“Take her back inside.”
“You’re telling me that you might be in danger, and you want me to walk away and leave you here? Not a chance.”
“Lance, get her out of here, now.”
“Hey, Gianna, the twins wanted to ask you something.” He called out to her while putting himself at my back between me and the perceived threat.
She walked over, and I tried to back away, but he didn’t miss a beat. He placed himself squarely in the middle of us in the rear, putting himself in the line of fire and pissing me off. I pretended to drop something, making them both move ahead of me so I could be between them and danger. He knew but couldn’t say anything because I’d light into him if he scared her.
The only reason I didn’t drop him was that I didn’t feel a sense of danger. Once the initial shock wore off, I was able to put what I’d painstakingly learned to good use and knew that there was no imminent danger at the moment. There were eyes on me, just eyes—no scope of a rifle or any other weapon that my senses were trained to detect.
Still, I didn’t like the feeling of being watched. “You and me, later.” I threatened him under my breath out of earshot of her once we were out of sight of whoever was in the woods. “Gianna, go with Lance; I forgot there was something I needed to take care of.” She looked flummoxed at the sudden change because I’d gone into full shutdown mode, I guess, but I didn’t have time to reassure her right now.
I slipped away from the two of them and made my way in a roundabout way to my hiding spot, making sure I wasn’t being followed every step of the way. I pulled the portable charger for the tablet from my pocket and plugged it in, waiting for it to load.
As soon as the screen cleared, I tapped in my command. “Quadrant six left.” Yes, I’ve hacked into the school security. At first, I’d only done it to make sure no one ever found this place or what I keep hidden here; I had no interest in what the rest of these clowns were doing, and spying on innocent school kids is not my thing.
But after a while, I expanded my field of vision to include the school grounds and the surrounding area, which hadn’t been easy. Hacking into the local municipality spy cams had been easy enough but keeping that shit hidden was not. I watched the area where I believed my watcher to have been hiding on the screen. ‘There you are.”
I watched the figure walk casually into the trees, hands shoved into his pockets, looking as nonthreatening as could be. The hoodie he had pulled over his head hid his face, of course, but I knew what he was wearing. With that in mind, I rewound the day’s recordings to this morning and went to the camera in the parking lot. He had to get here somehow, and this school does not play with security. If you’re not here within fifteen minutes of the first bell, don’t even bother, the gates will be long closed and locked for the day.
“Ah, there you are.” He wasn’t as careful when he pulled in this morning… I know that face. “Where have I seen you before?” I tapped in some more commands, trying to find that hoodie throughout the day, which was tedious at best. That’s when I saw the other new faces. It was the twins that finally clicked it for me. The four of them were good but not good enough.
I sat back and watched them throughout the day, pretending not to know each other when they met in the hallways. To anyone else, it might seem that way but reading others’ body language is a cakewalk for me. What the hell are they doing here? I hadn’t seen any of them in years, not since the family moved from New York, in fact. But what are the odds that all four of them would show up on my campus like this? “Pop!”
I put the tablet away and did my usual recon before leaving the area. Now I just have to decide whether or not I should let him know that I’d spot his little team or play with them a little bit first. The only problem is I have no idea why he’d sicced them on me now.
I spent the rest of the day mowing through my remaining classes as usual before it was time to leave. I couldn’t help myself and smirked at one of the kids in passing. “Don’t I know you?” I didn’t stick around for an answer. I had to fob Lancelot off with a lie, or his worrying ass would turn leech, but I’m not sure he believed me.