Fake: The Scarab Beetle Series: #3 (The Academy) (32 page)

“I guess,” Avery said. “Why are we going there?”

“We need to stop somewhere,” I said. “Just for now. Just until we come up with a plan.” I needed clothes, and food and possibly a quiet place to work from until I could prod Ethan for answers that could possibly help us and figure out the next move. I couldn’t go to Brandon’s shop; I didn’t know where it was. And I couldn’t go to the Sergeant Jasper. I didn’t know where else to go. I didn’t think Blake would mind if I invaded his house.

Eventually, Avery found his way to South Battery, and parked out front of Blake Coaltar’s three story home. The white house sat quietly under the street lights, the neighbors’ homes nearby were just as still. The park across the street was dark and quiet. The smell of the bay was strong. It was such a peaceful, picturesque setting that filled my senses, making me crave sleep.

Ethan and Avery followed behind me to the front door. The stars and moon were now covered with a hazy, low cloud, promising drizzling rain and dampness for a while.

I rushed up the steps, testing the front door: locked. I scanned the front porch, wondering where, and if, he might have left a key in a fake rock or above the framework or hidden in a potted plant.

“He’s not home,” Avery said behind me. He shuffled in his sandals. “He’s been kidnapped, remember?”

“Yeah,” I said. I moved around him, back down the steps and wandered around the side of the yard, finding the rear with the yard and the large back porch. I climbed those steps.

“Are you sure we should be here?” Ethan asked. He followed close behind me. “I mean, there could be an alarm system.”

“I don’t think there is,” Avery said, following behind Ethan. “He didn’t set one before we left. I’m surprised the front door is even shut. I remember he took off with the door open. I was going to close it when he said to get in the car and hurry.”

A neighbor could have shut the door for him if he left in that much of a hurry. I tested the back door, but it was locked, too. I turned to the windows then, and found one near the kitchen where the latch had been left undone. I dug my fingers into the outside screen frame, popping it off and then tried to yank up the window. It started going up and then stopped short, the antique frame catching on the many layers of paint.

Avery came up beside me, putting his palms under the frame of the window and then nodded to me. “One, two...”

“I don’t think we should,” Ethan said. “This is breaking and entering, isn’t it?”

“Three,” I said.

Avery lifted at the same time, and after a slow start, it slammed up into the frame above. I think there was a loud
crack
, but I was going to pretend it was old wood, and not glass.

“Kayli,” Ethan said. “Are you sure it’s okay?”

“He’s not home,” I said. “And he’d be okay if we used his house for a bit.”

“Yeah,” Avery said. “He got kidnapped so he’d want us to figure out a way to save him.” He turned to me. “Right?”

“I guess.” I wasn’t totally sure if he’d been kidnapped even. I was hoping that wasn’t the case. Maybe he’d gotten away. I felt guilty leaving him behind.

“You guess?” Ethan asked. “Are you even sure?”

I wasn’t really sure of anything anymore. All I knew was, Ethan had access to what everyone wanted, and I wanted this to be over once and for all. Even as I worked my way into Blake’s house, I was concocting a plan to figure out how I could call everyone out in the open and end it. Maybe Ethan could let them into the observatory under false pretenses and trade for Axel and the others.

It was a dangerous call. I wasn’t sure Ethan would agree, and if Alice might somehow manipulate him into not trusting me, get access to the core, and then kill off Axel anyway. By now, she had to know I had Ethan. She could lie and say that
I’d
been lying. “Ethan,” I said, starting to climb into the window. “Once you get in here, you need to tell me about—”

I had my foot on the floor one minute, and the next, I was shoved over, and on my back, the wind knocked out of me. For a split second, I wondered if I had passed out and collapsed. But I realized my legs were tangled up and there was a weight pressing me into the wood floor.

A body sat on my legs, a face hovering, looking down at mine, so close that in the darkness, I couldn’t tell who it was.

Hot breath fell on my neck, snapping me into action. My heart pounded as I shoved back with my butt, and then lifted an elbow, making contact.

