by C. L. Stone
“Oh,” I said, “but wouldn’t you need one for when you do things for the Academy?”
“It’d be handy,” Nathan said, “but there’s no way I’d be able to explain it. For this one, we pretended to put our money together to share the car. That way Erica wouldn’t have a problem with me coming to borrow the car when I need to.”
“That’ll change though,” Luke said. “Once the diner is open.”
“You guys won’t work anywhere else? Where do you get the money for stuff?”
Luke and Nathan exchanged glances over my head. Luke laughed. “We pick up odd jobs for other Academy members every once in a while,” he said. “We used to mow lawns and do repair work. We’d get normal jobs, but not a lot of bosses understand when we need to drop everything and run out the door.”
So Academy students can’t hold a job? “What makes the diner any different?”
Luke opened his mouth to answer, but something in the rearview mirror caught his attention. His eyes followed it instead of the road, enough for me to get nervous that he was going to drift into the other lane. “Were we followed from Sang’s house?”
Nathan stiffened next to me. “Followed?”
“Hang on,” Luke said. He stopped short at a traffic signal, and took a right.
I watched from the side mirror. A single dark sedan turned right behind us. Luke made a left on the next road, and the car followed.
“Shit,” Nathan said. “It’s Kota’s tail.”
“Is that bad?” I asked. “We weren’t doing anything.”
“Yeah, but we don’t want him following you home,” Nathan said. “Kota’s been keeping him busy so whoever it is wouldn’t notice your parents haven’t been home.”
My lips parted. So that was why Kota had been running out to Victor’s late at night. Why didn’t anyone tell me that was going on? I started to turn around. “Are we sure it’s the same guy?”
“It looks like the same car,” Nathan said. He patted my thigh. “Don’t look back at him. We don’t want to look like we’re worried about it.”
I fell back into the seat. “What do we do?”
Nathan glanced at the side mirrors. “Keep driving, Luke. Pick a store on the other side of town to go to. Sang, call North. Tell him what’s going on. I’ll keep watching, maybe I can catch a glimpse of who it is.”
I fished my phone out, finding North’s black car icon and tapping at it to call him.
He picked up on the first ring. It made me wonder if he hovered over his phone. “If Luke is driving you crazy, I don’t want him back,” North said. “Make him go to Kota’s.”
“We’re in Kota’s car and we’re being followed by the dark blue car.”
“Fuck,” North said. “Why didn’t you stay home?”
“Because I had no food at my house.”
“Baby, make the guys get you food. You stay home.”
Why was he being grouchy with me? This wasn’t my fault. “I can’t go to the grocery store? Kota told me to go with them.”
Luke waved at me for a second to get my attention. “Tell him to stop yelling.”
“What do we do?” I asked North.
“Have Nathan red line Silas so we can get your location.”
Nathan stuffed a hand into his pocket for his phone. “On it.” He stabbed at the screen.
“Is Silas getting it?” I asked North.
“We’ve got it. Have Luke keep driving. Don’t let him stop.”
I repeated it to Luke. “What else?”
“Just hang on, Baby. We’re coming for you.” He hung up.
Luke drove at five miles under the speed limit and took a long road around the block and back in a direction where we were facing town. “They better hurry up,” Luke said. “We’ve got groceries melting in the back.”
“Got a little more to worry about right now,” Nathan said. He angled his head at the rearview mirror and then at the side mirror. “His car windows are tinted too dark to see who it could be.”
“We should check the plate,” Luke said.
“We tried that,” Nathan said. “They’ve been lifting old plates and planting fake registration stickers on them. And we haven’t been able to get close enough to catch a VIN number. The guy’s always in it. And we’re not allowed to shadow him.”
“Should we call the police?” I asked. “Could we tell them we’re being followed?”
“No,” they both said at the same time.
I blushed. “Why not?”
Nathan glanced back at me. “We don’t really want the cops knowing about you.”
“Because of my parents?”
Nathan’s eyes darkened. “Yeah, that.”
I became distracted watching the car behind us. The sun was setting, and with the front lights on, it was harder to look at it and discover anything identifiable. Whoever it was wasn’t hiding the fact that they were trying to follow us now.
We were about to cross another road into a run-down part of the city when a text message came through my phone.
Silas: Tell Luke to speed up.
“Silas says to speed up,” I said.
Luke nodded, his knee jerking as he pushed harder on the gas.
The car surged forward. The moment there was a space big enough, a black SUV pulled around into the left hand lane into oncoming traffic from behind the blue car. It raced forward, sliding up in-between the cars.
When the SUV was securely in place, it slowed considerably.
Another text came through on my phone.
Silas: Next turn, make a right. Head home.
“Make the next right and then head home.”
“What is he doing?” Nathan asked, checking out the side mirror.
I turned on my knees in my seat, looking back. I could see North driving and Silas holding his phone, and also another device in his hand. I wondered where they got the SUV from. North has a motorcycle, the Jeep, a truck and an SUV?
North’s head twisted, catching me out. I could see his mouth moving. Silas did something with the phone in his hand. My phone started vibrating.
Silas: Get your seatbelt on.
