The Academy - Friends vs. Family (44 page)

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On Friday, Kota parked his sedan at a bar in downtown Charleston.
He didn’t like that there was an assignment tonight. If he didn’t have a family
emergency though, the Academy wasn’t to be ignored. They’d promised, after all.
They’d already been out all week to stay with Sang.

Kota stepped out of his car, tucking a couple of drumsticks into
his back pocket to free up his hands. Playing the drums for a faux band at a
club was only one of a number of unusual assignments the Academy asked of them.
It wasn’t his favorite because it meant staying out later than he wanted,
especially right now when he preferred to be with Sang.

He flicked his phone on, punching the pink heart. A few more
buttons were pushed as he searched through each camera until he found her. His
heart lifted at seeing her face again.

She was curled up on the beanbag chair in the attic. She didn’t
need to be in there but he knew she liked it. Kota smiled down at the phone,
staring at her tiny, perfect features and the way she traced her fingertips
over the photographs around her. For good measure, he counted her fingers and
her toes, a perfect set of ten for each. It was how he reassured himself that
she was really okay, with all digits accounted for.

He closed the app, stuffing the phone back into his pocket before
he changed his mind about tonight and left to be with her. He shouldn’t be
looking in on her like this but he couldn’t stop himself.

Just like he couldn’t stop thinking of that green heart in the
tub, and how he knew she was downstairs in the house. He admired her
cleverness.

He also couldn’t stop thinking of how she’d looked when she
appeared in that same bathroom. He’d watched her through the camera before
sending Gabriel out to get her. She’d been naked and as much as he wanted to
divert his eyes, he couldn’t. Her tender, young breasts and the curve of her
bare hips aroused him, and had him thinking of things he’d swore he’d never
think of with her. Not right now. Not when things were such a mess. She didn’t
need that now.

Kota tried to refocus. He had other things to worry about. He had
Academy business to take care of.

The bar in downtown Charleston wasn’t overly crowded for a Friday
evening, but they were several hours early. The inside smelled of mildew and
alcohol mixes. Rock music played in overhead speakers. Six customers clustered
together comfortably at the carved wood bar. Two bartenders leaned on their
elbow over the bar top to talk with the people at the bar. Kota guessed the
customers at the bar were regulars. They seemed more at ease than the sixteen
other people gathered at seven other tables by the empty stage.

Kota absently touched the bridge of his glasses at his nose. He
located the door beyond the far side of the bar marked with a sign: Green Room.

He opened the door, counting off heads as he entered the room.
Seven, including Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green. They were missing Gabriel and
Victor.

He nodded to the others, tugging the drumsticks out of his back
pocket and placing them quietly on the table. He sat on one of the available
stools surrounding the table in the middle. A family meeting was long overdue.

As soon as he sat down at one end of the table, the door opened
behind him and Gabe and Vic walked in. Gabe’s hair was spikey in the back
today, ready for a night of guitar playing and singing for a crowd. His bright
orange shirt had zigzags of contrasting green. They were there to draw
attention tonight, and Gabriel was making sure that happened.

Victor was in jeans and a plain black t-shirt he’d borrowed from
North. It was one of the few times Victor ever wore something so plain. Victor
hooked his finger at the end of the sleeve, tugging as if uncomfortable. Kota
knew Victor didn’t like playing piano in front of other people in general,
although their faux rock band was less of a stressor for Victor than the
elaborate concerts his parents demanded he participated in.

Luke’s blond hair was swept back into the clip he’d taken from
Sang. He and Nathan would trade off bass and seconding guitar for the night.
North would take over drums if Kota wasn’t there, but North and Silas needed to
set up equipment and work the floor tonight. They were the distraction as the
bar owner, an Academy member, had his own important task.

What that was, they didn’t know, and they didn’t need to. When it
came to favors, they did as they were told. They had to trust in the Academy.

