Invincible

CHAPTER 13

Trying to act as normal as possible, Nick turned around even though he was shaking so hard, he wondered if the coach could hear his knees knocking and his heart racing.

C’mon, Nick. Think. Don’t blow this.

But in his mind, all he heard was the sound of a police siren coming for him to take him away. Meanwhile, an image of him hanging dead in an isolated jail cell danced in his head. Ah, gah, don’t let that be my psychic powers kicking in now. Not when he really didn’t want them.

His panic rose higher.

Nick forced it down and decided on the simplest tactic.

A bald-faced lie. “Waiting for you, Coach.”

Devus’s gaze narrowed dangerously. “How did you get in here?”

Okay, time to seriously jack it up a couple of notches. Save your butt while you can. He swallowed hard before he answered. “Door was open.”

Granted he’d unlocked it first, but it was true. It had been open when he’d entered. Minus one important detail.

Normally such a lie would bother him. However, new rules were applied when dealing with a homicidal lunatic.

Devus closed the distance between them to stand toe to toe with Nick so that he could intimidate him. He shoved one shoulder into Nick’s and glared down his nose. “You’re lying, boy. I always lock it.”

That wasn’t a smart tactic to use on a backwoods Cajun whose father was a career felon currently sitting on death row. One who was used to standing up to the worst sort of people and not backing down, no matter what.

Not even if they were holding a loaded gun on him.

As his mama so often said, Gautiers don’t run. Sometimes you want to. Sometimes you ought to. But Gautiers don’t run.

Ever.

Nick rose up on his tiptoes to level the difference in their heights and stiffened as his anger overrode every shred of fear … and probably his sanity, too. “I opened it without any problem at all.”

Actually that was the truth.

And that made Devus furious. “Why were you in here, boy? What were you looking for?”

Since he couldn’t admit the truth, Nick blurted out the only lie he could think of. “I lost the list you gave me yesterday. And I need to get another one.”

Devus’s entire face turned bright red. He reminded Nick of a pressure cooker about to blow its gasket. “How could you have lost the list? How is that possible?”

Nick shrugged with a nonchalance he didn’t feel. “Mom says I’d lose my head if it wasn’t attached to my shoulders. Guess she’s right, huh?”

Devus grabbed him by the front of his hideous yellow Hawaiian shirt and held him in two tight fists. “Listen to me, you little punk. Time is running out, and if you think I’ll spare you, think again. I need you to get started immediately today. If I don’t have five of those items in my hand by three, I swear I’ll see you jailed by four. You hear me? And you know what happens to boys who get sent to jail from this school.…”

A cold chill and premonition danced down the length of his spine at the look in Devus’s eyes and the twist of his features. If he’d had any doubt before about Dave’s suicide, that ended it.

The coach was psycho.

And he’d killed Dave.

I’m so dead. How could he get out of this?

A knock sounded on the door an instant before Casey walked in. “Coach Devus?”

The coach literally flung him into the desk before he stepped between Nick and Casey. “What?” he snarled down at her.

Grimacing, Nick straightened to watch the confrontation.

To Casey’s credit, she didn’t back down or flinch at his irate tone. Dressed in a pair of tight jeans and her red cheerleading camp T-shirt, she was exceptionally cute today. She blinked in that vacuous way Nick was beginning to suspect was staged, and smiled. “Miss Dale wanted me to ask you for Friday night’s schedule to make sure she knows what time to have us meet the buses. You can’t do the play-offs without the cheerleaders, you know? We’re a vital part of team motivation, and we’ve been working hard on new cheers for the game.” She winked at Nick. “It’s guaranteed to lift the players’ morales.”

Nick didn’t dare comment on that.

The coach growled before he went to his desk and opened the drawer Nick had searched last. Did I put everything back? If something was out of place, the coach didn’t notice—thanks to Casey’s interference. Devus snatched a sheet of paper out, then slammed the drawer shut. “I already gave this to her.”

Casey shrugged. “She said she misplaced it.”

The coach cut his glare toward Nick. “There’s a lot of that going around lately.”

Ignoring the dig, Casey pranced to the desk to take the paper from his hand. “Thank you, Coach Devus.” Then she faced Nick. “Do you mind helping me for minute? I need someone who’s tall or at least taller than me.” She smiled back at Devus. “You don’t mind my borrowing him, do you, Coach?”

