“You’re going to work with us, right Sang?” Luke asked, finally getting to starting up the pan for the pancakes, working next to Sang.

  North grit his teeth.

  “Um,” she said. She glanced at Kota who was standing by behind her.

  “We’ll have to see how things work out,” Kota said. “I’m sure we can all pitch in when it gets busy.”

  At least someone was making sense.

  “I’d like to help,” she said, poking at the bacon and then using the fork to flip it over.

  Suddenly there was a loud pop near Sang and she quickly pulled her arm away, still holding on to the fork, and shook her arm.

  “Easy, Sang,” Luke said. “Don’t hurt yourself.”

  Damn. Within a second, North crossed the room, took her arm, took the fork, and nudged her aside.

  If things were bad at home, what happened when she returned home with a burn mark?

  Did she even have to go back? Or was she staying here?

  “It’s okay,” she said. “I can do it.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” North said. “Go help Kota.”

  He tried not to look at her. He didn’t want to see her hurt. Not right now.

  He couldn’t take it. Not with knowing what he knew now. He didn’t even know the full story.

  He wanted to know, but he was sure it’d make him too angry to sit here and make bacon. So he didn’t ask. Not yet. He was sure that was why Silas had been slow to respond and didn’t respond with a complete answer.

  And was that why Kota didn’t say anything? And the others hadn’t mentioned?

  Because they were worried North would end up too wound up and angry about it?

  He didn’t really pay attention to what was happening, focusing on the bacon, until Sang materialized with a package of chocolate chips near the stove.

  “Yeah,” Luke said. “Get a lot in there.”

  “Don’t go crazy,” North warned. The last thing they needed was everyone on a sugar overload and too groggy to do what needed to be done.

  Luke leaned in to whisper to her. “Put extra chocolate chips in his.”

  “I’ll make his a smile face,” she said quietly.

  Luke’s eyes popped open. “Oh! Yeah. Do that.”

  “I can hear you two,” North said. He started plating bacon and putting more into the pan to cook.

  Sang moved away to stand next to Kota instead.

  North focused on the bacon for a second, only half listening. Maybe he was being too harsh. Luke mentioning to him to be nicer had him trying harder to be nicer, but it didn’t feel any different than what he was doing before. He didn’t want them to get sick and miserable later.

  Suddenly he overheard Kota mentioning something about her throat and it took a minute to realize there was more to it than just it being a little scratchy. “What’s wrong with her throat?” North asked, turning his attention away from the bacon to look at her. “Are you sick?”

  She didn’t answer and instead turned to Kota, as if unsure how to respond.

  North’s sense of trouble heightened. The fact that Sang wouldn’t even tell him outright told him more than she probably assumed.

  “Might as well tell them,” Kota said to her. “They would have found out.”

  She sighed, clearly uncomfortable but Kota encouraged her, rubbing a palm at her back.

  “My mother made me drink a glass of lemon juice and vinegar.” She said it simply and left it at that.

  Luke was the first real reaction and dropped the spatula into the pancakes cooking.

  He cursed. Under his breath, but North heard it.

  And cursing was something Luke rarely ever did.

  North, however, didn’t move at all. He was still wrapping his head around the image, and what she was trying to say. “She forced you?”

  Sang nodded. Her cheeks turned bright red under the kitchen light.

  “And it made your throat...” he said but trailed off, imagining that the irritating combination of the acids of lemon and vinegar probably did a lot of damage against her throat. She didn’t need to say more, he was just confirming the idea. That her mother did this on purpose to harm her.

  Because it was so ludicrous, so insane an idea.

  About as crazy as Kota’s dad when he was around.

  North focused on the bacon so he wouldn’t show how he glared. “Shit.” It took a lot of intense control to leave it at that one word and not say what he was really thinking. It only reconfirmed his thoughts from earlier, from what Silas had said about her. That it was bad at home. That Sang was here because she needed help.

  Kota moved away from Sang and collected a glass of water for her to drink. “Her parents are pretty strict. So that’s why we need to text only. No calling her house directly or showing up unexpectedly.”

  Luke had picked up the fallen spatula and resumed cooking pancakes, but North could tell he was very disturbed. Luke poured more batter into the pan. “Why did they make you drink that nasty stuff?” It was not his normal happy-go-lucky tone, and his eyes had dimmed.

  Sang carefully opened the bag of chocolate chips, arranging them carefully to make smile faces into each cake. “Silas called me on the house phone,” she said in answer to his question.

  North couldn’t believe it. They did it over just a simple phone call? Suddenly, without thinking of how he was phrasing it, he blurted out. “That’s it? You weren’t talking sex or something?” It was an odd question, and he realized it the moment he said it that he didn’t even mean it. He’d expected some deeper reason for that sort of strange punishment. Not that it justified anything. He just couldn’t wrap his mind around the reasoning her own mother would have her drink such a strange concoction over a phone call.

  She blushed again and shook her head at the same time, waving her hand in the air as if to ward off his thought process.

  “No, of course not,” she said. “He barely said hello.”

