Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird Series)

“I know,” she said.

Her staying here to take a test with her sister made even more sense now. “Yeah.” Nathan motioned to the door. “I’m going to go see about the others. Silas went over to check out what was going on.”

Sang backed up, putting her arms around her stomach and holding herself. “Go find them,” she said. “Come back and tell us what’s happening?”

He left Sang with Dr. Green. His heart pounded, his mind whirling with questions. Did Volto’s chaos actually help them out or did it lead them all to disaster much more dire than they realized? There was no escaping North being questioned about where he was last night and what happened. Dr. Green was going to be involved sooner or later. Mr. Blackbourne was probably inside the main office right now, sorting through the mess.

He doubted they could get out of this one without a lot of favors.





Where Everything Gets Tricky




The front of the school was crowded with students and faculty alike. A policeman stood by the main office, hands in his pockets, monitoring the activity and warding off anyone who came by. While most kept their distance, the area was alive with talking, very animated.

Bomb threat? Did someone die? Nathan could feel the questions without even hearing what they were asking.

Jay and Rocky stood together near the back of the crowd. Silas was with them, looking toward the students and beyond, to the front doors of the school.

Nathan had to circle around to even see what was going on near the front doors, finding police at the front, blocking off access to anyone going out without permission. Occasionally, someone came inside, people who had been standing out front. It left lots of room for speculation.

Nathan wasn’t sure why they were letting anyone out front at all.

Since the bell had rung, most of the teachers that were near the front door were warding off students.

“Go to class,” they said.

Some of the students were breaking away. The bell rang again, indicating they were all late for homeroom.

Teachers took to ushering kids away from the front of the school and to class before they all got detention. They formed a line and shooed with hand motions, getting them to move.

Silas broke away from Jay and Rocky and jogged over to Nathan. “I can’t get into the main office. Jay said there’s a rumor going around they put Mr. McCoy in custody.”

“Any reason why?”

He shook his head. “And no sign of Mr. Hendricks. I don’t know what the hell is going on with the Jeep. North’s in the office with Mr. Blackbourne. We’re getting an Academy lawyer in there. A few other people might be on the way, too.”

Academy people. When police got involved, it took more resources to straighten it all out. Nathan put his hands into his pockets and stood there, looking on toward the front doors. Despite the teachers shooing away other students, they seemed to ignore Nathan and Silas standing, for the most part.

“We can’t stay right here,” Silas said. “The teachers might avoid us, but the police will wonder why we’re standing around.”

“Should we go to the office? Can we help Mr. Blackbourne or North?”

“No. We can’t get to them. I’m not sure we should.”

“He’ll call if he needs us,” Nathan said, although he didn’t have a phone. “Where are the others? Where’s Kota?”

“Kota left with Gabriel. They’re out looking for Hendricks, although they doubt they’ll find him.”

“Luke? Where’s he?”

Silas blinked and shrugged. “I know he’s here. I just don’t know where. It’s been crazy since we arrived.”

Great. “Maybe we should be looking for him.” He remained stationary for a moment as a teacher moved from outside to the office, looking pale faced. Nathan suspected he was asked to go inside and answer questions. “We also need to know how his Jeep got there. Any cameras?”

“Victor’s working on that. They’re going through footage.”

Nathan could go through it, but maybe Victor didn’t need another person working on it. And unless they were willing to admit they had cameras installed in the school, then there wasn’t much chance they could turn it in as evidence.

“Let’s look for Luke, I guess,” Silas said.

Nathan retreated from the chaos at the front of the school. Silas joined him, and they took a long route around the school, crossing through the cafeteria and then on through hallways. Eventually they got to a stairwell. Most of this side of the school was empty, except for the classrooms.

Silas said nothing during this time, looking at his feet as they walked around. Now that they’d left the crime scene area, they couldn’t return unless they had a purpose. Mr. Blackbourne and North being in there alone irked at Nathan. He hoped it was going okay.

“How’d it go getting a cousin in?” Nathan asked.

“Hmmm,” Silas said, sounding sour.

“Can’t get one to come?”

“He’s wanting to call in a whole family.”

Nathan chuckled. “Do it. He’ll get lots of people to help.”

Silas shook his head, smirking. “It won’t deter him. He’ll want me to manage.”

“Get a cousin to do—”

Suddenly, Luke appeared at the top of the stairs ahead of them. His hair was pulled back in a clip. Once he saw them, he stopped, sat flat down on the very top step and flopped backward, spreading out his arms. He stage whispered, “Save me! I’m so tired. Get me out of here.”

Nathan took the stairs two at a time to get to him. He sat down on the top step, leaning over to check for any injuries. Luke had on all black from the night before and was barefoot, but he looked okay. “Are you hurt somewhere I can’t see?”

“No,” he said in an exhale. “I’m just exhausted.”

“What have you been doing?”

“I’ve been hiding,” he said. As he breathed, his chest lifted and fell. His hair was in a black clip, but a lot of locks had fallen out and brushed against the floor. “They’ve been all over this place since the smoke bomb. I’m not exactly dressed for an interview.” He sat up on his elbows. “I’m starving.”

Silas slid his bookbag around. He fished in it and presented a protein bar to him. “Will this work?”

“For now,” Luke said, sitting up and taking the bar from him. He ripped open the edge with his teeth and then took a big bite. He talked as he chewed. “Did you know there’s not a single place to sleep in here besides the nurse’s station? Even the couch in the main office is too short. All the floors suck.”

“Did you see who left North’s car out front?” Nathan asked.

“No,” Luke said. He swallowed his bite. “But it wasn’t here until sometime early in the morning, after a few people had shown up to unlock the school. Apparently, people dismissed it at first as someone who was breaking the rules not parking out front. When the police, who had been here all night, finally went to check it out, they found some smoke bombs inside.”

“Maybe whoever drove it is still here,” Silas said.

Luke lifted his hands in an I-don’t-know shrug. “If it was Volto, and he drove it up, he did it without the mask,” he said. “It would have been too suspicious. I couldn’t get out. Well, I could have, I think. Mr. Blackbourne thought it was too. Between the cops snooping around and Volto being out there...” He stopped and took another bite. “And I think he wanted me to stay here and watch anyway.”

Made sense. “Maybe we should go back to the music room.”

“Someone needs to go,” Silas said. “Dr. Green might get called away for this or for class. Someone’s got to keep Marie and Sang out of this and make sure Danielle finishes her test.”

“I need sleep,” Luke said. “I’m seeing double. Can I sleep? Where’s Kota to give me a time out?”

Nathan chuckled and stood up. With what Luke was wearing and being barefoot, it wasn’t like he could go waltzing around school, anyway. He needed to change and rest while he had the chance. Who knew what would happen next. “Guess I’ll go to the music room. Take Luke home?” he asked Silas.