His snarl deepened as he snatched a piece of paper from his clipboard. Folding it up, he held it out to Nick. “You better remember what you’re doing, boy. You hear me?”

Nick nodded and then before he could stop it, the suicidal part of his personality blurted out. “That was three by five, right?”

His nostrils flared. “Five. By. Three. You better remember it.”

“Got it.” Nick tucked the paper into his back pocket as he silently cursed the coach.

“Thank you, Coach Devus,” Casey said, holding the door open for Nick, who felt ill over the entire encounter.

How was he ever going to get out of this?

Casey led him toward the gym. But instead of heading into it, she pulled him toward the alcove where the vending machines were kept so that they would have a little privacy as the students started arriving for school.

“Are you okay?” The concern in her voice mystified him. If he didn’t know better, he might think that she actually had feelings for him, but that was impossible.

“Yeah, why?”

He saw the panic in her eyes as she looked back toward Devus’s office. “I thought he was going to hurt you, Nick. What did you do to him?”

Like he was dumb enough to answer … Well, there were times he was that stupid.

Today wasn’t one of them.

“It was nothing.”

“Nick,” she chided, “that wasn’t nothing. That was pure, ugly rage, and you’re lucky he didn’t rebreak your arm.”

He wasn’t recovering from a break. He’d been shot, but he didn’t want to get into that with her, so he tried to move past her. Before he could make it, she had her hand in his pocket. The next thing he knew, she’d pulled the paper out and was reading it.

His stomach shrank as he tried to take it back. “Give me that.”

She moved like a three-year-old avoiding her parent’s attempt to take away a toy. “What is this?”

Irritated and annoyed, he stopped chasing her. There was no need if she kept prancing out of reach. All it was doing was making him angrier. “It’s mine. Now, give it back.”

She arched a brow at him.

“C’mon, it’s nothing.”

“Nothing?” she asked doubtfully. “It has a lot of … significant things on it. Stone’s class ring? Have you any idea how much his parents paid for that? The ring rep actually called his father at home just to make sure it wasn’t a mistake and that they meant to order something that cost that much.”

Nick hissed at her. “Don’t talk about this out loud. Okay?”

She walked up to him and lowered her voice. “Nick, tell me what’s going on, or I’ll go to the principal with this. I swear I will.”

That was all he needed. He could see this scenario clear as day.

NICK

: Uh, yeah, Mr. Dick, that’s my steal list from the coach that he gave me. If I don’t do it, he’ll kill me. (Sounded nuts to the one who knew it wasn’t. Imagine what it would sound like to someone who hated him.)

COACH

: Gautier’s a lying piece of trash. You know how they are. Come into the world as worthless thieves.

PRINCIPAL

: Yes, they’re all scheming scumbags out to steal anything not nailed down.

COACH

: Here, let me call the police for you.

PRINCIPAL

: Very well. I’ll just sit here and look down my nose at him while you do that.

Yeah, it’d be some variation of that play. But no matter the exact scene, the ending would always be the same.

Him dead in jail.

No thank you.

“Casey…” He tried again to make her see reason. “This is between me and the coach. Leave it alone and let me have that paper back.”

She sucked her breath in audibly between her teeth as she pulled the sheet away from him. “I’m not real good at that. Especially not when I see something that looks like a shopping list, and don’t think for one minute I don’t know all about those.”

Of course she would. Shopping was what she lived for.

I’m so screwed. “Please, I’m begging you to forget you saw that.”

“Why?”

He had no choice but to be at least a little honest with her. “Because if you don’t, I’ll be in a lot of trouble.”

And dead by morning. He shuddered at the mere thought.

She glared up at him as if debating whether or not to believe him. “Something tells me you’re already in a lot of trouble. The coach has you stealing for him, too, doesn’t he?”

Nick’s jaw went slack at the last words he’d expected to come out of her mouth. “What?”

She gave him a cocky toss of her head. “I’m not as stupid as people think, you know? But when everyone thinks you are, you’d be amazed at what they’ll talk about around you.”

“Such as who’s stealing for him?”

She nodded. “I overheard them talking about it a few days ago.”

His heart sped up at the thought of having someone who could corroborate his story with the principal. If he could get a couple of the school pets to back him, he stood a chance of bringing the coach to justice. “Who?”

“Dave and Barry.”

His stomach sank. Not good. Not good at all. “Barry Thornton?”

She nodded.

