard,” Axel’s severe voice was low, but I still heard him clearly.
It was like they were in the room with me. I stirred, starting to sit up and then stopped quickly. I listened for other voices, other footsteps, but there were none. Axel had been alone here with me?
“Nice to see you again, Mr. Toma,” said a voice. Female, a little throaty. If I had to guess, she was older, fifties, maybe. “Did you want to go somewhere else?”
“Actually,” he said, “I should stay, but you can join me. I’m here with someone.”
“Is it safe to talk?”
“She’s out cold. She had a long day.”
I sucked in a breath, and held it, listening to them move deeper into the apartment. I sat up slowly while they convened in the living room, thinking I could cover the sound of crawling out of bed if they were moving, too. I tiptoed to the door, and when I was near, I knelt to keep still and listen. I wanted to see who this was. If she was asking if it was safe to talk, it was a secret meeting.
Ideas flew through my mind. Top of my list: secret lover of some kind? I hoped that wasn’t true because I didn’t want to listen in on relationship issues.
Since there weren’t any other voices, I had to assume the other boys weren’t here. Axel had remained to keep an eye on me. If he thought I was asleep and wanted to talk in private, I wanted to listen.
Call me nosy.
I crept up to the corner by the door, sitting with my back against the wall, and put my eye to the slim bit of space between the door and the frame, peeking out.
Axel sat on the couch. He had on jeans and another black fitted shirt. He’d combed his dark hair away from his face and wore his glasses now. He was all business.
Next to him was a mature woman, near white hair. Her hands were gnarled with age, and she wore a flowery dress with a jacket. She removed the jacket, keeping it in her lap, and smoothed it out as she talked. “Okay,” she said. “Catch me up on what’s going on.”
Axel extended his arm, plopping down a file on the coffee table. He opened it up, showing it to the woman. “Kayli Winchester,” he said. He dropped another file, and then spread it open next to the first. “Wil Winchester.”
My lungs started to burn, along with the bubbling pit welling up around my heart. I locked my jaw, as I forced myself to remain silent. My instinct was to yell, because seeing the files had ignited my anger. I was fully awake now, staring out at him.
Files on me, I could forgive. A file on my brother, and I was ready to pummel all of them. I’d known they were looking into my past. Corey had tried to find the thief at the mall, and then when they needed me, they had to dig a little. Corey took a few liberties after he learned about my brother and checked out his school records.
I wasn’t happy about that part, but with Corey, in the moment, it was understandable because he’d been curious about Wil’s college potential, since I’d mentioned it.
This file on him looked completely different. I had flashes in my mind of CIA intelligence officers who were creating targets. Whatever this was, investigating me was one thing. Checking out my brother was completely inexcusable. Not in this way, like a hit squad. It didn’t sit well with me at all.
The lady nodded. “We’ve become aware of Kayli, given your recent encounter with Mr. Coaltar,” she said. She touched gently at each file, examining the papers. “And we understand you have a BOLO out on Wil.”
“He ran off, perhaps before our intervening with Kayli,” Axel said. “We should locate him soon. We’re waiting until Monday to confront him, but he’s chosen to go out on his own.”
“I’m gathering there’s a reason you called me in personally,” Mrs. Bernard said. She peeled a couple of pages from one of the files, checking the contents further; and there were a few photos. “And it has to do with these two.”
I had to squint, but could see the photos were of me. One looked like an old school photo ID and another was more recent. I couldn’t recall when my photo had been taken. Then I remembered it was from when Corey and Brandon were snapping photos. The camera had been stolen. My heart jumped a little, realizing they had gotten it back, and they’d used those photos for their secret files.
It had all seemed so innocent. Let’s take pretty pictures and pretend we’re tourists. They neglected to tell me it was for a secret file. I wanted to see what they had on Wil, but she didn’t hold those papers up, just spread them out.
Axel cleared his throat. He sat back, and with one of his legs crossed over his other knee, he rocked his foot at the ankle. “We want Kayli for a closed adoption, and Wil for a regular adoption.”
I sucked in a breath and held it. Was she from social services? Maybe I’d been wrong. Maybe Axel was trying to ensure Wil and I were no longer under any influence of our father by doing this. Was it possible?
It still didn’t excuse it. He should have asked me first. What was a closed adoption? Was that for people over eighteen? Why would he even consider that? He barely knew me and had never even met Wil.
“That won’t be a problem, of course,” Mrs. Bernard said. “We’ll need a current location for both, though. We can’t protect them if we don’t know where they are.”
“Kayli is staying with us,” Axel said. “Wil, once we’ve located him, may stay with us, or might choose to continue his current course, but we plan to offer assistance.”
“In any way necessary,” she said, and smiled, it lighting up her eyes. “Of course. Let us know if we can help with that.”
“We should be able to take care of it,” he said.
“Why a closed adoption with the girl?” she asked. “Is she a prospect?”
“Not at the moment,” he said. “Although she is fairly gifted. A little flighty, but I think we can work with her. We’re
not really sure how interested she’d be in any Academy work.”
I held back a gasp, and my hands clenched into fists. I shoved them against my body, smothering my anger to force myself to keep quiet. This wasn’t social services. This was the Academy. I stared hard at the woman again. An old lady was part of a secret group? What in the world was going on?
“New birds are always welcome,” she said. “Goodness knows, there’s not enough of us. We’ll still need documentation. Copies of birth certificates, social security cards, etc.”
“All in the file.”
Alarm seized through me. They had our private records? On both of us?
Mrs. Bernard nodded, tapping her fingers against the files. “Well, for a closed adoption, it’ll cost a couple of favors and some money.”
“Take what you need.”
She pursed her lips. “Axel, you know I’m fond of your group, but you should know that your financial accounts are extremely low at this point. A closed adoption for one right now may require a lot, and considering you’ve already got one potential adoptee missing, this will be a pricey endeavor.”
“We understand that.”
“You should pick up a few jobs,” she said. “If you want to adopt this girl, it may require more than you’ve got right now. We’ll help in any way possible, of course, but we’ve got to keep to the rules.”
“I wouldn’t ask any more than that,” he said. “We’ve got a few jobs lined up right now. Money ones, not just favors.”
“Good,” she said. “I’d hate to have to put an auction on a closed adoption. It would be unfair. The regular adoption, of course, can always be covered, as long as you find him before the adoption closes.”
“But since they are connected,” Axel said, “I’d like to keep this as low key as possible. Wil seems like a brilliant kid. We’d like a chance to check him out. We still haven’t met him officially, though. We don’t know how he’d take it. I know there’s usually not a chance for us to do a closed adoption for both without a good reason. There’s unusual circumstances here, though, so I don’t want to go too far, too soon.”
