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Nathan heard Victor going inside, but he kept looking out into the dark.
Volto had been close. How did he know Sang’s cell phone was here? And how could he get so close to the house without anyone noticing? He’d been in the shower, but he didn’t hear anyone below him, opening and closing the garage door.
Maybe they were wrong. Maybe Sang had it.
He went back into the house. Jessica was at the table now, but still with the movie playing. She was watching it across the room as she ate her hamburger out of the container. It was bit weird she was up so late on a school night, but it was unusual circumstances.
Sang appeared from the hallway on the other side of the house. Her hair was still wet, but she tied it back with a ponytail holder to keep it out of her face. The clip she usually wore was attached to her T-shirt, but it actually looked like Luke’s, a little big for her. The shorts she wore almost disappeared underneath.
She sat down at the table, looking a little sleepy.
Nathan sat down next to her, pulling packages toward them and giving her one. “Do you have your cell phone on you?” he asked. “I lost mine.”
“I thought it was in the car.” She paused intentionally with a look, asking silently what he meant as he was the last one she saw with it. “I think I left it in there.”
He shook his head, looking directly at her. He didn’t want to say too much.
Her eyes drifted to a wall, thinking.
Internally, he groaned. That last bit of hope that the phone was misplaced was gone. He couldn’t imagine anyone else with it.
Which left the question: how did he get in to get to the phone, and how had he known it was there?
Evasion
Sang
I never finished eating dinner. I was halfway through when I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any more. I was swaying in the seat.
Erica got after Jessica to get to bed and after a bit, she suggested I go as well. I didn’t know how to say no to her. Not after tonight. Not after finding us and how she looked at me, at Nathan and even at Victor. They had to stay together. Nathan couldn’t leave as he was anticipating a talk with Erica and Kota. Victor couldn’t be alone right now. Not with Volto causing problems.
She knew something happened.
Nathan and Victor waited downstairs on the couch for Kota. I wanted to. I didn’t want Kota to have to face Erica alone. But as Erica told me everything was okay and reminded me that there was school tomorrow, I didn’t know what else to do. Nathan and Victor encouraged it.
Sleep took over quickly once I hit the bed. The only time I woke up, it was when Nathan crashed in the cot after he rolled it out. I sensed there was someone else in the room, too. I think it was Victor on the floor. I was asleep again quickly once Nathan settled down.
Someone was shaking me to wake up the next morning. Despite the effort, my eyes stayed closed.
“Sang,” Victor said. “Princess. Come on. We’ve got to get going.”
I heard it and I still couldn’t wake myself.
Part of my memory was foggy from the night before. The blanket over my body kept me so warm and the bed was incredibly comfortable. The moment he stopped shaking, I was already going back to sleep.
But Volto was out there. Somewhere.
The thought of him woke me.
I sat up sharply, knocking my head against Victor’s hovering face. He reeled back, cupping his hand around his lips and mumbled against it.
“Sorry!” I said, scrambling to get on my knees on the bed. I blinked rapidly. The shock of it all coming to me at once. I leaned into Victor, looking at his face. “I’m sorry.”
He removed his hand. His lip was a bit red and it split at the bottom. Not terribly bad but it must have stung. “Accident,” he said and tried to smile, but he winced and touched his lip again. “You okay?”
I nodded. The room was a mess of sleeping bags and the rollaway bed was still out. Someone was in the bathroom. There was activity downstairs, but I couldn’t tell who was here and where they were.
Victor leaned closer and touched my face, around my forehead. “I didn’t bite, did I?”
I didn’t feel anything. “Where’s North? Did he get back?”
“We’ve got him. But let’s wait until we’re in the car...” He continued to focus on me. It wasn’t safe to say too much here.
I crawled out of bed and then stopped. “My school uniform. I think it’s at the security trailer.”
“We can pick it up on the way,” he said. He was already in his uniform, looking polished and ready to go. His hair was combed back on his head, still wet from a recent shower. “Just get some clothes on.”
The urgency in his tone spoke to me more than his words. I stood, hovering on the carpet, trying to put pieces of memory together and figure out what needed to be done.
