Accessory: The Scarab Beetle Series: #4 (The Academy) (46 page)

“Are you kidding me?” The man leaned in, looking in on Blake and then at the sleeping Kayli, now with her head in his lap, the rest of her curled up on the seat. “They just tried to kill the two of you. I was told to get you to safety. That’s not on the boat.”

“We have to get back or they’ll all be in trouble,” he said. “Don’t worry about it now. If you can get us somewhere for the night, we’ll sort it out in the morning.” He squeezed Kayli in his arms and looked at the man. “What’s your name?”

“Liam,” he said, reaching out a hand in offering. “You’re Blake Coaltar?”

“Yeah. Kayli’s boyfriend.” Blake wasn’t sure why he felt the need to say that. It’s not like he’d asked Kayli in an official way or that he’d want to make that assumption after everything they’d gone through. It just seemed safer to say he was. He didn’t know this Liam and didn’t really have much trust in anyone at this point. “I’m sorry to make your acquaintance this way.”

Liam had an odd look on his face. He paused a long while and then nodded. “It happens,” he said and then closed the door. He ran around the car and got back in behind the wheel. He took off down the road.

It was five miles before they got to an actual highway, and they crossed the border into North Carolina before they got to the closest motel. It was one of those old ones, like the Bates Motel from that horror movie. It had a generic name but the Vacancy sign was still on. Liam offered to find one that didn’t look like a dump, but Blake said not to worry about it. “I need to sleep, too,” he said, feeling the weariness to his bones. “And soon. We just need a few hours.”

Liam paid for the room and got the key. He got back in the car and pulled around to the room. Blake carried Kayli into the room after Liam opened the door. She woke briefly, calling to him. He tried to soothe her, asking her to go back to sleep. He adjusted the blanket around her, ignoring the moldy smell and the scorched cigarette marks in the blanket. “Sweetheart,” he whispered. “You’ll be fine.” He wanted to believe it.

Before she passed out again, he took the wet shirt off of her body. He thought to clean the sand off of her skin, but she was out and he decided to let her sleep, tucking the sheet over her. She could shower when she got up.

Liam hovered in the doorway the entire time. Blake wanted to sleep, but he supposed he needed to update Liam on their plans if he was in touch with Corey. He didn’t think he’d get away with just shooing him out the door at this point.

Blake closed the door of the motel room as quietly as possible. Liam leaned against the metal railing of the old porch façade. He stared at the rows of vehicles in the parking lot.

Blake joined him, unsure of what to say. “She’s dead asleep,” Blake said.

“I would be, too,” Liam said. “I can’t blame her. Sounds like you all have been through a lot.”

“So you’re a part of this Academy?” he asked. He didn’t want to talk about her.

Liam turned his head and squinted at Blake, studying. His reddish hair was too fair for his tan skin. It looked funny. He wasn’t ugly, might even be handsome to the right girl. Still, he had an edge to him. Blake could imagine him with a temper. “Did they tell you I was?”

Corey hadn’t said anything about who was coming to get them when they were on the phone. He didn’t give Blake much info about anything, only that he was glad Blake was with Kayli and they were safe. They hadn’t even known they’d gotten off the ship, although they had been looking for her.

Blake focused on the man in front of him. “I assumed you might be, since you’re friends and all.”

“Then I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t answer the question. Not something I like talking about.”

Blake nodded. Reasonable assumption to think Liam was part of the Academy, but he understood they wanted to keep their secrets. At the moment, he didn’t care. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” he said. “Just as long as it isn’t about that.”

“Back when you picked us up and I introduced myself, you looked...funny.”

“Funny?” Liam roughed a palm across his chin. “I’m not that ugly, am I?”

“No,” Blake said. “I mean, when I said my name and whatever else, you seemed to hesitate. Was there a reason?” He wondered if Corey might have said anything. He was fishing for clues to see if there was any prejudice from Corey, in case he had been wrong about him. He couldn’t rule out anyone from throwing him—or Kayli, for that matter—overboard.

Liam sucked in a breath and then turned his attention back to the parking lot. “No. Honestly, I just...never mind. It’s not important.”

“What?”

Liam pressed his lips together tightly. He continued to stare out at the cars, as if he were going to memorize every single one. He went without talking for so long that Blake was sure he wasn’t going to answer. Eventually, Liam’s palm slid against the rail, bringing him from his thoughts. “You introduced yourself as her boyfriend.”

“So?”

“So when I got the call from Corey, he specifically said, ‘
My girlfriend Kayli
is in trouble. Please help her.’” Liam turned his head, meeting Blake’s eyes. “It’s none of my business, really.”

Heaviness settled into Blake’s heart, something he’d felt since he’d met Kayli and had discovered she was with Brandon, and then later became confused when each one of them seemed to be interested in her, in more than just protecting her. Corey had been protective of her when they first met. He wasn’t sure what Kayli had told them, although she’d said she’d never asked for a commitment. Had they all assumed? It was doubly confusing when Kayli had said Corey was gay. It didn’t make sense. He obviously felt pretty strongly about her. “I can’t account for what Corey might have said.”

“It doesn’t matter to me. Maybe he meant girl friend, as in his friend that’s a girl. Maybe you called her your girlfriend because of some protective need when I was a stranger to you. Maybe you’re both her boyfriends. I don’t know. Like I said, it really doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

Blake hung over the rail, looking at a car coming into the motel lot. An older gentleman emerged, making his tired way toward the lobby. He didn’t seem interested in Blake and Liam other than to flick a concerned glance that they were outside staring at the lot, but he walked on anyway.

When he was inside, Blake continued. “You’re right,” he said. “Not really your business.”

Liam sighed. “Being that it isn’t my business, but I’m here anyway, can I give you some advice? Just out of the blue from an outside perspective?”

