Forgiveness and Permission

  The bell rang through the intercom.

  “We should go,” I said. I felt better now that I’d told someone, but now I needed to keep a level head for both of us. “Don’t tell the others. They don’t need this right now. I’ll talk to Mr. Blackbourne during my music class. I may get away with missing the rest of English but if I skip any more classes or if we go to see Mr. Blackbourne or Dr. Green now, Hendricks will know I’m talking about it and it might just make things worse. Or Mr. McCoy will think I’m tattling and who knows what would happen then. He wouldn’t have done it unless he thought he could get away with it. He’s probably expecting it.”

  “I should be there when you talk to Mr. Blackbourne.”

  “There’s nothing happening right now. I’m fine. It just shocked me. We don’t want to draw any more attention from Hendricks.” I moved to the door, motioning to our things. “Let’s get going before someone catches us.”

  He grunted but he stepped forward, picking up his bag. “I’ll walk you to class.”

  “It’s okay ...”

  He clutched my wrist. “I’m taking you to class,” he said.

  Kota was back and ready to take over.

  DOUBLE AGENT

  Kota whispered something to North when we got to my next class. North’s eyes fixed on me and he gave the slightest of nods. For the rest of class, he said nothing to me. Nathan sat behind me and on occasion he brushed his fingertips at my back as if to assure me he was there. North kept his eyes on the chalkboard in front of us, his jaw set.

  When geometry was over, they both insisted on walking me to class. I had a feeling North was following Kota’s orders. They walked next to me like my own bodyguards, Nathan on my right, North to my left. Eyes of other students fell on us, and I knew it was because of the serious expressions from both of them. They might not understand what was going on, but they knew enough to clear a path.

  As we walked, my heart was in my throat as I was trying to figure out exactly how I was going to approach the topic with Mr. Blackbourne.

  When we got to music room B, North held the door open for me. After I stepped inside, he followed, closing the door behind him as Nathan moved on to his next class.

  I wanted to protest, but one look at North’s face told me not to. I was both reluctant and grateful to have him beside me. I didn’t want to see his face when I revealed what Mr. McCoy had done.

  Mr. Blackbourne stood sentinel by the piano, his arms folded over his chest and glaring at the entryway as if ready to launch after us. Kota stood beside him with his arms in almost the exact same position. It made me pause. Did Kota come in and tell him everything? Even about Mr. McCoy? Why would he do that? Why didn’t he wait? Wasn’t he listening to me about drawing attention to this?

  North’s fingers brushed against my back, urging me forward. I looked up into his dark eyes as if trying to quietly ask if it was safe. North gave me a curt nod, with his jaw set and his gaze alert. He’d stand by me. He pleaded with me silently to do what had to be done.

  I stepped forward, dropping my bag on the floor and cradling the violin case next to it. Mr. Blackbourne and Kota closed the distance, meeting us in the middle of the room.

  “Miss Sorenson,” Mr. Blackbourne said.

  “Mr. Blackbourne,” I said in a near-whisper to return his greeting. My eyes darted around but no matter where I looked, I was surrounded by their eyes looking down at me. It made me feel so small.

  “Start talking,” he commanded. No time wasted.

  I glanced at Kota, trying to figure out from his expression how much he told him. His face was unreadable.

  I sighed and revealed everything about that morning, about what Mr. Hendricks said to me from the moment I stepped into his office. I paused before I got to the part about Mr. McCoy. One thing at a time.

  Mr. Blackbourne smoothed a fingertip over his eyebrow. “I was afraid this was going to happen.”

  “Why would knowing where the Academy is help his case?” North asked. “He’s already tried to get rid of us once and it backfired on him. Why is he trying again?”

  “There’s something here he doesn’t want us to see,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “I understand him not wanting us to step on his toes, but he’s taking a lot of effort to get rid of us. The only answer is there’s more to this than hurt pride or he’d let us ride out the year.”

  North shifted on his feet. “So he wants to use Sang to find out more about the Academy? What would be the point? His school is the one under heat from the state.”

