Hero Complex (19 page)

She had a sudden queasy feeling Eric knew the answers to all these questions. There was a reason he’d called her now. Today. Even if he wasn’t watching. He needed to find someone to do his dirty work, and Devon fit the bill.

“Maya’s going to call you soon,” Eric said. “She’ll tell you how to get a car.”

Devon swallowed. “I didn’t say I’d do it.” But the words were weak, barely a whisper. She didn’t have a choice, did she?

“I’m sure you’ll get over that,” Eric said, as if reading her mind.

There was a click, and the line went dead.

At first, Devon wondered if she was hallucinating. That couldn’t be Bodhi sitting on her front step. The person she wanted to see most couldn’t be waiting for her after the most nerve-wracking bus ride of her life. Better still, her mom’s car wasn’t in the driveway. She was still at work, even though she’d promised to be home by four o’clock. It was already four fifteen, so there would be no awkward introduction.

“How did you know where I live?” Devon asked, collapsing into his arms as he stood to greet her. “Oh, right,” she murmured, closing her eyes as she nuzzled against his fleece jacket, breathing in the familiar coconut smell. Amazing how one whiff of that could calm her down. “You have magic powers.”

“If you call a Wi-Fi connection and a little HTML know-how magic, then yeah.” He chuckled, then drew in a sharp breath. “I’m
so sorry. I couldn’t stay away. I’m sure I just made it worse for you—”

Devon cut him off by kissing him. She pulled back. “You make everything better for me. Screw them if they think otherwise.”

He tucked her hair behind her ears and looked into her eyes. “Maybe it’s better, safer, if you’re here for now.”

Devon almost laughed. The word “safe” had lost all meaning. “How’s Raven?” she asked, anxious again. “I mean, where is she?”

“Still at the hospital, but good. I’m taking her home tonight when I get back. I just needed to see you when I heard that Keaton kicked you to the curb.”

“How did you hear, by the way?” Devon asked, sitting down on the steps. “Because word has spread quicker than most Keaton news.”

“Cleo called me. Thought I’d want to know.”

“Eric called
me
,” Devon responded.

Bodhi tilted his head. “What?”

“It gets worse. I have to do him a favor. I’m going to Montana to get Maya out of her pregnancy home, or whatever it’s called.”

Bodhi chewed his lip and sat beside her, his hand on her knee. “What could Eric Hutchins possibly have on you to make you do this? What’s going on?”

Devon dug her nails into her palm. She didn’t want to keep anything from Bodhi, but the truth was embarrassing to admit. “My scholarship got taken away. He says his family isn’t paying it, but I can’t think of why it would get defunded now. The timing isn’t random, I’m sure. If the Hutchinses aren’t paying it, Eric knows who is. And without it, I can’t go back.”

Bodhi’s lips twisted in anger, his eyes smoldering. “There’s going to be a time when they can’t mess with us anymore. Reed gave everything to Raven and me for a reason—to stop them from screwing with people. You shouldn’t have to do this.”

“You … I know what you’re saying.” Devon’s eyes welled with
tears. “But I have to do this. I have to fall into this trap, because it’s the only way I’ll learn the truth. It’s worth it. Let’s just think of it as a keep-your-enemies-close kind of thing. Do Eric a favor, see what we find out, and maybe something good will come of it.”

Bodhi pulled her into his chest, his chin resting on top of her head. “You’re a hell of a lot braver than I am,” he breathed.

“No, I’m not. Just more selfish.”

He laughed. “I’m pretty selfish, too. So if you go … come back quickly.”

Devon nuzzled her cold nose against his neck. “I have to ask one more favor. Can you help track the IP address from that email Isaac Green gave me? I think Raven sent an email out, but if they responded, it’s all probably with her.”

He kissed her. “Okay. That I can do. But only if you stay in touch the entire time you’re on the road. Deal?”

