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For a flicker of a moment, Victor contemplated what it would be like to live without the Academy. Most people did. He felt he could be satisfied with Sang and not have the Academy, but would the ghost of the Academy haunt him? When he knew the life he left behind? It was the other thing he loved, outside of his family. This family.
It was then he realized his heart was breaking on two fronts. His team members. He glanced at North again, and the fury he thought he saw in his intense gaze wasn’t there. It was sorrow. It was agony. North was as pained as he was. He loved her, and knowing that Victor loved her, too, and could possibly take her away, was killing him. Like it was killing Victor.
But what if they could share her? The theory seemed wrong, of course. It didn’t seem like it would be accepted.
But would he really be upset if North loved her? If North and Sang even went on a date or stayed with each other over night? Did it matter as long as she returned to Victor afterward? She did that now. She was home with Nathan or Kota or one of the others. He wanted to be with her, and trusted them to not steal her away right now.
Unless one of them discovered he loved her and...
“We have to get her,” Victor said, his voice stuttering an octave pitch higher. Desperate, he lunged at North, grabbing his arm. “If it’s true, the others ... we have to warn them. We’ve got to...”
North snagged Victor’s arm and held it. “We’re doing that now,” he said. “But we can’t scare her and we can’t tell them until they confess.”
“I think we’ll be okay,” Mr. Blackbourne said.
Victor pulled away from North. “They’ll tell her and they won’t know. She’ll run off with one of them. She won’t know.” He was in a panic now. Was he really already agreeing to this? Yes. He was. He’d do anything to make her happy. He wanted to make his family happy. All the pieces were together now. Like a computer code working in his brain, he was trying to figure out how to make it all operate the way he wanted. He’d share her. He just didn’t want to lose her. Ever.
Mr. Blackbourne put a cool hand on his shoulder. “Listen to me, Mr. Morgan. We only approached you tonight because I was pretty sure of your feelings. We can’t approach the others with this proposition until we’re sure they’re already in love.”
“But you said the others were.”
“I’m fairly sure they are, but they don’t realize it. We need to wait for that pivotal moment for each of them. Otherwise, I think they’ll back off.”
Victor shook his head, desperate now. “They can’t!”
“We know,” North said behind him. “We’re trying.”
“And the Academy,” Victor said. “They can’t know about this.”
“Not until it happens,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Not until everyone has confessed and agrees. And no one must confess to her that he loves her. She’ll feel the need to commit to just you at that point, if she does.”
Victor’s jaw clenched and his fists balled up. “I ... we ...” He grunted. “What do I do?”
“We wait,” North said quietly. “We have to wait and watch the others.”
“I almost kissed her,” Victor said. “Several times. I almost...”
“She’s kissed Luke, too,” North said. “On the cheek, but it was close.”
Victor’s eyes widened. “Does he...?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “He hasn’t said so, but I think he does. He’s waiting for something. Perhaps waiting for her.”
Victor turned to Mr. Blackbourne. “How can we make sure they won’t ruin this chance?”
“We can’t,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “We just have to do our best.”
That seemed ludicrous. There had to be some other solution. It was like a blind gamble for her affection when he was so sure. Victor was desperate now. Like he had to figure it out tonight. He’d do anything to keep her nearby.
Victor retreated a few steps and sunk into the chair. He planted his elbows on his knees, and dropped his head into his palms. He sighed hard, and loud. “I can’t lose her,” he said. “I can’t...”
He felt a stiff and calloused hand on his shoulder. “I can’t either,” North said. “So you have to swear to me you’re not going to confess and then run off with her forever. Take her out. Take her home with you. But she comes back to me. She has to come back. If you can do that, I can live with it.”
North’s words seemed to calm the insanity that his head was trying to figure out. North believed it could work. North accepted this. If he believed this could happen, Victor had to believe in him. This was their chance. For the moment, he played with the idea of how it would work. He could live with North taking her out for the night, as long as she returned to him. Victor could imagine her smiling face like she’d missed him. He’d kiss her, whisper her name in her ear, and hum her favorite songs. When he was off on Academy assignments, he’d leave her safe with his team. The only people he’d ever trust with her.
“When can we tell her?” Victor asked.
“You have to wait until we all know,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “You have to wait until it’s all agreed with everyone. We’ll show her we all care, and then we’ll try to help her come to terms with it. I think she could. I think she’d welcome it. She does a lot with all of us now.”
Victor nodded. “So you’re in on this, too?” he asked.
Mr. Blackbourne opened his lips to answer but stiffened as his phone sounded an alarm. He reached around, finding it and checked the screen. He jumped up sharply, looking at North. “We have to go.”
“What now?” North asked.
“There’s another box at the school. Apparently there was a school dance tonight and it was left in the gym. It has my name on it.”
“Another empty box?”
Mr. Blackbourne shook his head. “No. This time, he left us some clues.”
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READ AN EXCERPT FROM THE FIRST BOOK IN AN ALL NEW ACADEMY SERIES
The Academy
The Scarab Beetle Series
?
Thief
?
Book One
Coming February 2014
Written by C. L. Stone
Published by
Arcato Publishing
I AM A THIEF
Men are brilliantly stupid.
For one thing, guys carry the most cash with them anywhere. Didn’t anyone ever tell them cash was dead?
I nestled myself in one of the side branches of Citadel Mall. I picked my way through a Claire’s but the lights were too bright reflecting off the sparkling plastic and crystals of the teeny bopper jewelry and handbags. I ducked into a shoe store where the lighting was dimmer and the window wasn’t as obstructed. Waiting was the hardest part.
My favorite place to find dumb guys with lots of cash was the mall. Always fairly crowded on a weekend; I could count on at least a couple of twenties for every wallet I temporarily borrowed.
I never kept all of it. Forty to sixty dollars at the most. Not enough to bother reporting to the cops. I didn’t mess with credit cards, or bother with selling ID cards. That’s the kind of crazy stuff that gets you sent to prison. I always left the wallets and the rest of the leftovers tucked away in the food court and on benches where management would see it and find the owner. That way, the people wouldn’t have to get new ID, which is a huge hassle.
And they never suspected a thing. All they saw when I accidentally bumped into them was batting eyelashes and as much cleavage as I could muster the absurdity to expose without heaving.
It was even
better if one of them had a girlfriend on his arm, because the girl would smack the tar out of him, causing an even better distraction with his head turned the other way. Too bad the next place they walked into where she gave him the doe-eyes to buy her yet-another-pair-of-shoes, he’d be out of luck, and she’d be on to the next boy toy.
