Drop of Doubt (42 page)

Footsteps. I shook, stopping. I whimpered, I hoped I sounded frightened. I pushed my body up against his as if he were one of the guys. When my hip bumped into his, my fingers clipped the edge of his phone. Remembering what Karen told me, I lifted quickly.

He grasped me around the shoulders, catching me. His breath fell heavier against his voice distorter. "I promise you'll get out of this," he said. "I wish you'd listen to me and take a bus out of town. But I need that passcode." His hands massaged my shoulders in what I thought was meant to be a soothing gesture. "Tell me."

“Three, five, seven,” I tried.

He shook me hard again. “Stop lying. You should know better.”

I was a terrible liar. I swallowed, nodding solemnly and diverting my eyes in one direction over his shoulder, slipping the phone into my back pocket. I rattled off the numbers of the code to him, a series of eight digits.

The masked head nodded. “No matter what you hear, you should stay put. Stay right here.” He released me, running in the opposite direction of the oncoming footsteps.

“Volto!” I hissed at him. I didn’t have a name for him, so I didn’t know what to call to him except for that.

He stopped, but didn’t turn around.

“I thought you’d said you’d help,” I seethed.

“I already did.” He turned the corner and disappeared.

The footsteps were coming closer. I sunk myself back into the door. How did he help? Or did he just lie to me to get the code? I didn’t have time to figure it out now. I wasn’t sure if I should run in the direction he’d gone or listen to him. I fingered the phone in my pocket. If he found it was missing, he might come back for it.

I wanted to try running, but before I could get myself to move, a figure appeared at the other end of the hall. It lingered just in the shadows, waiting.

I caught the glint of something metallic in his hands.

I shrunk closer to the door, sucking myself in. I thought maybe he’d pass up this hallway if he couldn’t see me.

The footsteps got louder, coming closer.

I held my breath.

The figure stopped short just where I was hiding. “I thought I saw a little Sing Song down here,” Greg’s voice cracked my slight hope that this might be a security guard or someone else.

I leapt, ready to run when the metal door slid open. A light shone through revealing an elevator. It illuminated Greg’s face just as he was turning, distracted.

A body dashed in front of me. Before Greg could lift his knife, he was struck in the stomach and tackled.

Greg went flying onto his back, landing hard. The body on top of him heaved himself up.

I caught a wisp of blond mixed in with brown.

Gabriel knelt over Greg. His fists swung hard at Greg’s face, over and over. I could hear the thuds falling as his hand made contact. Gabriel dug his knees into Greg’s stomach.

“Fuck you, motherfucking shit. Touch her again.” With every swing of his fists, Gabriel cursed, sometimes slurring them together until I couldn’t understand.

Greg was sprawled under Gabriel, his legs and hands had jerked at first, as if trying to protect himself. As the onslaught continued, they stilled.

My heart thundered so loud, that for a moment, it was all I could hear. Somehow Gabriel knew where we were. Is that what the masked man had meant?

“Gabriel,” I said. I wasn’t sure if I actually spoke aloud or if I’d whispered. Maybe I just mouthed his name.

Gabriel reacted, perking up and turning his head. Droplets of blood splattered over his face. His mouth hung open, and he swiped at his mouth with the back of his arm. His knuckles were covered in thick blood. His crystal eyes were wide, wild, and ferocious.

My heart dropped down, lower than the floor, into the earth below it. It was a side of Gabriel I had never seen, and for the moment, I forgot my Gabriel, the one who sat with me in my mother’s closet, the one who picked out my clothes, the one who looked out for me.

I saw a different Gabriel, raw, angry, destroying.

North had said everyone had a breaking point. Gabriel had reached his.

Gabriel fell back onto his butt onto the hallway. His hands shook, lifting to his head. He curled up, his palms covering his ears. He mumbled something low. He wasn’t talking to me. He was whispering something over and over again, but I couldn’t catch it.

I couldn’t dare to look back at Greg. After the blood on Gabriel’s hands, I couldn’t imagine what he looked like.

But I needed to be here.

“Gabriel,” I said softly. I didn’t know how to approach him, but I needed to bring him back, like he once brought me back after I learned the truth about my real mother. Only I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t move. I was too terrified.

“Sang!” Luke’s voice called to me. He materialized from the far edge of the hallway. He ran up, stopping just short of the bloodied, unconscious Greg.

