Gabriel shrugged, and then when his white shirt tightened too much at his shoulders, he started taking his uniform off so he could strip down to the white tank shirt underneath. “I don’t know. She’s hanging on to this one for some reason. It might be him being more manipulative.”

  “She might have a type,” North said. “So far... it’s been a bad type.”

  “She’s got a big heart for big problems,” Victor said.

  Gabriel hadn’t thought about it in that way before. Pam tried to see good things in everyone. She saw some good in his dad. When he was sober, which was rare, he could actually be pretty pleasant. Having Pam around, he was starting to pause a lot more between drinking binges.

  But then it didn’t matter. Another car crash later... at least the second time he didn’t take anyone else out.

  “Maybe you can come with me,” Victor said, his voice softening. “Mr. Buble has plenty of room.”

  “I know,” Gabriel said. He’d been hesitant to get to know Mr. Buble. He didn’t know about the secret relationship they all shared with Sang, and it was only going to get harder to not let it slip the more they hung out. “I mean if it’s just for the night maybe.”

  “We’ll figure this Pam situation out,” North said. “Push comes to shove, we’ll plant someone with more money in front of the boyfriend and get him away from her... and then we can decide what to do with him from there.”

  Gabriel smirked. North might have been saying that, but knowing him, he might actually try it. Money hungry assholes were too predictable.

  North set the GPS on his phone for Mr. Buble’s. “Shouldn’t take long.”

  Gabriel gazed out the dark window, silent after North and Victor started talking about other things.

  Pam hadn’t listened to Gabriel lately about Clay. Clay wasn’t safe. Gabriel didn’t want to come back and learn Clay was bullying her.

  He hated to intervene, but what else was there to do?

  ♥♥♥

  Mr. Buble’s residence almost appeared haunted until they got up close to it. It’s brick exterior and low lighting at night left it looking massive, and even a little lonely.

  Once they were close, it was more noticeable there was life there. Flowerbeds and bushes in the front, asleep for the cold weather months. A few toys, although neatly put away near the garage, were evident. A fenced backyard. The drive had fresh chalk drawings.

  The neighborhood had similar large houses, with neat, tidy lawns and an upper-middle class feel, but it was Mr. Buble house that ended up being the most inviting out of them when up close.

  Victor guided North and Gabriel to the garage, where Victor pressed a number into a security pad. Within seconds, the garage door was opening and a light turned on inside. A black town car was parked alongside a large white van.

  “He’s home,” Victor said.

  Gabriel swallowed. Had Mr. Buble heard about what’d happened that afternoon with Sang in the courtyard?

  The inside of the house was low lit, with hidden nightlights tucked under décor or side tables or cabinetry that left the floor illuminated but didn’t blind your eyes. It gave a tender glow to the hallway’s wood floor, and the large, tidy kitchen beyond it.

  Victor guided North and Gabriel to a door that opened to a staircase. It reminded Gabriel a lot of Kota’s bedroom, a finished room above the garage.

  They climbed quietly. In the room at the top of the stairs were two sets of bunk beds. Two of them had some distinct evidence that someone had been utilizing them recently.

  Victor went to one of them, plopping himself down to sit on the mattress. He nudged off his leather shoes. “I feel like it’ll be a long couple of weeks of this back and forth.”

  “Maybe you should stay with Kota while the others are away,” North said.

  Victor shrugged. “Honestly, if I’m not needed directly at the school, I don’t mind staying with Mr. Buble. We’ve been able to get quite a bit done. I’ve finally managed to get a couple of favors in now.”

  Gabriel popped his mouth open in a surprised expression. “What? When?”

  Victor smirked. “What? Are you interested in a favor?”

  “Who isn’t,” Gabriel said. “I’m not totally convinced even if we finish this job at the high school, it’ll be enough to get us all graduated. We’re all running on empty, or near to it.”

  “We keep spending them,” North said.

