Chapter 12 — Ace

I spent the weekend in the streets. My mother had made it clear I was no longer welcome back home, and I didn’t want to bother Genevieve when she had David to worry about.

In the past, I had relied on the Underground to cover my tracks when EAGLE got too close. Though Seth held true to his promise of leaving me alone, it was obvious he wanted me gone. I’d get no help from him.

After two nights of jumping at shadows and jolting awake at every noise, I was thankful for school in the morning.

Josiah found me outside the cafeteria, trying to kill time before first period.

“Do you remember what would happen if you skipped detention again?” He dangled a strip of black cloth from his fingers. A silver tag jangled at the end. “And I’d say skipping school is worse, wouldn’t you?”

“You can’t be serious,” I said.

“As the grave. You know what’ll happen if you don’t do as I say.”

I wanted to wipe the smirk off his face. Cheryl would like him less if his perfect teeth were messed up.

“No.” I crossed my arms. “Sue me for all I’ve got. That’s the best threat you have, isn’t it?”

It wasn’t like he’d get much more than the clothes on my back.

Josiah laughed. “You might be good at fighting, ghetto boy, but with bluffs and blackmail, you’re way out of your element. The week you were missing from school, Mr. Giovanni had his suspicions and called my parents for a favor.”

The conversation was headed in a direction I did not want to go.

“Talk about this later. I’m going to be late to biology,” I interrupted.

“I think this will interest you. My parents hired an investigator to dig up information. You have such a cliché tragic past.”

“I don’t need you to tell me my life story.”

“A drug addict for a mother and no father in the picture,” Josiah continued. “Grew up in the streets watching her sell her body to whatever man would have her. Then, when you were six, your luck turned around. Cash started rolling in, enough for you to buy a house a year later, even though your mother was still unemployed.”

“Anything illegal my mother might have done was out of desperation and won’t affect me. If that’s all you’ve got—”

“But it wasn’t your mother earning money, was it? It was you. The investigator put together enough evidence to have you arrested for suspicious activity. If the government looks into it, I’m sure they would find more proof of what you did. Either way, it’s enough to put you behind bars.”

Seth would be happy.

“You don’t understand,” I said.

“I’m sure the police would love to hear it. I can call them now and let you explain.”

I growled. “Just give me the collar.”

Josiah clasped it around my neck. I tugged at it. The collar was tight, not enough to restrict my breathing, but enough so I couldn’t ignore it was there.

“Don’t you think you’ve gotten your revenge already?” I asked.

Josiah looked at his cast like he had forgotten about it. “I’m getting this off in a few days and I’ll be back in practice by next week, so no hard feelings. You’re just too fun to mess with.”

The bell rang.

“Hurry along now,” he said. “Don’t be late to class.”

I received some curious looks from my classmates, but since Ms. Jamal was lecturing about sodium-potassium pumps, they didn’t get a chance to ask questions.

Throughout math class, I sensed Josiah watching. I had a sudden stab of envy for the girls with hair long enough to hide behind.

The worst part was lunchtime. Ethan burst out laughing when he saw me, and I squeezed the edge of my tray so hard it cracked.

He pulled out his phone. “I can’t believe you got him to wear it, Josiah. This is definitely going online.”

“Don’t,” I warned.

“And what can you do about it?”

The camera clicked. I grabbed his phone and threw it across the room. Ethan let out a stream of curses and chased after it.

He returned a few minutes later, red faced and panting, with one of his friends in tow.

“Listen here, you little punk,” he snarled. “That phone costs more than your entire house. You are immensely lucky Anthony here caught it. Otherwise I would have you killed. The Underground owes my family many, many favors. I can have whatever assassin or hitman for the job I wanted.”

“Send Venom,” Anthony suggested. “She’s good with poisons.”

I snorted. Venom’s knowledge of poisons and antidotes was unparalleled, but she wasn’t exactly subtle about slipping them to her target. When I worked with her, which wasn’t often, the dirty work had always fallen to me.

“Or Butch,” Zack said.

Butch was a close friend who wouldn’t dream of harming me. Despite his threatening appearance, he was a sweet guy.

“Or Spades,” Ben added. “I heard he’s got quite a reputation for being sadistic.”

I couldn’t contain myself any longer. Receiving a direct request for a job to kill myself would certainly be new.

“You think that’s funny, do you?” Ethan said.

“No, I think it’s funny you admitted to having ties to the Underground, especially when it can land you and your entire family in an interrogation room.”

Ethan growled and lunged forward, catching me in the face with a vicious uppercut. I was about to strike back when Preston and Ben grabbed my arms. It gave Ethan enough time to land another punch before Josiah pulled him back.

“Let go, Josiah!” he snapped. “I’m gonna teach your dog a lesson, the little—”

“Calm yourself, Ethan,” Josiah said.

“Go ahead, Josiah,” I challenged. “Let go of him. I’d love to send him on a trip to the emergency room.”

Or the morgue.

Josiah ignored me. “Ethan, you’ve seen what he can do. Take a deep breath and calm down.”

Ethan showed no sign of wanting to do either.

“Listen to me.” Josiah leaned in until their faces were inches apart. “You can’t get suspended for fighting. Remember the play-off games this season. We can’t afford to lose another player.”

Ethan breathed in, and for a wild moment, I thought he would sock Josiah in the face, but he dropped his gaze and stepped away.

Josiah released him. “The team needs you, Ethan. Think about that sometimes.”

I winced as I rolled my eyes. The bruise on my jaw was also swelling up.

Preston noticed me flinch. “Josiah, I think you should take Ace to the nurse. You are technically responsible for him.”

