The Other Side of Envy: The Ghost Bird Series: #8 (The Academy) (36 page)

“We’ll behave,” Gabriel said. He filled out the form, and then passed it back. He pulled a wad of cash from his wallet and plucked out three twenty dollar bills.

The lady took the money and made change in a cash drawer. She returned Gabriel’s ID and then passed along his change and a room key. “First floor, second to last door in the second building.”

“Thanks,” Gabriel said. He waved shortly to the woman and then scooped his arm around my neck. “Let’s go.”

Gabriel pulled the Moped around to the second building, parking close to our room. After we were off the bike again, he opened the back hatch, and pulled out a very small duffle bag.

Most rooms nearby had the shades drawn. The area was quiet. Still, it was creepy. Maybe because it was so late and quiet; the surrounding farmlands and lack of people around making it feel even more isolated. We hurried inside.

The room was similar to the one I’d just been in, smaller though. It smelled like someone had smoked in the room before, but it was stale and faint. The utility carpet had thinned out in spots by the door and just outside the bathroom.

I closed the door behind us. Gabriel motioned to the locks so I used the latch. He dropped the bag onto the bed and fell back on the bedspread. “Fuck. Me. Ugh. I’m second-guessing my choice in vehicles. My face feels like raw plastic.”

“Can I talk now?” I asked. “Am I still Stacy?”

“God, no,” he said. He wiped at his face, and sat up. “I mean no, don’t be Stacy and yeah, talk. Fuck. Shit. I hate makeup. This is gross.”

I smiled. I fidgeted from one foot to the other. He was here. He came for me. He...

My eyes widened. Had he just kidnapped me? Running off into the night, leaving the others behind? Had Luke helped him?

I hadn’t thought much while on the back of the bike, frightened and excited to be running and back with Gabriel. We may have been running from McCoy, but did we need to go this far?

Who was that girl?

I tugged the bobby pins out of the wig so I could take it off. The good thing about it was that while the wig had stayed on, my hair underneath was fine. The wig was a messy bird’s nest, though. It’d take a while to comb it all out if I needed to wear it again.

I dropped the wig onto the table and then sat in the chair to kick off the boots. I undid the top button of the jeans. “These jeans are too tight.”

“They’re supposed to be,” Gabriel said, going to the bag and looking in it, sorting through the contents. “They’re skinny jeans. You’re not used to them because I don’t buy them for you.” He yanked the huge shirt off his body and tossed it down onto the floor. His face and arms were still tan from the makeup, but I caught an eyeful of his lean chest and his fine collarbones. “Ugh, I’m going to go shower this shit off.”

He turned, and I got up to follow him. I thought I could sit outside the bathroom door somewhere and be nearby and talk to him.

I checked the clock on the side table as we passed. It was three in the morning. “Why did we rent a room? We’re just going to have to leave in a few hours and go back to school.”

“You’re not going to school,” he said. He shoved the bathroom door open, revealing a sink and toilet crammed into the space beside a stall shower. He left the door open wide and then pointed to the counter. “Sit there.”

I was surprised at the invitation, but sat where he wanted me. My legs hung over the counter and the jeans cinched up in the knees, feeling tight in places I didn’t like. I ignored it for now; I just wanted to be near him.

I didn’t know where to start. He’d been gone, and upset. North went to go fix the situation. The next thing I know, Gabriel’s here and we’re away from the others. Was this fixing things? I couldn’t wait any longer and questions poured from my lips. “What happened? What was all that? Why am I not going to school tomorrow? Who was that girl? Are you okay?”

Gabriel took in another deep breath and then opened the shower. He started the hot water and then tested the stream with his fingers. “Long story.”

I waited, expecting him to start talking. Instead he moved over to the other side of the counter, picking up the tiny bottles of shampoo and looking at them, frowning.

They weren’t his own formulas so he wasn’t happy. “Gabriel?” I asked quietly, trying to get him to focus on the questions.

“McCoy was always on our tail,” he said. “I couldn’t shake him. And he was getting close. He wasn’t going to ease up until he got a visual.”

“So he was following my phone signal all along?”

“Someone was,” he sighed and then went to the shower again with the bottles. He put them down, tested the water again, made some adjustments to the taps. He turned toward me and twirled his finger. “Turn your head, close your eyes.”