I groaned, turned around and sat, putting on my belt. Luke made the next turn. The SUV came to a complete stop in the road, blocking the blue car. Luke weaved his way through a neighborhood and took a back road.
“Isn’t the guy going to figure out we tricked him?” I asked, still trying to twist around to watch what was going on behind us, just in case.
Nathan leaned back against the seat. “He’ll probably think North is some asshole driver who doesn’t know his way around. That car isn’t registered to him.”
“Won’t he just go back to Kota’s house? Or mine?”
“We need him to not see us unloading the car, and take this car back to Kota’s house,” he said. “The less he sees of you, the better.”
“Why me?” I asked. “Why aren’t we making sure Kota isn’t being followed? Isn’t that why he’s following this car? Because he thinks Kota is here?”
Nathan trapped my chin with his fingers, ensuring I focused on him. “Kota’s the most boring person on the planet to follow around. If Mr. Hendricks is looking for dirt, he’s following the wrong person.”
“He’s the distraction?” I asked.
Nathan grinned. “He’s an interest to them because they think he’ll be at the heart of whatever they think we’re doing. If all he does is mow the lawn and walk the dog, they’re going to have to give up.”
“And they’ll start following you or me,” I said.
Nathan shook his head. “If they had the resources to follow more than a couple of people, they would have followed all of us and Mr. Hendricks wouldn’t be asking you for help. He won’t follow you since you’re not in the Academy. If he does decide to, we’ll change tactics.”
Luke sighed, making a turn back onto a main road on the way to Sunnyvale Court. “I’d still like to know who’s following us.”
“It’s not too im
portant right now,” Nathan said. “We have orders to pretend we don’t notice it. If we can’t figure it out just by looking at the outside of the car, we’ll just have to wait this thing out.”
I leaned against Nathan, staring off out the front at the road, and glancing at all the mirrors. Despite what he said, it left me uncomfortable. If whoever was following Kota happened to notice my parents never showed up or came around, they could use that to their advantage somehow.
I couldn’t imagine what Mr. Hendricks would ask of me if he ever discovered the truth.
SECRET DREAMS
When we got back, we told Kota everything and then he had us unload the car quickly. He drove it back to his house and remained there.
Nathan had wanted to stay, but Kota had him go home.
“We want to fall into routines and only give them something of interest when we feel like it,” Kota said. “I don’t know how much they’re paying attention, but he can see your house from mine. You need to go home and pretend to be boring like me, too. At least for tonight.”
Luke stayed with me, though. I was in the attic space, picking out clothes for school the next day, and wondering what to wear to the football game and party afterward. I almost wished Gabriel was there so I could have his help with that. It occurred to me I should ask if he wanted to go, too.
“Luke?” I called to the open door.
He appeared a moment later, his blond hair was down, hanging around his shoulders. He’d replaced the school uniform with a pair of dark pajama bottoms and was bare-chested. “Yeah?”
“Did you want to go to the game tomorrow?”
“You want a date?”
My face radiated. He’d said it like it was something he was waiting for, but hadn’t been expecting right that second. Him, too? Now it suddenly felt like they all wanted to go on a date and they were trying to figure out where I stood with them. How did this become more complicated than ever? “Kota and Nathan are taking me. I was wondering if you wanted to go.”
His smile softened. “Oh. Well I can’t go. Uncle wants me at the restaurant tomorrow afternoon.”
“Working already?”
“Gabriel is coming with me. He wants to do last minute decor stuff.”
That brought the smile back to my lips. They were busy anyway. That relieved some guilt about not asking earlier. “That sounds like something he’d do.”
“I didn’t know you liked football.”
“Your brother is playing,” I said, trying to suggest he should be interested for the same reason, to support North. “But if you’re going to be at the diner, maybe we can stop by after. I can’t wait to see it.”
“Oh,” he said, but the tone had dropped enough that it surprised me. When I looked back at him, he was frowning, but he tried to mask it, forcing a smile.
“Unless you’ll be busy,” I said, unsure if that’s what he meant. Did he think I’d be in the way? Or did he want to wait to show me later? “Should we wait until it opens up?”
The smile warmed a little, but only a touch. “If you want.”
It broke my heart. I wasn’t sure what I’d said that made him unhappy. “Luke? What’s wrong?”
“What? Nothing.”
I frowned. I held out a hand to him, inviting him inside.
He seemed surprised by this, but his hand drifted out toward mine, wrapping around my fingers and holding. I tugged him into the attic. He followed me to the back, where there was a platform with the bean bag chair and the collection of pictures glued to the wall. I nudged him up into the two person chair first. He climbed up, sitting back. I climbed in after him, sitting next to him but tucking my legs underneath me; my knees ended up in his lap.
Even next to him like this, sitting back and looking at him, he seemed uncomfortable, distant.
“Luke?” I wasn’t sure where to start.
He sighed, tilted his head around until his dark eyes met mine. The moment he looked at me, I was struck dumb by his beautiful face, the perfect mouth and angles, and also by the waves of emotion he shifted toward me. “Sang,” he said quietly. His fingers found my cheek in the dark, and he traced the outside of my jaw.
