Fake: The Scarab Beetle Series: #3 (The Academy) (6 page)

That he could escape and live a normal life was something I was envious of. 

THE PINEAPPLE FOUNTAIN

S
everal parks in downtown Charleston have fountains, but only one in the shape of a pineapple. Pineapples are common decorations in Charleston, which was always strange to me because South Carolina didn’t
grow
pineapples, at least as far as I knew. It was supposed to be a symbol of welcome, or something like that. Nothing like giving someone a pineapple to visitors when they arrive. Maybe the locals enjoyed the look of confusion from new folks. I don’t know. Small amusements.

Marc and I waited together inside the row of hedges circling the fountain. The fountain’s edge was on the same level as the sidewalk, so you basically could step into it if you weren’t watching where you were going. The top was split into three tiers, like a pineapple sliced into thirds widthwise. It wasn’t running, so I imagined they turn it off at night. The three tiers and the base held pools of water, dark and ominous in the predawn.

I scanned the area. The park was mostly safe, but it was very early in the morning, and hooligans didn’t always stay in North Charleston. Sometimes they ventured out, waiting for one of the rich on the peninsula to be in the wrong place at the completely wrong time.

The sky was still hazy and overcast. Marc sat on a bench nearby while I walked around the pineapple fountain, getting as close as I dared to the edge without jumping in completely. I was more stomping around to burn off steam than anything. When I got close to Marc, I’d kick out, trying to fling water over on him. Wasn’t sure if I was hitting him, but I gave it my best shot.

“Will you sit down?” Marc said after my umpteenth attempt to splash him. He was sitting on the bench with his elbows on his knees, well out of the way. He was bent over, with his head bowed and his hands covering his face.

“I’m trying to stay awake,” I said. Four hours sleep and a kidnapping should make anyone tired.

“We’ll get some coffee in a bit.”

“Until then, if I don’t keep moving, I’m going to pass out.”

Marc sat up sharply. “I wouldn’t be opposed to that.”

I kicked water at him, and he dodged by leaning over a little, even though the spray didn’t reach. “You think I’m going to sleep now? After all that—”

“Kayli,” called a severe, smoky voice. I turned, spotting Axel coming toward us.

I gave one more kick in Marc’s direction before I left the fountain. Axel was coming around from the far side, tailed by Kevin. I did a double-take. I hadn’t seen Kevin for a week or so and it felt like a lifetime, and even before then, I hadn’t seen much of him. His girlfriend usually called and he disappeared shortly after.

He was tall and dark-skinned. His dark eyes were critical but he was there when his teammates needed him. And he watched out for my brother when I couldn’t. For that, if nothing else, I had to give him some respect.

Axel was wearing a black leather jacket and jeans. His hair was loose around his jaw, and he wore glasses. His dark eyes and the strict look on his face told me his was in business mode.

I stiffened at the sight of him, doing my best not to stare. We’d gotten really close a couple of weeks ago, but since then, I’d avoided him, and he’d given me space, but I still felt on edge around him.

Mostly because I often caught myself staring at him, attracted to him in a way that almost frightened me. Maybe it was his dark Mediterranean features, or the way that when he caught me staring, he met my eyes and held them, not allowing me the opportunity to look away.

As he stood there, he challenged me silently to come talk to him, but I resisted, keeping my mouth shut, letting Marc take the lead, not needing the distraction of Axel while I was in kick-ass mode.

I kept expecting Raven and Corey to come, but they didn’t, a fact that made me nervous. Like not seeing Corey meant he could get kidnapped like we’d been. “Where’s the others?” I asked.

“Don’t worry about them,” Marc said. He turned to Axel. “What are we doing here?”

“Getting Kayli clothes for one,” Axel said. “You didn’t offer her your shoes?”

“She didn’t need them. She was too busy playing in the fountain.”

“Did you touch her?” Axel asked.

The question surprised me, like he was accusing Marc in a jealous way, but the idea didn’t fit the situation. Well, not at this moment, at least. I stared between them, trying to figure it out.

Marc shook his head. “Just her skin.”

“What’s the plan?” Kevin asked. “What do you want me to do?”

Axel pointed at him. “I need you at the hospital. Find Dr. Roberts. Don’t spend too much time alone. Pick up someone if you need to. Victor Morgan is in the area. He might be able to help with what we need.” He turned to us. “Where’s that phone?”

I handed it over.

“Corey and Raven are going to meet you there, Kevin,” he said. He passed the phone on to him. “Stay with them at the hospital. I want this phone analyzed there. I want twenty-four hour surveillance on Corey. I want everything on this phone, and I want to know everything about these guys. Shoe size, what they had for breakfast this morning, their mothers’ favorite flowers, everything. Take turns with Raven sleeping, and one of you two will be running errands if Corey needs anything, or as a go between him and us. No one leaves him at any point.”

Marc opened his mouth again in protest but then promptly closed it again. He swallowed and then relaxed his shoulders. Axel really was in charge. Not even Marc questioned this.

“But first,” Axel said, “she needs clothes. She can’t run if she can’t keep up. And we need to clean her.”

Kevin put down the backpack that I hadn’t noticed until now. He dropped it in front of his feet and started digging through it. “I don’t know your size, Kayli,” he said. “I had to make a guess. You’re about the same size as my girlfriend, though, so hopefully close enough.” He pulled out a pair of loose-fit crop cotton pants and a T-shirt, along with a sports bra and a pair of underwear. They were all new with the tags still on, Wal-Mart brands. They must have made a stop. He pulled out a pair of flip-flops with them and passed them over to me.

I understood I probably should put something on, but I wondered why they didn’t bring me clothes from the apartment. Had they been there? Or were they avoiding the place because it could be watched, since it had been compromised once already. “Where do you want me to change?” I asked.

