Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird #12)(69)

Nathan’s jaw remained wedged open. He imagined this was what Mr. Hendricks was going to allow to happen when it was time for him to leave.

Was this it? He was booking out early? Did he call the cops on Dr. Green initially and the smoke bomb saved their asses?

Was it because they pushed him so far yesterday? They underestimated his nerves and stability.

He looked over at Sang and then back to Dr. Green. “So...what now?”

“I don’t know yet,” Dr. Green said. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I don’t know how we’ll contain this. The whole point of being here was to get the money recovered before the police became involved so it wasn’t in the middle of the investigation and tied up forever as evidence by police.”

He was right. He rolled his head back. “God damn it.”

He felt a hand on his arm and straightened, finding Sang touching him. “But this isn’t over the money,” she said. She looked back to Dr. Green. “It’s about the smoke bomb, a babbling vice principal that has been missing, and... well... it isn’t about the money. Isn’t there something we can do to keep it that way?”

Nathan thought of the options. “If people collaborated with Ms. Johnson about what Mr. Hendricks with his strange behavior, they may not notice...” He looked up at Dr. Green. “But we’ll have to figure out a way for us to stay on. This won’t be over just because Hendricks is gone. If he’s gone.”

“That might be why we’re still here,” Dr. Green said. “Mr. Blackbourne hasn’t told us to bail. But I have to keep her out of it.” He motioned to Sang. He smiled at her. “Looks like you’re off duty right now.”

“I know,” she said.

Her staying here to take a test with her sister made even more sense now. “Yeah.” Nathan motioned to the door. “I’m going to go see about the others. Silas went over to check out what was going on.”

Sang backed up, putting her arms around her stomach and holding herself. “Go find them,” she said. “Come back and tell us what’s happening?”

He left Sang with Dr. Green. His heart pounded, his mind whirling with questions. Did Volto’s chaos actually help them out or did it lead them all to disaster much more dire than they realized? There was no escaping North being questioned about where he was last night and what happened. Dr. Green was going to be involved sooner or later. Mr. Blackbourne was probably inside the main office right now, sorting through the mess.

He doubted they could get out of this one without a lot of favors.





Where Everything Gets Tricky




The front of the school was crowded with students and faculty alike. A policeman stood by the main office, hands in his pockets, monitoring the activity and warding off anyone who came by. While most kept their distance, the area was alive with talking, very animated.

Bomb threat? Did someone die? Nathan could feel the questions without even hearing what they were asking.

Jay and Rocky stood together near the back of the crowd. Silas was with them, looking toward the students and beyond, to the front doors of the school.

Nathan had to circle around to even see what was going on near the front doors, finding police at the front, blocking off access to anyone going out without permission. Occasionally, someone came inside, people who had been standing out front. It left lots of room for speculation.

Nathan wasn’t sure why they were letting anyone out front at all.

Since the bell had rung, most of the teachers that were near the front door were warding off students.

“Go to class,” they said.

Some of the students were breaking away. The bell rang again, indicating they were all late for homeroom.

Teachers took to ushering kids away from the front of the school and to class before they all got detention. They formed a line and shooed with hand motions, getting them to move.

Silas broke away from Jay and Rocky and jogged over to Nathan. “I can’t get into the main office. Jay said there’s a rumor going around they put Mr. McCoy in custody.”

“Any reason why?”

He shook his head. “And no sign of Mr. Hendricks. I don’t know what the hell is going on with the Jeep. North’s in the office with Mr. Blackbourne. We’re getting an Academy lawyer in there. A few other people might be on the way, too.”

Academy people. When police got involved, it took more resources to straighten it all out. Nathan put his hands into his pockets and stood there, looking on toward the front doors. Despite the teachers shooing away other students, they seemed to ignore Nathan and Silas standing, for the most part.

“We can’t stay right here,” Silas said. “The teachers might avoid us, but the police will wonder why we’re standing around.”

“Should we go to the office? Can we help Mr. Blackbourne or North?”

“No. We can’t get to them. I’m not sure we should.”

“He’ll call if he needs us,” Nathan said, although he didn’t have a phone. “Where are the others? Where’s Kota?”

“Kota left with Gabriel. They’re out looking for Hendricks, although they doubt they’ll find him.”

“Luke? Where’s he?”

Silas blinked and shrugged. “I know he’s here. I just don’t know where. It’s been crazy since we arrived.”