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We waited, but the grounds were dark. I checked the dash. It was two in the morning.
"Are the guards sleeping?" Gabriel asked. He leaned over, gazing through the bars of the gates. "Why aren't they opening?"
"Do they know it’s us?" I asked. "And it’s dark. Maybe they can’t see?”
"I don't like this," Luke said. He shifted the car into reverse. "Let's try the front door."
Luke found a place to park on the street in front of the house. We got out and approached the front wall gate. Luke and Gabriel paused in front. Gabriel sought out my hand and held it, his fingers interweaving with mine, comforting. Luke found a call button next to a box. He punched at the button. "Hey, anyone home?"
After a long pause, Luke repeated himself, but no one responded.
"Shit," Gabriel squeezed my hand. "Okay, you and I are leaving."
"We just got here," I said. “We need to get inside."
"No, we need to go somewhere else. You aren't taking on this fucker-head."
I grunted. "We don’t know if he’s here. We’re supposed to stop him if he is, aren’t we? I can do it. Leave if you want but I want to go in with Luke. I don't want to leave him to deal with this alone."
"Maybe we should stick together on this one," Luke said. "This guy gets to us by separating us. Let's just find a way in. We’ll get inside, find Victor, tell the guards to do a security sweep. Maybe that’s what Volto did. He broke the security system somehow."
Gabriel groaned. "I hate break-in missions." He released my hand and moved to stand next to the gate. He hunched over, putting his hands together.
Luke approached him and planted his foot in Gabriel's palms. Gabriel hoisted him high enough that Luke could scale the gate, landing with a soft thud on the other side.
Gabriel hunched over again. “Sang?”
I dashed over, planting my foot into his hands. He held me close, and I hung on to his shoulders. He pushed me up. I found a foothold in the groove of the wrought iron and was able to angle myself over the top. When I slipped down the iron bars, Luke caught me by the waist.
Gabriel climbed like a monkey up and over the gate. When he was safe beside us, he started grunting, clutching at his leg. “Shit,” he said. “I hope I didn’t just break a stitch.”
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Peachy. Let’s go inside. I want a bath. Let’s skip school tomorrow and go to the spa.”
As we approached the main house, I fell in behind Gabriel and Luke. I didn’t want to chicken out, but it was a comfort to have them standing in front of me. The front porch was dark. A few lights on deep within the house were the only sign someone might be up.
I kept waiting for security to come around the corner. Didn’t Victor ask me before not to climb the wall? How come we just had and nothing was happening? I had thought at first that running into Morgan security guards would be horrible, but not meeting them now was even more frightening.
Luke pushed the doorbell on the side of the massive, two-door entryway. I worried we might wake up Victor’s parents. Or maybe that would be a good thing. Wouldn’t they understand we were here and worried about Victor? And to make sure the security system worked?
Something jogged my memory. Wasn’t his parents supposed to be gone at some point? Staying at some hotel? Maybe no one was home.
Luke stepped back, peeking in the windows. “It’s really quiet,” he said.
“It’s two in the morning,” Gabriel said.
Luke rang again, knocking on the door after. “I hope I don’t have to climb in a window. I don’t want to get shot.”
Before we could figure out if we should try, the front door started to rattle as if someone behind it was unlocking a series of security locks. I stepped behind Gabriel more, dropping my head behind his shoulder and peeking around it.
The door opened a crack. The pale girl with the plain face and brown hair popped her head out. She glanced at Luke and Gabriel and seemed surprised to see them. “Mr. Taylor,” she said. “Mr. Coleman, what are you two doing ...” her voice faltered when she spotted me. Her eyebrows lifted in more surprise, and with something else, but in the darkness, I didn’t quite catch it. “Miss Sorenson?” she said, though her voice dropped an octave.
My nerves rattled as she said my name. How did she know my full name?
“Sorry to bug you, Muriel,” Luke said. “Do you know what happened to security? The gate wouldn’t open.”
“We’re not allowed to let anyone in,” she said. “Mr. Morgan ...”
“It’s an emergency,” Luke said. “Can you let us in? We need to check on something.”
Muriel pursed her lips. “I’m not allowed. I was told not to let anyone in.”
“Can you tell Victor to come down?” Gabriel asked, stepping up. “Seriously, we need to talk to him.”
“He’s not seeing anyone,” Muriel said. She turned her head, as if she heard something from inside the house. She turned back quickly. “I have to go. I’m sorry. I can’t let anyone in.”
Gabriel stepped forward, putting his foot in the door before she could shut it all the way. “Look,” he said. “We don’t have time for whatever he told you ...”
“No,” Luke said. He planted a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “It’s okay.” He addressed Muriel. “Sorry to bug you. We’ll go.”
Muriel looked relieved. Gabriel slid his foot out and she shut the door. She threw a bunch of locks on the other side and everything went quiet.
“What are you doing, Luke?” Gabriel asked. “We need to—“
“Not here,” Luke said. He started signing to me, “Let’s get back to the car and pretend we’re leaving.”
I followed the boys back to the gate, unsure what Luke wanted. We were quiet. I
was unsteady thinking he assumed someone could listen in on us. I tried to will my heart to calm and trust that I was with Gabriel and Luke. They knew what to do.
On the other side of the gate, we got into the car. Luke turned toward us. “I don’t like this,” he said. He found my phone. “I don’t want to use this, but we need Mr. Blackbourne.”
“Why wouldn’t she let us in?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Luke said. “I don’t know what’s going on, but there’s no security here. We’ve crawled all over that place. Gabriel even nearly pushed his way past Muriel, and no one showed up. The power’s on, so security had to have been turned off from the inside.”
Luke started dialing when something caught my eye. A familiar dark brown sedan was parked in the driveway of the house being renovated across the street. I snagged Luke’s wrist. “Wait,” I said.
He looked up. Gabriel did, too. They followed my gaze to the car.
“Mr. Morris?” Luke asked. “Isn’t that his car?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Shit,” Gabriel said. “He followed us.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “He was supposed to be following Mr. Blackbourne tonight.”
Luke looked back at the brown car. “So he followed Mr. Blackbourne here?”
“I don’t know,” I said. I nudged at Gabriel’s arm. “Let me out.”
“Fuck no.”
“Let me go talk to him,” I said. “Let me find out what he knows. Maybe he’s seen something.”
Gabriel grunted, looking at Luke. “Aren’t we supposed to take her home?”
Luke smirked at him. “You’re sounding a lot like North right now.”
Gabriel’s eyes went wide. “See what you’re doing to me, Trouble?” He caught the door handle and shoved it open.
I wedged myself out. “You two stay here. I don’t want to scare him into thinking we’re after him.”
Gabriel shoved a finger in my face, pointing at my nose. “You better be right about this. And don’t get hurt.”
I feigned like I was going to bite his finger and he diverted and chopped me on the head. I dashed away before he could get me again.
