The only silver lining was that Gavin had run out and got me another phone that I had to carefully keep hidden; with it, I was able to communicate with him and Noah secretively. Gavin had purposely avoided me when Collin was around, much to Collin’s displeasure. He was still trying very hard to ingratiate himself to Gavin so he could further study him.
Noah seemed to realize the importance of keeping us a secret. He hadn’t pushed us any further about a bigger explanation about our strange arrangements. If Collin and I ran into him at Stacey’s apartment, he was friendly, but not overly so. He even arranged for Gavin to work on his gift, in secret, with our family.
It was the perfect irony. He got to meet Jemmy, Remy, Jaxson, and Drake. He made sure to give me blow by blow details about his training, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of him. I wished there was a way for me to go with him, but with Collin’s constant hovering I couldn’t trust him.
Gavin and I had come up with an in-depth game plan to get my life back. He even went as far as to show me how to track and record all of Collin’s conversations without him being none the wiser, although I hadn’t had the opportunity to install them on his phone yet. That was my first assignment.
His first assignment was to continue watching and finding an opportunity to help Alex, my little brother, and meet with Rachel. I hadn’t figured out how Rachel was going to help us in the long run, but I knew she was the key to part of our plan.
It was a Thursday when Gavin and I headed to the gym, which was thankfully empty at this time of day. At first, Gavin came to keep me company so we could talk freely outside of class and away from listening ears. It was the only time I was able to stash my phone in the locker without causing Collin to be to suspicious. Gavin had already found out he had planted a mic in my phone recently.
We were so careful keeping our conversations free of my drama. We couldn’t give Collin a reason not to believe I was as oblivious as everyone else. Gavin and I laughed every Tuesday and Thursday when we decided what our next topic of conversations were, future cover stories for Collin’s spying. One morning before class we talked about eggs. Yes, eggs. Cage free eggs versus caged hens’ eggs. We talked about how we remembered the colors of the rainbow, the order of the planets, and other inane things we were forced to remember in school. We found that we both loved watching this reality show and weighed in on our favorite characters. So, in short, our conversations were purposely lame.
I could tell Gavin was dying to ask me something by the time I exited the locker room in my biker shorts and racer back tank top. It was cold outside, but in here it was a sauna. He held up his thumb to his ear and pinky to his mouth. Miming a phone.
“In my locker,” I reassured him.
“So, if I didn’t find my connection right away, then what harm could it be to…date?” he asked hesitantly.
“Well theoretically, none,” I frowned. “But I would advise you from being too serious with them, honestly. After all, that’s why I was in a mess with Jaxson, Jace, Noah, and Drake. They all had someone they hadn’t been…too careful with,” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why? Have you met someone at the shelter?”
He shook his head and blushed, running fingers through his short blond hair. “No, but she is in high school, so I feel kinda pervy. But she’s so beautiful and funny and flirts with me allll the time.”
I stopped mid step and started giggling, instinctively knowing who he was talking about. When we weren’t at school together, he was at the shelter or working on his gift. I suddenly stopped. “Promise me you won’t be mad,” I said scrunching up my nose and squinting my eyes. “In all fairness, I felt like I didn’t want to overload you with more than I already told you about me.”
He sat on the machine that worked our upper legs. He looked thoroughly confused. “I won’t be mad…what is it?”
“Let’s just say,” I said hesitantly. “If you chose to pursue a relationship with Jemmy, it won’t be a big deal.”
“Who said it was Jemmy?” He instantly started to look down, then his eyes and head snapped up with such force, I was surprised he didn’t give himself whip lash. “She’s my connection, isn’t she,” he said in disbelief and awe.
I nodded with a smile. “She is.”
He crossed his arms across his chest, making me realize his workouts were already given him definition in his chest and arms. “I should be mad at you,” he tried to look stern, but then a huge goofy grin crossed his face. “But I can’t be. She invited me to a party tomorrow night. I guess Jaxson has a big game tomorrow night and they’re throwing a huge bash.”
Instantly I felt sad. “All the guys will be there except Jace,” I said sadly as I used the leg press machine, silently counting my reps. “You’ll finally get to meet Troy.”
Gavin looked slightly uncomfortable. “I heard he owns a security firm and he already did a background check on me.”
I giggled. “It doesn’t surprise me one iota, he’s protective of his siblings, although he has reasons to be. When he was in foster-” I stopped suddenly, my heart lunging to my throat. How had I forgotten? I felt nauseous suddenly, remembering what would happen tonight. The same guy that tried to victimize Troy, would victimize another child tomorrow tonight.
I dropped my weights and took off running. I needed to figure out a way to figure out as much information as I could about Troy’s foster family. It wasn’t like I could go directly to him and tell him what I knew about him. I needed to help that poor defenseless boy.
“Where are you going?” Gavin caught up to me. “It’s cold out here!”
“I need to hit up the library,” I explained. “I need to get some vital information.”
“How?” he asked stupefied. “Why?”
I reached the top of the library stairs. “I just remembered something I was once told in confidence. I need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” I said out of breath.
I went to the public library and immediately put in my name and student id.
“Blake, no,” Gavin said urgently.
“I have to,” I said just as urgent.
“No,” he logged me out of my computer. “Come over here and log onto this one, someone left it open.”
Understanding dawned in my eyes. “Oh yeah, I wouldn’t want anyone checking out my internet searches.”
I flopped my head down in frustration. “Dammit. Nothing. I can’t find out anything about where he was fostered at.”
Gavin sighed. “It’s too bad we don’t know anyone who could open up these records.”
Gavin was electronically and computer savvy. He knew so much more that I could ever dream of, about them and even he couldn’t help me right now.
I sat back, feeling tears threaten once more, and he reached out and gripped my shoulder, in comfort.
“I think I do,” I finally said as it began to dawn on me. “I need a phone.”
We ran back to the gym and pulled out the phone Gavin gave me. I found my fingers punching in the numbers for Judge Myers.
On the third ring, Judge Myers finally picked it up. “Hello, Judge Myron Myers.”