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“We can’t put off her birthday,” Victor said. He turned to look at me. “What do you want, anyway?”
“A nice birthday card.”
“No, really.”
I moaned softly, rubbing a finger over my brow. “Really, guys, don’t go through any trouble. We’ve got enough to do right now.”
“Sang, it’s your first birthday with us,” Gabriel said. “You’re getting stuff.”
“And it’s her sixteenth birthday,” Luke said.
Gabriel’s mouth dropped open. “Holy fuck, is it? I didn’t even think about that.” He smashed his palms into his face. “Aw shit, no. No, this isn’t happening. I can’t swing a sweet sixteen in two days.”
Victor pulled my phone out from his pocket. “Why won’t they shut up? My butt is already numb from all the vibrating.”
“Make sure it isn’t Kota or the others trying to figure out what I’m doing,” I said.
Victor frowned, scrolling through the messages. I leaned over, nearly pressing my cheek to his shoulder to glance at the screen. There were a number of text messages from different people. The voicemail icon blinked.
“Check the voicemail.”
“It’s from these bozos,” he said.
“I’ll do it,” I said.
“Let North do it. I don’t know if I want to hear people breathing your name into the phone. It’s creeping me out seeing the text messages.”
I clutched the corner of the phone. “Please? May I check it, Victor?”
He grumbled softly, releasing the phone into my hands. “You should delete them.”
I tapped at the screen with my finger. “What if it is from the guys but from a different number?”
“Aggele mou,” Silas said. “You worry too much. They wouldn’t do that to you.”
“You never know.” The phone beeped in my ear.
Silas said something else, but I turned my head away slightly, listening to the phone message.
At first it was breathing. Was it one of the note writers scared to leave a message?
The voicemail ended. I meant to delete it but I hit the button to save and it skipped to the next one.
This time, there was more breathing. I meant to delete it again when I caught a beep. It wasn’t like the beep that announced the end of the message. This was a different tone.
It beeped again. And again. It repeated itself.
“Trouble?” Gabriel asked. The boys were focused on me.
I shook my head, holding up a finger to figure out this puzzle. Code?
The message ended. I saved it. The next one started. This one immediately started beeping, again in a sequence I didn’t know.
My heart rattled in my chest. Was it a message from the guys? Were they in trouble? Why would they send me a code?
“What’s wrong, Sang?” Luke asked.
I pushed the button to repeat the message. I held the phone out to Victor. “It’s a code I don’t know.”
Victor blinked at me, letting me hold the phone to his ear. I could hear the beeping playing. A couple of minutes passed as he listened. His lips mouthed off but I couldn’t understand what he was whispering to himself. His face hardened. He snagged my phone from me, taking hold of my hand. “Come on,” he said.
I stood, drawn by his tugging and the urgency in his face.
“What’s going on?” Silas asked, standing. The others got up, too.
“It’s Morse code,” Victor said. “We’re leaving. Everyone’s leaving here now.” He pulled the phone away from his ear. “We have everyone? Everyone else is gone?”
I counted the boys in my head for a moment. “I suppose Dr. Green and Mr. Blackbourne are still here.”
“Mr. Blackbourne left with Kota. Luke,” he said, and he turned to Luke and Gabriel. “Go get Dr. Green. He’s probably in his office. Don’t use your phone.”
“But,” I said, wanting to ask more questions. I didn’t understand. Why were we leaving?
Victor yanked me forward until I stumbled after him. He did it in such a hurry and with such urgency that I felt the desperation from him. This was serious. Silas followed behind us. Gabriel and Luke raced off together for Dr. Green.
I hurried to catch up, and Victor led the way to the parking lot.
“We’re leaving school?” I asked. “We can’t leave now. We’ll get suspended for skipping.”
“It’s an emergency, Sang. We can’t wait.” Victor fished his keys out of his pocket, hitting the unlock button. “Get in.”
I slid in the passenger side. Victor raised the middle console, providing an extra seat. I slipped further next to him. Silas climbed in next to me.
Victor started the car, driving toward the side entrance. We stared off after the doors.
My heart was thundering in my chest. “Why are we leaving?” I breathed.
“It was a warning, Sang.”
My heart stilled to almost nothing. “Warning about what?”
“It was a warning to us,” he said, his eyes met mine and they enveloped me in his fire. “To stay away from you.”
REACTION
Dr. Green signaled to us from the school that he, Gabriel and Luke were taking his car. Victor waved to them that he understood before driving out of the lot.
I rode between Silas and Victor as we headed into the city. I didn’t know where we were going. At first, I assumed we were going to my house because that’s where we always went. Instead, Victor headed east on the interstate, speeding past signs that marked off the miles into Charleston.
No one had spoken since we’d left the school. I smoothed my skirt up on my thighs so I could tuck my knees into my chest and still be modest. My arms wrapped around my legs. Victor drove with one hand on the wheel and traced my phone with his fingers in his lap. Silas encircled his fingers around my ankle as he stared out the window.
“We’re headed into the city?” I asked quietly when I could muster a question. I had a lot of them, but started with the easiest.
“We’re going to my house,” Victor said.
“Why?”
“Better security,” he said. He slid a glance at me, the hint of a smile on his lips. “Why? Don’t you want to? You said you wanted to before.”
I sighed, and leaned against Silas. “Why would anyone warn you guys to stay away from me? And why use my cell phone to send a message to you all? And why are we—”
“Princess.” Victor blew out a sigh and let go of the phone to put both hands on the wheel. “I don?
??t know all the answers yet. We’re getting to a secure location where we can make sure everyone is safe. We’ll figure it out from there.”
“What about my sister?”
Victor’s lips pursed. His eyes flittered to Silas.
“Aggele mou,” Silas scooped an arm under my ankles. He unfolded me until I could hook my knees over his thigh. His strong arm encircled my shoulders into a sideways hug until I was curled up against him. “We’re not forgetting about her. If someone is after you, the best place for you to be is away from her. It’s why we’re not going to your house.”
I buried my cheek into his shoulder. “I don’t understand why.”
“We don’t know,” Silas said. He squeezed me around my shoulders, strong enough to take my breath away. “But we’re finding out now. We’ll regroup at Victor’s house and make sure everyone is safe. When we’re sure, we’ll make a plan and we’ll start investigating.”
“Are we sure it isn’t a prank? Is it just one of the kids from our history class messing around?”
“We’re not taking chances,” Victor said. “It was a threat against us, sent to you. Whoever it was knew you’d tell us, and expected us to understand what was going on. We’ll make sure you’re safe, and make it that much harder for whoever it is to get close.” His eyes burned as he stared forward, as if already calculating how to fix this. “If it is a stupid prank, we’ll find out soon enough. I’d rather make sure first.”
I bit my lip against any more questions as traffic thickened on the road into Charleston. It felt surreal to be out of school and instead out in the world. It was easy to forget there were people out there doing other things while I was so wrapped up in school.
I’d never skipped class in my life before I met the Academy boys. I wondered if anyone noticed now. If it had been Mr. Blackbourne’s class, or Dr. Green’s and we’d hid in their office it didn’t feel too bad. We actually left campus now, which felt worse. Would I end up in detention again?
Soon, Victor pulled off the interstate and wound his way through streets into downtown. I twisted myself in Silas’s lap, gazing out at the two-story buildings, where the bottom floors were old shops and galleries, and the top floors looked to be offices or apartments. Unfamiliar territory. To me, it was like we left the country. Everything looked different.