Without a shirt, Blake was feeling the cool breeze hard against his skin now. Sleep was close, and he wasn’t in the mood to do anything else but curl up near Kayli and call it a day.

Curiosity got the better of him, though. It had always been a problem for him. It was how he’d gotten into this mess. “Advice is usually free.”

“Yeah.” Liam tapped his fingers against the rail, drumming. He was either musical, or nervous and not really sure about this conversation, a move Blake had witnessed before. “You see, I come from a very unusual...family.”

This threw off Blake’s assumption of what Liam might say. Family? What did this have to do with himself and Kayli? “Huh?”

Liam tapped at the rail and traced the edges between his fingers. “My wife. She has...other men in her life.”

A cheater? Well, that sucked. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“No. Not like that,” he said. He looked up, meeting Blake’s eyes with sincerity. “They were my friends. I loved her first, but they grew to love her over time, since they had to spend a lot of time together. Eventually, there was a mutual arrangement of sorts. We agreed we’d share her.”

Blake’s head reeled back a bit, but then he recovered. He wasn’t totally ignorant in the understanding that a girl might have two boyfriends, or a guy have two girlfriends. It was just never a situation he’d encountered himself. He’d never thought about it seriously. “O…Oh.”

“I don’t mean to shock you,” Liam said. “To be honest, I never bring it up with anyone. No one really understands. It’s hard enough in life if a man’s gay, or likes to dress as a woman for fun, or if a white couple adopts a black baby. Things like that are still no one’s business but those involved. Unless there’s a direct reason to involve others, a man’s business is his own.”

“So why are you telling me about it?”

“I guess I just wanted to offer myself up to talking about it if that’s a place you’re headed. There’s not exactly a lot of people out there like us, so running into another one...”

“I’m not
another one
,” Blake said quickly. He wasn’t usually so snappy, but it had to do with Kayli and his usual air of politeness had disappeared when he got thrown off of a boat, and she after him. “There’s just a mix up.”

Liam lifted his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Okay. My apologies. I must have gotten the wrong impression.” He put his arms down, leaning back against the rail. “Especially when Axel sent me twenty texts since I left to come get you, and in no less than two, he’s called her
‘my girl’
.”

Blake stared out into the parking lot. Axel was stubborn, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about him. He knew that Axel didn’t like him. He’d made it very clear when he’d grabbed Blake’s arm yesterday, and said he didn’t like the stunt Blake had pulled to get Kayli on the boat. He’d gone on to make veiled threats if Blake made any moves around her, that he’d walk out with her and send hell down on him. Blake didn’t understand what Kayli saw in him. It still burned to hear her talk to him when he’d listened in while they were in the children’s room, and then later in the bathroom. Doyle had made sure to pipe in Kayli whenever he got a chance. He was always listening out for her.

She was confused, he knew, with so many people giving her attention. Axel had put a lot of pressure on her. Axel did make assumptions, even after she’d told him she couldn’t commit to anyone. Asshole. “So?”

“So that girl is either playing a very sick and twisted game with men’s feelings, in which case I might have to report her to...certain people or...”

“There’s nothing like that going on.” The last thing Blake wanted was for the Academy to start investigating her, or give them a reason to take her away. Not when he’d worked this hard to finally have a reason to get her to work with him. The words she’d said to Axel and the others echoed in his mind, though. If Liam could report her, could the others? Did she know? Maybe he needed to take her away from this Academy after all. “Just a misunderstanding.”

Liam closed his lips, tilting his head this way and that as he gazed out at other buildings nearby.

Blake froze where he was. Not wanting to talk about it might give even more reason for this Academy to investigate. It really was none of their business. He hadn’t really figured it out, the whole background of this Academy. The more he investigated, the more confused he’d become. Outside of Axel and his friends, Blake had a hard time picking out more Academy people to look in on, except for the small team at the high school, who were just a bunch of kids. They were straight-A kids, too, nothing in common with Axel and the others. He had no record of them ever being in touch with each other. It had been hard to even find out that the high school crew was Academy, except in emails Doyle had intercepted from a principal identifying them as such.

Maybe he could learn more about Liam and make a few friendly connections with him as an Academy member. Maybe if he opened himself up as friendly to them, someone outside of Axel’s team who wasn’t biased, to see what they were about. Maybe then he’d find out why this Academy seemed so interested in Kayli.

Blake changed gears. “But...but if you want to talk about...”

“Talk about what?”

Maybe he could start with what Liam had wanted to talk about. He seemed eager to discuss this multiple partners in a relationship thing. Might as well play along. Maybe if he sounded interested…

Not to mention, multiple boys was Kayli’s problem right now.

“There’s other men with your wife?” Blake asked.

“Other husbands,” he said. “They married her.”

“How many are there?”

“Three others,” he said. “Plus me. With her, it makes five in our family.”

“And are you... are the men...are they bi? Or something...”

Liam shook his head. “No,” he said. “We’re very much straight. We just all fell in love with one incredible woman, a woman I refused to let go. To be honest, I thought if I hung on long enough, if the others couldn’t handle it, at least I’d always be there in the end. But no one left; we’re still all together.”

“How do you handle it?”

“How do you handle any relationship?” he asked. “With what I do, I’m often gone. If she isn’t with me, she’s with the few people I truly trust in this world to protect her.”

“Does she need protecting?”

“Constantly.”

“From bad people?”

“These days,” he said, “often enough it’s from herself. It’s complicated.”

“She’s suicidal?”

“No, no. Not like you’re thinking. Well, unless you call volunteering to jump into the fire when she sees smoke, then yes. No, her problem is that her heart is too big. She says yes to anything and everything if it means helping someone else. She’d even run away from me if she thought she could do some good elsewhere.”