How About Seven? ✔

38. My Freedom

I cast my eye around the room. The fluorescent lights were bright but the atmosphere was clouded. William looked extremely nervous, and I couldn't blame him - we had decided that the best place to discuss our plans on taking down both Jasper and Black and Tan were in his room. Mine and Damian's were out of the question - Jasper probably had people keeping an eye on it. Kaylan's was equally impossible. Emrys wouldn't let anyone in his house. And so, it had fell onto the nerdy, bespectacled boy with the nervous twitch to provide us a venue for our rendezvous.

I thought back to my engagement ring. Right now it was wandering the local mall, tucked away in Leila's beige handbag. Ever since the encounter with Emrys, Jasper had refused to let me take it off. I'd worn it to school, and to Kaylan's house, where I'd seen him playing the violin for the first time. Going over to William's was the one time I had not. Instead, I'd placed it on my Roomba and let it clean the apartment slowly while I was gone. Then I had snuck out in disguise, hoping that none of Jasper's goons saw me. William was the one person I wanted last to fall into Jasper's hands; everyone else had proven themselves capable of handling it - Kaylan, Thomas, Damian - but not William. The meeting was short enough that I had returned before the Roomba even had time to finish cleaning the entire apartment, and if Jasper had been checking in then, he would probably have thought I was doing some weird exercise that consisted primarily of slow walks that veered off into random directions.

As it was, I had not received a text message telling me that you need to improve those escape skills, sweetheart, so I assumed that all was well. In fact, I hadn't received a single contact from Jasper since our last dinner.

"Is everyone here yet?" a sullen voice asked.

Emrys was in the furthest corner of the room, on William's bed. His left arm was in a sling, but looked considerably better than two weeks ago when I'd seen him in the hospital. I didn't know if the hospital had discharged him or he had discharged himself; I knew he wouldn't have the money to pay off the medical fees. 

"Um, no. Kaylan isn't here yet." William had been giving Emrys a lot of bewildered looks and I could tell why; the history between Emrys and Blackcroft was something only the two of us knew - and Damian, I suppose - and so to William this Emrys was so much different than the Emrys he had known. 

This Emrys was silent, dark. Forbidding.

"Is that it, by the way?" William was saying. "I thought there was another guy. Tom-something."

"Thomas is a ... freelancing member," Damian replied delicately. "All correspondence with him will be done by us separately. He's a man of secrets.  A lot of secrets."

My cellphone buzzed and I pulled it out. 

Where in the devil's blue balls is the goddamn house, apple pie?

I couldn't hide my smile. Standing up, I told the room, "Kaylan's a bit, uh, lost. I'll go get him."

Silence was my only answer. 

"Okay. Glad I made that clear," I said aloud, before walking out of the room.

As I went down the stairs, my phone buzzed again. Thinking it was yet another infuriated message from the bad boy, I checked my messages.

Transfer officially done. Tomorrow's your last day at school, kid. Samson. 

I shoved the phone back into my pocket. Just in time, I guess. I doubt I would ever be able to return to school after this weekend. And if Tuesday was my last day, that would leave Wednesday till Saturday free for me to get all the preparations done. It worked out.

So why do I feel slightly upset?

I found Kaylan pacing the end of the road in irritation; it turned out that he'd missed William's house number, twice.