Liar

  He shook his head and released my face. His fingers moved toward my cheek and he swept some locks of my hair away. “No. But no one is in charge of us. We do what we want.”

  “But we’re here for people we don’t even know.”

  “We chose to be here. We’re helping a friend.”

  “A friend you don’t know?”

  “It’s complicated. Business.”

  “Who signs the paychecks?”

  “No one.”

  I pulled myself away from him and shoved a finger against my forehead, sliding it across my eyebrow. Maybe this was part of the language barrier. Raven might know more than I did, but he may not understand what I wanted to know, or how to explain it to me. As far as he was concerned, his boss was Axel, and maybe they choose their assignments, but someone organized the whole thing. The lady said she needed approvals for them to adopt us, so Axel was appealing to other members, higher ups. “I don’t understand.”

  Raven’s mouth twitched. He leaned over, and his hand draped over the back of my neck, warming. “We’re not the bad guys,” he said in a quieter tone. “We help. We’re like police, only better, because we learn about who we’re helping before we help them. We get the whole story. And our reach is further than theirs.”

  “We didn’t know this lady,” I said.

  “We knew the grandson, and he went on what she told him. There was no way for him to know the truth until we looked into it. Probably not until it was too late.”

  “Where is he?” I asked. “Who is this guy we’re helping? Why isn’t he here?”

  “Busy.”

  I was about to grunt and let him know exactly how unhelpful he was when Corey returned. He held up a couple of key cards. “Got a nice one,” he said, smiling big. “One of the suites was open.”

  I was disappointed, but got over it. Getting interrupted didn’t seem to matter right now. I was talking to the wrong guy. I needed to find time with Corey alone.

  The old hotel I’d stayed in had exterior hallways. This hotel required going inside to access the rooms. It was the difference of being at a tourist hotel, where they invite you in, instead of being at a place meant for you to sleep and get out quick.

  Getting a suite room, it had two queen beds, and a couch that pulled out into a bed. It was split into two rooms, a front living room and a back bedroom with a balcony that overlooked the ocean. It had that over-bleached smell. The bathroom was near the front, big enough for a tub with a shower and two sinks.

  Despite the nicer amenities, it still felt like a hotel room to me. The view was better though. I tried not to let my past experience of living in a hotel drag this down, but I wished we were back at the Sergeant Jasper.

  “We’re here first,” Raven said, dumping our bags onto one of the beds, and then sat down. He stripped off his nicer shirt, tossing it aside and leaving on the black T-shirt. He flopped onto his back on the patterned bedspread, spreading his arms out in a stretch. The T-shirt started to ride up, revealing his belly button, and the muscles that flexed, making the tattoos dance a little. “We claim beds first.”

  I climbed onto the other one, shaking the flip-flops off so they fell to the floor. Corey kicked them to a corner while I sat cross-legged on top of the cover. I leaned back on my hands. “I get this one.”

  “We’ll share,” Raven said.

  “I share with Corey,” I said. If I had to sleep in the same room as the guys tonight, Corey was my safe bet. He’d keep his hands to himself. I guess I could sleep on the sofa bed and kick everyone else out, but it’d make someone sleep on the floor if I claimed a bed to myself.

  Corey beamed, and rubbed the back of his head slightly. “Okay.”

  Raven rolled his eyes.

  Corey checked out the space around the room, and then checked out the front part where there was a small microwave on top of a mini-fridge, and the sofa in a living area space. He came back after a moment. “I’m going to need a whiteboard. Or a chalkboard or something.”

  Raven made a slight groan and jumped up. “I’ll ask,” he said.

  “Why do we need a whiteboard?” I asked.

  “Math,” Raven said. He picked up one of the room keys, and then left.

  “I need it to figure out where this girl went,” Corey said after Raven was gone.

  “Are we going to track Fred’s cell phone?” I asked. “Shouldn’t we do that?”

