by C. L. Stone
“Isn’t it the worst place to put a bomb, then?” Victor asked. “I mean, the main house is going to have people inside, then there’s these other buildings and the barns. But the dance is happening out here, with tents and along the lawn. This guy wants his bomb to be noticed, not overlooked. And with so many witnesses, how is he going to drop a box around here and just walk away?”
Luke shook his head and pointed where the water stretched out, surrounded by trees. “There’s just a lot of places for him to walk onto the property from a distance away, drop one off and then run away again to make his phone call.”
“He hasn’t made a bomb yet,” Victor said. “He might even know how. It might just be another empty box.”
“Technically, he doesn’t even have to actually make one,” Luke said. “He just needs to make a scene. It doesn’t have to be real to get attention. Rumors can be worse. You should know. They’ll write about you, too. Victor Morgan victim of a prank while attending an event at historic Middleton.”
Victor scratched at his eyebrow. “I think they’re more interested in it being Middleton Place. The city isn’t going to take it lightly that it becomes a target of a bad prank.”
“It’s just bad that it is this school,” Luke said. “If Ashley Waters is the school having the event, and there’s a bomb threat here, it means they blame the school, and they could get banned for forever from here and other locations. Plus, the police will make a very public investigation.”
“We’ll have to make sure it doesn’t happen,” Victor said.
“Mr. Blackbourne wanted a trap,” I said. “How do you set up a trap in a place like this?”
The breeze started to pick up. Luke tucked a lock of hair behind his ear. “Well, the event itself is the trap,” he said. “A time and a place is hard to pick out when dealing with someone who seems to work at random. Knowing a likely time and place is being a step ahead. It’s just catching him in the act. We have to visually see and identify who is leaving the box, if there is one.”
“We might have to set up a network,” Victor said. “At the school, he called the main line. But with so many calls coming in and out during the day, it’d be a mess to sort through and wait for him to call. The problem here is, who is he going to call when he leaves his box around? It’s not like there’s a main line. I mean he could call the security office.”
“He’d leave a box first, wouldn’t he?”
“Maybe not. Maybe we’re too worried about a box. But really, he doesn’t even need a box,” Victor said. “All bomb threats get checked out, box or not. He doesn’t even need to be here. He can be on the other side of town and call something in.”
I followed the boys around the house and across the front lawn. They started angling toward the stable and the long line of fencing protecting sheep, chickens and horses.
“Let’s go,” Luke said, pointing to the stable, which had the doors wide open.
“Should we?” I asked.
“It’s what we’re here for,” Victor said. He reached back for my hand and tugged me along.
I wasn’t exactly sure what we’d do in a barn, but I was curious. The smell was overwhelming to me, though. The closer we got, the more the scent of hay and barn animals thickened around us. I wrinkled my nose, holding a finger to it, wanting to sneeze but unable to.
At that moment, my phone buzzed. I lifted it from my bra and checked it while the guys moved ahead toward the barn.
It was from Silas, a text message. When I opened it, I was surprised to find a picture.
He had his arm lifted to take the picture, showing a bit of his muscular bicep. But the photo was mostly his face and his shoulders. There was the slight curl of his lips in a smile.
Seeing him now, looking right at the camera, I froze as if he was right there looking at me. My heart fluttered, excited, wanting to stare and at the same time feeling as if he was in person on my phone. I remembered the photos we’d taken together at one football game. I often forgot I could take pictures with my phone.
A text message followed.
Silas: Aggele, send me one of you?
My lips parted, and I rubbed the edge of the phone with my finger, thinking. It took a moment to fiddle with the camera to get it right.
I took a shaky photo. When I was sure I’d captured my face, and it didn’t look too bad, I send it to Silas.
His reply took only a minute.
Silas: Send one of you smiling, my flaxen angel.
My mouth dropped open this time and my cheeks heated. He’d never called me that before, and I was unsure how he meant it. If he was teasing...but he didn’t seem to be.
