Read Fake: The Scarab Beetle Series: #3 (The Academy) Online
Authors: C. L. Stone
Brandon stood up this time, fists clenched. “That’s not possible.”
“We wish to eliminate the possibility. She’s on our closed adoption list, and she’s learned way too much for someone your team hasn’t yet established trust with.” Dr. Roberts stood, carrying his file, and headed toward the door. “Think about it, Brandon. If she’s leaking information, there’s no way she’ll be invited into the Academy, and there’s a good chance her adoption will come under investigation, and she’ll be redirected to another team that can keep an eye on her better.”
Shit. That wasn’t good. The Academy, if it wanted to and thought it was necessary, would remove a person from any group. Leaking secret information was bad for the Academy. Lives were at stake. Reputations were important to them. Exposure risked them all.
It also meant if their team was exposed in some way as being part of some secret group, the Academy would remove the team. Brandon, Marc and the others would have to forfeit their own positions within the Academy in order to save the entire group from becoming discovered. Limited liabilities. They might be under protection of the Academy forever, but they wouldn’t be able to take up an assignment for a while.
“Won’t happen again,” Brandon said. “I’ll keep an eye on her. I’ll make sure Blake stays out of contact.”
“We may take your team off of accepting assignments for another month. Not just for recovery time, but to allow you to focus on her brother and straighten out your situation before we risk exposing anyone further.”
Brandon’s head lowered and he stared at the ground. He wished Axel was here, or Marc. But they might not be able to do anything about it. The decision had already been made.
He had to get Kayli to understand. Was she really giving up Academy secrets to Blake? He avoided looking at her now. Didn’t she understand what she was doing? They’d told her it was a secret. He wanted to believe she’d only turned to Blake for help.
She needed training, then. She needed to know who was acceptable to turn to for help.
Dr. Roberts opened the door and stepped out. He stopped, popped in his head again and said, “By the way, when you’ve got time, you should really go see Mr. Henry Anderson.”
Brandon lifted his head. He recalled the older man from another team, who’d helped them out at Ethan Murdock’s party. “Henry? Why?”
“I’ve got a feeling you might want some help with Miss Winchester. If you’re going to keep her under a closed adoption, you’ll need to know how to handle her since she’s been so deeply involved.”
Brandon nodded quietly, consenting.
Dr. Roberts closed the door.
Brandon looked over at Kayli. She slept on. He was surprised she managed to stay asleep.
Brandon yawned, and rubbed gently at his severely bruised ribs. Every muscle in him hurt.
But he couldn’t sleep. He needed to talk to Axel and the others. The Academy might remove Kayli from the group, or if the team refused to let her go, they could remove the group from the Academy altogether. They couldn’t risk that. He had to get them to agree to stand together to keep her.
He couldn’t let her go. He’d told her that already and he’d been dead serious. He kept his promises. He’d make sure Kayli was safe, that Wil was safe.
He had his own growing need now, too. He had to keep an eye on Kayli. Alice and Mr. Murdock were still out there somewhere. If they weren’t caught, who knew when they might look for revenge, or try for something else.
Kayli had turned to Blake for help, though. That was a problem. She didn’t understand why that would be dangerous. He didn’t know what she saw in him. Sure, Blake had helped them out. Twice.
Didn’t matter. He was dangerous. His very existence right now threatened Kayli and their team with the Academy.
And the last person he’d lose Kayli to would be Blake Coaltar.
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Books by C. L. Stone
The Academy Ghost Bird Series:
The Other Side of Envy (April 2015)
The Academy Scarab Beetle Series
Accessory (Summer 2015)
Other C. L. Stone Books:
BONUS!
Turn the page for an exclusive sneak peek at ACCESSORY
, the next book in The Scarab Beetle Series
The Academy
The Scarab Beetle Series
A
ccessory
Book Four
Coming Summer 2015
Written by C. L. Stone
Published by
Arcato Publishing
HARD ROAD
A
fter a battle with a poison and taking a couple of days off to recover, I’d spent an entire day with Corey playing video games. Eventually, Corey needed to go with Brandon to some secret Academy meeting, and I was left with Raven for the evening. I told them I didn’t need a babysitter, but as usual, no one listened.
I was in the middle of gorging on McDonald’s chicken nuggets with Raven when Marc rushed in, finding us at the coffee table with piles of food and the TV on an episode of Sponge Bob: one of the few shows Raven could understand without asking me a jack ton of questions about what words meant.
Marc was breathless, as if he’d taken the stairs instead of the elevator. “I think I’ve got a lead on Wil,” he said.
I abandoned the food and the television was immediately forgotten, but I couldn’t wrestle any other information out of Marc, no matter how much I begged or threatened.
But at least we got moving; he rushed us out and into the black SUV in the parking lot. It was dark, around nine, and chilly.
We were quiet until Marc pulled the truck onto the I-26 ramp. I’d been trying to simply wrap my head around what we were doing. Marc may have found Wil. We were supposed to keep our distance, but he was taking me to see him.