“Deal.” He stood, but she pulled him back and kissed him again, this time for a while. She didn’t care if her mom interrupted. Now she truly had nothing to lose except Bodhi—and she knew that she couldn’t, no matter what happened.

D
EVON
’
S MOM STILL WASN
’
T
home when dinnertime rolled around. Devon rummaged in the pantry, hoping for some macaroni and cheese or something equally processed yet comforting. SpaghettiOs would work.

She double-checked the sticky notes on the fridge. Her mother had left without a word this morning, naturally. The silent treatment was par for the course in this situation. But now Devon was worried. Her only child had been suspended, and she’d promised to be home three hours ago. It was unlike her not to be in contact all day. Could something at work be more pressing than this?

Devon finished her last slurp of soup and almost unconsciously wandered upstairs to her mom’s room. But as she eyed the bedroom, she thought about that phone number she’d photographed.
The aged paperback was long gone; there were no books on her bedside table. A few discarded blouses were on the bed, and there were the sneakers she had worn last night to pick Devon up at school, but nothing out of the ordinary. Devon flipped through her pictures in her phone to find the image with the number. It couldn’t hurt to try it, could it? Maybe best to try it from the home phone instead of her cell; that way the recipient—if the number was even still in service, if the recipient even knew her mother—wouldn’t be suspicious.

She dialed.

It rang, so at least it was still a working number. After a few rings, a man’s voice picked up. “Forget something?” He sounded friendly but terse, like he was busy with something else. Devon didn’t say anything.

“Karen?”

So this stranger clearly did know her mother. Devon didn’t know whether she should announce herself or not.
Damn, damn, damn
. She should have thought this through. She hadn’t actually expected anyone to pick up.

“Um …” was all she managed to stammer.

He immediately hung up.

Devon stood there, petrified, until she heard her mom’s car pull into the driveway. Fighting to remain calm, she made sure she hadn’t left anything undone in her mom’s room and ran downstairs.

“Hi, honey! Sorry I’m late!”

Cheeriness. No probing questions about how Devon had spent her day or how Devon intended to atone for her terrible mistakes. No, her mom was armed with takeout Thai and blathering apologies. Boring staff meetings had kept her at the office. Devon let her rant. For all Devon knew, Mom could have spent the day at Keaton pleading with the headmaster. Of all the people in her life who might be conspiring against her, Devon knew her mother wasn’t among them. Which made the fact that her mom was lying right now all the more horrifying.

A
FTER A PAINFUL DINNER
during which her mom suddenly remembered that she had to be a disciplinarian, Devon disappeared into her bedroom. She saw that Cleo was online. Video chatting might be too weird. Devon opted to send a text instead.
Hi.

Cleo responded a minute later:
Bonjour! How’s the suspension?

Met Mattie today.

A longer pause this time.

Too much free time on your hands?

Cleo might have been joking, but it was still a jab. Devon had to tell Cleo what Mattie said. She would want to know the truth about Bodhi if their roles were reversed. Even if it meant Cleo might hate her for it. She had to.

Ask Oz about Nikki.

Cleo waited almost five minutes before replying.
Dev, u srsly have 2 stop.

And then she was gone.

Maya called in the middle of the night. 2:38
A.M.
, specifically, because Devon stared at her phone for a few seconds, desperately hoping it was Cleo or Bodhi. The 406 area code made it clear that the caller wasn’t either.

“Devon?” Maya whispered.

“I’m here,” Devon said, now wide awake. “Eric said you’d be calling. He didn’t mention it would be so late, though.” She pulled the comforter over her head to keep the noise from reaching her mom down the hall.

“I don’t have a phone up here. They took it. Listen, I’m sending a car service for you tomorrow at ten
A.M.
It will bring you here. You have an appointment set up under the name Chelsea Ford.”

Devon’s pulse quickened. “Am I supposed to be writing this down?”

“Chelsea Ford. That’s all you need to remember. They’ll pick you up tomorrow morning at ten
A.M.
I gotta go.” Maya hung up.