I glanced at the others. Luke was waving at a sheep but Victor had turned around and was looking at me. His head was tilted, his eyes swirling with flickering flames, curious.
I aimed the camera, trying to smile and capture another photo. I sent it along and hurried on to Victor.
“What are you doing?” Victor asked when I got up beside him.
I was about to answer when my phone buzzed in my hand again. I gave in to the knee-jerk urge to check it.
Silas: I love it. You’re so beautiful when you smile, my little night flower.
My mouth fell open again and I was staring. Night flower? Me?
Another photo popped in, and it was Silas again, only this time, he had pointed the phone at a mirror. He’d lifted his shirt, and flexed his stomach muscles. The lighting was just right to show the lines in his abs. His arm was flexed to show off the muscle. He was looking at the camera in the mirror, so not direct, but there was a smile on his face like he was having fun.
Victor was next to me in a second and saw before I could think to hide it. Should I hide it? My face was on fire. Silas was incredible, good looking, but the things he was saying, what he was sending me, while it was still him, was overwhelming.
Victor, to my surprise, laughed. “Oh my god, he’s flirting with you.”
“Who is?” Luke asked, turning from the sheep and catching interest in us again.
“Silas,” Victor said. He took my phone from me and showed Luke the photo.
He may as well have lit me on fire, I was blushing all over. “Guys,” I said quietly, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted. Silas was being very intense. I was partially relieved to have them there and seeing what was going on. I was eager for them to tell me what to do, to say it was okay.
Luke took a look at the picture. He laughed and then reached out to tap the screen, scrolling to see what we’d written and the other photos. “Oh man,” Luke said. He laughed, shaking his head. “I’ve heard of him doing this before. He’s taking the boyfriend and girlfriend thing a little far, isn’t he?”
“What’s that?” Victor asked before I could say anything. “And why is he calling her ‘night flower’?”
“It’s a Greek thing, I think,” Luke said. “I heard him talking to North one day about what if Sang had been in Greece, and the differences between the boys there and boys here. He was saying when Greeks think a girl is interested, she’s done for. The guys bombard them with sweet talk.”
“Does he think other people are listening in that he has to carry it out through text?” Victor asked. “I’ve never heard him talk like that.”
“Honestly? Sounds like rough translations from Greek pet names or something,” Luke said. He tapped at the phone and typed something into the search engine. “Yeah, it’s probably stuff they call girlfriends. Maybe he’s in a spot where he has to pretend he’s got a girlfriend. Greeks flirt hard, and girls usually like that.”
Girlfriends and boyfriends flirt. I knew that, though I was still new to flirting. My heart was racing so hard, and I wanted a cool place to sit down and absorb it all. Silas was an intense boyfriend to have.
I knew it wasn’t for show. He wasn’t pretending. Maybe since I’d agreed last night, he was doing what most Greeks do with girlfriends... showering me with attention.
I smiled a little. He had corny jokes.
I realized now maybe he was using the sweet talk, the corny ones, to make me laugh. I tried to envision Silas saying things like ‘night flower’, and I wanted to giggle. Then it suddenly made sense. He’d commented before about wanting my photo. And he likes to make me laugh with corny jokes. That was more like Silas.
Luke curled his finger to Victor, taking my phone. “Lift your shirt,” he told him.
Victor chuckled. “What?”
“Just trust me. And suck in your abs a bit.”
Victor lifted his shirt. Compared to the other guys, Victor was a little smoother, softer. Unlike some of the others, he was hairless at the waist. Or maybe it was just faint enough that some wouldn’t notice. In the right light, there were lines in his abdomen and the angle of his hip going down like a “V” toward his pants, but he wasn’t as cut as some of the others and at the right angle...
Luke aimed the camera closer to Victor’s stomach. “Turn to the left a little. And lift it higher.”
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Shh,” Luke said.
“It’s not like he can hear you,” Victor said with a little grin. “He’ll kill you. You know that?”
