The Healing Power of Sugar: The Ghost Bird Series: #9 (The Academy Ghost Bird Series) (7 page)

Uncle shouted over his shoulder. “Hey, Tony!”

“Yeah?” said the guy washing dishes.

“Go find Luke.”

Tony was a lanky guy with dark hair and an olive complexion. He looked at me once, wiped his hands on his apron, turned off the water and walked out of the room.

He didn’t ask why. Then I realized the two other people in the room had probably heard the conversation. Heat washed over me, until I was sure my whole face was red.

I was flustered and embarrassed that they thought I’d been getting too close to North and needed a reminder of who I was dating. Why did Uncle have to say all that in front of them? Maybe he thought it was innocent enough…It was my own circumstances that made me uncomfortable. If they only knew…

I considered washing dishes if I was just going to stand there anyway. Uncle turned back to cooking. The other cook finished up his sandwich, walking it out to the hallway, where a waitress took it to the dining room.

Nathan came through the door into the kitchen. He still had on his jeans, but had traded the red shirt for one of the blue Bob’s Diner T-shirts to match with everyone else. The chest was a little tight, showing off his muscles.

He approached the silver table that separated the sink side from the stove and oven side and spotted me. His reddish brown hair shone a bit redder under the fluorescent lights of the kitchen. He stopped mid-step and turned with a puzzled expression in his blue eyes. “Something wrong?” he asked.

“I came to see Luke,” I said carefully, unable to give him the full answer. I made my eyes go wide, letting him know there was more to it and I needed him to go along with it. “I was going to take him out.”

He slid a look from me to Uncle and back at me. “You thought he might be here? I thought he was still at Kota’s. I’ve been waiting for him.”

I pressed my lips together before I could utter the surprised sound that had started in my throat. I forced a smile at him. “He said he was headed here, to relieve you from work, but...” I wasn’t sure what else to say in front of the others. This wasn’t good. Luke wasn’t here. What was I supposed to do?

“He’s probably run off again,” Uncle said. He hadn’t turned around, still cleaning up. “You should call him. Make him come pick you up.”

“Right,” I said. “I’ll do that.” I pressed my teeth together, grimacing at Nathan. I needed to talk to him, but away from Uncle.

Nathan’s face shifted from curious to something much more serious. He frowned and then took off his blue apron. “Is anyone else here?”

“North’s in the office, or he might still be.”

“Let’s go find him.”

Uncle made a noise, and I put my head down, feeling guilty but unable to help it. Did he expect me to avoid North completely?

I followed Nathan out into the hall, right on his heels. Even on the short walk, I wanted to reach out to him, to hold his hand or touch him in some way, but I feared Uncle would see it, even through the walls.

Nathan opened the door to the office. I stood on my tiptoes to peek around his wide shoulders.

North was still inside, looking at the computer but then picked his head up with a dark eyebrow lifted as we came in. “Don’t complain to me. It was her idea to give Luke the night off. But don’t worry. I’m not going to keep you. I’ll take over...”

Nathan ignored him, waving a hand through the air. He stepped inside, giving me room to enter. When I did, he closed the door and hit the lock. He turned to me, his hands on his hips. His shoulders rounded out and his blue eyes took on that serious expression again. “What’s wrong?”

I hoped no one was listening in on us. I needed to talk to someone about Uncle, but finding Luke seemed to be more important right now. “Luke left us not too long ago to relieve you from working,” I said. “But if he’s not here, then…”

“Well, then he’s run off again,” Nathan said, wiping his hands on his jeans. “I haven't seen him. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“But now there’s a problem,” I said. I checked in with North, who shrugged but then nodded. “Volto might be back.”

Nathan’s face reddened, and he turned toward North. “Are you serious? Where?”

“Just wait a second,” North said, raising his hand. “We don’t know if it’s really him yet. Now that Luke’s not here, I’m wondering more if it was him playing a prank and then realizing he needed to hide because it was too over the top. So you haven’t seen him at all?”

“No,” Nathan said. “I’ve been working since I left Kota’s. I was waiting for someone to show up. Tony said she was here looking for Luke, so I came back to check it out.”

