Oops.
“Miss Samson!” Ryan’s voice set my heart pumping. I sprinted
right, toward the dorms.
“Did you find him?”
Ryan nodded, leading me into the dorms. “Kevin, he locked him in
the boiler room, cranked up the heat. Jed got there.” He was panting so hard
that I stopped him. “Miroslav’s okay.”
I tapped his pocket and he pulled out his asthma pump. Same as
Jessie, they both had it bad.
“Where is he?” I asked when Ryan looked calmer.
“He’s cooling off.” He turned and led me up three flights of
stairs.
“But?”
“Kevin ran.” Ryan hurried along the corridor and stopped outside a
door. “Jed took off after him. He’s on the roof.”
He opened the door and Miroslav lay on his bed with an ice pack on
him. He even managed a weak wave.
“Anyone see?”
Ryan shook his head. If anyone did see or anything happened to the
supposed genius, I doubted I could say a word to Harrison that would stop Jed
being sold. Her warning had been clear.
I picked up a book from Miroslav’s side table, ripped out a page,
and jotted out a note. “He after your book?”
Miroslav nodded.
“You tell him anything?”
He shook his head.
“Take on plenty of water.” I turned to Ryan. “Get this to Locks.
Don’t stop for nobody ’til you get to her. Then fetch the girls to help
Miroslav, got it?”
Ryan nodded. “What about the others?”
Ty and Ian were in the dining hall. “If you see them after you
tell Locks, bring them too. Go.”
Ryan sped off and I looked at Miroslav. “You gonna be okay?”
He smiled a weak smile. “Thanks to Jed.”
“Jessie know the code to your room?”
He nodded.
“I’ll lock you in.” I left him and hurried up another two sets of
stairs. I looked up at the window leading to the fire escape and groaned.
“Let’s hope it holds me,” I mumbled and squeezed my frame out onto
the ledge.
I FOUND JED bearing down on Kevin as he scrambled over the roof
tiles. I could feel Jed’s temper simmering from way back. His red mist had
blocked out all sense and if he got his hands on Kevin, it wouldn’t be pretty.
Even me calling didn’t break his focus.
One thing about my upbringing that was useful was that I’d spent a
lot of time fixing up roofs. It helped me make quick work of getting to Jed
whose high-tops were sliding underneath him.
“Jed, stop. You kept Miroslav safe. It’s my job to deal with him
now.” I knew it wouldn’t be long before the buzzer sounded for the change of class.
If they saw Jed and Kevin up here and
anything
happened to
Kevin at all, Jed would stand no chance.
“Jed, please. You need to protect Miroslav. He’s alone.”
Jed’s shoulders shook. His fists clenched and unclenched then I
felt him breathing in and out.
“You’re a hero, you’re the good guy here.” I gripped him by the
shoulders. “Stay that way.”
His anger calmed but his sole focus was on Kevin. “You touch him
again and I’ll—”
“Jed, shift.”
His shoulders relaxed with my gentle tone and he turned. “He hurt
him. He was trying to kill him.”
“I know.”
He met my eyes. His filled with the frustration, the anger and the
pent up helplessness of a prisoner, a slave, and a lost teenage boy. I knew the
place he inhabited. I’d lived there for so long. I’d been him.
“I’ll keep him safe.”
Jed nodded. Faith twinkled out from him and he glanced around as
if realizing he was at a great height.
“Careful on the way back in.”
Jed was cautious in his attempt to clamber down onto the fire
escape. He looked shaken. I’d have to talk to him, help him somehow. He needed
me to show him. I wanted to.
As he disappeared inside, I breathed a sigh of relief. One student
safe and sound, one to go.
I turned to Kevin. He eyed me in a way that my reputation
deserved. Fear, wariness, suspicion. Guess my cover was working.
The buzzer sounded.
“Kevin, you need to take my hand. It’s not safe.” I reached out,
hoping he would listen. The wind buffeted me about as I tried to keep my
balance.
Kevin, a weedy kid with red hair, shook his head. “You said you’d
deal
with me.” His beady eyes tracked over my arms as he swayed in the wind.
“Well, it’s either me or the deputy principal. You want to explain
to him why you attacked someone?” I moved closer.
He stepped back.
The wind whipped around us. He was too near the edge. His foot
slid but he rescued it in time. We were five floors up on a baking roof, trying
to keep upright in vicious blasts of wind.
I glanced down. There was a small row of stonework around the roof
edge.
“I need the notes!” Kevin’s eyes were wild, panicked. “They won’t
accept me if I don’t have them.”
Kids poured out of the buildings below. I heard someone call out.
Kevin must have too as he turned and wobbled. His foot slid again. He scrambled
to keep his balance.
“Look at the drop. Kevin, we need to get you down. We can talk
about this. There’s another way.” I didn’t know about him but the sun was so
hot that I had sweat dribbling off the tip of my nose.
My hands weren’t much better.
“You’ll tell them if I come with you.” Desperation pulsed from his
every movement.
I edged closer. My sneaker squeaked as it slid under my weight.
Kevin backed up again. A blast of wind hit us. His eyes widened. His foot went
from under him.
I threw myself forward. Clattered across the tiles. One hand
reached to catch hold of Kevin’s flailing arm. My other hand trailed behind
with the hope I could catch the stone to stop myself.
I caught his wrist.
I dropped over the side.
My clammy hand gripped the stone edging.
We smashed into the wall. My breath pounded out of me. I felt the
stone shift under the weight. We hung there, five floors up and I prayed I
could hold on.
What was it with me and dangling from ledges anyhow?
Kevin gripped onto me.
“Stop squirming will you.” My hand was slippery enough as it was.
His gaze trailed up my arm. A nasty thought process rumbled on
behind his eyes and I glared at him. “If you’re that dumb to think clambering
up me is a good idea, you ain’t much for brains.”