“I guess so,” Josiah said. “You got him good there, Ethan.”

Ethan smiled with satisfaction, but there doubt flickering in his gaze. He hated looking weak or incompetent, and he was afraid I would call him out. For once, common sense prevailed.

I held my tongue and let Josiah steer me out of the cafeteria. My eye throbbed.

“It’s no big deal, you know,” I said. “I’ve had worse.”

“Left untreated, bruises can swell badly. You need to get ice on it.” Josiah studied my face. “I’m guessing you’d like to see out of that eye for the next few days.”

It hadn’t occurred to me that my eye could swell shut.

“Would be nice, yeah,” I admitted. “But why do you care?”

“I don’t particularly. It’s just a habit as the football captain to deal with these situations.”

We walked down the hall to a small room beside the front office.

“Mrs. Prenter?” Josiah called.

“Come in, dear,” she said. “Did you hit your head playing football again? Or did someone break another bone in your body?”

“A student got in a fight. Do you have any ice packs?”

Mrs. Prenter looked at my face. “Seems like they hit you hard. Any chance he got a concussion, Josiah?”

“Unlikely,” he said. “But still possible.”

I shook my head. “I feel fine.”

“Sometimes symptoms don’t appear until a few days after the injury, dear. I could write a note for your parents to take you to the hospital for diagnosis. You’d have to miss the rest of the school day.”

“No, no,” I said quickly. “It’s okay.”

“Then take a seat, and I’ll get you a couple of ice packs.”

I plopped down in the waiting area.

Josiah frowned. “I thought you would leap at an opportunity to miss school.”

“Maybe I realized the benefits of education I had been missing out on,” I said.

“That’s hard to believe. If you truly cared, you would have finished the schoolwork I dropped off at your house.”

“Maybe I did, and you just didn’t notice.”

He snorted. “Please, you didn’t even bring your backpack today.”

I fidgeted with the collar.

Josiah tolerated it for a minute before slapping my hand away. “Stop that. You’ll make it fray.”

“Good.” I reached for it again, but he grabbed my arm and pinned it to the seat.

“I mean it.”

It was rather hypocritical of him to turn around and start playing with it himself.

“You should wear the collar instead if you like it so much,” I said.

Josiah ran his finger along the inside. “But you look good in it. Pets should have a collar so people know who they belong to.”

“You’re taking this dog analogy way too far.”

“Regardless, I expect you to wear it until I give you permission to take it off, however long that may be.”

I was considering breaking his other arm when Mrs. Prenter walked back in. Josiah let go of the collar.

“Here you are, dear.” She handed me two bags of ice wrapped in towels. “Josiah, I’ll write you a pass for class. Who’s the teacher?”

“It’s Ms. Kauffman,” Josiah said. “What about Ace?”

“He’ll stay here until the swelling starts going down.”

“I’ll wait.”

“You’ve done your part by bringing him here, but it’s time for you to get back to class before you miss too much.”

Mrs. Prenter scribbled him a note and waved him out the door. I placed one of the ice packs beneath my jaw and the other on top of my eye.

“Ace, is something going on?” she asked.

“No, everything’s fine,” I said.

“Are you sure? I heard a few snippets of your conversation with Josiah.”

“Josiah’s just a bully. I made him angry and now he tries to humiliate me.”

Mrs. Prenter shook her head. “Josiah feels a sense of responsibility to all the students he’s looked after when they were on probation. The boy has a big heart. Deep down, he cares about you.”

“Must be pretty deep down,” I muttered. “Are you sure we’re thinking of the same Josiah?”

“I’m talking about your home life, Ace,” she said. “When you refused to leave school, I figured it was because you didn’t want to miss class. That doesn’t seem to be the case since you skipped for a week. You also seem fine with missing the next period, as long as you’re not heading home. What’s going on?”

Mrs. Prenter was far more shrewd than I gave her credit for.

“Everything’s fine,” I repeated.

“It’s okay to ask for help. That’s what teachers are for. But it’s hard to help if we don’t know the problem.”

“There’s nothing wrong.”

“Are your parents getting a divorce? Is someone in your family sick? Drunk? Abusive?”

I couldn’t exactly tell her I was paranoid of being tracked down by EAGLE and thrown in jail, or found by the Underground and killed. But she wouldn’t let me leave until I gave her an answer.

“My mother won’t let me go back home,” I said.

The words generated such a rush of sympathy from her that I wished I could take them back. Mrs. Prenter threw her arms around me and squeezed tighter than a boa constrictor.

“You poor thing. I’m afraid I don’t have any more space in my tiny apartment, but I’m sure Josiah can spare a room for you in his giant manor.”

After promising I would talk to him about it, Mrs. Prenter let me go with a note for class. None of my group members commented on the ice packs or the collar, though Nicholas looked like he was dying to say something.

I wasn’t sure if I was happy when the last bell rang.

“Ace, wait up,” Nicholas called after me.

I didn’t look back, but he quickened his pace and fell into step with me.

“Remember the note you deciphered?” he asked. “I showed it to a former agent, and he wants to meet up with you. We could help each other.”

“We would draw attention,” I corrected. “And drawing attention is a bad way to stay alive. Besides, how do I know you won’t turn me over to EAGLE?”

“If the Underground leader and the EAGLE director are working together, then we’re on the same side.”

“You don’t sound happy about that.”

He shrugged. “It’s the truth,” he said. “Are you coming?”

I spotted Josiah walking in our direction. “As much as I would love to, I have detention, and our football star over there would have a fit if I missed it again.”

A student monitor did come in handy sometimes.