AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A door was opened, and I was brought inside a space where the air was warmer. Their footsteps softer, like going over carpet. The only carpet I knew that was upstairs was in the library.
Another door opened, perhaps to one of the study rooms near the back. I wasn't familiar with this library.
I was put down on some sort of table, held up by one of them. He kept my wrists together, and shortly after, bound them with plastic restraints. He did my legs as well.
“I only need a minute,” Volto said.
“That may be all you get. They'll have the lights on soon,” said the woman. “Once they're on, we have to go.” A door closed.
The hood over my head was lifted.
Volto's green-glowing mask loomed close. Everything else was dark around us.
I breathed in deeply to get the fresher air into my lungs and then bit my tongue. If I could, I would have stuffed my ears with my fingers. I wasn't going to let him use me for anything. I wouldn't tell him anything.
His head tilted slightly, creating shadows on the mask that give him an almost coy look. “I told you I needed to talk to you.”
I said nothing. I turned my head away, to let him know I didn't care.
He captured my chin and turned my head his direction. The mechanical voice from the modulator in his mask continued. “You can't stay with them. Blackbourne is in serious trouble.”
I glared at him, refusing to give into this.
“Your friends are meddling in areas they shouldn't be.” He released my chin and stepped back, swinging an arm in the darkness to motion to the rest of the school. “I'd tell you to tell them to leave, but I doubt they will. Hendricks is watching.”
“You're with him,” I said. I couldn't help it. If I was going to talk, it would be about him, not anything else. “You're with Hendricks.”
“No,” he said. “I’m not. I work alone.”
“Then who’s the woman?”
“She needed me. I work alone.” He stood up straighter, his head tilting down to look at me. The mechanical voice came out louder than before. “Hendricks is watching.”
“We already figured he set this food thing up to get Mr. Blackbourne in trouble,” I said. “We don’t need you to tell us this.”
He tilted his head again. “Food?”
“The night you took Nathan on a wild chase and you left him at the lake,” I said, my anger growing inside of me and unable to help myself. “We were there watching the food being swapped. Students have called in sick. We’re pretty sure it was a set up.”
“I was following McCoy,” he said. “He’s with Hendricks.” He leaned in, but his voice modulator was just as loud. “But this doesn’t change anything. He’s lost McCoy, but he’s after you.”
“You mean them?”
“I mean you,” he said. “He wants to use you. To get to them. To get them into a heap of trouble they’ll never be able to weasel their way out of.”
I strained at my wrists, at the binding, trying to separate them. “How?”
“Like how I got to you. Only he’s more stupid than your Academy.” He clamped a hand around my wrists to get me to stop. “I came to tell you so you won’t make this mistake again. And so they won’t, either. Maybe now they’ll avoid using you like a pawn and leave you the hell alone.”
He turned away from me, heading for the door.
“How does he listen?” I asked him. “Tell me. How does he know what we’re doing?”
He paused without turning back to me. “Once a gutter rat, always a gutter rat,” he opened the door, letting it slam behind himself after he left.
Before I could call after him, the lights came on, blinding me for a minute. I covered my face against the brightness.
I was alone in one of the study rooms. With my ankles and wrists bound, I wasn’t sure about jumping off the desk in an effort to get away.
The others would find me soon. I hoped.
Fishing for a Rat
It didn’t take long, less than ten minutes, before the door opened again and Mr. Blackbourne popped his head in. Once he spotted me, he opened it wide. “She’s in here!” he called out.
“Hi,” I said, a little more defeated now. I’d calmed down a lot and was way more annoyed than I was afraid. All this just to tell me Hendricks was watching and wanted to use me to get to them. And who knew if it was a lie or not?
He came over to me, checking out my face at first and then the bands around my wrists and ankles.
Nathan burst through the door next, finding us and checking me out. “What the hell?”
“He just wanted to talk,” I said. While Mr. Blackbourne took out a pocketknife to use against the bonds, I told them about what he said. “I don’t know what he might have meant at the end about gutter rats.”
“I think he meant Mr. Morris,” Nathan said. “Did we tell you about him being the one driving the Jeep up to the school?”
