The Academy--The Bird and the Beetle

by C. L. Stone

  “I need another ID,” Raven said. “I need to borrow a boat.”

  Marc disappeared into his bedroom, and came back with an ID card, and a wad of cash. “There’s a hotel by the marina, plus there’s a little restaurant. See if you can set up surveillance from the hotel room. Get Silas to make friends with whoever is in the dock house. When it opens, go to the restaurant that has a good view of the docks. Call Silas from a pay phone. Make sure he brings an emergency phone and leaves his own behind. He needs a non-GPS car, too.”

  “I’ll take the bike,” Brandon said.

  “You need another car,” Marc said. “See if anyone has a spare. The bike will work for now, but it’s too loud and obvious. Have them replace your bike. Use the park to hide in for now. And you need some protection since Blake knows your face. I should probably be doing your job.”

  “I could make it obvious,” Brandon said. “I could tail him and make sure he knows. He’ll be reluctant to make a move then.”

  “He may figure out a way to divert you, instead. If he is with one of the cartels, that makes him more dangerous. We don’t want to take that risk right now. Just watch, but from a distance.”

  Brandon nodded. “Have Corey send someone to find me. I’ll stay in the park if I can. If I need to, I’ll circle the block.”

  I had my arms crossed around my stomach, and hovered in the hallway. I was in awe simply hearing them talking like this, the way they worked together. They talked about their plans. They came up with a solution. Marc made the final decision and they went with it. The fluidity of how they worked dazzled me. Raven, the least likely I suspected to take orders or advice from anyone, accepted what Marc had to say and simply absorbed it. It was like their fight from before had been forgotten completely.

  I felt out of place where I stood, but inside I desired this. I didn’t understand it so well, and while I worked alone, being with the guys was like being more confident in my choices. With more than one person making the decision, it felt like more of the right thing to do. I didn’t feel like I was messing up any more.

  I’d messed up enough. Now they were doing all this to fix my mistakes. Maybe Coaltar didn’t know about the cameras and the rest until I tipped him off. And I’d pointed him right at the boys by mentioning Brandon and their suspicions.

  Marc walked over to the door to open it for the others as they left. As he moved, it was the first time I noticed the limp. Panic settled in. If the guys left, I’d be alone with him. He’d curse me out for shooting him. He’d tell me how stupid I was for getting caught up in this. I couldn’t run now. I’d already promised I’d stay.

  Before Marc shut the door, I approached him. “Maybe we should go hang out with Corey,” I said. “Maybe we can help him.” I thought a third person being around would ease the tension.

  “Corey works best when he’s alone so he can listen and think,” Marc said. He closed the door and turned the lock. “If he needs us down there, he’ll call. Besides, he may not stay here. He may need to work from somewhere else. We don’t want to slow him down.”

  I tapped my fingers across my upper thighs, and started the awkward gazing around the apartment. Silence settled in. The crazy moments of before still coursed through me but I had nowhere to expend the energy.

  Not much had changed since I left. The place still smelled like special blends of coffee. I curled my toes against the fibers of the standard beige carpet. Blake’s carpets had been softer. I cringed at the bitter thoughts of him, at thinking of how he had tricked me.

  “What’s wrong?” Marc asked, his voice softer than I expected.

  I flinched and looked up. He stood by the door still, leaning against it with his shoulder. His mismatched eyes focused on me.

  “Nothing,” I said quickly.

  “Liar,” he said quietly.

  That stung. “Stop saying that,” I said. “Don’t call me that.”

  “You were lying.”

  “If I’m lying, there’s probably a reason.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like I don’t want to tell you.”

  He blew out a perplexed sigh. “Bambi...”

  “And stop calling me Bambi!”

  “What the hell are you so mad at me for?” he barked back. He pointed his hand at his chest. “I’ve been looking for you for two days, and you come back in trouble and you’re mad at me?”

  My breath became hard to manage. “I ... I don’t ...” I couldn’t think of the words to use, at the same time trying to stuff my anger back before I did anything else stupid. Why was I angry with him? Why couldn’t I stop?