“Where is he?” I asked, unable to keep silent a second longer. Since it was late on a Friday night, he obviously wasn’t at school.
“We’re headed his way,” Marc said. He pointed out toward the horizon. “If we hurry, we might catch him. I don’t know how long he’ll stay, so I thought you could at least get a visual.”
Marc obviously wasn’t going to give up more details, so I fell quiet, like if I spoke, Wil might hear us coming for him and leave before I got a chance to see him. My excitement rose as the miles passed.
My heart swelled for Marc, too, for continuing to hunt for Wil, even while I had almost given up. I didn’t want to admit it to any of them, but I felt if Wil really wanted to talk to me, he would have found me by now. Maybe he was in danger and avoiding me, but how much danger could he be in to not even let me know he was safe? No, I was starting to believe maybe I’d done something wrong. Maybe he thought I was neglectful or didn’t care.
I wouldn’t admit it to the guys, but I was afraid to face him and find out.
I felt in my pocket for a ponytail holder and combed my hair back with my hands until I could put it up. I’d left the apartment in my own old jeans, a new pair of boots Corey had bought for me, one of Brandon’s T-shirts, and a jacket stolen from Marc’s closet when it had started getting cold out. I carried a cell phone now, too. It was something they all insisted on and Corey had programmed each of their numbers in, plus a few extra from Academy members around the area, just in case.
Marc was in a leather jacket, black boots and jeans. His longer hair on top had grown down over his blue-green eyes, the mismatched colors contrasted with his dark lashes and hair. His hands twisted at the wheel as he drove. Lines etched into his face told me I wasn’t the only one anxious about getting there in time.
Raven was complacent. Sitting calmly with his dark eyes and short cropped hair, he was the epitome of patience as he stared fixedly out the front windshield. Wearing a thick, long-sleeved black sweatshirt, jeans and boots, he almost hid all the tattoos. The only thing left to show his rebellious nature was the lip ring he’d put back in. He fiddled with it with his tongue; I could see it poke out further every once in a while.
Every bit of him was Russian: looks, voice, and attitude.
“Where is Wil?” I asked, breaking the silence again. “Should we be interfering? I mean, that Mr. Blackbourne had said...”
“I just want you to see him,” Marc said. He slid a glance over at me. “Could you confirm it’s him?”
I sat up quickly, swallowing against my heart in my throat, suddenly thinking the worst. “Did you find a body?”
Marc’s expression moved from shocked to confused. “No,” he said quickly. “I just want to make sure I’m following the right guy. You don’t have to approach him now, but we should follow him where we can. See what he’s up to.”
“He’s not a troublemaker,” I said, defensive. “He’s a good guy.”
“I believe you,” Marc said. He smiled. “Don’t worry, I just want to make sure. If all he’s doing is trying to live on his own and take care of himself, then maybe we can approach him about college. We can even do it in a way to make it look like you weren’t helping.”
“I don’t feel like I am,” I said.
“Little Thief,” Raven said, reaching an arm around and squeezing my shoulder once tightly. I leaned into his side, feeling the muscle of his chest and stomach against my arm. It was a small amount of support and I welcomed his comfort. “There are many reasons to leave a home. Don’t assume bad when it could be something else, even stupidity.”
“He’s not stupid.”
Raven blew out a slow breath that caught wisps of my hair, pressing the strands back against my forehead. “We all do stupid things sometimes.”
I started to wrestle myself away from him but he pulled me back in. “No, listen. We all think we can do things alone. It’s not how it works. We need other people.”
“Right,” Marc said. “It’s unlikely he is in trouble to a degree that it is threatening his life, but just in case, we don't want to start running around without checking first. If we follow him around, we can see who is influencing him. Or maybe he’s just hanging out with friends. We’ll figure out the truth.”
“But he's just a kid,” I said, still feeling strongly that Wil wasn’t a bad guy. “He wouldn’t be doing something stupid. He wouldn't get into trouble with the police. Where are we going?”
“There's a shelter,” he said.
“Shelter?”
“A place where runaways are taken if they get picked up. Or beaten and abused kids who need a place to stay go while the system figures out where to put them next. There's a couple of them in town.”
“But how did you find out he was there?”
“A boy with his description was caught by the police recently and taken there. He used another name, but I thought he might have lied.”
“Why would he?” I asked.
“If you are going to run away from home, you usually come up with a name. If he gave them a false one, it would take the police several days to identify who he is.”
“So we are going to the shelter,” I said, putting the pieces together. “Just in case.”
“We want to get to him before he finds an opportunity to run off again.”
“But once he's in the system, won't they hold on to him? We tried to leave my dad once but the police picked us up and brought us back. They said if we tried again we'd go to juvenile court.”
“They were scaring you,” Raven said. “They don't have time to chase runaways all over. They have too much to do. So they warn you to scare you into staying.”