“That’s his own fault for sending selfies when he knows she’s with us.”
“He wouldn’t do it to you.”
“He has better abs than we do. We could tell.” Luke snapped a couple of photos. He tapped at my phone. “There. Sent.”
I clasped my palms over my cheeks. “You didn’t.”
He flashed a wicked grin. “Totally did.”
I kept my cheeks covered, looking at Victor. I couldn’t believe he went along with this trick so easily. I couldn’t imagine what Silas would do if he found out. Wouldn’t Silas be able to tell it wasn’t me?
A text message came back. Luke held it up so we could read it at the same time.
Silas: Pretty belly button. I remember that spot.
The air changed then. The guys sucked in air at the same time, staring at the message. I was on fire, blushing from every point. I knew the instance he was referring to, when his thumb had stroked right under my belly button. We’d had a moment like that together where he almost kissed me.
Victor and Luke both popped their heads up at the same time, staring right at me. “What does that mean?” They both spewed out at once. They looked at each other and then Victor looked back at me, his fire eyes a flurry of flames. “What’s that about?” he asked.
My mouth was open, wanting to answer him but not knowing what to say. I wanted to ask for the phone back but was almost terrified to say so. Asking for it would mean it was clear I was trying to avoid the question. I couldn’t come up with a lie, and I couldn’t sputter out the truth. I was petrified.
“Oh my god, she’s so adorable,” Luke said, his face changing suddenly, lowering the phone, his amused eyes taking on something softer. “Vic, check it out. I’ve never seen red ears on a girl before.”
I almost choked, and then it came out like a chirp.
Victor laughed so hard, I thought he was dying. He grabbed his abdomen and nearly leaned against Luke. Luke started giggling.
I couldn’t believe them. Boys! I was starting to wonder if they were more trouble than they were worth. I couldn’t think of anything to say, to explain my blushing, to explain Silas...
A firm palm touched at my waist.
I jumped, on edge with the boys. My heart exploded, I gasped. I turned with my hand on the base of my throat, unable to cry out because I didn’t have the voice to do so.
Kota stood there, looking at me, his green eyes at first curious and then concerned. When I realized it was him, I couldn’t help it, and sunk my face so close to his shoulder, nearly hiding behind him. The boys were teasing, I knew. It was just all the emotions at once were so intense, I needed a place to hide.
“Aw,” Luke said. “Sweetie, don’t look like that. We’re just kidding.”
Kota pulled me in closer, his shoulder shifting at my face, encouraging me to use as much of it as I wanted. His hand stayed around my waist, holding me against him. “What’s going on?” he asked, mostly to the boys, his tone commanding, like they’d better start talking.
Victor was smiling, and looking sympathetic. “We’re sorry, Sang,” he said. “You don’t have to hide.”
“Silas was texting her,” Luke said. “We’re just teasing her about it. Well, mostly we were teasing him, but she’s funny.”
“Why?” Kota asked. “He was texting her while on the job? Was it important?”
“He must have had a free minute,” Victor said.
Luke held up my cell phone. “He wasn’t relaying Academy things. Just chatting.”
I was waiting for either of them to suggest Silas had been flirting, but they seem to be keeping it to themselves.
“Is something wrong?” Mr. Blackbourne’s voice reached us. Kota stood still, and I peeked over his shoulder. Mr. Blackbourne turned his steel eyes on me, and then gazed at the others with a curious expression.
“Nothing,” Luke said. “Just having fun.”
“They’re teasing Silas,” Kota said.
Mr. Blackbourne raised an eyebrow, his face otherwise expressionless. “Why?”
Luke moved his mouth like he wanted to say something. Victor’s eyebrows were up, some color coming to his cheeks. I realized Mr. Blackbourne wouldn’t approve of their prank.
I didn’t think he’d approve of the photos.
Luke was still holding my phone. Mr. Blackbourne made a motion for it. “May I see?”
My arm went up until I was gripping at Kota’s shirt, crumpling the material in my hand to hang on to him, burying my cheek against him.
