by Lee French
Besides, she had Drew. Maybe he’d consider letting Drew in, the same way Jack had let Justin in. If they could find someplace for both of them to sleep. As much as she desperately wanted to be part of Justin’s family, she felt a pang of guilt for the space and food, and everything else she’d take up in their lives without giving much back.
The rain had stopped, and they reached the road. Tariel clopped down it under an overcast sky. Claire watched the trees give way to houses, then businesses. Gray clouds trundled past, and she caught sight of a patch of blue sky.
As they headed for a freeway onramp, Justin sighed with a grumble. “We have no good options, so we’re taking a lousy one.”
Tariel sped up, leaving Claire wondering how the horse knew where to go. Half an hour later, she had a guess. Another five minutes after that, she knew her guess had been right and had no idea what to think. “What are we doing here?”
Justin pulled on the reins to get Tariel to turn into the parking lot at Grant High. “Where else would you like to look to find Avery’s home address?”
“The Internet?”
“Would we also be able to pick up your stuff there?”
Claire opened her mouth, then shut it, unable to think of a snappy comeback. She did already have her backpack, but she wouldn’t mind grabbing the bag she kept in her locker. Instead, she focused on the reasons this wouldn’t work. “Two things. One, Avery is divorced and his kids live with his ex-wife. Two, it’s Saturday. Everything is locked up. How’re you going to get in?”
“Universal opening tool.” He hopped off Tariel’s back when she stopped and pulled his sword out. “It slices, it dices, it juliennes, all for the unbelievably low price of never being able to hold down a regular job. As for the first point, I’ll bet his ex-wife knows where he lives, and she can probably tell us about him.”
“Whoa, Choppy McChop-chop.” Claire tried to follow him to the ground, but the horse perfectly foiled her efforts by hopping and sidestepping. “Hey! Look, Justin, I go to school here. You don’t have to carve it up. Besides, you’ve already got cops on your trail. Do you really need to add another reason for them to come down on you? There’s got to be another way.”
He turned and fell into a pose she thought she’d seen on a movie poster. It made him seem heroic and incredible, and she had no idea how a girl like her had managed to get a guy like him to watch over her. “That may be. Do you have any thoughts on this other way?”
She blinked at him as the moment passed. He still didn’t quite seem real. “Uh. Er?”
“That’s what I thought. And you won’t be going to school here anymore.” He returned to swaggering toward the building, cloak swishing behind him, blade gleaming in the fleeting sunshine. With a slash of his sword, he cut around the lock in the front door. He pushed and the door swung open.
Dumbstruck by his bold, brash action, she gaped. Then she noticed which part of the school they’d arrived at and tapped on the horse’s neck. “You know he’s never been here before, right? I mean, sure, I’ve only been here a few times and all, but at least I know where stuff is. He just broke into the gym. The office is over there.” She pointed for the horse’s benefit. “Can I get down now, please?”
Tariel tossed her head and whickered, then dropped her hind quarters. Claire hopped off. In the doorway, she paused long enough to admire the strength of his sword. It had made a clean cut through a steel door without screeching or forcing him to wrench it. The blade probably couldn’t be stopped. She gulped, imagining him using it on a person. They’d be sliced in half as easily as this door had been. Gross.
She found him in the hall. “Good thing you didn’t call this plan ‘brilliant.’ Did you not go to high school? Or just forget what the parts look like?”
“I figured it’s all connected, and your locker might be in one of the other parts. Besides—” he grinned “—it’s kind of fun to cut doors like that, and I don’t get to do it very often. Is there a different door I can cut now?”
“Seriously?”
Justin laughed. “Come on, show me the way.”
“Aren’t you worried about ur-phasms jumping us in here?”
“No. It’s a school. Phasms can’t infest schools or hospitals. I was under the impression they couldn’t get into police stations, either, but that seems to not be true. Or, at least, it’s not as true as I’ve been led to believe.”
They reached the part of the building with her locker, and she struggled over the combination before pulling out her electric blue bag with spare clothes, granola bars, and a money pouch. “This is all I want from here.”