  “This might be an attempt to redirect unwanted attention. First step in dealing with an enemy is to figure out the enemy. He’s trying to dig up some dirt on us perhaps. If he can prove we’re incompetent or unsafe, he’d have a case to make against the school board. He might use it to threaten us, blackmail perhaps.”

  “What should I do?” I asked. My finger hovered over my lip. “I mean if he’s going to ask me about the Academy, I could tell him whatever you wanted.”

  North’s eyes zeroed in on my face as if trying to decide if I was serious or not. Kota glared at the floor.

  Mr. Blackbourne brushed a hand over his hair. “We need to find out how far his voice is heard. We also need someone next to Hendricks. None of us were able to get on his good side, so we dropped that plan.” He inched closer to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and walked with me toward the piano. “But maybe you can get close. We need to know why he’s desperate to get rid of us. We’ve tapped his office, but he’s clean here. If there’s something going on, he’s very good at hiding it. Maybe we need to play along.”

  “So you want me to pretend to be interested in helping him?” I asked. This was good. I was helping. They were letting me inside this. Would it work though? Was I digging myself deeper? After all, Mr. Blackbourne said it before, he could take his students and disappear any time he wanted. I didn’t have that luxury.

  “Let’s start with something small,” he said. “Tomorrow Nathan has some outside work to do for me that will take him out of school for the day. Hendricks will probably talk to him but he’ll come after you when Nathan refuses to answer.”

  “Sir,” Kota said behind us.

  Mr. Blackbourne and I turned around, his arm slipping away from my shoulder. “Mr. Lee?”

  “We should keep Sang out of this,” he said, nearly through his teeth. “This isn’t her responsibility.”

  “No,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He pointed a finger at him and his voice rose. “This was your responsibility. You brought her into this. Now that she’s in the middle, you aren’t willing to accept the consequences.”

  “I don’t want her in the middle of Academy business.” The power in Kota’s voice strengthened. “This is far too close as it is. She’s been through enough.”

  “They pulled her out of class because they assumed she would talk. Now that they know she’s not one of us, they are going to assume they’ll have an easier time of getting information from her. She doesn’t hold any loyalty to us.”

  “But if he thinks she’s the weak link,” Kota said, “others will, too.” There was the slightest lift at his eyebrow as if they were saying this was more than about the school.

  “You should have thought about that before you brought her in,” Mr. Blackbourne said, flatly. “We’re taking enough risks now exposing ourselves like this in a public school. I warned all of you to keep your distance here and you brought her in anyway. Now look what’s happened. You hid her from us deliberately in the beginning and when you asked us to help her, did I say no? No. I trusted you to know what you were doing with her. But you can’t stay this close to her here and not expect some fallback. Either she’s with us or you have to drop her from the group. I don’t want to be cruel but you can’t have both.”

  “She shouldn’t have to do this. It wasn’t her choice,” Kota said, his voice faltering.

  “She’s here, isn’t she? I didn’t ask. She offered.”

  “She’s too vulnerable
.”

  “Don’t you think I’ve noticed? Look at her face,” Mr. Blackbourne’s voice reverberated in the room. He shoved a closed fist in the air in my direction. “Look at her and then look me in the eye and tell me you can’t read everything she’s thinking right now.”

  My heart was thundering in my chest. I pressed a palm to it just to keep my body from vibrating. I didn’t understand but I didn’t want them to fight any more. “Tell me what to say,” I said, my voice sounded strange from my lips, like it was an octave too high. When they all turned to me, I knew I was blushing but continued. “I’ll talk to Hendricks. Just tell me what you want him to know.”

  North frowned. “You don’t have to. This isn’t your job.”

  “I’m already involved,” I said. In my mind flashed the many occasions they had stepped in for me. Whenever Greg was a problem, they were there. When I was having problems at home, they were there. How could I back out now and leave them to handle this? “He thinks he can threaten me into revealing some secret about you. Maybe I can pick up on whatever he is trying to hide. He might even back off of you for a while if he feels I will tell him everything. Isn’t that better than him popping up every once in a while to check up on you himself?”

