Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird #12)(33)

In a way, I was glad it all happened, glad it was over, and now we could move on.

“Kind of got jolted near the end,” Nathan said. He gazed at his feet at the floor, scooting his shoe around the linoleum.

“We’re already making changes regarding everything moving forward,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He looked dead at me. “Why don’t you tell them your plans, Miss Sorenson?”

I blinked repeatedly and for a moment. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about until I looked over at Luke, who sat up and spoke, “That’s our project.”

“Uh,” I said. “Yes, we were thinking about...a house.”

Gabriel took over. “We need to start thinking about it and looking at options. Between Victor and Sang and I, we’d need a place soon. We can’t all crash at Nathan’s forever. It’d be too obvious to everyone on that block, not to mention Erica or the Sorensons noticing.”

“It’s the project we can take on,” Luke said. “But we need to hear from everyone else what they’d need. Like a list of...”

“Wait,” Silas said, an eyebrow raising. “We’re talking about one place? For everyone?”

“Sometimes students share a house once they move on from living at home,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Usually near a university.”

I realized suddenly this was a family meeting, and the device Mr. Blackbourne and Victor had set up probably helped keep our conversation private. However, the way they tiptoed around certain topics made me think they still weren’t willing to say too much out loud. Perhaps talking about it here wasn’t the best, but it was getting harder to get most of them together like this in the same spot.

“Yeah,” Silas said. “But we can’t all just move. And what kind of place are we talking about?”

“Pam’s love life is getting in the way of my sleep,” Gabriel said. “And going back and forth every day... I just want a closer spot, okay? We lose at least a couple of hours a day trying to drive back and forth to where we need to be. And Sang needs her own turf. We’re already in trouble with Erica as it is. We’re just asking for more problems if we keep this up.”

“So we’re voting to not tell anyone about us?” North asked. “We’re going to hide in a house no one can visit, because we can’t explain why there are ten of us in a single house. I mean, that’s what you’re looking at.”

“Don’t we need to sort this out for ourselves, first?” Nathan asked. He glanced over at me and then down to the floor. “I mean, we all want to do the right thing. But...there’s a lot we haven’t talked about.”

“We’re getting off track,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “But no matter what we decide or who we choose to trust, some basic necessities need to be addressed.” His eyes shifted from one of the guys to the next, including me in his pass. “We’re getting to the point where it could be critical that you all need to move away from home. Whether you choose to live with each other or separate, it is your choice. Opting to live separate doesn’t mean voting yourself out of the group. Or out of anything.”

“I vote to live with Sang,” Luke said, raising his hand.

“Me, too,” Gabriel said, copying Luke with both of his hands in the air.

North groaned. “We know.” He pointed at Luke. “But you aren’t going anywhere until Uncle’s house is finished.”

“Sang needs a house before then,” Luke said.

“That’s fine,” he said. “But we’ve got other obligations before you can start running off.”

“Which brings us to Hendricks,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “And the rest of the people we’ve crossed paths with while here. We’ll need to complete it all before—” His lips twisted and he instantly dropped his hand into his pocket to fish his phone out. An eyebrow raised, crossing behind his dark glasses. He slid his finger across the surface and put it to his ear.

The rest of us fell silent. For a moment, I couldn’t imagine who it could be. We were all accounted for.

His lips tightened, the sharpness in his gray eyes turning the color into steel. After a minute, he lowered the phone and pushed a button then motioned us to keep quiet.

The voice was difficult to hear, but after a moment, I recognized Dr. Green.

“Look, I really want to help you,” he said. “But I can’t until you tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s...Mr. Hendricks,” a woman’s voice said. It sounded familiar to me, but I couldn’t place it right away. “I haven’t had a day off this year. I’ve had to work all this time to keep my old pay rate. I can’t survive on less.”

“But you have to take days off...I mean state regulation...”

“It’s off the books. It’s complicated. But it’s this or he threatens to get me fired. I don’t know what to do. The things he gets us to do aren’t official anyway. He’s in with the superintendent, I’m sure. He keeps saying he’s got friends higher up the chain that can make things happen if I don’t cooperate. Including not being able to work anywhere else in this state...”

I glanced over at Nathan, who sensed me and locked eyes. I made a worried expression, sharing my concern with him. In all of our talk about us, I forgot we had bigger problems here. Mr. Blackbourne was right. Luke had been right. Hendricks was a problem.