“Aren’t you going to take these?” He pointed to the textbooks still piled in her locker.
“Ew, no. Why? They aren’t even mine. I was issued them. Like I want to steal my Chemistry book or something.” She left the locker door hanging open to make things easier on whoever had to clean it out.
“I did alright in Chemistry. It’s not that bad.”
Claire rolled her eyes and led the way to the office. “Pretty sure whatever new school I wind up at will have their own books. Vancouver is across the state line and all.” They reached the office without him making any further disparaging comments, and she had to wonder if being in a high school brought out his inner smartass.
Justin’s eyes lit up at the sight of the locked office door and he sliced it open the same way as he had the gym door. This time, she heard his happy sigh when he finished. “This place kind of looks like it’s got enough money to be all electronic, but we’ll see if we can find any paper records anyway.”
The interior doors were, thankfully, unlocked. Claire set her bag down and eyed Mr. Gary’s cup of pens and pencils. She snagged two and tucked them into her bag, certain Justin would both approve and appreciate not having to buy her new ones.
Chapter 20
Justin
Justin looked up from rifling through a filing cabinet. This trip had turned out to be more fun than he’d expected. Trashing a symbol of authority never failed to amuse him. His own high school years had been pretty good, of course, aside from the panic, desperation, therapy, and court battles. He’d met Marie in high school, at any rate.
Wanting to think about something else, he glanced at Claire and smirked. “I couldn’t fit all of Missy’s toys into your suitcase, backpack, and bag even if I wanted to. That’s not counting her clothes and bedding.”
“Yeah, well, a fire and a lack of spending money kind of has a minimizing effect on stuff.”
He sighed at his own stupid insensitivity. Obviously, a system kid wouldn’t have much. “Sorry.” The files wouldn’t sort themselves, so he returned to rifling through them.
“Yeah, me too.” She hefted her pack onto her shoulders. “It’s gonna be pretty cramped in your house, so it’s probably for the best I don’t have much stuff.”
“We can build onto it.”
“Don’t you need permits for that?”
“Only if you care about it being legal.”
She laughed. “Yeah, you’re not exactly Mr. Rule Follower.”
“I was.” Leaning on the drawer, he gazed over at the blue blinds on the nearby window, seeing other times and places. Now he felt ready to share. “My mom killed herself when I was five, so it was just me and Dad. Without her there to teach him better, he did what his dad did. When I was seven, he hit me with a belt so hard I still have scars from it, because I stayed out after the streetlights came on and was covered in mud when I got back. He took me to the hospital. They asked me what happened. I told them. Dad said I made it up and had been out late doing who knows what. They believed him over me.
“At school, the teachers taught us that we could trust doctors, cops, and them, and to always tell them the truth, no matter what. If someone hurt us, we were supposed to tell one of those three kinds of people, and they’d do something about it.” His attention slipped down to the files again. That incident at the hospital had only been the first of many and he
had no desire to linger on the memories. “A boy’s bound to develop a certain disrespect for rules and laws when things like that happen.”
Claire said nothing for several minutes. “I’m sorry.”
“No need to be. Marie’s parents are really great people. When Marie got pregnant with Lisa, I freaked out a little bit and begged Jack to help me learn how to be a father. Last thing I wanted was to turn out like my old man.” Or, for that matter, Father Bernard. Jack had saved him in a lot of ways. Then Kurt had come along and introduced him to a place where he fit in.
He finally found a folder with the right name on the tab and yanked it out to flip through it. “I still don’t care much about the laws and rules and all that. Don’t have a reason to.” He lifted a large card and waved it in the air. “This has Brian Avery’s address in it as part of his emergency contact information.”
“Oh.” Claire stepped to Justin’s side, put her arms around him, and hugged him. “You seem like a really great dad to me.”