“
Chto za huy
,” a strong, deep voice said in my ear.
Cough. Groan.
“Kayli. Fuck.”

I sat up, finding Raven clutching at his lower abdomen. He wore a wrinkled black T-shirt, dark blue jeans, and combat boots. His closely cropped brown hair flattened against his head. The tattoos along his arms and the massive guy that he was made him look scary, especially with his face contorted.

I sucked in a breath, excited and relieved at the same time. I lunged at him, not caring that I’d injured him, and threw my arms around his neck. “Raven! What the hell are you doing here?”

He grunted and wrapped a big arm around my waist, holding me to him. He lowered himself, pressing into me, until I was against the floor. He held me like that for the longest time, simply hugging me against him. “Following my little thief,” he said, the thick Russian accent filling in every syllable. “Like I’m supposed to.”

“Who is that?” Avery said from somewhere I couldn’t see above Raven. “Are we fighting him or are we happy he’s here? I can’t tell.”

“He’s fine! He’s a good guy. Sort of.” I pushed at Raven until he started to sit up. I coughed, still catching my breath, and then rose, scooting out from under him. “Did you come by yourself?” I asked. “Where’s—”

“Hey!” said a familiar, cheery voice. A moment later, Corey entered through the doorway. My heart lifted at seeing his face. It felt like a lifetime ago since I’d seen him last. He was so much like his brother, except for his happy eyes and disposition. He wore a Mario Bros. T-shirt, jeans, flip-flops. His hair had that messy, just out of bed look. At first he spotted Raven, and then Ethan and Avery in the doorway, appeared confused, and then walked further into the room until he met my eyes. He smiled big. “There you are.”

“You’ve been following me?” I asked. “For how long?”

Corey shrugged. “Since you took Mr. Anderson’s car, and he called it in. Until you ditched it. But then you went into the building and we tried to follow but...”

The noise in the abandoned building. Maybe it wasn’t hobos after all. “You didn’t tell me?”

“You had people following,” Raven said. “We were keeping an eye on them.”

“Who?” I asked. “Did you see them? And why did you tackle me?”

“Missed you,” Raven said. “I got excited.”

I squinted at him. I’d only been gone a couple of days and I get tackled?

Corey helped me up, and the moment I was standing, he gathered me in a hug. “I missed you, too.”

“Could we get inside, please?” Ethan asked. “Maybe we should sit down and straighten out this whole mess.”

A few minutes later, we were all standing around the kitchen island. I needed food, so I was raiding the freezer, finding a box of frozen chicken sandwiches.

“What are you doing?” Corey asked. “You’re stealing his food?”

“He won’t care,” I said, pretty sure he probably wouldn’t even notice. The freezer was filled with Hot Pockets and sandwiches and other frozen delights. It was a mini-grocery store on its own.

Raven opened up one of the pantries, and started to inspect the contents.

“There’s Pop Chips in those cabinets somewhere,” I said. “Find me some?”

“Pop Chips?” Corey asked.

Raven opened, and left open, half of the cabinet doors before he came across the chips. He took out two and placed them on the counter. He looked at Corey, and then at Avery and Ethan. “You want chips, too? She’ll eat a whole bag. So will I.”

I was going to say I couldn’t eat a whole bag plus the sandwiches, but then I was hungry. I needed fuel to get my brain working.

“Don’t you think we should focus?” Ethan asked. He stood facing the still open window. His eyes went to the door, to the furniture, to us, to the ceiling. He shifted on his feet. “I don’t think we should be here any longer than we have to.”

“Sure,” I said. I studied him. I got that he was uncomfortable being here, but it felt like something else was off about him, too. I started unwrapping sandwiches, at least enough for Raven and myself, and put them in the microwave. “Basically, my idea is to offer up access to your observatory and your core to Eddie and Alice in exchange for Axel and the others. We give them what they want, and then we walk away. Once we’re clear, we call in the police. There won’t be any harm to anyone, especially if we act quickly.”