“We need to find him,” I said, feeling the panic in my heart. What if Volto had taken him? He’d done the same to me. Luke had been alone on his way here. I turned to North and Nathan, my finger fluttering to the base of my throat. “What if he’s got him?”

“Calm down,” North said, standing and pulling out his phone. He pushed a button and then held it to his ear.

I eased closer to the desk. “Who are you calling?”

“Him,” he said. He waited and then held it out so he could look at the screen. “He’s not answering.”

“Track him,” Nathan said. “We should find out where he is. I don’t think he’s on any Academy assignment. Kota would have known.”

“Should I call him?” I asked. “Maybe he’s thinking you’ll yell at him. I could try.”

“Yeah,” North said, and then pressed at his phone. “I’ll track him. You call him.”

I came deeper into the room to distance myself from the door, and then sat on the couch again to steady my shaking. I pulled my phone out but before I called Luke, I looked at Nathan for a brief second, feeling strange about the situation. I just hoped it would work.

Nathan pressed his lips together in a grim expression. “Do it.”

I looked at my phone, finding Luke’s icon—a stack of pancakes—and pushed the buttons that would call him.

The phone rang and kept ringing. At first, I wasn’t sure he would answer.

Right before a voice mail message would have started up, the phone clicked. There was breathing on the other end amid other sounds, but no voice.

My heart stopped. Volto did that. I breathed out slowly. “Luke? Is that you?” I tried not to sound panicked, but my voice was soft.

“Sang?” Luke said through the phone. “Everything okay?” His voice was concerned now.

My heart crashed back into my chest at hearing his voice. I brightened a bit, looking at the other guys and nodding. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

North started waving at me, getting my attention, and signaling that I shouldn’t let on that we were looking for him. “I just...came by the diner. I thought you were here.”

“Oh,” he said. “I was going to, but...I don’t know. I got distracted.”

“Oh,” I said. I didn’t want to get after him about not going to work. Hadn’t he had this same discussion with North where he’d promised he’d relieve Nathan? How could he skip out and make it sound like it was akin to daydreaming during class? “I was going to see if you wanted to...maybe...do something tonight.”

“Tonight? Like what?”

I bit my lip and looked at Nathan and then North. I couldn’t think of what to say, feeling awkward that they were watching me while I was trying to ask Luke out and find out what was going on at the same time. “Oh, I thought we’d get a pizza and watch a movie? Or maybe something else? Whatever you want to do.”

“Are you asking me out? Sang, if you’re feeling threatened by that girl giving me her phone number, there’s nothing to worry about.”

I swallowed and continued, unable to turn back now. Nathan was looking at me, a frown on his face and it was more than the situation. I was worried about jealousy. It made it more awkward to be sweet to Luke and try to lure him to take me along wherever he was going. “Maybe it’s a little bit of that,” I said closing my eyes so I didn’t have to look at Nathan. “But to be honest, I...thought we should hang out. We never get to. I haven’t gotten a chance since...”

“Sang, listen, I want to, but I’m halfway across town right now and I might not be able to get back.”

I sent a puzzled look at North. He looked at his phone and was shaking his head. “Oh,” I said, unable to hide my disappointment. “Where are you going?”

“Academy stuff. You know how it is. Save some pizza for me? I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

I frowned. He’d said he was distracted. Now he was saying it was Academy stuff and he’s too busy? This didn’t seem like him. “What time will you be back, Luke?”

“Have to go. Bye!”

He disconnected. I pulled the phone from my ear, looking at it in disbelief. I’d never been brushed off by any of them like that before. I recalled what he’d just said, and it made me question the Luke who had been at the house earlier, friendly and funny. He didn’t even seem like the same person.

I turned to North. “At first he said he was distracted, like he was doing something else… and then he said he was doing something for the Academy. He said he was halfway across town.”

“According to the GPS on his phone, he’s...” North’s eyebrows moved together, and his lips twisted in confusion. “Back at our house.”

“We should go follow him,” I said. “He shouldn’t be alone. If he didn’t do the prank, then Volto...”

“Shouldn’t we warn him about Volto?” Nathan asked. “If we aren’t, then we need to keep an eye on him so he isn’t alone.”