  Or maybe I wasn’t mad at all, but terrified. I simply didn’t know how to express it, too proud to admit it. Blake Coaltar was more trouble than I imagined.

  And besides that, I worried that if and when this was over, the world Marc had dragged me into would suddenly disappear.

  Being back, having the boys touch me, scrambling now to help me, when I’d been the one to bring them this trouble, it moved me in ways I couldn’t express.

  Every moment I spent with them, it lured me further in. The guys were amazing and I wanted to spend more time with them. I wanted to learn what they knew. I wanted to go with Axel and Raven back to the shooting range. I wanted to play video games with Corey. I wanted to learn how to surf with Brandon. I wanted to know why their apartment smelled like a coffee house. I wanted Marc not to hate me. I didn’t feel so out of place here. I didn’t feel like I had to hide who I was.

  I was scared of the truth. Because the truth was, I didn’t want to be alone. The more time I spent with them, the more I craved to be part of this. Perhaps that’s what drew me to Blake. He brought me in without question, too. He tried his best to involve me. Maybe he wasn’t what I thought it was, but he seemed to be genuine at the time.

  I pushed back thoughts of Blake and simply stared at Marc. There were shadows under his eyes. The cord that hung from his neck, the silver sand dollar, dangled on top of his blue-collared shirt. The dark blue jeans and black boots, the whole ensemble with his sculpted chest and arms was exquisite. What didn’t match his otherwise striking face was the terrified expression he held.

  He took a step forward. “Are you spacing out on me? What’s wrong now?”

  “I don’t know what to do right now,” I said, trying to push back all the lies that were teasing my tongue, since he seemed to know when I lied anyway. This was the best I could do to answer, and it was true. I had no idea.

  His shoulders relaxed. He held his arms out and open and he slowly stepped forward. “Kayli, come here for a second.”

  I closed the distance between us, with my hands up in front of me, unsure what he wanted.

  The moment I was close enough, he captured my wrists and drew me in. His arms weaved around my shoulders and he held on tight in an embrace.

  The hug was awkward to me at first. I felt I didn't deserve it, least of all from him. I’d shot him in the leg. I left when he said not to. I ran to the only person he’d warned me to stay away from. Even after all of that, he came looking for me. He didn’t give up on me, even now. It took the last of my strength to close off my emotions so I wouldn’t cry.

  His cheek met the side of my head, and he whispered. “I promised you,” he said. “I promised I’d never let you see Jack or that hotel again if that’s what you wanted. I promised I’d make sure Wil would be okay. What I forgot to mention was that I would make sure you were okay, too.”

  “I’m fine,” I said, though I choked. I stuffed my face against his shoulder. “I don’t need anything.”

  “You do,” he said. “I know you do. I was like you, once, and I needed the same thing.”

  “You don’t know anything about me,” I said.

  “You’re Kayli Winchester,” he said. “You’ve had a hard life, but you’re intelligent, and brave, and reckless. You push others away because you don’t want to be hurt. If people get too close to the real Kayli, you start lying or run away if the lie
s don’t work.”

  I grunted and tried to push at his chest. “I don’t—”

  He held strong, his arms tightening around my body. His head tilted until his lips met my ear. “But the real Kayli is amazing. She’s selfless. She’d risk her own life and freedom for anyone she cares about. She’s tender and a die-hard loyal person who demands only the best of loyalty in return. She’ll test you at every possible moment just to make sure you stick around. God help anyone who could win your heart and your trust, because he wouldn’t realize what would be unleashed in you.”

  I swallowed, and tried to bury my head further into his shoulder, as if that was the way to get all the feelings inside of me to disappear. I wanted him to stop. The truth was, I didn’t want to look at myself as closely as he seemed to see me. “Marc,” I said, my voice smaller than I’d ever heard it before.

