Nathan shook his head slowly. He pressed a palm to his forehead. “I don’t...understand...why you thought that would help.”
“Are you kidding?” she said and returned the phone to her pocket. “I saved your ass. Jessica was ready to tell the world about how she saved Sang from getting harassed, to tell other people to stick up for people like her. She was practically going to tell everyone about this. I stopped her. You didn’t deserve it. And now that you’re ‘dating’ me, and you’re back to friendly terms, she’s okay with keeping it a secret.” She pointed a finger at him. “So don’t tell me I’m not working for the benefit of all of us.”
God. Fuck. If Jessica thought he was going out with Danielle...Did Jessica end up telling this to Erica? Is that why Erica came to him the other day? She thought he was over Sang and safe to integrate back into the family?
Nathan turned away from her, heading to the couch and sitting on it. He buried his face into his palms. The worst part was, Danielle thought she was helping. And it was perpetuating the lie he and Kota had developed for Erica’s benefit.
Their lies were making it so much worse.
He felt Danielle sitting next to him on the couch. “I believe you about how difficult it is right now getting us out of school,” she said. “I hadn’t thought the principal being gone put this on hold. So...I’ll wait. But do I have to take those tests? Can’t we just bring a tablet to school or do something else?”
“You don’t have to take the tests,” Nathan said. “It’s your situation that makes this more difficult than them. You’re going to have to figure out what to tell your parents. We can put you in home school. That’s probably the easiest. You can take the classes online. You’ll graduate on time. It’s up to you if you want to take the SATs or apply to college. Or whatever you want to do.”
“I’ll handle it,” she said. “Then maybe I can talk to Marie. Maybe I can tell her to go ahead and let you all know what she knows.”
Nathan picked his head up. “You’d do that? I thought you knew?”
“I was just saying that to get you to do what I wanted,” she said. “But I was the one to tell her she should tell Sang the truth about her real mom, about what she knows. She didn’t even want to.”
A flicker of appreciation developed inside of him. Despite everything that was going on, was Danielle really trying to help them out? Even if it felt like a disaster, maybe it was helping. She was willing to lie about her own relationship status online to help save Sang and himself from that sort of attention.
“And maybe you can do me a favor,” she said. She took her phone out and showed it to him. “Can you take a picture with me? For Facebook? It’ll help with Jessica, I think.”
It didn’t seem like a horrible idea. But he needed time to think if this was helping the situation or hurting it. He wasn’t totally sure why he was willing to do that part anyway.
She wasn’t working with Marie out of the kindness of her heart. Not without getting something out of it. What would Danielle get out of letting people think they were dating?
The door to the house opened then, and heavier footsteps came through. It had to be the guys this time.
Danielle pulled herself away from the couch, tucking her phone into her pocket.
She didn’t want anyone else to know. That made Nathan even more suspicious. He put the thought on the shelf for now.
Victor and Silas appeared. Victor had changed into his usual dark pants and Armani shirt and carried a backpack. Silas wore jeans and a blue T-shirt.
They both stopped as they looked in on Nathan, leaning into the room from the kitchen area. They paused, glancing at Danielle’s embarrassed expression and then Nathan’s. She appeared guilty as all hell.
He’d have to explain to them after she left. It probably looked weird.
“Is it okay to come in?” Victor asked tentatively.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Nathan asked.
“I was leaving,” Danielle said. She waved shortly to Nathan. “I’ll see you before school, okay?” She walked out, and they heard her leaving through the front door.
Even then, they all waited a few moments. Silas left the living room and then returned. “She’s gone.”
“What are you two doing here?” Nathan asked, sound grumpier than he meant to. It wasn’t them. It was Danielle making things weird.
Victor shot a look over at Silas and then back to Nathan. “I need to ask you a few questions. About what happened the other night.”
Nathan groaned and dropped his feet off the coffee table, starting to sit up. “I don’t want to talk about Lily,” he said.
“No, not about that,” Victor said. He crossed the room, sitting on the coffee table in front of Nathan and putting his bag on the floor. “I mean about Volto driving North’s Jeep.”
“I want to hear about Lily,” Silas said, remaining closer to the fireplace on the far side of the room. He stood in front of it, hands in his pockets. “But I’ll wait.”
Victor pulled out his laptop and turned it on, waiting for it to boot. “Volto was the one driving, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah,” Nathan said. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “What’s this about?”
Victor looked at his screen. “According to the reports, someone leaned out the passenger side. Ms. Johnson said there was someone sitting in it.” He turned the screen around, showing the highlighted portion of a witness report.
Nathan carefully read the neat cursive handwriting detailing seeing a face and the arm that threw the smoke bomb. “She didn’t recognize him?”
“You were following the Jeep,” Victor asked, gazing at him over the laptop screen he was showing him. “Do you remember seeing two people?”
“No,” Nathan said. “I only saw the Volto mask the driver was wearing. And I thought he somehow threw the bomb out the other window.”
“It would have been more difficult to do,” Victor said. He flipped the laptop around again. He started clicking around. “But here’s the weird part. Check out who I found coming into the school with the Jeep.”
When he turned it around again, it was showing a camera view angled at the front of the school. The lighting was bad because the sun was low in the sky. But it showed the Jeep pulling in up front near the flag pole. There was a cop car there as well, empty at the moment but parked off on the grass.
A man got out of the Jeep, heading into the building, but the camera only captured the top of his head.
Nathan leaned in, squinting, hoping to see a face. “Who is that?”
Victor reached around, pressing a key to open another window, another video. It showed the inside of the school, near the front office, the time stamp in the corner a few seconds after the first video. This one had a clear image of Mr. Morris walking in the front door.
Nathan frowned. “It couldn’t have been him in the Jeep when Dr. Green and the others were attacked. He was on the other side of the school when it all went down.”
“Yeah,” Victor said. “And check this out. Do you remember the car that you said was there? You said Mr. McCoy jumped out of one, but then another car was there. That one drove off right after the smoke bomb.” He reached over again.
The screen changed video feeds when he pressed a button. It showed the area behind the school, where the busses came in. The car that had been in the lot on Dr. Green’s side pulled in. Mr. Morris walked out of the school, got in the passenger door and they took off.
“I can’t see the driver,” Victor said. “But the car is registered to Mr. Morris.”
He had a second car? They would have recognized his normal car. “And somehow they got hold of the Jeep?” Nathan asked. “Are you saying they took it back from Volto?”