  “I’ll do that, too,” Corey said. “It’ll take time and while I’m doing the work, I should make a few calculations. I can’t depend on the phone data so doing two things at once should speed things along. You want to get back in time for your brother, right?” He picked up his bag, and a couple of the ones we got from the store. He dropped it all on the table, and then shoved the table around to where he wanted it. He retrieved his laptop and plugged it in. “We’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way, though, I think. Finding out who his friends are and see if they know where he may have gone. Maybe he talked about going to an old family home, or had a timeshare in Maine. Maybe Harry might know something, too. We’ll see.”

  I studied him as he started working. He’d left the dressier shirt on, which really looked good against his broad shoulders. After a while, he started unbuttoning, leaving the shirt on but revealing the T-shirt underneath. His eyes were focused, curious and determined. The happy expression stayed, even as he typed at the keyboard. It was hard to stop crushing on him now.

  I felt awkward just watching him work, so I started peeling the bed covers back, leaving blankets and pillows in place. I had time with Corey alone, now, and wanted to take advantage of it. I didn’t want to jump into it right off, so I tried some small talk. “You know,” I said as I worked, “it’s kind of cute how Raven just jumps up and runs off whenever you ask him to do something.”

  “Hm?” Corey asked, still looking at the screen and tapping at the keyboard. “Cute?”

  “I mean when I ask him to do something, half the time he tells me no. Or when I ask him a question, his answers are usually, just ‘no’.”

  “Don’t know what to tell you,” he said. “Ask him with a smile, maybe?”

  I tried to calculate how long it would take for Raven to find a whiteboard and then figured I had time to ask. “You know, I was just talking with him about the Academy.”

  “Oh?” he asked.

  “I was trying to figure out who was in charge.”

  “Axel,” he said.

  I tossed the covers into the corner, and kicked them out of the way. “I mean, who is in charge of the Academy? You know? I mean, you have rules, right? Who makes the rules?”

  “We do,” he said.

  I smothered a sigh “You mean you created all the rules? You started it?”

  “No,” he said. He looked up, tapping his fingers against the computer. “I mean, when we were introduced to the Academy, they had certain rules in place already. New ones are voted on among everyone. Joining the Academy means agreeing to the rules already in place, but if you really were offended by one, then it probably isn’t the right group for you, anyway. It simply wouldn’t work out.”

  “Okay. Help me out here. What are we talking about? Give me a rule.”

  “Well,” he said, and he rubbed a palm behind his neck. “I mean, do you really want to know? I know you’ve gotten sort of tied into it because of us. You don’t have to.”

  “I’m in Florida with you now.”

  He smiled. “Not a horrible place to be, is it?”

  I shrugged and sat on the corner of the bed. I crossed my legs, leaning back a bit. “I like it fine,” I said. “I’m just a little stuck in the middle and not sure what it’s really all about. Is it wrong to be curious about it?”

  “No,” he said. He breathed out slowly and sat back, shoving the laptop away from himself. “Is it just curiosity? I mean, it seems like you’re…wanting in.”

  I stalled for a moment, trying to consider how far I wanted to go with this. I went for noncommittal. “W
ell, if you were me, what would you think?”

  He smiled a little. He stood up, and moved to the end of the bed, sitting close beside me. He leaned over, bumping his elbow into mine. “I’d probably want to know more about the group I was running around with. But if you’re looking for some secret side of us, honestly...” He patted his hand to his chest. “It’s just me. Not much to it.”

  “Then why can’t you really talk about it? I mean why keep the Academy a secret?”

  “There’s a whole lot of reasons. I mean, if we told everyone about us, they’d call us to solve every little problem. But the biggest one is that the group is rather hard to explain. Not everyone would understand.”

  “It’s like the CIA, isn’t it?”

  “A little bit more home oriented than that. We don’t have any legal jurisdiction anywhere, really. We’re just regular people. It’s kind of better that way. We can do things people like the CIA and FBI can’t do.”