“Here,” Axel said. “We need to do a sweep.”

I waited him out for an explanation and when he never offered, I had to ask. “What?”

“If these guys might have a tracker on you, we need to find out now.” He pulled out a comb from his back pocket and showed it to me. “I need you to undress here, and I should check for any bugs. Just in case.”

I snorted. “Are you serious?”

“We don’t know how sophisticated these guys are. We need to check you out.” His face was unreadable. He meant business.

“What do I have to do?”

“Get undressed. I’ll brush out your hair and check any crevices for anything unusual. Then get dressed in the new clothes. Marc should be checked out. That cab will probably have to be swept. We don’t need that guy hunted and killed because of you. But we’ll send another team to deal with that. And we need to do it here, because we don’t know how close these guys are, and taking you to a shop or gas station to change means more time spent with them possibly able to track us, and getting others involved in case they decide to come in and attack. We could be cornered. Do this here quickly. We need to get going, so hurry up.”

I wanted to make some protest about him being around while I was naked. It was the natural girl-modesty response. I stared at him, considering my options. He knew more than I did about this spy thing. I’d seen movies where there were bugs planted on people as small as a fly. Was that true? Could one be on me right now? I still had the boxers on and the T-shirt. In the struggle, Mack Truck could have put anything on me and I wouldn’t have noticed. It was something I hadn’t thought of. Suddenly my body was itchy, like a live bug with a tracer device had been planted on me and crawled all over my skin.

I needed to hurry. Axel was right, we didn’t have much time and we needed to get to Brandon. If this was what I needed to do, it didn’t help to just stand here.

I still put the fountain between me and the other boys until I couldn’t even see them anymore and I was sure none of them could see me. I was wondering why we were doing this out in the open, not that there appeared to be anyone around. There could be a lot of reasons, I supposed, but if we were quick, no one might notice us here anyway. 

Axel followed. When I challenged him with a glare, he was completely unreadable. Either he was trying to keep things professional, or there was something else on his mind. Maybe he simply didn’t care about nudity when lives were on the line.

I put the new clothes aside and then started to strip. I was going to try to be coy, but he was the one who had to check for bugs in places I wouldn’t be able to check alone. I had to let him inspect me so there was no point in trying to be delicate.

Axel’s eyes never wavered. At first his face was blank, and stayed on my face.

I lifted the T-shirt and ripped it off, facing him full on and bare and his eyes stayed with mine. I challenged him, daring. I don’t know why I needed to, but it was like I was waiting for some reaction from him. Not getting one made me uncomfortable, like I wasn’t attractive enough to warrant some sort of approval.

Crazy girl stuff. Resistant to being naked in front of guys, but if you have to be, you want a compliment.

And my heart was wild because he’d once seen me nearly naked before. We’d even kissed, and fooled around a bit. Now it was like I was testing him to see if he’d lost interest. If maybe I wasn’t his type. I realized it must be hard for him to deal with someone like me, hot and cold like I’d been with the guys. Did I think they’d simply wait while I made up my mind?

And here I was, testing him. I wanted to poke his buttons until he caved. I wanted to prove to him, and to myself, that he was still interested.

I slipped out of the boxers, kicking them toward the fountain. At first he stood completely still, like he was waiting for me to do something. Give him permission?

“Do you have to comb my hair?” I asked.

He blinked, his head shaking slightly as if I’d disturbed some deep thinking.

And then there it was: His eyes did the sweep. He dropped his gaze quickly to my feet, as if trying to avoid looking directly, but once he looked at my feet, his eyes slid up slowly. He angled his head, taking in my calves, thighs, over my hips and stomach, to my chest. Very slow, very deliberate. He’d done the same to me with my clothes on, but now it was all in front of him.

Fair was fair: I’d seen him naked.

He met my eyes again. His expression was so hard to read, but I could tell he was struggling. That made me happy. Axel at least felt something when he saw me naked.

He moved forward with a comb he pulled from his pocket and did a finger twirl. “Turn around.”

This was familiar, too. He’d done this once before, with a brush, trying to collect my own secrets from me.

I turned where he wanted me, and he gathered my hair in his big hands. He started at the roots and worked the comb through. He circled me as he worked, trying to make sure he brushed everything down and got rid of every tangle. Locks covered my face. His fingers followed the comb, touching every strand.

I covered parts of me with my arms from the cold, and partially in preparation if anyone did come by. It was super early still, and the only light we were getting was from dim lamps still lit up and down the park and further out there was some ambient light from streetlamps and homes. Someone would have had to get really close to notice I was naked, and the park was deserted except for us. “Is this even necessary?” I asked, considering what was more awkward, being naked in public or Axel combing my hair for bugs.

I also wanted to avoid talking about us.

He was quiet for a moment, and then held out a palm.

Inside his palm were three dark specks. At first, I just assumed it was dirt or something. When I looked closer, they appeared to be little microchips.

“Are those them?” I asked. I couldn’t believe he found three already. “It’s not just dirt or something? I did jump from a moving car.”

“Trackers,” he said. “I’ve seen these before.”

“Are they working now? Are they GPS trackers?” I was wondering how they put these on. It must have happened while we’d struggled in bed or on the way to the car trunk. Tracking us from the start meant they were assured we couldn’t have jumped up and run off at some point.

“They aren’t really designed for GPS. They just send out a frequency,” he said. “There’s a local scanner out there somewhere that can pick it up. It wouldn't have enough energy for a satellite transmission but it can make it easier to follow you if they wanted to tail you. If they’re searching for you now, this is what they’re looking for.”

“How come they didn’t find me before? They were looking for me while I was keeping an eye on Brandon and they were talking to him.”