  “Yeah, well Sang was expensive,” Gabriel said. She was totally worth it of course, and she didn’t cost them favors any more since she was joining the Academy herself, but they still hadn’t had the time to recover many favors on their own. He shifted toward the upper bunk that looked like someone had used it. “This Sang’s bed?”

  Victor nodded.

  Gabriel launched himself up, above Victor, to nest his face into the pillow. His legs were sticking out over the edge and his feet dangled off.

  He sniffed silently, catching whatever scent he could. The shampoo he’d made for her... that strange mix of scents she ended up with at the end of the day...

  A soft punch landed on the side of Gabriel’s shoe. “Hey, get your dirty shoes off if you’re going to be up there,” Victor said.

  Suddenly there were footsteps at the bottom of the stairs. Gabriel sat up sharply. North turned to greet whoever it was. Victor was the only one who remained still.

  Mr. Buble appeared. He stopped at the top of the stairs. He had on dark pajama pants and a black sweatshirt, along with the dark-rimmed glasses. It was a startling contrast as he was so sharply dressed usually, and yet the clothes felt like he was sharply dressed for bed.

  “Welcome back, Mr. Morgan,” he said, his voice had the sort of power and precision that only Mr. Blackbourne could rival. He then nodded to North and Gabriel. “And good evening, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Coleman. You’re both welcome to stay, if you need.”

  “I’m debating,” North said. “Might not be much point in going home if I’m going to be needed on this side of town tomorrow. Thanks for the offer.”

  “I’ll stay,” Gabriel said. “For tonight at least.”

  Mr. Buble directed his attention fully on Gabriel. “Any time. Mr. Morgan expressed we might expect you more often in the very near future. Is that correct?”

  “It’s kind of a long story,” Gabriel mumbled.

  “His stepmom has a jerk boyfriend,” Victor said, standing up.

  Gabriel tried to nudge Victor in the head with his still shoe-covered foot to suggest he didn’t need to get into it. “It’s the same old story.”

  Victor waved Gabriel’s foot away. “And Pam isn’t in a hurry to get rid of him.”

  This seemed to capture Mr. Buble’s interest. He stepped a few feet closer, looking directly at Gabriel. “I’ve heard a few things, but why don’t you tell me directly?”

  Gabriel sighed. He didn’t mind talking about it in general, to Mr. Buble or not, he just hated talking about Clay. It got him instantly angry, and he hated that feeling. “He’s hotheaded and he’ll throw things if he gets too frustrated. Break stuff that’s not even his. Usually in my direction. And he poisons her fucking mind like she’s just a puppet and...” The more he spoke, the angrier he got and the louder he became. “...he’s so full of the lamest shithead excuses. Can’t work. No jobs. But then everyone else around him has to work. Including me, and if I say I’ve got a job, he wants a piece. Give him some money. Go to the store and get him things. Fucking lazy piece—”

  Victor softly punched Gabriel’s shoe again. “Calm down a little. You might wake the kids.”

  “I hear what you’re saying,” Mr. Buble said. “But I am understanding you want to safeguard her from him?”

  “I’ve tried to intervene, but I can’t keep doing it. I feel like I alienate her. I don’t know what else to do. I can’t ask her to choose me or him.”

  “Whether or not you could convince her in such a way,” Mr. Buble said, “there’s no reason to put yourself in that predicament and then at risk of his wrath.” He inched closer, and when he spoke next, his voice was a note deeper. “But if you need help convincing a bad person to back off of your family, then allow me to intervene.”

  Gabriel stared at him, unsure of asking such a favor. “What could you do?”

  “I’ve been told I can be rather convincing. You’ll be going on this trip to visit your family and Miss Sorenson’s soon, correct?”

  “As far as I know, yes.”

  “Then while you’re gone”—he directed his attention to Victor—“we’ll have a new project.”

  “We’ll keep Pam safe,” Victor said, turning so he could face Gabriel. “She just needs to see this guy is bad news.”

  “And it might take others to convince her,” Mr. Buble said. “Or someone like me to... push him over the edge so he leaves on his own.”