I did. I heard the rustle of him taking his clothes off and then the sound of the water was interrupted as he got in. Once I heard the squeak of the curtain being drawn across, I peeked out. The curtain was closed completely. “Who? Hendricks? Morris?”

“I’m taking a wild guess here,” Gabriel said. “But I’m thinking it’s Volto. So whoever that is.”

I pressed my lips hard together. That didn’t sound right. Volto had said he wanted the Academy guys to go away for his own reasons. It hadn’t seemed like he wanted to help Mr. Hendricks or even Mr. McCoy. “Are you sure? He’s the one that led us to Mr. McCoy at the homecoming dance. I didn’t think he’d help them.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “But McCoy doesn’t have the resources to be able to follow your phone. Neither does Mr. Hendricks or even Morris. They’re getting their information from someone else. Someone with the technology to be able to follow your phone signal, even when Victor is bouncing it around. We think. Or Victor thinks. Whatever. McCoy was able to follow us around and we couldn’t shake him.”

“So, Mr. Morris didn’t tell him where we were? I mean we met him after school.”

“I think they don’t stay in touch all the time,” he said. “Mr. McCoy thought he was tracking you down and being smart, so why did he have to talk to him? He’s operating on his own, and only uses the others when he needs.”

“He must have informed Mr. Morris at some time.”

“We had to figure out a way to get him to back off because he was getting too close. The longer he chased us, the more angry he got. It wasn’t until he felt he lost you that he started calling out to Morris and the other person he’s got working for him.” He moved in the shower, the wet tiles squeaking a bit as he shifted. “He’s desperate. They’re hoping the longer he goes without being able to get to you, the more he’ll slip up. He’s got to be close.”

“How did they find us at the hotel?”

“Phone signals from the others,” he said. “Eventually, we let McCoy catch up to Luke with the phone. He realized you weren’t with us and left.” He grunted. “Fucker is after you for some reason. He’s telling Morris you’re dangerous.”

“I heard him,” I said. “Morris was talking to Kota and North and me. He...”

“Don’t trust him,” he said.

I nodded. I believed it now. With McCoy hunting me and Morris willing to help even after I warned him about McCoy, it meant he didn’t believe me. Or didn’t want to. Maybe he’d known McCoy longer and trusted him over a girl he didn’t know. I didn’t have an answer, but I would make sure I let Mr. Blackbourne make decisions on how to handle Mr. Morris from now on. “Kota gave him an address. One to the Academy.”

“It was a lie,” Gabriel said. “Mr. Morris has someone looking at the place now. They’ve spent all night tracking you down and they’re still out there somewhere. Although now they’re following a fake Sang. Hopefully they’ll be able to keep them away for a while.”

My heart dropped.
A while
. How long could we keep this up? “Who was the girl?”

“Another girl from the Academy. Someone about your size. She doesn’t really look like you up close, but with the right wig and clothes, anyone trying to look in on her through a car window or from a distance might not notice. She’ll stay at the hotel tonight with the others. Then someone will drive her around the city tomorrow. Wait for McCoy to fuck up somewhere. We want him to talk to Hendricks, and vent, maybe tell us what he plans to do with you. We’re hoping he’ll dish the dirt on Hendricks and what he knows while in a conversation with him.”

She’d spend the night with them? They’d be alone in a hotel room with another girl. I knew I couldn’t think of it that way.

She was helping. She was Academy. I needed to remember that.

I sat back against the mirror. “Why?” I asked. “What could McCoy do if he found me? Why is he chasing me so late at night, like he’s going to do something?”

“Because Kota talked to Morris,” he said. “When McCoy finally called him, Morris told McCoy what he said. McCoy thinks we’re spreading lies about him, messing up his reputation. He wanted you before, but now he’s really pissed. So we’ve got to get you out of the way for now. But now they’ve got Mr. Blackbourne following McCoy. See? He’s in deep shit now if Mr. Blackbourne’s the one hunting him.”

Uh oh. Was that better? “Will that make a difference?” I asked.

“Sure will,” he said. Gabriel shifted in the shower and I could tell he was applying soap and scrubbing off the makeup. “Once he gets any information he wants from McCoy, they’ll snap him up. Of course we have to do it carefully now. Mr. Morris is on his side. And Mr. Hendricks is waiting for information. If we snag him too quickly, they’ll know it’s us. We need to do it right.”