  Before North could respond, and apologize, Luke spoke, “Is your voice going to be okay?”

  North silently relented to changing the focus. He’d have to make it up to Sang later for asking stupid questions.

  “She’ll be fine,” Kota said, holding the glass of water out for her still. “It burned her throat but it should heal fully in a few days.”

  She finally took the glass and sipped the water this time. “It’s not so bad right now,” she said softly.

  “Is that why she’s here?” North asked, now seeing as they were getting to the bottom of this, the question he directed at Kota had a clear secret message for him alone. Was the Academy alerted at all? If so, they would have sent a couple of girls out on this case. Did Mr. Blackbourne even know? And above all, how was she here, in this room with them right now, if her parents flipped out if a guy called her?

  “She’s here because she’s welcome,” Kota said bluntly. “She’s my friend.” He said it without hesitation, without even suggesting there was anything else to be done.

  North struggled with his reply. “But she’s...” He wanted to say the obvious. Sang was a girl. In trouble. The Academy was there to help people like her. Why wasn’t Kota following protocol? Sure, they could handle it, and they would but...there were rules in place for a good reason.

  Weren’t there?

  “I like her,” Luke said. He flipped the pancakes. “She’s got good taste.”

  “I’m not questioning your damn choice,” North said, and realizing he was outnumbered on the first matter, then relented to the even bigger, immediate questions that were coming to mind. “I’m asking if it is safe for her to be here if she’s going to get her throat burned out at home. I mean if that happens when someone calls, what happens when they find out she’s here alone with us?”

  “It’s fine,” she said without waiting for the others to answer. “My mom hardly ever leaves her room. She thinks I spend all day in my bedroom. If I never went downstairs, I wouldn’t see them for a week or more.”

  What kind of answer was that? That didn’t make him feel better about her home life, the situation here, the possibilities of her getting hurt again if they did find out.

  He tried to focus on the bacon, twisting his neck and grinding his teeth to stop himself from saying more. He didn’t want to ask and make her feel like he was drilling her for answers with the other dozen questions.

  North continued to struggle as breakfast was finished up and everyone pitched in to place everything at the table and sit down to eat.

  He only spoke once, when Sang reached for orange juice.

  “Not that,” he said in a deep voice. He handed her the milk instead. “Better for your throat.”

  He was still in mild shock and disbelief he had to say this, over the fact that her mother, her own mother, made her throat this way. Not some illness, but physically burned her throat.

  Luke and Kota made most of the conversation at breakfast, talking about the breakfast itself, the weather, the school, other things that pulled the conversation away from Sang and her situation at home.

  North, however, barely focused on any of it. There was a lot to look into when it came to Sang. Was Kota doing any of it? What was the plan here?

  But there was no chance to get any answers in the moment. He’d have to wait.

  In the meantime, it made him realize that if Kota wanted to hang on to this, to help her directly themselves, he was pushing their agenda around.

  There had to be some give somewhere. As much as North wanted to say they could handle everything, they could not do everything they had right now.

  They couldn’t focus on the school, the diner, the new recruit requested by the Academy to check in on and Sang. And Sang needed out immediately, on top of assessing if there was any chance of rehabilitation for the parents.

  So they were going to have to make some decisions. He knew Kota knew that.

  So what was Kota waiting on?

  6

  Sang was quiet for nearly all of breakfast and she didn’t eat enough to satisfy North that she was actually full. He assumed with her throat being sore, she was a little reluctant to eat more and didn’t say anything of it.

  She followed North after he collected some of the dishes and took them to the sink. Suddenly she stiffened and pulled out the cell phone. Now that he was closer to her, he realized it looked brand new.

  And it was very unlikely her parents had paid for it, if they didn’t like her talking on the phone. He put two and two together, realizing that Kota likely had gotten it for her. The fact that he’d gone so far as to get her one felt like one step further into digging into Sang being the priority.

  “Who is it?” North asked moving next to her, concerned that it was somehow her parents and they knew everything going on.

  “It’s Nathan,” she said. “He wants to know if I’m awake.”

  Nathan? Wasn’t he supposed to be at...He paused his thoughts, unsure of how much time had passed and when they were supposed to switch out. “Tell him to get his ass over here,” North said.

  She typed in the message to him, and waited, staring at the screen.

  As she waited, he assumed he was right, that he can’t come over. Why was he worried about Sang being awake?

  Her phone vibrated again. North glanced over her shoulder to catch the message.

  Nathan: I’ve got training. I can’t. I wanted to check in. Have fun. I’ll talk to you later.

  “What training?” she asked North. “Is it for the um... Jujitsu?”

  Were they lying to her about things now? “Probably.” He checked with Kota quickly, silently asking him about how much to tell her. Should he make something up? More lies?

  It was Kota who shook his head. Don’t say more. Let her assume.

  He didn’t like any of it. Straight up lies were too hard to keep up with. It was better to be honest, but maybe leave out some better details. Nathan probably could have done better to not say it was practice. Especially since he hardly went to practice anymore.

