We parked not far from the school, at a small shopping center with a central grocery store. The grocery was open twenty-four hours and a fast food place nearby was open late, so we still blended in at this hour. There were a few cars in the lot, but he parked in the back of the grocery store, where there was a smaller lot for employees.
He parked and then checked the dash for the time. “We’ve got a few minutes.” He gazed out the window, checking the building in front of us. There were yellowed lights in the back, although not as many as there were in customer parking. Most of the cars were in darkness. “Victor should have taken care of the cameras.”
I checked where he was looking, at a camera angled toward the employee cars.
“Unless he forgot that, too,” North said with a grumble.
“What do you think he’s doing?” I asked. “I’d been there most of the afternoon before you came over. He seemed pretty busy. I was trying to leave him alone. He couldn’t watch the movie with me and Luke, and I thought he was working on whatever was happening tonight.”
“I think he’s buying you a house,” North said.
“He wouldn’t dare.”
He scanned the parking lot once more and then looked over at me and smirked. “Bet you a dollar.”
I didn’t think it was possible. Despite now knowing he had his own portfolio and he was using Mr. Blackbourne’s card more than his own, it still didn’t seem like he could just buy one.
He put a hand on the back of my seat near my head and turned to look at me. “If you ask us anything, we’ll do it. You know that.”
“I don’t know if I want to get accustomed to that,” I said.
“Why not?”
“I want to help, too.”
“You are,” he said. He leaned toward me and a thick, dark eyebrow lifted over one eye. “You’re helping me tonight. You were great today at the school.”
“I feel like I can do more.”
“You will,” he said. “And because of it, not a damn one of us is going to think you spoiled or lazy for wanting a house big enough to fit all of us in. You didn’t come to us asking for a three-story mansion in Hawaii or some other bullshit. You said house. And not just for you. For Victor and Gabriel and whoever else. So let Victor find a house he might want to live in.” He smirked. “But I’ll tell him we all need to approve. That’s a big decision to make alone.”
I crossed my arms over my stomach and relaxed against the seatback. “Don’t let him put it on the credit card.” I wasn’t sure that was possible, but Victor often bought things on a whim. I thought he’d do it if he could.
North chuckled. It was deep and rumbly, and with the way the dark hair on his cheeks and chin were grown out, it was downright frightening sound coming from his scary face.
He captured my chin and drew me toward him, until we were nose to nose. “You’d think I’d stop him?”
“Yes.”
He shook his head, his nose rubbing against mine shortly. A rough thumb traced along my jawline. “If he won’t, I will.”
My breath shortened. My pulse raced. I didn’t dare move. He was too close in the dark for my eyes to focus. I could only feel his touch, sense him close to me.
“I got you something,” he said softly.
Surprised, his comment made me pull back. “Don’t tell me it’s a house.”
He chuckled again and then reached behind my seat, into a small paper shopping bag that I hadn’t noticed.
I held my breath as he pulled out a small slim box. He took off the top, showing me a necklace.
It was a silver chain, with a long slim glass container attached. The glass had sand crystals inside.
On the surface was etched some numbers. I realized they were latitude and longitude coordinates.
“Where...” I asked without being able to finish the question as I was breathless.
“The beach. The North Shore on Folly,” he said.
I picked up the glass jar, looking closer. I couldn’t help but remember the night we’d sat on the beach. I fell into the water and he pulled me back out. We spent the night in the hotel.
“I love it,” I said.
He captured my hand that was holding the vial. He clutched at my fingers and focused intently on me.
“I’ll take you back,” he said.
“When we’ve got time.”
“Tonight. I want to go tonight.”
My heart raced, and I tried to work out some reason why we shouldn’t. It felt like I wasn’t supposed to.
But where was I going to go after this any way? Back to the trailer?
Did it matter?
“Come with me?” he asked.
I nodded. He knew if we could go, and if he said we could, I’d go. “Yes.” I rubbed the jar of sand between my fingers. “I want to wear this...but not right now. When we get back.”
“I know.” He pulled back and motioned to me. “It’s time. Let’s go.”
We put the necklace back, and he stuck the box back into the bag and underneath the seat. I hated to leave it.
I put on a hat similar to his dark cotton one and tucked my hair into it. I still wore the clip, and the hat pressed around it, but the important thing was my hair was contained.
North attached a few things to his belt, a flashlight, a small camera, and something else I wasn’t sure of but it looked like a stun gun. He carried a small backpack as well with other gear.
He passed me the flip phone.
“All you have to do is open it, and it dials out,” he said. He leaned into me and looked me directly in the eyes. “Don’t open it unless we get separated and you can’t make it back to the Jeep.”
“What if you can’t make it back?”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll get back.”
We went to the back of the lot behind the grocery store. The back of the lot had a hill and trees, which separated the space between the shopping center and the school. I skirted around that tree line and behind North, following him, which was difficult with him wearing all black and his dark skin blending in with the shadows.
Despite the air being cool, the humidity was high. I couldn’t see stars and suspected it would rain tonight.
Before we got to the very edge of the shopping center, North darted into the trees, creating a path and weaving around low hanging limbs and bramble. I followed, feeling brush and bramble scratching at my clothes and boots. I tucked my arms tight into my body.
I didn’t dare talk. I became his shadow as we entered into dangerous territory. There would be no excuse if we were caught.
When we broke from the trees, we were near the lot that the busses parked in during the day. Dim lights were on over a couple of doorways but otherwise, everything looked quiet. The building blocked our view of the student lot on the other side. Nathan was waiting somewhere over there. Luke was inside the school already, probably in a ceiling somewhere in the cafeteria.
We walked the long way around the bus lot, sticking near the trees.
North stopped suddenly and ducked back into the trees once more, kneeling in the grass. I did the same. He motioned out toward the school.
There were two doors on this side I hadn’t noticed before. Wide doors that had previously blended into the brickwork. Two people pushed the doors opened. One was a woman, and I didn’t recognize her. The other was Mr. Morris.
“What’s he doing here?” I whispered.
North didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. I realized immediately if Hendricks trusted Ms. Johnson to watch the student lot, he’d have other teachers preparing for the delivery.
What was being delivered?
North suddenly started moving, but keeping inside the trees, making our progress slow. He waited until we circled an exterior building, what seemed to be a maintenance shed or storage. We crossed over, going behind it just as a loud, large rental truck pulled into the drive for busses.
North hurried from that point. The trailers were close by. We sidled up to the closest one. He took off his backpack, pushed it ahead of him and started crawling on his stomach underneath.
Ick.
I swallowed my fear of bugs and other creeping things and followed. Underneath of the trailer was mostly dry dirt. It clung to my clothes.
When he was positioned not far from the edge, he stopped, putting the pack beside himself. I crawled next to him. He passed me a pair of binoculars and kept a set for himself.