North sighed and then went to the door, opening it. “Sang, you go with Nathan. I’ll stay here and cover the shift. Uncle will get the wrong idea if you and I leave together.”

“You shouldn’t be here alone,” I said.

“I’m not,” he smirked and then tapped me on the nose. “Uncle’s here. As are a couple other people...”

He meant there were plenty of Academy people here. Volto would have to get by all of them to get to North. Kota and Gabriel were still up the road, too. “Just be careful,” I said. “Don’t go home alone.”

North rolled his eyes and walked into the hallway. “Stick by her Nathan.”

Nathan grunted in agreement. He took me by the elbow and nearly carried me out to the hallway and toward the back door. “Let’s go find Luke.”

HIDE AND SEEK

N
athan had me keep the hood over my head while we were out, just in case anyone was following us or if anyone working for Mr. Hendricks spotted us.

When we got into the Jeep, I told Nathan quickly about finding the masks, and how we weren’t sure who had hung them. Then, I reluctantly told him about Luke acting strangely and how we wondered if he’d had something to do with the masks.

I kept the part about Uncle being weird about North to myself for now. I wanted to talk to North about that first.

As I was talking, I got a buzz on my phone: texts from North.

North: I got word back from Kota. Told him about the masks and he got the one off of his window. He said there were eight. Wasn’t sure if there was anything significant to the number.

I read this to Nathan. He was quiet for a moment and then counted on his fingers. “That’s just how many windows Kota has on the front of his house.”

I wrote this to North and got a quick response.

North: He wonders why it was the front of the house and not the side or any of the back windows.

“He’s overthinking the numbers,” Nathan said to me. “You know him. He assumes there might be answers in them sometimes. It might just be Volto only had eight masks, or he just wanted to do the front and didn’t worry about the back.”

“I guess he’s looking at all the information, and not dismissing anything,” I said.

Nathan nodded and glanced at all his mirrors and then out the front. He combed his reddish hair, shorter since Gabriel had cut it not too long ago. Now it stood up in the back at times, but was soft. He continued to brush his head, still not used to it being so short. “I just don’t like over-thinking the details instead of looking at the obvious. I don’t like knowing he’s out there and we haven’t been able to figure out who he is yet. He’s already done a lot of damage.”

“Has he, really?” I asked.

“You’re not telling me you like what he does, are you?”

“No,” I said. “But what has he done? Informed us about where Mr. McCoy was?”

“He set up that dangerous stunt on the football field. Someone could have gotten seriously hurt. Then there’s the photos he took of you. And he kidnapped you.”

“Just to talk to me,” I said. I didn’t have an excuse about the football field. “He said Muriel did the photos.”

“He could say that, but it might not be true. We can’t trust him.”

“I’m hoping this recent thing is Luke,” I said. “I’m hoping he just did a trick because he was mad at North. He might know we’re on to him about it and is just trying to avoid getting into trouble.”

“I’m not so sure he’d do something like that,” he said. He stopped at a red light and continued his constant looking toward all mirrors. “Besides, the problem is, Volto is still out there. Whether or not Luke played another prank, and is laying low now to not get in trouble for it, it doesn’t change the fact that there’s a potential danger. Not knowing who Volto is and not being able to stop him is making what seems like a stupid prank into something we have to take seriously.”

I agreed with that. “It still doesn’t explain what Luke has been up to, and why he’s skipping out on work when he promised to be there.” I really wanted to talk to him.

But would he talk to me about it if he knew I wanted to? He dismissed me earlier, even though he might be at home just thinking. Maybe this was more serious than I thought.

The light turned green, and Nathan rolled the car forward. The afternoon light was bright and I shielded my eyes from it.

“So, were you going to take him out for pizza tonight?” Nathan asked in a quieter tone.

My fingers shifted, until they covered my view of his face. There was drop of jealousy in his question. I remembered the promises he made to me in one desperate moment when he’d confessed his feelings. From what I’d learned since, it wasn’t clear if he knew about the plan or not. I didn’t want to be the one to tell him if he didn’t—I had a feeling he wouldn’t like it.