  North and Kota were frowning. They glanced at each other, exchanging their wordless communication.

  Only Mr. Blackbourne seemed pleased with this. “You do realize that by helping us, you are putting yourself at risk. This makes you a witness to what he’s doing if you come across something.”

  “If I don’t play along, he’s already threatened my grades. What else could he do?”

  North grunted like he wanted to answer but he wasn’t willing to say it out loud.

  Mr. Blackbourne smoothed out his eyebrow again. “Miss Sorenson,” he said. “Can you promise me you’ll keep our conversations in full confidence? I promise to teach you everything I can to help you, but I need to know I can trust you. You may have won over my students, but as I’ve said, you hold no loyalty to the Academy. You’re part of our family now, but we’re asking a lot from you”

  “I may not know enough about the Academy,” I said, “But I have loyalty to Kota.” I nodded in his direction. Kota looked up, his eyebrows lifting up with interest and his anxiety fading. “And to North. And Luke. And Silas and the others. You, too. You’ve helped me. I’ll help you.” I tried to sound confident with as much fierceness and conviction as I felt toward them. Kota had said to take care of family first. Would he not allow me to help? Mr. Blackbourne had asked the right question. Was I with them or wasn’t I?

  The corner of Mr. Blackbourne’s mouth curled up. It was only a millimeter, the smallest of movements, but it changed his entire countenance from an unreadable mask to something that was almost gentle. “You are full of surprises, Miss Sorenson.”

  “Can you do it though?” North asked. His eyes fixed on me. “I mean when he calls for you, you’ll have to go without us. We won’t be able to come in and save you if you get into trouble. If he makes good on his promise to fix your grades, we can’t go in and change it without him noticing. We’re also taking more risks at exposing what happened to your parents. If he finds out, there will be a lot more problems.”

  “If I do what he wants, he’ll have no reason to fix my grades or get any closer,” I said.

  Mr. Blackbourne frowned. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It looks like our music lessons might be put on hold. We’ll need to spend the time preparing you.”

  “The violin can wait,” I said. “There’s more important things to worry about.”

  He nodded and focused on North and Kota. “Give the orders to the others. If she gets called out of class again, no one is to follow her. We need to make it look like she’s playing this game.”

  “We can’t do that,” Kota said. “We’ve got another problem.”

  “What now?” Mr. Blackbourne asked.

  Kota glanced at me. “Tell him.”

  I bit my lip, tucking my hands behind my back to hide my shaking. “McCoy grabbed me this morning.”

  North’s intense eyes narrowed in on my face, his hands clenching into fists. “How? When?”

  I glanced at Mr. Blackbourne. North’s temper scared me.

  Mr. Blackbourne frowned, inclining his head. “Tell us what happened.”

  I sucked in some bravery. Learn to trust. “After I was excused by Mr. Hendricks, Mr. McCoy found me in the hallway. He grabbed me, telling me he was keeping an eye on me.”

  “Show them where,” Kota said, his tone calmer than before, as if relieved this information was out.

  I gazed at the floor and placed a palm at my hip bone.

  “He gripped her hard, too,” Kota said. “I saw the red marks. She’ll probably have bruises.”

  “Christ,” North breathed out, his fists knocking against his thighs. “Why didn’t you say something earlier?”

  “There’s nothing we can do about it,” I said.

  “Like hell there isn’t,” North barked.

  “Settle down, North,” Mr. Blackbourne commanded.

  “No. Let’s go after him. Confront him now. Let’s get his ass fired. He can’t do that.”

  “Who are we going to talk to? Mr. Hendricks?” Mr. Blackbourne asked.

  “We could talk to the school board,” Kota said.

  “If this gets out,” Mr. Blackbourne said in a calm tone, “they will demand to inform and talk to her parents while they investigate.”