Gabriel stared off at Greg, breathing heavily, hate heavy in his eyes.

Luke swiveled on his feet, checking with me. “You okay?”

I nodded, even though I wanted to tell him no. I wasn’t okay, because Gabriel wasn’t okay.

Luke leapt over Greg, dropping to his knees in front of Gabriel. He reached for him, putting his hands on his shoulders and drawing him in. He hugged him in a gentle move. “Gabe. Hey man. You got him.”

“I have to kill him,” Gabriel said. He stared off, as if oblivious that Luke was touching him. “I’m gonna kill him.”

“No, you’re not.” Luke’s voice was soothing. His hand smoothed over Gabriel’s shoulders as he pulled back to face him. “Look at me, buddy. Focus. Sang’s okay. Everyone else is okay. He’s down.”

“He almost killed her,” Gabriel said. “He was going to.”

“He didn’t,” Luke said. “You got to him first. He’s not your dad, okay?” Luke pulled back, cupping Gabriel’s face. “Look at me. You’ve got him. He’ll go away. We won’t let him go this time. Look, Sang’s right here. See?” Luke looked back at me. His dark eyes pleading with me to help him. “Aren’t you, Sang? Tell him you’re okay.”

“I’m okay,” I said, willing to do anything Luke said right now. He was being and saying all the things I wanted to be and say for Gabriel, but couldn’t. I wondered what he meant by talking about Gabriel’s dad, but I couldn’t ask that question right now. I swallowed, trying to find my voice. “I’m fine. He didn’t get me.”

“We have to get rid of him,” Gabriel said. He shook his head hard, wiping at his own hands on his shirt as if to clean them. He turned, his crystal blue eyes lighting up and focusing again. The wild Gabriel seemed to be receding. He nudged Luke away, holding hands up toward me. “Go away, I want her.”

Luke chuckled, releasing Gabriel and stepping back, glancing at me.

I jolted myself up, but stepped forward slowly. Part of me was afraid, not that Gabriel would hurt me, but just from the situation. I forced myself to go to him, not wanting to scare him like I’d once done to North. I held my hand out to him, thinking Gabriel was going to get up, and I was ready to help him. Instead, Gabriel tugged my hand. I fell to my knees between his legs. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders, hugging me to his body.

“Gabriel,” I said softly, not knowing what else to say to him. I was just happy he came, and he wasn’t hurt.

He buried his face into my shoulder as he embraced me close. “Oh my fucking god, Sang. Why the hell didn’t you wake me up?”

“How did you know I was down here?” I asked. “How did you know about the elevator?”

“The phone started ringing by the bed. Someone said you were running around in the basement. He said there was an elevator.”

So he did call Gabriel and he led me to the elevator where he knew Gabriel would find me. But how did Greg know we were here? I didn’t have an answer, and we had something more important to worry about now. I backed off of Gabriel, planting my hands on his chest to hold myself up. “We have to go,” I said.

“Not this shit again.” Gabriel said. He dropped his hands onto my hips, looking up at me. “Sweetie...”

“It was that masked guy,” I said. “Volto wanted the dragon desk code from me.”

“You know the code?” Luke asked behind me. I turned my head to see him standing over Greg, as if monitoring to make sure he didn’t wake up and come after us. He kicked the knife aside.

“I saw it the other day when we were in his office,” I said. “The guy had me pinned and said if I didn’t give it to him, he’d let Greg get to me.”

“Motherfucker,” Gabriel said. He released me and fell on his back on to the tile. “I thought maybe we’d misunderstood him before. Now I don’t. Show me to him. I’ll get him next.”

“We have to go,” I said, starting to get up. I tugged Gabriel by the arm. “We have to go find Victor and make sure this guy doesn’t somehow break into Victor’s house and get what he wants.”

“We’re supposed to go home,” Luke said. “That’s why I’m here. I was supposed to come find you two and whenever you woke up, I was supposed to take you straight to your house, Sang.”

“But they don’t know this guy is coming for Victor’s desk.”

“There’s no way he’d break into the house. There’s security.”

“He must have a way in,” I said. “There’s got to be, or else he wouldn’t bother figuring out the code.” I yanked out the phone I’d snagged and held it up and studied it. It was an iPhone with a bright pink case and a cracked screen. "He had this."

