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Emma’s eyes widened as she saw me making nice lines and bullet points under a cute pink header I’d labeled after my new favorite song.
I blushed. “Kind of.”
She actually laughed. “I love it!”
Yeah, we’d definitely be friends.
“So, the wire. That’s one thing I should have done. And the other one is that you need to be able to record whatever happens and to stop it at the last minute. I don’t know how you’ll do that, Rory.”
I sighed. “I have a very vague idea. I do have a friend who’s very good at climbing pipes and breaking in through windows, though .”
Hell, she’d done it to save a pigeon. She could do it for me, too.
Emma looked doubtful, but she nodded. “The wire and a recording. When the time is right, you must raise the alarm. And Rory—don’t make the mistake I did. Don’t drink or eat anything that is sent to you in that room.”
Oh, fuck. I hadn’t thought of that. I’d guessed he’d ask me to drink something with him—but even before that?
“Stock up on food. I don’t know, dry energy bars and stuff like that. Because every meal they send up to you will have stuff that’s...” She paused here. I knew what she wanted to say.
So, Emory Abbot used the cumulative effect of drugs to take students down and have his way with them.
This was no man. He was a fucking coward.
“Okay.” I nodded. “I got all of this down. I wanted to ask you about someone else.”
She inclined her head.
“Orville Butler.”
Her eyes darkened. “I don’t know if he will help you, Rory. There was a lot he promised us as well. But he never followed through. My guess is that Abbot threatened to ruin his career. I don't really know.”
I nodded. What Emma didn’t know was that Orville Butler would have no choice other than to help me.
As a matter of fact, if Benjamin heard this story, he’d say it was divine intervention. Some dark magic through the stars. Karmic balancing. I wouldn’t even be able to argue with his logic this time.
But I’d get to that a little later.
“So, after all of this is done, you need to come out and head straight to Noah or Benjamin. Don’t stop, don’t wait for anyone to come and ask you whether you’re lost. You don’t know who’s working undercover for Abbot there. He expects shit to go wrong.”
“Okay, I think that’s most of it. Now, I wanted to ask you something else. It’s not related to any of this.”
Emma looked surprised. “Of course. What is it?”
“I’m going to write a paper. It’s about children in foster care, circling around the system. It’s going to be pretty extensive.”
“Wow, that... that’s pretty close to my heart. Have you done any research on it?”
“Loads. I’ve been trying to get what I can together. But I also want this to be a bit of a labor of love. And I would like to do it with you.”
Her eyes widened. “I... Rory, shouldn’t you go with an established name? That would give you more visibility. It’d increase your chances of getting into a peer-reviewed journal too. I've been out of the field for far too long.”
“You can take the social worker out of the field, Emma, but you can never take the love out of their hearts. There’s no one better than you to write this with me. Established names be damned.”
She smiled a sunny, sunny smile. “I’d be honored.”
“Emma? R-Rory?”
We looked up from our drinks to the man who was running up to the table like he expected it to go up in flames.