  “But you keep tabs on people, like following them on cell phones.”

  His palm returned to the back of his neck, rubbing. He sat away from me a bit, leaning on his other hand against the bed. “Sort of. A little.”

  “And their bank accounts?” I asked. “Like Mrs. Gunther’s?”

  His smile faltered. “It’s not that invasive.”

  “But you do,” I said. I stood up, starting to pace. It was something that bugged me still. “I mean, are you tracking people? You mentioned you followed them on GPS before. Monitoring their emails? How far do you go?”

  “Wait, hang on,” he said. He reached out, taking my hand. His longer fingers easily enveloped around mine, and squeezed gently to stop my pacing. “It’s not what you think. It’s not everything and everyone.”

  “Who then?”

  “People we know. You usually have to know someone personally and prove you have their best interests in mind. And we wouldn’t do that with just anyone. Like Harry with his grandmother. She’s by herself, retired. Her kids moved away. Harry was worried about her. And what he’s got set up to keep an eye on her isn’t really that involved. Banks all have advanced security systems now, right? Well banks have notifications in place to protect your accounts. If you lived in Charleston, for example, and then suddenly your debit card was making purchases in Morocco, the bank might send out an ‘unusual activity’ notice. They may even call you to ask about your purchase.”

  “So?”

  He tugged my hand toward him and I sat down again, close enough that our thighs were touching. Even then, he continued to hang on. His thumb traced softly over the back of my hand. “Well, what’s the difference between a stranger at the bank asking you about your account, versus some family member you trust? In our case, Mrs. Gunther’s bank account was flagged when a large withdrawal was made. Our friend was notified when that happened. He didn’t know the details, just that something occurred. When he called about it, and she told him she lost money in a Ponzi scheme, he asked us for help getting it back. No foul play. He was just worried. And good thing, too. This is bigger than he realized. I could have hacked her account, I guess, but that’d take hacking a big bank, and I don’t really want to take that risk unless we don’t have an option. I don’t know if we have the time, anyway.”

  I was idle for a moment, considering what he was saying. I supposed if I had an elderly grandmother out there to look after, I’d want to keep tabs on her. “What else do you do?” I asked. “I mean, what’s the point? What is it all about? What’s the Academy for?”

  He shifted on the bed next to me, letting go of my hand. He leaned in, and his arm brushed against mine. He hovered over me. “How interested are you?” he asked quietly.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, breathless with him so close.

  “Thinking about joining? Is it something you think you’d like to do?”

  I studied his cerulean eyes, and slightly parted lips that curled up into a smile. He wasn’t just asking. He was hoping. Inviting. “Do you think I should?” I asked.

  He shook his head just once. “It can’t be up to me.”

  “But you’ve got to have an opinion.”

  “I do,” he said. “I want to know what you think.”

  I turned away, staring at the table, at his laptop needing to not look at him so I could think. I couldn’t help feeling a desire to join, and most of that was from him. His sweet-natured ways had my heart racing and I wanted to please him and be a part of whatever made him this happy. Could this group be as horrible as I’d feared if someone like Corey was part of it? He was a sweetheart, taking care of old ladies and jumping in head first to sort out the missing girl issue. He didn’t once think to back off, to go back home to let someone else—like the police--deal with it. Here he was with a glint in his eyes, alluring.

  If I wanted to know about the Academy, it might be possible to join like he wanted. If I didn’t like what I saw, I’d be in a better position to get out, along with any files they had on my brother and me. I didn’t see a problem with that. “How do I join your team?” I asked.

  His smile lifted, lighting up the blue of his eyes into a brilliant sparkle. “Can you wait until we’re done with this case? When we get back, I can get you started.”

  “What does it take to get started?”

  “There’s an application process. We’ll probably want to do some initial work beforehand, though.” He jumped to his feet and started pacing. “I haven’t brought in anyone before. I mean, I brought in Raven but it was Axel taking the lead on him. You’ll be my first.”