Luke knelt next to us, hovering over my shoulder. "Isn't that yours?"

I punched at the screen, illuminating the surface. I recognized the cracks. “I thought ... It was broken. From the night I was in the shower."

"Let me see," Gabriel said. He sat up and took the phone from my hands. He checked the messages. "This must have been how he has been texting everyone. "

Luke’s face tightened. "So Mr. Morris giving away her number in class was a coincidence?"

"Or a set up to send us down the wrong trail." Gabriel grumbled. “They could all be in on it.”

"He stole this phone though," I said. "He had to get it from Victor. He took it from me after I broke it."

Gabriel nodded. "And to take it, he needed to break into the house because he keeps the broken ones in his office."

Luke shifted on his feet, pressing weight from one foot to the other, as if weighing out what he was supposed to do. "Which means he can break in."

Gabriel let his head fall back onto the tile. “Shit. Let’s go save Victor’s stupid computer.”

––––––––

G
abriel and I had to clean up in an abandoned bathroom downstairs, washing off Greg’s blood. Luke placed an anonymous call when we were a good distance from the building, calling in hospital security on Greg. Luke’s call made it sound like a gang attack. From what he said as we were leaving, hospital security would keep him under their thumb until they could figure out what happened – but he’d placed a call to the Academy for assistance so Greg wouldn’t be giving our names. He assured me, since I was the one worried about it, that Gabriel and I wouldn’t be going to jail.

Luke and Gabriel tried calling the others, but Victor wasn’t answering his cell phone, and the other phones were still turned off. Even Dr. Green didn’t answer.

“Should we call the emergency line?” Gabriel asked Luke. We were inside the black truck. Luke was driving. Gabriel was in the passenger seat and I was between them. Gabriel twisted my phone in his hand.

Luke seemed to consider this and shook his head. “We’re not dying,” he said. “I don’t want this masked guy knowing that phone exists if he doesn’t know it yet. And the only phone we have is Sang’s old one. We don't know if he’s figured out she has it now and is listening. It’s not secure."

"Isn’t it wired?” I asked.

Gabriel broke open the pink case. He used his teeth and fingernails, wedging the back off. He removed the battery, pulling out a tiny circuit board. He unrolled the window, tossing the circuit out the window before he pieced the phone together again. “Now he can’t. Just in case.”

“What if we use a payphone to call the emergency line?" I asked.

"Let's get downtown first," Luke said. “All someone has to do is change the passcode.”

“What are we going to do anyway?” Gabriel asked. “Just show up and baby sit the computer?”

“If we have to,” Luke said. “It’s the best course right now and why I don’t mind going. I just have to make sure you two are out of the way safe, and if we’re behind the wall of Victor’s house, so much the better. And we’ll have his security guards paying attention this time.”

“What if the masked guy is ahead of us?” I asked.

“Let’s just hope Victor was right and nothing important was on the computer,” Gabriel said. “What I’m more interested in is how he seems to think he’ll get past security. If he can do it, it means we’ve got vulnerability issues there. Not much of a safe house if it can get broken in to.”

Luke pursed his lips. I felt the same. I didn't like that this guy was so close that he could walk in anytime he wanted. He'd already stolen Mr. Blackbourne's car. He tried to manipulate us all. Now we knew he had access to Victor’s house. What next?

The drive into downtown Charleston seemed to take hours. Luke weaved his way through sleepy city streets. When we got to Victor's large estate, Luke made a circle for the back gate. He slowed as he approached, but the gate didn’t open. He was forced to stop in front.

We waited, but the grounds were dark. I checked the dash. It was two in the morning.

"Are the guards sleeping?" Gabriel asked. He leaned over, gazing through the bars of the gates. "Why aren't they opening?"

"Do they know it’s us?" I asked. "And it’s dark. Maybe they can’t see?”

"I don't like this," Luke said. He shifted the car into reverse. "Let's try the front door."

Luke found a place to park on the street in front of the house. We got out and approached the front wall gate. Luke and Gabriel paused in front. Gabriel sought out my hand and held it, his fingers interweaving with mine, comforting. Luke found a call button next to a box. He punched at the button. "Hey, anyone home?"

After a long pause, Luke repeated himself, but no one responded.