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“We were sleeping,” Gabriel said. He quickly reached for the tan slacks and one of the shirts, and passed the others to me. “We had to run out the door. I didn’t have time to grab her clothes. I tried, but after he started shoving when I reached for them, I just said fuck it and left.”
Victor eyeballed us carefully as we dressed. The moment I had the shirt on my shoulders, Victor came forward, and started to button up the shirt for me.
I grinned big, so happy to see him and willing to let him dress me. It was cute, and it made me feel safe.
“I wish you’d have told me earlier,” Victor said. “You two could have slept at my house tonight instead of staying here.”
“She wanted to stay with me,” Gabriel said, looking down at his clothes as he buttoned his pants. “She asked Mr. Blackbourne to stay with me tonight.”
Victor looked at me, waiting for confirmation. I nodded, wanting to be honest, but unable to tell Victor the reasons behind it. Mr. Blackbourne said we should figure out where everyone stood, and while he said Victor was on our side, I didn’t really know yet, so I wanted to be careful.
How much did Victor know?
“That’s...nice,” Victor said. “But we need to be careful.”
“No shit,” Gabriel said. He headed to the car and opened the back door. “Let’s get going.”
Victor hurried around and opened the passenger door for me. I slid in while he ran around and got in on his side. He started up the car, and started the heat on full blast to warm the space.
I put my hands near the vent to thaw them. I’d been in colder conditions living up north, but cold was still cold. I wanted to warm up.
“You’re that cold?” Victor asked. He reached out as he drove, finding one of my hands. He pulled it into his, holding it and rubbing my fingers. His hands were warm, but I worried about him driving well with only one hand.
“I’m okay,” I said, giving my hand a slight tug and smiling. “At least we’re out. And Gabriel shouldn’t live there anymore if this is what he has to live with.”
“I agree,” Victor said, hanging on tighter to my fingers, not letting me go. “I think he should move in with me.”
“No,” Gabriel said. “If I move in anywhere, it’ll probably be with Luke or Nathan and Sang. Probably with Sang.”
“What’s wrong with my house?” Victor asked. “Then Sang can come over more often, because there’s two of us and it’s a big house.”
“Hmm,” Gabriel said, although from his tone, he didn’t sound as interested.
Victor looked at me, smiling. “You don’t look too bad in my clothes. I think you look better than I do in them.”
I blushed. “Thanks.”
“Does she need more clothes?” he asked, and then focused his eyes on the road. “Maybe we should take the day off tomorrow. We can take her to the spa and then out clothes shopping.”
I sat up, looking at Gabriel. “You wanted to go, didn’t you?”
“I think we need to get to school tomorrow,” Gabriel said, his tone dark.
Tension sat thick in the car. I wasn’t sure what it was exactly. Gabriel slumped in the back seat, looking out the window. I wondered if he was embarrassed about what had happened. It wasn’t his fault. I’d been through worse with Nathan and the others and even my own family.
Victor drove on in silence. I rocked my head against the headrest, closing my eyes.
I must have slept for a bit. I woke just as we were at the gate of Victor’s yellow, three-story house in downtown Charleston. The estate stretched out for an entire block, and part of it looked like a fancy, sculpted park.
The BMW rolled through the open gate, which then closed behind us quietly. I didn’t see anyone, but I knew there was security for the house, stationed in one of the outbuildings near the garage.
Victor pulled up to the garage, parking his car outside of it, and hopped out. Gabriel scrambled out as well, and soon was at my door, opening it and urging me out.
I did so quietly, feeling the need to stay silent since it was so late. Were Victor’s parents here? If security saw us coming in, they might alarm his parents that we’d arrived.
No one seemed concerned about this. They simply moved quietly. I followed close to Victor and Gabriel as they threaded around a walkway and headed to the back door.
Once we were inside, The hallway was dark. I squeezed tighter and reached for Gabriel’s hand, since he was close by.
He held onto me, his thin fingers locking hard with mine.
They headed to the stairs. I tripped on the first step but Gabriel steadied me as I hurried to catch up.