Ethan stepped forward, pointing at me. “Now wait a second. We can’t prove Alice has anything to do with this. What makes you think Alice even has your friend?”

Raven sidestepped in front of me in a protective stance, but I nudged him out of the way. “Because she told me she did,” I said. I left the microwave to lean against the kitchen island, staring him in the eyes and hoping he took me seriously. “Yesterday...I think. Maybe. I’m getting my days confused, but...”

“When is the last time you slept?” Corey asked, squinting at me. He came over, and touched gently at the skin below my eye. He rubbed gently. “You’re starting to look like a raccoon.”

I slapped at his hand to push it away. “Stop that. We need to get to Axel and Brandon and...”

“Wait a second,” he said, his eyes wide. “What do you mean? Where’s Brandon?”

Uh oh. Brandon didn’t want Corey knowing about him being kidnapped. “Uh...”

“Kidnapped,” Avery said. “Bummer, isn’t it? Right after he got free the first time, he gets kidnapped again.” He bobbed his head and made a sympathetic face.

Corey’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Totes,” Avery said. “Axel and...uh...Blake, too, right?” Avery looked at me. “There’s one more, though. Max?”

“Marc,” I said, grimly, looking at the counter. “Marc. And Doyle, I think. Maybe. I’m not sure about Blake and Doyle.”

Avery snapped his fingers and then scratched at his head. “Right. Marc. I’m starting to lose track, too. They started out kidnapping girls, and now they’re kidnapping guys. So we trade them for this core, yeah? And then the police can sort out the rest.”

Corey’s mouth was open, his eyebrow arching above one eye. “Hang on a second. So she has Brandon
and
Blake?”

“Yeah,” Raven said. “What’s this kidnapping?”

I tried to catch them up quickly on what had happened. They probably should have been told what was going on from the start. Maybe Brandon didn’t want him chasing after, but I thought Corey was smarter than that.

Raven grunted at the end. “We were supposed to be running around after you so you don’t do anything stupid, and trying to identify anyone that might be following you.”

“I thought you guys were at the hospital,” I said.

“We were,” Corey said. “Up until today. Last night when we got a call from Mr. Anderson saying he was going to check up on Brandon inside some house on Kiawah. He said you’d taken his car and were supposed to head to us. Only you never showed up, so we went looking for you. Kevin’s back at the hospital in case you showed up. We followed Mr. Anderson’s GPS on his cell phone. We were on your tail to Hannahan when you turned around, and then caught up with you at that building before we lost you again. The signal was hard to read after that. But where is Brandon now? With Alice or the other one?”

Did the cell phone not work because it was too close to Ethan’s tower? “Last I saw him, he was at Ethan’s house. I lost sight of him. Alice told me she had him. Actually, she told me he left me there alone. But she implied she had him, and didn’t need me anymore.” Sort of. She didn’t even imply she had him. It was just girl intuition when someone was lying. But if she thought she had Corey, then it was true she really didn’t need me anymore.

Corey’s face darkened. Raven’s did, too. They shared a look of silent conversation.

“Don’t plan anything funny,” I said. “I want to go save them, too. That’s what we’re doing. We can do it with the core.” The microwave beeped then and I took out the sandwiches.

“This is ridiculous,” Ethan said. “Really. Alice can’t be involved. She wouldn’t...”

“You told me you’ve only known her a few months,” I said. “And you married her.”

“So?” Ethan said.

“Yeah,” Raven said, his eyebrow up as he matched Ethan’s expression. “So what’s wrong with that? Sounds normal to me. In Russia, you could marry a girl the next day if you wanted. Happens all the time.”

I gave Raven the eye, for encouraging Ethan, for one, and for being weird. Russians married their girlfriends after a day? What?

“Exactly,” Ethan said. “So I’m not going to help you pin my wife for murder or conspiracy or whatever it is you’re planning. There’s no proof she’s done any wrong.”

Corey looked between the two men, looked at me and then gestured for me to be quiet. “How’d you meet her?” he asked Ethan.