Devon checked the time on her phone. 2:39
A.M.
It had happened so quickly, she needed to remind herself that she wasn’t dreaming. If it was a dream, Maya might have said
thank you
. But gratitude had never been Maya’s style.

A
BLACK
SUV
APPEARED
across the street as Devon waited by the window. She looked at her phone with bleary eyes: 10:03
P.M.

A driver in a uniform unfolded a paper in the front seat. He caught Devon peering at him and nodded at her. Devon ducked back inside and played out the worst-case scenario in her mind: what if Maya and Eric had paid this driver to make her disappear? She didn’t know this driver or the company he was with—too many unknowns for her liking. The one thing she knew was that Eric’s desire to see Maya before his trial was real, because the crime of murdering his brother was real. He was guilty; it was just a matter of sentencing. Ergo, if she wanted to learn the truth and possibly save her life at Keaton, she had no other option.

Devon had made up a thin excuse about spending the night with Ariel, her old friend from home. Basically, if she didn’t return to Keaton, she needed to reconnect with public school in a hurry. Her mom praised her for her “mature thinking.” She’d even used those exact words, words she would normally never use. Her mom was hiding something, too, so what the hell? They could hide together by being apart.

Before she locked up, she made another attempt at dialing the mysterious number from the paperback.

It was disconnected.

T
WENTY-ONE HOURS LATER
, D
EVON
woke up at dawn in the backseat of the SUV as the driver pulled over at a gas station. The temperatures were lower; snow stuck to the metal lampposts on
every corner like a bumpy layer of spray paint. Beyond the short block of stores nearby, Devon could see miles of white prairie, tinged pink in the sunlight, leading to snow-capped mountains ahead. Good thing she’d grabbed a heavy jacket and hat from her coat rack at the last second.

“Where are we?” she croaked groggily.

“Bozeman,” the driver replied in the rearview mirror. “St. Mary’s is just on the other end of town.”

“I think I fell asleep somewhere in Nevada,” Devon said, yawning. “Wait, how are you still awake?”

The driver smiled. “I pulled over and slept for a few hours. I don’t need much sleep. Part of the job.” He popped the door on the gas tank and hopped out of the car.

Stretching her legs sounded good. Devon flung open the door and jumped out also. “Okay if I use the bathroom?” she asked.

“It’s your dollar, ma’am,” he replied politely and flipped the lever on the gas pump.

Right. This isn’t technically a kidnapping
. “I’m going to grab something inside, too. Want anything?”

“I’m fine, thanks.”

The gas station store was like any other, although Devon noticed the vast varieties of jerky. Deer jerky. Bison jerky. Elk jerky. Moose jerky.
Could they really taste that different?
The pimply guy behind the counter looked to be in his late teens, early twenties. Devon wondered how much the local town knew about St. Mary’s. Any hints about what she was walking into might come in handy. “I’m visiting a friend at St. Mary’s. Have you heard of it by any chance?”

He snickered. “The one with all the pregnant girls? I’ve never seen the girls here. Apparently the nuns don’t want them talking to any of the men in town.”

“Oh, yeah?” Devon prodded.

“My buddy tried to sneak a girl out of there, and some nun drove him off the hill with a shotgun. They’re not messing around
up there. That I know.” He ran his hand along the rim of his frayed baseball cap and eyed the black Escalade. “Good luck, miss,” he whispered as he rang up her bottle of water.

He probably thought she was pregnant, Devon realized as she got back in the car. She was glad she’d asked. A nun with a shotgun was an image Devon couldn’t shake. Maya had conveniently left that part out.

Before she returned to the car, Devon texted Bodhi.
I’m okay. More soon.

T
HE WROUGHT-IRON GATE WAS
flanked by two stone walls. A small oval-shaped sign hung on the left wall:
ST. MARY
’
S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
. A video camera was mounted at the top of the wall, positioned perfectly to observe any incoming cars.