  North had his mouth open to say something but stopped short. Kota’s face fell. This was an impossibility. My parents weren’t available. I couldn’t risk exposure over something like this.

  “There’s nothing we can do about it,” I repeated quietly. “He either knows this or he has something else on me to make sure I can’t complain to Mr. Hendricks or anyone else. It’s his word against mine, anyway.”

  “You’re correct to assume he might have something that lets him think he can come after you, Miss Sorenson,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “But we will do something about this. North is right. This can’t continue.”

  “I can try to avoid him.” To me, it seemed like the only solution. Next time I was trapped in the hallway, I’d run, or do something. I wouldn’t stand there. He scared me earlier, caught me off guard. I didn’t want to put myself in that situation again. I also didn’t want more trouble for the guys.

  “We didn’t pull you from one problem just to leave you with another,” he said. “Let us worry about Mr. McCoy. From now on, you should never to be alone with him. If you ever see him, in front of people or not, and my team isn’t around you, you should contact me immediately and leave the vicinity. I don’t care when or how. If he tries to pull you out of class and we’re not there, don’t follow him. Call me instead.” He turned to North. “In the meantime, we need recorded surveillance on McCoy. Work with Victor to make sure that happens by this afternoon.”

  North nodded, his jaw firm.

  “Should we follow her out of class, now?” Kota asked.

  Mr. Blackbourne’s lips twisted. “Only if it is McCoy coming for her himself.” He turned to me. “Otherwise, keep your phone close and call if you’re ever called out of class for anything. I’ll follow with the installed cameras and I’ll make myself available in the front office. We’ll draw too much attention if someone follows behind you every time.”

  My fingers fluttered to the base of my neck, rubbing at the tip of my collarbone. I didn’t like this plan. If they caught him again doing it, what else could they do? I did like the thought of following him with cameras though. Maybe if anyone else was getting hurt by him, they could help them.

  It struck me strange that I was being given what almost amounted to orders. A thrill swept through me to be included. It wasn’t all about helping me this time, either. It was to help them.

  The bell rang. North cursed. “Never enough time.”

  “Meanwhile,” Mr. Blackbourne said, pointing at me, “tomorrow bring your violin as
expected, but be ready for training. Kota, she’s to get self-defense training this weekend. Make sure someone is available to make that happen.”

  “I’ll do it,” he said.

  North picked up my things, leading the way out of class. Kota remained behind to talk to Mr. Blackbourne.

  I walked beside North, with my arm brushing his as he slung my things over his back. He didn’t acknowledge it, locked inside his own head as he marched forward.

  Victor was out in the main hallway and waiting. He perked up when he saw us coming, but frowned when he caught North’s serious expression. “What happened?” he asked.

  “Long story,” I said quietly.

  Victor frowned, reaching for my hand, his thumb smoothing over the skin between my thumb and forefinger. “Tell me on the way.”

  ♥♥♥

  By lunchtime, the others were informed of the new plan. As soon as North and Victor and I arrived at the courtyard, Victor pulled a laptop from his bag, and sat on the grass. “I need cover,” he said.

  Did he mean a shield? I could do that. Since I was beside him, I sunk to my knees next to him, sitting back on my heels.

  Victor beamed at me, his fire eyes lighting up. “Princess, I love that you did that, but you’re not exactly what I need right now.”

  “Move over, short stuff,” North said, nudging me in the shoulder.

  I knee walked across the grass to sit next to Luke and Gabriel. Silas and Kota sat on the bench behind Victor and North and Nathan perched themselves on either side of Victor and started talking over his head. The rest of us clustered around Victor in a circle.

  “What’s he doing?” I asked Luke in a half-whisper.

  Luke lifted his gaze from his package of chips to check where I was looking. “Computer stuff.”

  “Computer stuff requires sitting together like this?”

  A chop landed on my head. Gabriel smirked at me from my other side. The red crystal studs in his earlobes sparked in the sunlight. “Stop asking so many questions.”