On the third floor, Victor ducked down the hall to his bedroom. We followed.
I hadn’t been to Victor’s home for a while. His room was clean, his piano in the center of the room, and the bed and other furniture along the edges facing it, like the piano was always on stage and everything else in the room was listening to it. A quiet, never-ending concert.
The bed was unmade where Victor had been sleeping. The moment we were in the bedroom, and Victor had closed the door behind us, I yearned for the bed. After a frantic scramble and the long day behind us, I was exhausted. I’d be a mess at school in the morning, I was sure.
“Do we need anything?” Victor asked. “Are either of you hungry? Sang, do you want some tea? Or water?”
“I’m just tired,” Gabriel said. He rubbed a fist at his eye. “I can’t wait until we don’t have school again. Getting up in the morning will be a pain.”
“We still worked when we didn’t have school like this,” Victor said.
“That’s different,” Gabriel said. “We didn’t have to be somewhere exactly at a certain time every morning, when everyone else is getting up and going to work. Like people need to be at places at the same time for some reason.”
Victor smiled and shook his head, glancing at me.
I shrugged and smiled back. I couldn’t blame Gabriel for complaining. I wasn’t looking forward to going to school tomorrow either.
I changed into one of Silas’s baseball shirts. The boys put on pajama pants and T-shirts.
I was the first to crawl into bed and while I tried to wait on them, my eyes were closing on their own.
I slept heavily, and at the same time, I sensed them crawling into bed. Their scents mixed, so I couldn’t tell who was on the right or left. My legs knocked into someone. I rolled over and slept again.
Sometime while it was still dark out, a phone rang. I wanted to wake up, but my body wouldn’t move. Victor spoke, his voice husky from sleep. “Gabriel. It’s Kota.”
Curses flew from Gabriel’s mouth. “Tell him I left my phone at my house, I know. I’ll grab it tomorrow morning on our way to school. I’ve got to stop by anyway for my books—”
“No, not that,” Victor said, talking in a hushed tone like he didn’t want to wake me. “Mr. McCoy is scouting out the neighborhood here. He wants you to take my car and drive around the city a couple of times and head to his house.”
I was awake now, but remained still, pretending to be asleep. I wasn’t super worried about Mr. McCoy invading Victor’s house, especially with Victor and
Gabriel right there. Also, someone in the Academy was following McCoy everywhere, plus Victor’s security team on patrol, so we were safe in the house. Why did we have to leave just because he was here?
“You do it.”
“Can I do it?” Victor asked to I assumed Kota. There was a long pause. “He said he wants you to take my car. It should be odd enough that you’re taking off so early in my car to make him curious. If he’s not following you, I’m to drive off in another car. If he stays here, Dr. Green is going to pick up Sang. He wants to know who he’s after.”
Gabriel groaned and the blankets shifted. I flopped over, still pretending to be asleep so I wouldn’t get pulled into a car with anyone. They really needed to follow us this early in the morning? Was watching us sleep interesting?
Victor got up, too, and whispered. “Sorry, Gabriel” he said. He shuffled, moving around the room. “Really, next time we get a chance, let’s take Sang to the spa. She likes it. We should take a day off.”
“Yeah, she likes it,” Gabriel grumbled low. “Of course she likes it. You pay enough for it.”
I tilted my head slightly, my eyes fluttering just enough to see without fully opening them. My breathing and heart stopped as I strained to listen.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Victor asked.
Slowly, I tilted my head to try to see what was going on. Gabriel pulled clothes out of the closet, and stepped into a pair of jeans. “Nothing.”
Victor walked over to stand in the doorway of the closet. “Really, is something wrong? I thought you liked the spa? Did she say something? Was she uncomfortable for some reason?”
“You can’t keep throwing money at her,” Gabriel said, standing up fully. He held his shirt in his hand, balled in his fist as he used it to point at Victor. “I can’t keep up with that.”
I swallowed, my heart pounding in my chest.
Victor looked back my way, and then at Gabriel. “Let’s go out into the hall.”