It seemed like a crazy idea. “Do I stay out of school until then?”

“Tomorrow, yes. After that, I don’t know. This other girl is supposed to draw them away and make it look like you’re driving around downtown on your own all day. She’ll have a couple of people with her, maybe another girl or two. You and I have to float around outside of town. We’ve got one burner cell phone to use in that bag. The battery isn’t in it so there’s no GPS signal unless we turn it on. It’s just for emergencies.”

We were completely out of reach of the others. “Then what? We spend a day away and then?”

“We go back,” he said. He turned the shower off and then stood still behind the curtain. “We’ll stop by the hospital first to get news and more instructions. Our only job now is to stay out of Charleston and avoid being seen too much just in case. Can you bring the bag?”

I jumped off the counter to go get his bag so he could change and then we could talk face to face.

By the time I got back with the bag, he had the door closed. I knocked and he reached out with one hand. I smiled as I hooked the bag over his fingers. I had been in a towel before and he’d open the door right up. Gabriel was more modest with himself than he was with me.

Gabriel came out dressed in sweatpants and a T-shirt, his hair still damp. He glanced at me and wrinkled his brow. “Are you okay in that to sleep? Do you want a shower?”

I grimaced at the shower comment. I was too tired now to even give myself a hobo bath. I looked at my clothes. The sweater was soft, long so it covered my butt. The jeans were tight though. “I can take the jeans off.”

He pursed his lips and nodded. He moved to one of the beds to remove the bedspread and prep the pillows. This room wasn’t as bad with the bleach. Maybe it meant they didn’t use as much of it. I wondered if that was good or bad.

I peeled of the jeans and then slipped in between the sheets next to Gabriel. Gabriel reached to turn off the light by the bed and then hopped up and turned all the lights off in the room.

In the dark, I heard as Gabriel got into the bed next to me.

At first, I was hesitant to reach out to him. I’d done so on the bike, but I’d had to so I could hold on. Now, I wasn’t sure. Had I made him mad before? It was hard to judge his mood. Was he still cranky?

He stretched out on his back until his arm crossed over me. I got an elbow in my arm. “Oy,” he said. “Oh my god, Sang. I’ve been running around all day. I’m so fucking tired.”

“Sleep?” I asked.

“Yes.” He turned over and shifted until he had his arm partially around me. “Fuck me. I want to talk to you but I’m too tired. There’s so much going on.”

His comforting arm was what I needed. I snuggled into him. He rested his head on the pillow beside me and kissed my forehead. Once we’d wiggled close to each other, he rested his head against mine.

“Gabriel?” I said quietly. I wanted him to sleep, but I couldn’t help it. So much had gone on and I needed to know. “Did...did North find you?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Dumb shit. He thought I was leaving the Academy for some reason.”

Uh oh. How much did I need to admit? “Luke...said you’d gone rogue.”

“He
said
we’d abandoned the original plan and went to go grab another girl that looked like you.” He lifted his head slightly, looking into my eyes. “He didn’t say rogue. Who said rogue?”

I needed to tell him. Keeping secrets wasn’t working. If I needed to tell anyone the full truth, it had to be Gabriel. “I was talking to Liam on your phone.”

“Huh? So
he
said? How did he know?”

“He said Luke said you’d gone rogue.”

Gabriel was quiet for a minute and then he pulled away, putting a hand on his forehead. “Oh my god. I was in the middle of coming up with the new plan and I told Luke to tell him to shut up because we were...I forget what I said exactly, but I was saying fuck this noise about the plan. He probably thought I meant his…Lily’s…whoever.
Their
plan.”

“Oh,” I said quietly. “I was worried. I showed the texts to North.”

“Well, probably good you did,” he said. “We needed him to pull this off. We needed a third, see? Someone outside to go in with the girl that looked like you. I forget her name. She’s a brat, though. She kept piling up favors. ‘You’re gonna owe me a whole lot of favors after this.’ Geez. I wish I’d never worked with her, but she was the quickest one to respond. I’m glad Luke stole her bubblegum.”

I broke out into a laugh, imagining Luke picking a girl’s pocket just for her gum.

“Anyway, North yelled at me a lot, but then he came up with the plan where I got to kidnap you and he and the others stayed behind.” He reached out and pushed a lock of hair back behind my ear.