When he nudged my lower back, bringing me to the closet, I realized he meant right now.
I scrubbed at my face, and instead of grabbing clothes to take into the bathroom, I took what I needed in the closet and started to get dressed in there.
Victor hovered in the doorway, checking in on me, but his gaze went to the stairs on the far side of the room.
He was nervous about...who? Erica?
I dressed quickly in simple, dark cotton pants, a tank shirt and then put on a sweater over top. I stuffed my feet into tennis shoes without socks. “Ready.”
He took my hand and led me to the steps.
The bathroom door opened. Gabriel appeared, already in his uniform and carrying a jacket at his elbow. He was putting in a pink crystal stud into one of his lobes. He hurried behind me as we descended the stairs.
Victor stopped at the bottom of the steps, putting his ear to the door. After a few minutes, he stepped back and pulled the door open. He moved quickly, tiptoeing around to the side door of the garage.
Gabriel followed behind me. His palm touched my back, urging me on and keeping me steady. His usual smile was gone, a grim expression replacing it.
The mix up of people was just registering to me. Where was Nathan? Did he go somewhere? When did Gabriel get here?
Once we were clear of the house, Victor had us going to Kota’s sedan parked out in the driveway.
Victor got behind the wheel. I got into the back seat with Gabriel.
Within minutes of Victor turning the engine, Kota appeared. He rushed out, bag in hand, phone to his ear. He jumped into the front passenger seat just as Victor started rolling the car backward.
We were escaping.
Since Kota was on the phone as Victor drove, I kept quiet. I stretched, yawned, trying to wake myself further. I leaned into Gabriel as part of my memory returned. “Did Luke make it out?”
“He waited inside. Too risky to leave. He’ll meet us in the music room. There was security all over that place last night, so he decided to camp out.”
Security all over for one smoke bomb near midnight?
I rubbed at my cheek and settled back into the seat. He’d need a day off after this, after being up all night.
Gabriel yawned, stretched and put an arm over my shoulder, tucking me into him. We leaned in together, getting comfortable, although it made it harder not to fall back asleep.
Kota eventually spoke into the phone. “Hi, I’m calling in for Marie Sorenson. I need her records...” He paused. “Yes. We need her changed to homeschool with protected status.” Another pause. “Right. Thanks. Let me know.” He hung up. He put his head back against the seat.
“Why did we run out of the house?” I asked.
“My mom was in the shower,” Kota said. “I wanted to get out before she started asking questions.”
“Did she talk to you last night?”
“No.” He turned his head. His eyes were dark with heavy circles.
I raised an eyebrow. “Have you even been to sleep?”
“Nope,” he said, blinking very slowly then looking at me and smiling in such a way that he actually looked a little craz
y. His lashes fluttered across his green eyes, a little spark in them from the morning light shining in his face. “Good morning, by the way.”
Victor pulled into the parking lot of the diner and parked close to the security trailer. Gabriel jumped out before I could. “I’ll get them,” he said, and he dashed over to the trailer. He returned with a gray book bag with a little pink patch on the outside. He shoved it into the seat between us before climbing in.
Once we were on the road again, I laughed a little. The whole rush this morning brought some sharp realization to me. “We really do need a house,” I said. “All of our stuff is everywhere.”
“I was looking at a few,” Victor said. “The thing is, most of the best options are either downtown...”
“No,” Kota said. “Not downtown.”
Victor nodded shortly. “Then the other places are around Mt. Pleasant, maybe out further in John’s Island.”
“I don’t want to be too far from downtown, still,” Kota said. He laughed shortly and put a palm to his forehead. “I know that’s sounding indecisive, but it’s going to take a lot more time to find a big house for all of us.”
His comment and the pause in the conversation had me sitting upright. Kota hadn’t objected to the house before, but I’d thought out of all of them, Kota would be the hardest to convince.
Gabriel rolled his head on the headrest of the back seat. He hadn’t shaved. Coarse hair lined his chin and cheeks, a little dark. His hair was combed in odd directions. He tried to fiddle with it using his fingers as a comb. “Uh, shouldn’t we get the BMW out? Shouldn’t that be first thing?”