  “Yours?” I asked. I wasn’t sure what struck me more: That he said he got Raven on the team, or that he was planning on doing this with more than one person. He’d said I’d be first. He wanted more?

  He paused in his pacing, looking at me. His eyebrows scrunched together, like he wasn’t sure what I was asking. “Can you do me a favor, though?” he asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Don’t tell anyone yet,” he said. “Not the other guys.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well, there’s a process to joining,” he said. “I think you’re ready but the others probably wouldn’t agree. If you’ll work with me privately on it, I can get you in faster.”

  His excitement was growing on me. Getting in quicker was exactly what I needed. “How long will it take?”

  The hotel room door rattled and then opened. Raven returned with only a collection of dry erase markers, a couple of Sharpies, and an eraser. “Use the bathroom mirror.”

  Corey smirked. “You’re going to have me mark up private property?”

  Raven shrugged and held up the dry erase marker. “Erasable.” He sat at another chair around the table, and took a hotel notepad off the table He started trying out the dry erase markers, checking to make sure they still had ink.

  Corey glanced at me once, winked and then checked on his computer again. Our talk was put on pause for now. If he wanted to keep it from the other guys, we’d have to find time alone later to continue.

  I fell back on the bed, breathing in slowly and staring at a painting of a beach scene on the wall. With the excitement fading, reality was setting in. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was asking when it came to joining.

  I hoped I wasn’t getting in over my head.

  REASON AND DOUBT

  Corey was absorbed in his computer work. Raven was tucked over the notebook, doodling. Every once in a while, Corey got up to go to the bathroom to scrawl out equations and data. I started to follow and ask questions, but Raven intervened.

  “Let him work,” Raven said. “Takes him longer if you interrupt. He needs to focus.”

  I sat on the bed, following Raven’s lead by doing something quiet. He drew on paper. I stared at the walls, trying and failing at not thinking about the Academy, Wil, and making plans for after we returned to Charleston.

  Maybe I should let them help me find Wil as soon as possible, and then…

  The phone I’d placed on a side table start
ed vibrating. On the second vibration, I sat up quickly and picked it up. Text messages were coming through.

  Raven picked up his head. “What’s that?”

  “I…” I stared at the phone, trying to figure out an excuse. “I logged into my email with it, so now it’s notifying me of incoming emails.”

  “I hate that,” Raven said. “Always junk mail.”

  “There should be a way to turn that off in the settings,” Corey said, still focused on the computer.

  I got up to go to the bathroom, motioning to Raven that I was going to fix it in there where I wasn’t going to distract Corey. When I locked the door behind me, I looked down at the screen.

  Blake: Meet me outside.

  My heart leapt into my throat. Blake was here. If I didn’t go meet him, would he storm the hotel looking for me? I’d warned him to back off. Now wasn’t the time.

  I was so close, though. When we went back to Charleston, Corey said, he’d get me into the Academy quick and then I’d know everything. Did I need Blake now? I may not be getting the answers I wanted right this second, but after everything I’d learned and seen today, I doubted my initial distrust. I still didn’t like them having access to my brother’s information without permission, but the more I played over the scene in my head, Axel didn’t seem malicious.

  I stood in front of the mirror, debating. The longer I waited, I risked Blake coming to find me. That wouldn’t be good. If he came to the door, I wasn’t sure how I could explain it to Corey. He wouldn’t trust me after that.

  Time to nut up.

  After that pep talk, I tucked the phone into the waistband of my shorts and opened the bathroom door.

  My heart thundered because this was going to be a risky move. I stood just outside the door, smoothing out my tank top and contemplating a lie. Raven was still doodling with markers. Corey was typing, his eyes intent on his work.

  I walked over to the bed, looking for my flip-flops, trying to look bored. “I’m going to walk around the hotel,” I said.

  “Going to the beach?” Corey asked.