Luke passed over the phone to Mr. Blackbourne. Mr. Blackbourne looked at me, his eyes suddenly immeasurably softer, his tone careful. “Miss Sorenson,” he said quietly. “I wouldn’t ask to invade anything you feel is private, but would you mind if I looked?”
I couldn’t refuse him. At the same time, my tension eased considerably. Mr. Blackbourne would know what to do about this. Maybe it was a good thing he was stepping in. Out of all of them, he seemed to be the one who could tell me if I was doing something wrong, or if the boys were out of line.
He nodded in acknowledgement and pushed a button to turn it on. He scanned the screen, scrolling and checking. “This is you, isn’t it, Mr. Morgan?”
“It was to tease Silas,” Victor said. There wasn’t any fear, and no embarrassment, just sincerity. He was confessing to what they were up to without remorse.
“We didn’t mean anything by it,” Luke said. He spoke in the same tone.
My heart was in my throat, waiting for Mr. Blackbourne to say something to them. To tell them not to tease Silas, or to ward them off of doing it again. Did he ever hear of Luke’s other pranks that he liked to pull? Mr. Blackbourne lifted his gaze, meeting my eyes. “Could you and I go for a little walk, Miss Sorenson?”
I’d expected him to say something in front of the others. I quickly sucked in a breath. I gave a slight nod of my head and moved away from Kota to stand normally.
Kota gave my back a quick rub and then released me as I moved away. He addressed Mr. Blackbourne. “Should I—”
“Stay here,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Or rather, you and Mr. Morgan and Mr. Taylor should check out the stable, and the other outside buildings. There’s a lot of ground to cover. I want you familiar with the place.”
Kota glanced at me quickly and then focused on Victor and Luke. “Okay, you heard him. Back to work.”
The others moved away, starting off together, heading toward the stable. They hopped the fence, heads together like they were talking.
“This way, Miss Sorenson,” Mr. Blackbourne said.
I stiffened and turned, spotting Mr. Blackbourne with a calm expression, waiting.
Maybe I was the one that had gone too far.
Camillia
Mr. Blackbourne had me follow him back inside the building. For October, the weather
was still warm during the afternoon, getting cool only late in the evening after the sun went down. The building provided some mild relief, and had some fans gently pulling in air from open windows.
Mr. Blackbourne ushered me inside. I pretended to admire our surroundings, the historic location we were at, but was actually unable to focus on the old woodwork, the antiques, or the displays of the past. Mr. Blackbourne had held onto my phone, and as we walked down a hallway, he slipped it into his pocket.
Simply being next to him, however, eased a lot of the pent-up tension I was felling over what had happened. This felt like an opportunity. I could tell Mr. Blackbourne what was going on, and he’d be able to tell me what I was doing wrong. Between Silas and Nathan and all of them, there was attention coming from all directions. I wasn’t used to it, and wanted to keep things together. I may not have had any experience in relationships, but I felt at some point the boys would become jealous with each other and I didn’t want that to happen. Nathan had already displayed some of that with me.
If anyone knew how to handle this, it would be Mr. Blackbourne, who often acted like a shield from the others.
He stopped at a water cooler near the door. He filled one of the red plastic cups with water and passed it to me. “You look flushed. Will you drink something?”
I nodded, grateful for it. I hadn’t realized how parched I’d become. Mr. Blackbourne tended to be particularly aware of things I needed before I even realized it.
I sipped at the water and he gestured for me to continue deeper into the estate. We passed displays of history, of days of cotton picking and slavery and Civil War and local historical landmarks, including pictures and paintings of Middleton as it was back then, and through the years. Otherwise, the estate was picturesque with period furniture and housewares set up as if it were many years ago when it was first built.
Mr. Blackbourne stopped beside one of the many table displays. He gazed at one of the vases, similar to the one Victor had taken pictures of earlier. Mr. Blackbourne motioned to the flowers. “Do you know what these are?” he asked.