  Gabriel sucked in a heavy breath. Mr. Buble might actually be able to pull it off. Could he force Clay out of Pam’s life forever?

  Gabriel hesitantly agreed. What other option did he have? “Just keep me updated.”

  Mr. Buble eyes nearly glittered with determination. “At every move.”

  She Mattered More Than Everything

  Sang

  The next afternoon, I was at the Taylor compound instead of at school. Inside the large garage to the rear of the property, I sat in the driver’s seat of North’s smashed black Jeep while he worked on taking the front end of it apart to start on repairs.

  The weather had turned much colder overnight. There was a heater sitting on the floor of the garage, pointed at me. My left side warmed.

  I kept my cell phone open, and on. Waiting for answers. Waiting for any news at all.

  “It’s not happening yet, is it?” North asked. He’d rolled underneath the Jeep and his voice carried through from below.

  “Not yet.” I lowered the phone to leave it in the cupholder and adjusted how I was sitting to warm my back against the continued glowing from the lamp heater thing. “Do you really think it’ll fix it?”

  “It’s been a long time since you and Silas were seen together as it is. If he says you two broke up a couple of weeks ago, and amicably, it’ll be fine.” He grumbled something else.

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing.” He paused. “It’s all just really fucking stupid.”

  I toyed with the steering wheel, turning it little by little to one side, and then the other. “Yeah.” I shifted the steering wheel again. “Can’t wait until the drama is over.”

  “Yep.”

  “And then school to be over.”

  “Uh huh.”

  I evened out the steering wheel. “North?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What happens after?”

  “...After the drama?”

  “After we’re out of school?”

  “Pick another project,” he said. “Only we’ll hopefully find something with fewer than a couple thousand teenagers and hundreds of parents and other adults involved that we have to put on a show for.” He sniffed and made a few noises that sounded like he was rolling around underneath. “At least not as publicly. But likely Kota will pick more low-key jobs for a while anyway.”

  “Did you know what ghost birds do?”

  Whatever he’d been doing to make noises below the Jeep, he stopped and suddenly North’s head popped out from underneath the Jeep below the driver’s side. He had one smear of black oil across his left cheek and wore a black sleeveless shirt. I wondered how he was warm enough to wear just the tank shirt. While on his back and balancing his body on the cart thingy, the tops of his shoulders and arms seemed even more muscular.

  A dark eyebrow lifted as he looked up at me. “I don’t think I’ve heard. Not specifics at least. It’s usually all kept quiet.”

  “Do you know about those underground cults?” I asked. “Or the boarding schools people send their kids to that seem to be bad?”

  He blinked up at me for a moment. “We’re not sending you into a goddamned cult.”

  “It has to be safe if the Academy sends me, right?”

  “Was Ashley Waters safe?” he asked. “One of those fuckers stabbed Gabriel. We’ve a crazy shithead stalking us. That fucking principal was attempting who knows what when he attacked at Kota’s house, looking for you.” He rolled underneath the Jeep again but his voice still carried up through the Jeep. “Kota would never approve. Hell, Mr. Blackbourne would never...” Metal on metal clashing sounds echoed in the expanse of the large garage rather than him finishing the sentence.

  I called out over the racket, “They approved Ashley Waters!”

  His clanging ceased and he popped back out from underneath the Jeep, gazing up at me. “You can’t tell me you’re considering something like that.”

  “I don’t know enough details to make a decision,” I said. “But I’d get training. Like you. You felt equipped for Ashley Waters. No one is pulling out of the job. So what makes something like that different just because I’d be involved from the start?”

  His jaw tightened. “It’s a different level, Sang baby. You don’t know. Those... places. You go in, and it might be years, climbing the ranks, getting people to trust you, and then slowly dismantling it from the inside, or whatever they are planning...” He stopped so he could sit up on the cart thing. His head about on level with the base of the Jeep’s seat. “A job like that is probably the most difficult to infiltrate and would take literal years to complete. You think Ashley Waters was hard with just a school year? Try a decade of it. And with people even worse than the principle, or Volto, or anyone else in that school.”

