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Mr. Morris sat up at this, looking excited. “Maybe he’ll let me off the hook.”

“More than likely, he’ll ask you to go scout it out. He’ll probably have the others checking it out, too.” Kota again pointed at the table. “That’s fine, but you need to watch your back.”

“No kidding,” Mr. Morris said. He put his coffee cup down. He picked up a napkin and slid it over. “Write down the address. I’ll check it out first.”

“It’s just a school,” Kota said plainly. He took out a pen from the bag next to him and wrote down an address.

I peeked over his shoulder, noting the address was in Charleston. I glanced at Kota. Was he serious? I thought...

The longer I looked at Kota, the more I realized this had to be a trick. For so long, we had Mr. Hendricks scouting around, asking me and others for a school location. They gave him nothing. Now he was just passing it over to Mr. Morris?

I spoke up. “Don’t give it to him too soon. Makes sure he lets you off the hook. And be careful how you tell him.”

Kota smiled. “She’s right. He’ll wonder why we so easily gave it to you. The truth is, we didn’t really want him hanging around at school, putting his people there. Now we’re wondering if we gave him something else to chase, if he’d stop following us everywhere. Maybe we were being overprotective. We didn’t want to involve other students.”

Mr. Morris glanced at the street address and nodded. “True. I’ll tell him I eventually followed one of you to this location. I’ll check it out for a couple of weeks and then confirm that this is the place.”

“He’ll probably ask you to continue, at least until we’re out of his hair,” Kota said. “But even if we left, you wouldn’t be out of the woods.”

“What can I do?” Mr. Morris asked.

“Contingency plan,” Kota said. “Find another job. Tell him after you tell him about where the school is. Or hold it over his head until he lets you go.”

Mr. Morris shook his head. “I can’t. No one is hiring teachers right now.”

“Do you really want to be a teacher?” Kota asked. “At a high school?”

Mr. Morris’s lips tightened. His dark eyes fixed on his now empty cup. He fiddled with the cup, turning it on the table slowly. “It’s not what I thought it would be.”

“There’s more places to teach things than in a high school,” Kota said. “Your teaching certificates qualify you to other jobs.”

Mr. Morris snorted. “What?”

“Did you know the local CPR instructor in Charleston earns more per year than you do?” Kota asked. “I’m assuming, as I asked a couple other teachers what they were making, and the number was lower.”

Mr. Morris’s eyebrows shot up. “A CPR instructor?”

“And the first aid instructor is a bit more,” he said. “They get paid per class, but there’s a lot of classes going on with the fire departments, the colleges, the hospitals. Everyone has to do renewals every few years. Even our school has an instructor come in once in a while for refresher classes. And who would make a better CPR instructor than a person who not only has the skillset and the certification, but is also a certified teacher?”

Mr. Morris pressed his lips together again. He didn’t say anything, but he was clearly considering these options.

The corner of Kota’s mouth lifted. Were we really winning this one? “It may not be your thing, but it’s an out. I’m sure there’s many more options. Take the training course that’s a few weeks, but after that, there’s a weekly paycheck as long as people need to take the class.”

Mr. Morris nodded, but said nothing.

It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. I glanced at Kota, wondering about his motives.

Kota sighed. “I just need to know one thing. Why does Mr. McCoy want her followed?”

“He’s doing it on his own,” Mr. Morris said. “He thinks you’re all dangerous. Even her. Especially her. He rants about her. I think he suspects she’ll attack someone else, so he’s waiting to witness it. Doesn’t make much sense to me.” He jerked his head in my direction and then looked at me. “I’d watch out for him.”

“He’s been able to find her,” Kota said. “We thought he was tracking her cell phone.”

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I get told to follow you,” he pointed at Kota, “and he’s got other people after Blackbourne and Green. Occasionally he has us follow anyone who looks like they’re up to something. Only you all just stay at home all day. The only time you do anything interesting is at school, and usually it’s skipping classes because he’s asked for you, or there’s a fight you’re managing.”

“Our job,” Kota said. “We were asked to monitor teachers stopping fights and make security suggestions.”

Mr. Morris rolled his eyes. “That’s stupid.”

“The teachers aren’t doing it,” Kota said. He put his pen back in his pocket. “Anything else?”

“Yeah,” he said. He pointed at me. “Hendricks has been asking us to report back who is where. He likes for us to keep track of where everyone goes every day. Since you all like to stay together often, it’s easy. I’m thinking he tells McCoy who you are with and where they take you.”

I perked up at that. “So he is being told where I might be, but then he’s got to find me somehow. You all don’t have a visual on me at all times.”

“Sometimes we know where you aren’t,” he said. “If you aren’t with him,” he pointed to Kota, “or him,” he pointed to North behind me. “Then you are probably with one of the other ones. It doesn’t take rocket science to follow you. There’s only what, eight people you’ll likely be around?”

“Nine,” Kota said quietly.

“Right,” Mr. Morris said. “Still, all one has to do is find out where you’re not. Then they just follow the other ones until they figure out who you’re with.” He stood up, dropping a five-dollar bill on the table. “Thanks for the tip, but you really should consider just going off on your own once in a while. You’ll be harder to trace.”

I bit my lip, nodding and keeping my eyes down as he moved around the table and left.

Kota and I sat quietly together. North moved to our table, sitting across from me. We were quiet, sitting together, absorbing the new information.

McCoy was after me. He might simply be using the process of elimination. While the phone GPS might still be an issue, it wouldn’t take long with him looking out for me before he could figure out where I was.

“We should...” North started to say.

Kota shook his head. He held a finger to his lips. He wanted to talk. Not here.

I stood up and while the boys started walking away, I was wondering who I needed to go with, until Kota flexed his finger at me, encouraging me to follow him.

North glanced at Kota, his eyebrows shifting and his mouth opened to say something. One look from Kota and he closed it promptly and walked off toward his Jeep.

WHAT KOTA WANTS

I followed Kota to his old green sedan parked at the far edge of the lot. He opened up the door for me and I slid in, unlocking his door for him.

Kota got in and started the car. I settled into my seat, willing my heart to slow down.

“Hang in there, Sang,” Kota said gently. When he was stopped at a red light, he reached out for my hand, squeezing it.

I stared at his hand. It felt like a long time since I’d last touched him. I hadn’t been alone with him for a while. I squeezed back to assure him I’d be okay.

He released me to continue driving. Kota kept both hands on the wheel and always wore his seatbelt. He was normal, in a way. I imagined he was thinking up ways to circumvent McCoy’s plans.

What would he think of Lily and that whole idea? My nerves rattled. It was different with Dr. Green and North and the others, people who already knew. I’d taken a chance on Dr. Green. Who didn’t know now? I thought about it, and Kota was the only one left who wasn’t at least aware. Maybe Nathan?

The

thought of Nathan made me question if it would really work. I couldn’t see Nathan being okay with what Lily had. He’d mentioned running off with me already.

But there were other important issues surrounding us, making me feel guilty worrying about the boys and what I’d learned from Lily. McCoy was hunting me. No matter what, we had to get out from under the current threat. Safety above everything else.

Although, the boys seemed to be creating a plan to end it and get info on Hendricks.

I couldn’t help but daydream a bit. What would it be like if I took up Victor’s idea on running away from it until it all settled down? This latest information told me if I wasn’t here, they would have one less person to worry about and they could focus.

I couldn’t talk myself into it. The others would have to stay behind to deal with the mess. I was in the middle of it now. Dropping out meant I’d be running away and leaving them to deal with it alone. Not to mention if my father found out, or the police. They’d have to answer to it, while Victor and I were off safe somewhere else.

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