“Thanks. I try. Not as hard as I used to have to, but it still takes effort.” Surprised by the gesture, it took him a moment to return it. “Especially since I’ve got girls. Lisa completely stymied me for a good three years. Would it have killed the universe to give us a son first so I had time to adjust to the whole ‘dad’ thing? Or even the second time, to sort of soften the pink unicorn barf all over everything.”
She choked out a laugh. “Sorry, can’t help there.”
“Maybe you can have boys in a few years and I can live vicariously through you. It better not be for at least five years, though.” He gave her a stern glare. “It’s nice in some ways to have a five-year-old kid at twenty-four, but I don’t recommend it.”
“Jeez. Yeah, Drew and I can wait, thanks.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Drew? Who’s Drew?”
“The guy who got you to the basement. He’s the one that’s always been there.”
“Oh really.” Pushing her far enough away to give her a stern glare, he grumbled in the back of his throat. “Redhead? Lots of freckles?”
“Yeah.” She looked up at him, and her brow climbed. “Ease down, Dad. I don’t need my virtue protected or whatever you’re thinking there.”
“I’m a Knight,” he growled. “I protect my own. Drew had better watch himself or he’ll end up with a fist in his face.”
Claire chuckled. “Yeah, and that fist’ll be mine.”
Thinking back, he remembered her saying that she got suspended for beating some kid up. He laughed. “Fair enough.” The principal had a notepad on his desk, so Justin copied the address down and put the file away. “We’re going to need a map, because I don’t know where this street is.”
“Yeah, me neither. We can probably find one at a gas station or something. I’m sure no one will think taking a horse to one is weird or anything.”
He sighed, recalling the last time he had to stop at one. “Great. Tariel’s addicted to chocolate bars. She’s going to pout if she doesn’t get one.”
Chapter 21
Claire
“His wife has a nice house.” Claire sat on the curb across the street, eating a slightly stale muffin whose origin she preferred not to know. The smell of chocolate wafted past her with every one of Tariel’s breaths. From here, they could see the two-story, three-car-garage home with precise white trim and matching shutters. Two Hispanic men were trimming the shrubs and mowing the lawn.
Brian Avery probably grew up with a nanny, just like Claire had. She wondered if his ever made him feel a little weird. Stewy had occasionally given her the uncomfortable feeling he wanted to eat her, Hansel-and-Gretel style. The way Justin’s face had tightened up when she’d told him about Drew reminded her of the way her dad had watched Stewy sometimes. Maybe her instincts had been warning her about the wrong thing.
Justin shrugged and tossed his apple core into a nearby juniper bush. “She’s probably got a steady job, and I expect he pays her some child support too.”
“Yeah, I guess. What are we going to do here when someone gets home?”
“Try to get Avery’s address. See if there’s any other information we can collect.”
“Right. And what are the limitations of this? I mean, we’re not going to kill anyone, right?”
Justin lifted an eyebrow at her. “Look, that cat was an ur-phasm in a cat shape and nothing more. Leaving it alive would have—” He sighed. “Probably not been so bad in light of what wound up happening, but I didn’t expect that. I was concerned about it reporting back to a Phasm. They’re kind of annoying too. Best to put them down when you see them.”
“Oh.” Surprised by his explanation, she blinked. “Okay. I wasn’t referring to that, but okay. We’re still not going to kill anyone, right?”
He held up a solemn hand. “I have no intention of killing any human beings at this, or any other, time. I’m also not fond of killing animals and only do it when I must. Tariel is less picky, but bends to my crazy notions of morality and such.”
“Okay, cool. So what’s the plan, then?”
“I think they call it ‘shock and awe.’ ” He hopped to his feet as the garage door cranked upward and a car pulled into the driveway. “Go, Tariel.”
The horse, who had been lurking behind them, shot away, headed for the house. Justin rushed after her. Claire rolled to her feet and also followed, amazed by Tariel’s speed. Seeing it from the outside was different from riding on her back. She saw the horse flash a hoof in the way of the garage door, tripping the safety sensor and causing the door to stop and roll back up. Justin’s cloak flapped in his wake until he reached the garage. He ran in, Tariel backed out, and the garage door trundled downwards. Claire arrived in time to see him yanking the car door open and probably scaring Mrs. Ex-Avery out of her wits, but not in time to interfere with the garage door shutting.