  After cleaning up the dishes, Kota meticulously went through a few morning chores, taking Sang along with him to tidy up the house. Luke took Max for another walk in the meantime.

  North got away from the others while they kept Sang distracted. Alone upstairs in Kota’s bedroom, he took to the window to check on Nathan’s house across the street. He still needed to check in with Mr. Blackbourne, his uncle, and whoever was at the motel doing surveillance for an update. He was sure Kota was too busy to do it so North had to be the one to do so.

  He called Mr. Blackbourne first. He answered on the first ring.

  “How was the location for the diner?” Mr. Blackbourne asked.

  North sighed into the phone. “If I said it wasn’t ideal, do you think my uncle would change his mind? Maybe even put this off a little?”

  “We can’t compromise his goals just because we have time constraints.”

  North crossed the bedroom, going from one window to the next one, half monitoring the street and Kota’s driveway as he spoke. “It’s more work than I’d like to put into it.”

  “Would the old church be suitable for much else?”

  “It’s not a great church space, either,” North said.

  “The other proposed business ideas for that building included a bar and a car lot.”

  North breathed in heavily through his nose. He wasn’t sure the diner brought up the surrounding value of the neighborhood, but a bar or a car lot would significantly lower it. Not to mention they’d likely create a few extra problems.

  He hadn’t considered if they didn’t buy it, what would be put in its place, and so close to Kota and Nathan... He released the breath he’d been holding and relented. “I can make it work.”

  “Good,” Mr. Blackbourne said, as if he’d known all along this was going to be the plan. “Unfortunately, it’ll eat into the last available time we had for most extracurricular activities.”

  North wasn’t totally sure Mr. Blackbourne was relaying a pun. Sometimes North thought he gave off such a strict demeanor and slipped in humor so subtly it was usually completely lost. “I’ll have enough extracurricular activities time with the damn football team.” North wasn’t particularly interested in sports, but it was one of the requirements for the school job they’d be working on that year.

  “It won’t be the full year,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “And you might enjoy it. It’ll be a break from the rest of what needs to be done.”

  While he was on the phone, it was on the tip of North’s tongue to ask about Sang. He half suspected Mr. Blackbourne to ask about her. North had been given her number yesterday and was told it’ll be explained later. It was very rare for Kota to give a phone number to someone new to the entire team.

  Yet North hesitated. He waited to be told from Mr. Blackbourne about Sang and assumed Kota had told him.

  But after North hung up, and nothing else was said about her, he was beginning to suspect Mr. Blackbourne did not know anything at all about her.

  And why he didn’t know bothered North. But only Kota could answer that question. Since Kota was preoccupied with Sang, North would have to make do with keeping everything else up and running smoothly with the group.

  Victor, Nathan, Gabriel, and Silas should be working out how to get a visual of their new possible recruit that was staying at a rundown motel closer to Charleston. It was likely they’d rotate out that afternoon at some point, although Victor and Gabriel will likely sleep at the motel tonight so they weren’t going all the way home just to come back in the morning. And if that was the case, North would feel a lot better if Luke and North could join them tonight, so they wouldn’t be alone.

  He trusted Victor and Gabriel. He didn’t like the motel and the location. Two teenage boys by themselves there all night...

  North sent a message to Victor.

  North: Did you get a chance to check out the computer?

  Victor: Not yet. I’m waiting to see if he goes back first. We’ve placed a camera in the business center, and hopefully at an angle to look over his shoulder. Less intrusive, just in case this isn’t what we think it is.

  The extra precautions they were taking would mean it would take a longer amount of time to collect the information they needed. It meant more time at the motel. Watching. Waiting for whoever this is to either show them he’s Academy material or even if he’s someone to keep an eye on, from a distance, in case he's trouble.

  North feared the worst. That all of this would come to a strategic decision at the last minute to drop something. And he was afraid of which option the others would take.

  Would it be that bad? They couldn’t put off the school. The diner...well if they were going to do it, they’d do it. Then Sang. And then whoever it was at the motel.

  It was about to all get very complicated. Nine people. Four different projects in different directions.

  North sighed. Not looking good. And he was starting to realize if the others had prioritized Sang already, then this new potential recruit was left on the lowest rung...and he didn’t want to be the one to tell Mr. Blackbourne they had to flake out.

  ♥♥♥

  It took another hour that morning to get Kota away from the others and alone upstairs. Luke kept Sang busy showing her the DVD collection and trying to figure out if she wanted to watch anything.

  “What are we doing?” North asked him.

  “Hanging out,” Kota said. “We’ll get busy soon. It’s good to have time off while we can.”

  North pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes in mild annoyance. “I mean about Sang.”

  “I just need you to observe,” Kota said quietly.

  “You don’t want to call in anyone?” And by anyone, he meant any other Academy members.

  “I have a feeling this one is tricky,” Kota said. “I’m willing to take responsibility for making this call, but...we should do this. We may be more help to her than anyone else. Besides, two of us already live on this road. There’s no sense in calling in someone else when she already talks to us, and we’re right here.”