  He sniffed hard and as he continued to hug me, he stepped forward, until my back met with the bathroom doorframe. He stopped there and pulled his head back. He lowered it until his forehead touched mine. “Don’t run any more, Kayli. If you’re worried I’ll see something I won’t like, trust me, I’ve got plenty of ghosts in my own closet for you to pick through.”

  “What?”

  “I wasn’t always like this,” he said. “I wasn’t even like you. You have Wil. You had a lot of excuses, reasons for what you’ve done. And even when you stole money, you were always thinking of other people. I wasn’t like that. I was horrible. I was mean. I was...” He shook his head against mine. “I did a lot of shit. Stuff I’m not proud of. Axel and the other guys, they got me out of it. They saw things in me I didn’t know about, things I hid from everyone by trying to be tough and put on a fake face. When I was young, I did it to survive. Then suddenly I just became that bad guy and just didn’t care. Until Axel showed up.”

  “Axel said you saved his life,” I whispered.

  He moved his arms from around me, until his palms cupped my cheeks. He kept his body close. I couldn’t move my hands from his chest, and I didn’t want to. Heat drifted from him and I wanted to absorb it. It was more than that, too. His closeness was something I wanted as well.

  “I was in a bad spot,” he said. “I’d gotten mixed up in this street gang that did nothing but steal money for the drugs we wanted. We took over an abandoned section of houses down in North Charleston. Axel was part of an Academy team sent to stop us and clean up the area, only he infiltrated our group, trying to figure out if anyone was worth saving. He mixed in too far and the gang was going to kill him.”

  “They killed people?”

  “It was all about the drugs for them and he was a threat. They were being assholes. They stole a couple of guns and were going to drive by his house and shoot. Classic drive-by. Chicken-shit stuff. They wanted to stop anyone from taking over, which they thought Axel was doing. They thought he was part of another gang. Only I found out and I warned him. From that point on, he wouldn’t leave me alone. Every chance he got, he was inviting me to come to the shooting range with him, to go surfing with him. Anything and everything. Like a lost puppy that you feed once and you try to shoo off and he never listens.”

  “Why did you change? Why did you finally listen?”

  His thumb traced over my cheekbone, slowly, like the breath from his lips that trailed over every little inch of my face. The gentle touch sent waves of warm shivers through me. His eyes burrowed into mine. “He never gave up. The times I would come around, he never hesitated. He’d feed me, invite me to stay. He had me working with him on his research. I’d run off when I thought it was too much, but when I came back, it was like I never left. He took me back every time. Eventually I just stopped leaving.”

  Something Axel had told me before about the Academy clicked inside. “And did he make you join this Academy? Was that why he wanted you?”

  “That’s something else.” He smoothed his palm down, tracing over my jaw. “But the Academy trusted him when he said I was a good person, and they supported him. So when I did finally decide I wanted in, he supported me fully, every step, and the Academy did as well.”

  “Sounds nice,” I said, with no real conviction. I didn’t know anything about the Academy other than the bits I’d been able to piece together. It wasn’t the current puzzle I’d been trying to work on, because of Coaltar. I was curious, but I’d work it out later.

  “Kayli,” he said. “My point is it took me a long time to figure out I didn’t have to run off any more. I’m trying to help you. It’s easier if you just give in.”

  “What are you saying?” I asked. “I already agreed to stay here because Coaltar.”

  “I’m talking about you not running away all the time.”

  “What do you want from me? I just said I’d stay,” I barked at him.

  “For now,” he said. His fingertip trailed back up along my jaw until he was rubbing the soft spot just below my ear. “But I see it every time anyone looks at you too long. I was trying to talk to you at the mall, and you didn’t even know me, and you lied about your name and tried to run away. We had to corner you, and threaten you to get you to come with us. It feels like we’ve got to threaten you to stick around. I’m trying to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way. Not with us.”

  I tried to tilt my head away from his fingers. They were making it hard to keep the wall over my heart up. I closed my eyes. I couldn’t take this. I couldn’t surrender to his promises. Like Brandon, I couldn’t believe for a moment he really wanted to, but that he just felt obligated.