Mr. Blackbourne quietly tugged a little black box out of his
pocket. Kota recognized the device. With the right frequency, out of human
hearing, it could disable recording devices that might have been missed in a
security sweep. Whatever they wanted to talk about tonight, they didn’t want
anyone outside the group knowing about, including the Academy.

They eyed one another. No one wanted to begin.

Her situation was not as straightforward as their family problems
had been.

Mr. Blackbourne cleared his throat. “Mrs. Sorenson will be taken
to the Mayo Clinic in Florida. She’s in route now.”

Kota nodded in approval. “For how long?”

“We don’t know,” Dr. Green said. He propped his elbows on the
table, leaning forward. His eyes drooped and his usual warm smile was a little
faint. Kota had the feeling he was working overtime at the hospital again,
mostly due to Sang’s mother. “At least two months, maybe three. We’ve ensured
that she’ll be staying at least that long to give her time away from the girls
as well as time to hopefully be ready for surgery and to recover. Apparently
when the medicine was corrected, it cleared her mind up. It forced this secret
out in the open and she’s not in the right place to deal with it.”

And poor Sang had to deal with it, instead. “Sang’s father,” Kota
said, “has asked her to remain in the house to watch over it while her mother
is gone. Marie is staying, too. He expects her to get her license, and basically
live alone with him paying for it. He’s left them for another family.” The
other seven knew, but wanted to get Dr. Green caught up since he’d been busy
with Sang’s mother.

“We found him and his new family,” North said. His hands made
fists against the table. “The woman is at least ten years younger than him, and
she has two boys, one our age and one in college. From what we can tell, Mr.
Sorenson has been living there for a while. We don’t know if the kids are his
yet but I don’t think they are. He’s claimed the house they live in on his
taxes as a vacation home. The woman doesn’t know about Mrs. Sorenson or Sang and
Marie. Her Facebook status claims she’s married to Mr. Sorenson. I don’t know
if he faked a wedding with her or if she’s jumping the gun. He’s still
officially married to Mrs. Sorenson according to the state. Mr. Sorenson and
his… mistress and their family are living on the other side of the state, close
to the North Carolina border. This is why it took him so long to get here.”

Victor’s left hand drifted up, two fingers swaying in the air as
if to redirect attention. “He’s got four different savings accounts under
different names in a separate bank apart from his checking account. He’s
labeled the four saving accounts. One is marked ‘house,’ which I’m guessing is
for funding the house for Mrs. Sorenson and the girls. There’s also one marked
‘school’. The others are just initialed; one is marked with an S, the other
with an M. You can imagine who those might be for. He funnels money out from each
of his paychecks. The amounts in Sang’s and Marie’s accounts are enough to
carry them both through college, unless they become doctors. I’m not sure what
the school fund is for. The amount is way too much for them to need for high
school books and fees. College, too, maybe.”

“We know,” Mr. Blackbourne said, and he focused on Kota.

Kota pursed his lips. He hadn’t wanted to reveal this to the
others, because he didn’t want to worry them and he was sure he could figure
out an answer to this before now. With everything that had happened though, Mr.
Blackbourne silently commanded him with a look to spill it. Kota sighed. “We
found letters of acceptance for both Sang and Marie into a…a boarding school of
some kind.”

“Boarding school?” Gabriel asked, sitting up sharply.

“It’s more like a prison,” Kota said. “Very restrictive. Very
hush, hush. An all-girl school, and she’d be enrolled until she was at least eighteen.
If she entered, she’d be forced to stay. I think it’s a place for troubled
teens. The administrators have a bad reputation. There are a lot of abuse
reports that get buried by the local police station.”

“And he wants to send her there?” North asked. “Fucking Christ.”

“If he’s told Miss Sorenson she needs to stay until the end of the
school year,” Mr. Blackbourne said, “it could be possible he has enrollment
established and he just needs to wait it out until then. He may have planned to
dump the girls into a boarding school earlier but kept them around because Mrs.
Sorenson was so sick. He needed someone to babysit her.”