  I swallowed, but still looked at him in the eyes. Fear did manage to find its way into my heart from what he said. “If... if I can’t do what I’m meant to do... as a ghost bird... then... what am I here for?”

  “Something else,” he said. “Anything else. Anything that isn’t going to get you killed.”

  I was about to make a rebuttal, although I hadn’t really formed what to say. He was so determined, so worried about it.

  He wasn’t wrong to worry. I didn’t even know the job, but he seemed to understand what it might take. Was it something they discussed doing before so he understood the severity? Years... Moving up the ranks... Dismantling from the inside?

  It all sounded similar to Ashley Waters, only with a different timeline.

  I tried to picture some place, like Ashley Waters, with people like the old principal, only in a cult, I imagined people wanted to be there, or at least they thought they did.

  Or a school. Another one. Only the students were trapped because their parents send them there for some sort of behavior management. Except the school was terrible. Abusive.

  A school I could have easily ended up in. My father talked about sending me to one.

  I tried to imagine the Academy taking them over. How long would it take?

  With the way that North spoke, it seemed too big. I trusted the Academy, but this job at Ashley Waters had surprised North and the others. There were always factors they didn’t anticipate.

  Like me. I was a factor they hadn’t planned for.

  While I was trying to figure out what to say, a short, low-tone alarm sounded from inside the garage.

  Another alert sounded from his phone, and he had to go find it underneath the Jeep. He checked the screen. “They’re here.”

  “Who is?”

  “I think it’s Dr. Green and Nathan.”

  I climbed out of the Jeep, skirting out of the way of the heater and adjusting the jacket I’d borrowed from Luke, stepping over parts and tools that North had placed all over the floor.

  North rolled back under the Jeep.

  I waited at the end of the open door of the garage. The driveway was long and had sensors alerting when people approached. While I waited, I shifted from foot to foot, almost swaying.

  It was almost time. We were supposed to take off for this trip soon. Tomorrow? I wasn’t totally sure when. The timeline was meant to be whenever we were ready.

  It took a while, and to my surprise, a large, flat-front RV appeared at the opening of the drive. It was tan, with blue and white swirl graphics designed on either side. The massive thing rolled toward the garage.

  Before I could react to it, North materialized, stepped ahead of me and waved his arms, directing Dr. Green driving it to swing it around. “That bay door,” he called to him, pointing.

  Dr. Green left it to North to tell him where to park it.

  The RV was big, to me at least. “Why is this here?” I asked North.

  “No better way to disappear for a while than camping,” he said. “Although, I thought they were just getting a camp trailer. Not a gigantic motorhome.” He headed to the driver’s side door as Dr. Green opened it.

  Dr. Green beamed with the goofiest smile. With his legs extended out, he widened his arms in a showman pose as much as possible while sliding out of the white, leather driver’s seat. “Look at this beauty!”

  “It’s...” I paused shortly to take in the large building on wheels. “...big,” I said. I wanted to be supportive, but I was a little intimidated by the size. How did that thing move down the highway? I couldn’t imagine trying to maneuver it.

  “Uh huh,” North said although with that tone that suggested he wasn’t entirely happy.

  Dr. Green’s green eyes sparked with amusement. “Sang, this is home sweet home for us for a few weeks. You’ll love it. There’s loads of room.”

  Luke came around from the other side, beaming wide, his light blue button shirt half open and flailing around as he moved. He found me, caught my hand and started tugging. “Come on, Sang! Come see the inside.”

  I left North and Dr. Green as North started asking him questions—namely about the price tag.

  Along the far side of the RV, the door hung open. Nathan and Gabriel hung out just inside the door, peering down and waiting. Nathan had on gray jogging pants and a red T-shirt. Gabriel wore jeans, and a very bright orange tank shirt, but covered with a dark camo jacket.