He flinched. Yeah, he weren’t a genius by a long shot. “I’ll drop
you if you don’t quit wriggling.”
“You’ll tell them . . . you’ll lie and say I hurt him.”
Lie? Was this kid delusional? He had guilt covering him right to
his weedy fingertips.
“I ain’t planning on telling nobody nothin’.” If I was gonna get
either of us down, I was gonna have to reach him on his own level. “Kid, I
don’t care what your issue is.”
“You won’t tell?” His greedy eyes filled with hope. I didn’t like
this kid one bit but he was better than body parts.
“Here’s the catch. If I see you round my kids again, if
anybody
so much as looks at them, I’m gonna think it was you.” I smiled at him, hoping
it was enough to freak him out. “You heard about my temper?”
He scowled up at me even though fear glinted from him.
“You don’t want to see me mad, do you?” My fingers were so clammy
that they slid on the stone.
It stung as the corner of it dug into the bends of my fingertips.
My heart hammered with the effort of holding us both there.
Kevin wriggled. My fingers slid. The stone wobbled.
“She’s scarier than she looks,” Frei said from above me. I’d never
been so happy to hear someone in my life.
“Good to know you think so highly of me,” I grunted.
She dropped down next to me on a rope. Kevin kicked at the wall as
if trying to yank me free. My fingers slipped.
Uh oh.
I dropped. Frei caught my wrist. Her rope pinged tight like an
elastic band sending us both clattering into the wall. She met my eyes. “I’ve
got you. Can you reach out for the sill?”
I scrabbled around, searching for it with my feet and gripping
onto a still wriggling Kevin as my clammy hand slid. I reached the ledge with
my toes and lowered my weight on it. Frei climbed down my back and fastened the
rope around my waist, giving it a tug to make sure.
I didn’t dare move.
“The rope will hold you.” Her voice was gentle but I was pinning
myself to the wall, frozen. Panic thumped through me so hard that I could see
flashes in my eyes. I offered a grimace rather than a smile as Kevin squirmed
again. Why would he do that? Why would he want to fall? “Quit wrigglin’.”
Frei rappelled down to him and fixed him up a rope harness. “Let
go of her. I’ll lower you down.”
Kevin glared up with a nasty glint in his eyes. He yanked at me.
My feet slid.
“Try it again and I’ll cut your rope myself.” Frei sneered at him.
Her tone was so icy that he let go of my hand. The rope went taut and he hung
there.
Frei lowered him down into the crowd and a waiting Jäger.
“He’s something else,” I muttered as I tested the rope and peeled
myself off the window. I was gonna feel that for a good while. My body shook so
bad that my teeth clattered together. I closed my eyes, trying not to
hyperventilate.
“It happens to some of them.” Frei smiled at
me. She held out her hand to help me walk down the wall slow and steady.
“Either way, your heroics definitely earned you more cookie ice cream.”
That perked me right up. “Sounds great but you’re the one who just
rescued me.” My ribs hurt, my hand hurt, my hip pulsed with pain as we climbed
down to the ground. I shut my eyes with the relief. Solid ground. Nice, firm,
solid ground. “Thanks.”
Frei nudged me as she took off my rope. “
Bitte
.”
I cocked my head.
“
Bitte
.” She smiled. “You’re welcome.”
“
Bitte
,” I repeated. I decided I’d try and figure out how
to say something back to her. There was bound to be a German book in the
library some place.
Jäger strode over. “Good work.”
Frei ducked out of his way, hanging her head.
He didn’t even register Frei was there. His eyes on me, his hand
on my shoulder. “Do you know why the boy was up there?”
“Kid was hollering about something. I didn’t listen too much.
Considering he’s a genius, he’s stupid.” I shot a glare at the slimy brat. “I’d
say he’s lost it.”
Jäger eyed Kevin. I could see him considering my words. “Hmm.” He
sighed. “Well, pressure can get to the best of them. I’ll keep him under
observation.”
The way Kevin paled, I wondered what observation meant. “Good
thing to keep an eye on the precious things, huh?”
Jäger smiled at me. Then he stroked my cheek with the pad of his
thumb.
I fought the urge to recoil.
He must have thought I liked it as he did it again. “Nice to know
I can count on you.”
Oh, did I not like the tone of his voice. All the hairs on my body
felt they were bidding to escape and I tried not to shudder. Instead I forced a
smile and gripped my side. “Should take a shower. Kids make me itch.”
Jäger laughed, squeezed my cheek and turned. He gripped Kevin by
the scruff and dragged him along through the gathered crowd of staff and
students. They scuttled out of the way.
My ribs twinged. Frei took my arm and led me away from the scene.
I could feel Renee watching me as we headed past her building but I didn’t
bother looking her way.
“Guess healing is out of the question?” I asked as Frei led me out
of the quadrant and to our villa.
“I would think so, judging by the inability to heal other people.”
Frei let us inside, took me over to the sofa, and pulled up my top. Her cold
fingers made me twinge as she felt over my throbbing rib cage.
“At least bruising.” She frowned. “It’s going to take a while to
heal.”
“Great. I guess Kevin fared a lot better.” I wasn’t griping that
he wasn’t hurt. I knew that he hadn’t learned from it though. Nope. He was nasty.
Nasty to the core.
“It happens to some of them,” Frei whispered, fetching some ice.
“Survival.”
I held the ice pack as she wrapped it in a towel and she caught
sight of my wince. “Show me your hands.”
I sighed, held them out, and watched as she examined my torn paws.
“I knew you’d be there.”
“Good.” She didn’t look up but smiled.
That was all she needed to say. I got her. She cared enough that
one word told me she’d back me up every time. It was nice that she cared and
wasn’t afraid to show it.