His touch forced a shiver through me. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Don’t ask me that,” he whispered.
“But ...” I didn’t understand. Was it that he didn’t want me to know? He didn’t trust me?
His mouth dipped in the corner and he sighed. “Would you be offended if I told you I didn’t want you to come to the diner?”
This wasn’t what I was expecting. “What do you mean? I thought you wanted me to work there with you.”
“I do. I mean I did ...” He grunted, pulling his hand back and he pushed both palms to his face. “Forget I said anything. It’s stupid.”
“Luke, just tell me.”
He drew his hands away from his face, wrapping one arm around my back and gazing down at me. “I was just thinking I barely get to see you now. I mean, I see you every day but we’re always so busy. It’s like the first time in a while I’ve been with you without having Kota bark at us about homework or needing to be quiet so we don’t let your mom know we’re here. And if you start working at the diner ...”
“But if I’m working at the diner, I’ll spend a lot more time with you, won’t I?”
“Yeah, that,” he said. “But we’ll be working. It isn’t only that; there will be other people there, too.”
I laughed. “Yeah. They’re called customers.”
“And other people working.”
“Like your uncle?”
He pursed his lips, his eyes losing their playful spark. “I’m not supposed to tell you.”
This struck me, and I instantly knew what he was saying without him telling me. I supposed I shouldn’t talk about what I knew out loud, but it surprised me so much that my lips were flying. “Other Academy people?”
He grunted, but nodded. “Yeah.”
It should have been obvious to me that there were more Academy students, some who knew Luke and the others, and they’d also like a chance to work in a place that understood Academy business sometimes meant disappearing. Academy people might even stop by as customers. “What’s wrong with that?” I asked. “Is that bad? Do you not like them?”
“No, I like them,” he said. “But we haven’t really told them about you yet.”
“Oh,” I said, almost disappointed. “Am I a secret?”
“Not really,” he said. His gaze lifted from his hand in his lap to me. “I wish I could keep you a secret, though. I want to.”
The longing in his eyes struck me that I whispered. “Luke ...”
“Sang,” he said. His hand in his lap slid over until it captured one of mine. He held it, squeezing my palm. “I don’t want you to meet them because I don’t want you to leave us.”
It was like a wash of cool water struck my thudding heart, stopping it dead. I didn’t know how to formulate the question his response had me pondering. “Would ... would the Academy keep me from you if they knew about me?”
Luke’s eyes widened. He shook his head. “No, sweetie, no. It doesn’t work like that.”
My heart released itself, starting to thunder again. “I don’t understand. You made it sound like if they knew, they’d take me away or order us to stop seeing each other. I don’t want to be taken.”
Luke’s mouth finally broke, a small smile forming in the corner. “No, Sang, no, that’s not ... sorry. I’m not good at explaining.” He sighed, straightened a little to collect my other hand and held them together toward his bare chest. “What I’m saying is, everyone in the Academy is really nice. Nice and helpful, capable and talented.”
“Like you,” I said absently, trying to understand his point.
His smile broadened. “Some much more talented than me.”
My hands clutched at his chest as he pressed my palms to it. “You’re worried I’ll like them better?”
Luke let out a breath, strong e
nough I felt it whispering through my hair across my forehead. “Family is a choice,” he said quietly.
The line and realization that came with it struck me so hard that I nearly clawed his chest. I released him to avoid hurting him. “You think I’d like them better and I’ll replace you with someone else?”
“I don’t want to think so,” he said.
I slapped at his chest. “Luke! I swear, I thought you were going to tell me they were going to ... Why would you ever ... how could you think ...” I was livid. I couldn’t imagine anyone ever luring me away from them. As if that would ever happen! I never talked to anyone but them. Why would anyone even bother? I thought they barely put up with me now, especially since I’ve been so much trouble. But they’ve done so much for me, how could I ever forget about them?
Luke smirked, rubbing at his chest where I’d hit him. “Is that a no?”
I wasn’t even sure what the question was. “If you don’t want me to work at the diner, I won’t, but don’t say it’s because you think I’ll stop liking you.”
Luke’s face fell a little. “It’s always possible.”
“Why would I stop?”
He blinked at me. “What?”
“Why would I stop liking you?”
His lips moved like he wanted to respond but he couldn’t figure out the words. He reached behind his head, rubbing at his scalp behind his ear. “Well ...”
“And what if I liked someone else from the Academy? Does that mean I have to stop liking you?”
“No,” he said. “I just didn’t want you to like them better.”
I paused, pushing a finger to my mouth. “You could like them better,” I said. Isn’t that what I sometimes wondered about them? What if one day girls were approaching them and they started talking? What if he liked one of them more than me? Wouldn’t it be selfish of me to try to intervene? I’d thought at one point Victor liked someone else at school. Then Silas told me girls tried to win Victor over all the time. I was a girl trying to blend in and be ordinary, and with a whole lot of family problems. They’d swept in and saved me, and I cared deeply for them because of that reason. I also worried all the time they’d get tired of having to deal with it and would want friends, or girlfriends, without such complications.