It didn’t take long, less than ten minutes, before the door opened again and Mr. Blackbourne popped his head in. Once he spotted me, he opened it wide. “She’s in here!” he called out.
“Hi,” I said, a little more defeated now. I’d calmed down a lot and was way more annoyed than I was afraid. All this just to tell me Hendricks was watching and wanted to use me to get to them. And who knew if it was a lie or not?
He came over to me, checking out my face at first and then the bands around my wrists and ankles.
Nathan burst through the door next, finding us and checking me out. “What the hell?”
“He just wanted to talk,” I said. While Mr. Blackbourne took out a pocket knife to use against the bonds, I told them about what he said. “I don’t know what he might have meant at the end about gutter rats.”
“I think he meant Mr. Morris,” Nathan said. “Did we tell you about him being the one driving the Jeep up to the school?”
My jaw dropped open, and I rubbed at the red marks the bonds had caused while I was waiting. “No. He did?” I paused. “Wait, Volto said he wasn’t working with Hendricks. So how does Mr. Morris, who does work with Hendricks, get the Jeep?”
“That’s a question we’re trying to get answers to,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He took up my hands, inspecting my wrists, flipping my arms over so he could check the other side. “Did you get tasered?”
“No.”
“Did he do anything else?”
“No.”
His eyebrow lifted, the steel in his gaze a bit wild. He shook his head slowly. “I’ll never understand him.”
I jumped off the table and stood beside them. “I’ve stopped trying. But I don’t know if we should trust him anyway.”
“Still, protocol has changed as of now.” The power in his voice sharpened and he turned to Nathan. “I know you won’t let this happen again.”
“Nope,” Nathan said, his jaw tightening and his blue eyes serious. “Never.”
“Then you’re both grounded until Hendricks is found.”
“Grounded?” I asked.
“To each other.” He took his phone out of his pocket and brought it to his face. “And you’re not staying at Nathan’s. You need to be with people at all times. The diner. At the Lee house.”
“We’re still having a thing with Erica,” Nathan said. “I’m not sure...”
“Solve it,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He turned the full of his gaze at him, and it could have been steel bullets firing out from his eyes. “Or find another solution. I don’t want to give Hendricks the same opportunity to get to any of you the way that Volto has.” He pointed toward the library and beyond. “It’s not just you. It’s everyone from this point. Public view only. Areas Hendricks or anyone else working for him won’t dare trespass.”
Nathan pressed his lips together and nodded.
I said nothing but agreed with this decision. If nothing else, Volto proved we’d been vulnerable, even if we were together. Hendricks had who knew how many people working for him. Volto managed to get a partner to help him get me. Three or four people working with Hendricks could outnumber two too easily.
Be Terrified
On our way through the halls, we reconnected with the others, who continued to stand by the doors. Volto was inside with his friend. They wanted to find him.
Meanwhile, Nathan and I were sent off. We ended up in Silas’s car, and Nathan silently drove toward Sunnyvale Court.
I was lost in thought as well. I replayed the situation with Volto over in my head. Should we have gone the other way? No matter what direction, I was pretty sure getting us to go into a dark area so he could take Nathan down was all Volto needed to do.
And maybe we did need to know. Volto’s antics aside, we hadn’t known Hendricks was even looking for me. Now we knew. Taking extra precautions wasn’t a problem.
It wasn’t until we pulled into the neighborhood that I noticed Nathan’s hand, holding tight against the wheel and twisting.
I reached out to him, worried more he’d break the steering wheel if he gripped it any tighter. “Hey,” I said quietly.
His eyes blazed in my direction just once and then softened. He groaned. “Volto’s on my shit list,” he said. “I’m fucking tired of him.”
“Me, too,” I said. “But we’ve got other priorities as well. Hopefully the guys find him in the school. But what are we going to do tonight?”
Nathan huffed but seemed to agree with me. “Right. Well, the diner, perhaps? It’s as public as it gets and open at all hours.”
“It’s either that or staying at Kota’s house,” I said.
He slowed the car down. We were halfway between each option, already past the diner and almost to the other side of the road beyond the curb. He twisted to look back at the diner. “We can’t sleep at the diner.”
Something in the way we were talking around the subject bugged me. “We can’t avoid Erica forever.”
Nathan sighed. “I was trying to give Kota a chance to talk to her. I’m not sure he’s done it. And I know she’s been giving him some space too. I don’t know how she’ll react if we walk in together without Kota.”
“Maybe I can go in separately,” I said and then paused. “No, wait. I don’t like that idea. Volto or Hendricks to get to you if I leave you out here alone.”
He twisted in the seat to look at me. He stretched an arm out. “Come here?”
I leaned over the center console. He wrapped an arm around me, and then brought the other one around to complete the hug.
I pressed my hands to his chest, dipping my face into his shoulder. I breathed in the deep leather and cypress scent he had, letting it take over my senses.
He pressed his face into my neck. He kissed it once and then spoke, his lips tracing against my skin. “I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“I shouldn’t have let him get to you,” he said. “I should have had you stay with me.”
“Don’t talk like that.” I pressed my hands against his chest and made him look at my face. “Nathan, we did what we could. I could have done it differently, too. But it happened. Now we’ll do it right.”
He nodded and leaned in, pressing his forehead to mine. “I’m still sorry. After what happened to me at the lake, and then we saw the masks...”
After almost getting killed, I understood why he was upset. It could have happened to me.
But it hadn’t. It just could have. However, Mr. Blackbourne had told us often not to play a what if game, and I was pretty sure that worked with this. We could only do so much, prepare for what we knew. We couldn’t prep for everything. We were in the Academy. This was our life. Sometimes dangerous. But we had to get through it.
Instead of letting him dwell any more, I cupped my hands at his cheeks, holding him, feeling the roughness of coarse facial hair at my palms.
He redirected his attention to me, and his eyes fell to my lips.
My heart raced. Without thinking, my palms tugged him toward me.
His lips locked on to mine.
I kept holding his cheeks and kissed him. The only pressure was on my side at first. He remained still, his lips open but not responding.
I kept going. I’d drag him out of his dire thoughts, like I was trying to pull myself out of it as well.
Slowly, he came to life again. His lips moved slowly at first, and I slowed down to his speed. He kissed me deep, sensually. His hands went lower on my back, gripping my waist. The way he pulled at me, my hip hit against the console between us.
The pressure delighted and thrilled me. The way he was always rough with me excited me to no end. It was always different from the others. It wasn’t wild like North, or calm and sweet like Kota.
This was Nathan, natural and unbridled. It was all slow, deep. A hungry passion.
And I felt it more when his hand slid down to my butt, squeezing and nearly lifting me out of the seat.