My jaw dropped open, and I rubbed at the red marks the bonds had caused while I was waiting. “No. He did?” I paused. “Wait, Volto said he wasn’t working with Hendricks. So how does Mr. Morris, who does work with Hendricks, get the Jeep?”
“That’s a question we’re trying to get answers to,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He took up my hands, inspecting my wrists, flipping my arms over so he could check the other side. “Did you get tasered?”
“No.”
“Did he do anything else?”
“No.”
His eyebrow lifted, the steel in his gaze a bit wild. He shook his head slowly. “I’ll never understand him.”
I jumped off the table and stood beside them. “I’ve stopped trying. But I don’t know if we should trust him anyway.”
“Still, protocol has changed as of now.” The power in his voice sharpened, and he turned to Nathan. “I know you won’t let this happen again.”
“Nope,” Nathan said, his jaw tightening and his blue eyes serious. “Never.”
“Then you’re both grounded until Hendricks is found.”
“Grounded?” I asked.
“To each other.” He took his phone out of his pocket and brought it to his face. “And you’re not staying at Nathan’s. You need to be with people at all times. The diner. At the Lee house.”
“We’re still having a thing with Erica,” Nathan said. “I’m not sure...”
“Solve it,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He turned the full of his gaze at him, and it could have been steel bullets firing out from his eyes. “Or find another solution. I don’t want to give Hendricks the same opportunity to get to any of you the way that Volto has.” He pointed toward the library and beyond. “It’s not just you. It’s everyone from this point. Public view only. Areas Hendricks or anyone else working for him won’t dare trespass.”
Nathan pressed his lips together and nodded.
I said nothing but agreed with this decision. If nothing else, Volto proved we’d been vulnerable, even if we were together. Hendricks had who knew how many people working for him. Volto managed to get a partner to help him get me. Three or four people working with Hendricks could outnumber two too easily.
Be Terrified
On our way through the halls, we reconnected with the others, who continued to stand by the doors. Volto was inside with his friend. They wanted to find him.
Meanwhile, Nathan and I were sent off. We ended up in Silas’s car, and Nathan silently drove toward Sunnyvale Court.
I was lost in thought as well. I replayed the situation with Volto over in my head. Should we have gone the other way? No matter what direction, I was pretty sure getting us to go into a dark area so
he could take Nathan down was all Volto needed to do.
And maybe we did need to know. Volto’s antics aside, we hadn’t known Hendricks was even looking for me. Now we knew. Taking extra precautions wasn’t a problem.
It wasn’t until we pulled into the neighborhood that I noticed Nathan’s hand, holding tight against the wheel and twisting.
I reached out to him, worried more he’d break the steering wheel if he gripped it any tighter. “Hey,” I said quietly.
His eyes blazed in my direction just once and then softened. He groaned. “Volto’s on my shit list,” he said. “I’m fucking tired of him.”
“Me, too,” I said. “But we’ve got other priorities as well. Hopefully the guys find him in the school. But what are we going to do tonight?”
Nathan huffed but seemed to agree with me. “Right. Well, the diner, perhaps? It’s as public as it gets and open at all hours.”
“It’s either that or staying at Kota’s house,” I said.
He slowed the car down. We were halfway between each option, already past the diner and almost to the other side of the road beyond the curb. He twisted to look back at the diner. “We can’t sleep at the diner.”
Something in the way we were talking around the subject bugged me. “We can’t avoid Erica forever.”
Nathan sighed. “I was trying to give Kota a chance to talk to her. I’m not sure he’s done it. And I know she’s been giving him some space too. I don’t know how she’ll react if we walk in together without Kota.”
“Maybe I can go in separately,” I said and then paused. “No, wait. I don’t like that idea. Volto or Hendricks could get to you if I leave you out here alone.”
He twisted in the seat to look at me. He stretched an arm out. “Come here?”
I leaned over the center console. He wrapped an arm around me, and then brought the other one around to complete the hug.
I pressed my hands to his chest, dipping my face into his shoulder. I breathed in the deep leather and cypress scent he had, letting it take over my senses.