  Marc seized my chin, shoving it back until my face was close to his. His fingers roughed over my jaw. “Kayli, stop shutting me out,” he commanded.

  “I don’t know what you want me to do,” I said, but my voice was nearly gone, thick with the fear that he was way too close and seemed to think he knew what I wanted. I didn’t want him to know he was right. I don’t know why. My pride was too strong. I’d been this way for so long, I didn’t know how to give in. I didn’t know how to trust.

  He opened his mouth, like he wanted to say something else but stopped, and his eyes drifted down to my mouth and held. My breath caught in my throat.

  Before I could think to even push him off, his mouth claimed me. He kissed me hard enough that my head pressed back into the wall. His hands slid back to cup around my jawline to keep me from pulling away. His lips pressed down, mouth parted.

  I kissed him back. I don’t know what came over me, but I wanted to feel those promises. I wanted to believe, for the moment, that maybe I could just let go, like he said, and trust that I could be accepted for who I was. Was I just like him? Could I be like that? Could I find a place just for me among these guys and waltz in and be with them? Corey had accepted me without much of a fight, it seemed. The others were a little harder. Brandon had been the most difficult, but once I understood what he was about, it seemed like he never hesitated, either, he just wanted to be sure I knew what I was getting involved in.

  I opened my mouth, inviting Marc in, just a little.

  Like opening the gates, his mouth claimed me again. In every possible place I could think to hide, he found me. My mind blanked out. I didn’t have room for anything else other than Marc and his kiss that told me everything would be all right. His kiss sank into me over and over again. Lips pressed against mine, tugging at my skin, at heart strings, at my core.

  When he finally released my mouth so I could breathe, his lips trailed over my face, across my eyes and my brows.

  “Why did it have to be you?” He breathed out as he whispered against my face. “I was hunting a thief, and I found a beautiful wreck. I wasn’t ready for this.”

  “Ready?” I murmured.

  His head dipped down, and he kissed me once, closed mouthed, against my lips slowly. He released me again but kept his head a breath width away and his lips nearly grazed mine as he whispered. “You feel it, don’t you?” He took my hand and shoved it toward his stomach, pressing my palm against his abdomen. “Tho
se goddamn wriggly sparks.”

  I didn’t have a response to that. I wasn’t sure how I felt. I thought maybe I did, but my mind didn’t want to let go of some nagging feeling. I’d felt it with Coaltar, too, the same strong desires. I felt it with Brandon, when he kissed me before, or so I thought. There were other tugs against my heart strings, with the other boys, with Raven, and Axel, and even Corey. For that reason, I wanted to close it all off. I blamed it on the lack of being really close to anyone for such a long time. I was Kayli, the unwanted thief, for years. Now I was tempted by so many emotions that I hadn’t felt for so long. Suddenly there was a group, and they were welcoming, but all too overwhelming.

  My hand clutched at his abdomen, as if I could pull those feelings from him and find the surety he seemed to be feeling. As if I could find the courage to tell him the truth; that I felt it, too, it was just much more complicated. “Marc,” I said, unable to think of anything else to say.

  He growled, low and guttural, like an ache he was fighting. His arms encircled me once again, drawing me from the wall. He picked me up, hefting me over his shoulder.

  “Marc!” I cried out. I punched him in the hip and butt. “Put me down.”

  He ignored this, and instead limped to his bedroom. He kicked the door shut behind us and angled for the bed. He plopped me down onto the mattress. Before my sense of what was right-side-up came back, he flicked off the light and crawled into the bed next to me.

  “Scoot over,” he said, lifting the covers on the bed.

  “Shouldn’t we stay up?” I asked. “Should we pay attention? What about Wil? What about Coaltar?”

  “If there’s one thing you’re going to have to learn,” Marc said. He picked up the second pillow on his bed, fluffing it and placing it near my head for me to rest on. “You’re going to have to trust that if they need us, they’ll call. Until then, it’s a good idea to get some sleep. Besides, we may need to take a little trip soon, if it looks like Coaltar is coming after you.”