Kota sat back. The others around him shifted uncomfortably. Kota
knew the feeling. Sang’s life was a twist of complications, most of which she
didn’t know about yet. Her father had lied to her. He wasn’t trying to take
care of her. He wanted to stash her away.

“Well that’s it,” Gabriel said, his fingertips drumming on the
table. “We can’t let her go to this… thing. No fucking way. She’s coming home
with us.”

“We have to tell her the truth,” Victor said. “When she hears her
mom’s going to come back and her dad wants to drop her into a boarding school,
she’ll come with us.”

Mr. Blackbourne frowned. “From what you’ve told me, it seems
pretty clear Mr. Sorenson wants her to stay at home. I believe the reason is if
she goes off to live on her own, and if someone discovers a young girl living
on her own, social services might ask questions. If they look into it, they
might discover who her real mother is. We need to investigate the details
before we can confront Mr. Sorenson. Mr. Sorenson might be opposed to us taking
her, as he might be worried we’d draw attention to this. However, the details
are pretty buried. The only ones who might know the truth are Mr. and Mrs.
Sorenson.”

“And Mrs. Sorenson isn’t talking right now. She’s barely
tolerating treatment,” Dr. Green said. He raked his fingers through his hair.
“And if we take Sang, what do we do with Marie?”

“Marie is trouble,” Luke said. “She’s sneaking booze from the
liquor cabinet from Danielle’s house. I found the bottles in her room. Marie
isn’t doing her homework and failing her classes. I’ve heard she’s selling off
some of her mom’s pills for money at school, too. She’s going to end up in jail
before too long.”

“But Sang feels responsible for her,” Kota said. He didn’t like
Marie, either, not since she’d lied to them all, and stolen Sang’s phone. He’d
pitied her before because of the situation, but Marie was the complete opposite
of Sang. “Sang’s lost two mothers and a father in one night. How can we ask her
to take off on her sister? She’s hanging on to the last piece of family she
has.” Kota admired Sang for trying her best, but it left them with little
choice. The silly girl was too loyal for her own good. “And once she learns
about this boarding school, she’s not going to want Marie to go there, even if
she might deserve it.”

Mr. Blackbourne sliced his hand through the air. “We’ve got two
options,” he said. “Our first is to tell Sang, and let her know the truth.
Marie would be informed and she’ll probably go her own way if she hears about
the boarding school. Somehow we have to convince Mr. Sorenson to let Sang come
with us. If that happens, we need to know what we’re dealing with. If Mr.
Sorenson did rape a sixteen year old girl, this might become a devil’s deal,
and we’d have to ensure him that his secret will stay buried if she remains
with us.”

Kota frowned, and from how the others’ faces darkened, he could
tell they disliked this option. Not that they didn’t want Sang, but if Mr.
Sorenson was that kind of person, they wouldn’t want him to get away with this.
Who knows what else he might have done?

Victor cleared his throat softly. “What’s plan B?”

Mr. Blackbourne sighed. “Our only other option is to bring this to
the Academy.”

“She can’t join the Academy,” Kota said, frowning. Mr. Blackbourne
had to be crazy to think Sang should join. When assignments filtered through to
them, they picked which ones they wanted to take on. Academy girls were often
asked to play the role of bait. Sang was too sweet, too trusting and too
reckless to say no to those dangerous assignments. He wanted to get her out of
danger, not throw her back into it. But outside of his desire to keep her safe,
there was no way she could join. Not right now. “She doesn’t trust us.”

“And we don’t have time for her to trust us that much,” North
said. “Between school and dealing with Mr. Hendricks, we’ve only got a few
months before that mother returns and kicks her out anyway.”

“I’m not talking about making her a member,” Mr. Blackbourne said.
“Besides what you’ve mentioned, we’re also still not ready, unless we were
willing to take the risk that she’d join another group.”