“Why didn’t you stop it that time?” Claire grumbled. “Now he’s in there all by himself, and it probably never occurred to either of you that Avery might have stuff protecting his house. He’s a cop and a Knight, and this is where his kids live.” She hustled to the front door and found it locked. “And there’s probably neighbors watching who’ll call the cops. Come on,” she told the horse as she ran to the back gate.
It had no lock and she held it open for Tariel. Once the horse trotted through, she shut the gate behind them, in case no one actually had seen anything yet. As they hurried to the back door, branches of a thorny rosebush reached out and scraped Claire’s leg and sock. She hissed from the unexpected pain and jumped away from it. Tariel kicked out with her front legs to stomp on the branches. Tiny red lines told Claire the mare wasn’t invincible. Of course, she already knew that.
It would take more than a rosebush to stop Tariel. The horse stomped in the center of the shrub again with a whinny of defiance, then chomped at the air when the branches stopped shaking. She trumpeted her victory and Claire waved to hush her.
“Keep it down. Unless someone is coming. Then get really loud so we know.” She tested the back door and found it unlocked. As she entered the house, she made an effort to be as silent as possible and shut the door behind her. The kitchen reminded her of her parents’ house, with granite countertops and chrome appliances. Dad may have loved the outdoors, but he appreciated a nice kitchen too. The hardwood flooring didn’t creak as she took tentative steps across it.
Brian Avery, sporting a fading black eye, dashed in from the garage. He skidded to a stop when he saw Claire. His mouth fell open and no sound came out.
“Uh.” When Justin had brought her here, she never considered that she might come face to face with Brian. She also hadn’t thought much about what she’d do here, or what she’d say the next time she saw him. As she stood in his mom’s kitchen, her brain froze.
Chapter 22
Justin
Things did not go according to Justin’s sketchy plan. He hurried into the house behind the teenage boy who’d freaked out, ignoring the younger one still in
the passenger seat of the car. He’d wanted Claire to stay outside, so of course she’d found a way in and now had the older boy distracted. Swooping into the kitchen while both teenagers stared at each other, he grabbed the boy from behind and pinned his arms.
“I just want to talk to you.”
Snapping out of his confused stupor, the kid struggled and squirmed in his grip. “Get off me,” he howled. Though this kid had some muscle on him, and knew how to fight, Justin outweighed him and had more experience.
Justin hauled the boy to the island in the center of the kitchen, then he shoved the kid’s head down until his cheek smacked the countertop and held him there. One of these days, he needed to start carrying handcuffs. This kid would be much easier to handle with them. “Are you going to settle down, or do I need to get violent?”
“Stupid bitch, is this supposed to be revenge?”
Justin had no idea what that meant and looked to Claire for an answer. She snapped out of a stupor to glare at the boy. “Yeah,” she said, seeming to warm to the idea. “Yeah! It totally is, you prick.”
“That’s not why—”
The boy growled. “You’re the one who hit me.”
“You’re the one who decided the new girl needed to be bullied.” Claire closed in on him, her face twisted into a snarl. “What’s the matter, Brian? Hasn’t any girl ever fought back before? Or do you usually just cover their mouth while they scream?”
“I’d never date a skank like you.”
“I’d never—”
“That’s enough!” Justin roared. “Claire, settle down and sit your butt in that chair.” To his satisfaction, she did it, every step rigid and staccato. “I take it this is the boy you beat up?”
She glowered at Brian and gave a curt nod.
“Great.” Of course the kid she’d beaten up was Avery’s son. Nothing could ever be simple. “We’re not here about that.” Before Brian could say anything else, Justin pressed his face harder into the granite slab. “We’re here because I need to know where your dad lives and which precinct he works out of. Somehow I doubt you’re going to volunteer that information at this point. Which makes you kind of useless. Do you know what happens to useless people?”