Both dead. Oh yeah, all of this was making sense now. The coach used who he could, then killed them off to keep them from telling on him. No wonder Ash had said the attack on Barry hadn’t seemed right.

It wasn’t.

Nothing more than human cruelty by a coward who was trying to cover his tracks. What a dog …

“You know anyone else?” he asked, hoping to salvage a little of his plan.

“No, just them.” Dang her for dashing his hopes again.

Suddenly, her eyes widened. “You don’t think he had any part in their deaths, do you?”

Absolutely, but he wasn’t about to start slandering a school official when he had nothing to prove his suspicions. “Why do you say that?”

“Well, they stole for him and now they’re both dead. What other conclusion can I draw?”

That Nick was screwed and probably soon to follow them to the grave himself.

He wanted to whimper as he realized just how inevitable that was. He was going to die a poor, pedestrian virgin.…

Why, Lord? Why?

She pulled him into the room, farther away from the student crowd that was quickly growing as people came in the back door of the school. “Okay, listen. I have a thought. How about I help you?”

His brain automatically snapped to his previous thought. Nah, I ain’t that lucky. She had no idea why he feared dying so young. He must be misconstruing her intentions. “Help me do what?”

“Take what you need.”

Oh, yeah right … “Are you out of your mind?” he snapped at her. “You can’t do that, Casey.”

“Of course I can. I don’t want to see you killed. It’s not right.”

He couldn’t agree more. However, he didn’t want her to die for doing a good deed either. No need in both of them haunting the gym. “Maybe we can go to the principal. I know he won’t believe me, but with you there, he—”

“I have no proof. Why would he listen to me?”

Nick shrugged. “You come from a good family. Why would you lie?”

“I don’t know. The coach could tell him we’re sleeping together or some other lie. You know how adults are. They never believe kids our age, and they’re always expecting us to be on drugs or in trouble. Anytime something happens, they immediately blame it on the video games we play, cartoons we watch, music we listen to, or some occult thing that’s as ludicrous as blaming D&D and RPG.”

She was right. Most adults did do that, but he knew Kyrian and Ash would believe him.

And his mom might.…

Bubba and Mark would definitely, but since they also believed in Bigfoot, little green men, and the tooth fairy, no one would ever believe them. In fact, having them on board could be a liability.

Still, there was nothing any of them could do without proof. It all came back to that one word. The only way to bring the coach down would be to catch him in the act and to show the principal and everyone else just what a demented nut job he was.

“We’ve got to find other students he’s blackmailed.”

Casey scowled. “How?”

“I have no idea. But you know everyone at this school. Can’t you find out something? How did you find out about Barry and Dave?”

“Same way I did you. On accident. They were talking, and I was walking by.”

That wasn’t helpful. They didn’t have time for her to “accidentally” discover all the students Devus was harassing. She’d have to walk the hallway like a brainless automaton, which they’d then write up and put in detention.

The clock was ticking like the tell-tale heart, and he had to steal items and get them to the coach before school let out, or literally his head would be on the chopping block. He could already feel the guillotine falling.

In the end, as much as he hated it, he had to agree with Casey’s stupid idea. He couldn’t do this alone and survive it.

I’m going to burn for this.…

“All right, Casey. We’re not stealing anything, okay? We’re borrowing it, and I will make sure to give it all back once we’re done. You got it?”

“If you say so.” She glanced over the list and selected her items. “I can grab Shannon’s hairbrush and Stone’s ring without a problem.”

Not that he doubted her, but … “Really?”

She nodded. “Me and Stone are supposed to be dating. I smile at the oaf, and he’ll let me have it back. For all the money his parents paid, he couldn’t care less. To him it’s only something that sits in a box or marks me as his property. I hate that whole territorial thing he does. I’m lucky he’s not marking me in a more personal way.”

Ew. There was a thought he didn’t even want to contemplate. Where is the mental eye bleach when you need it?

Not close enough. Obviously. “What else?”

“I can borrow Shannon’s brush without a problem, too.”

Good. That just left Nick to pick up his side of the partnership. “I can ask Mason if he’ll loan me his notes from history.” His handwriting was one of the things the coach needed for some reason. Made no sense to Nick, but far be it from him to try to educate a man with a college degree.

“What else?” she asked.

Nick glanced back and saw another easy target to procure. “Michael’s always leaving one of his scarves in the cafeteria. I’m betting I can nab one of his out of lost and found.”

Why a scarf? No clue. Maybe it was the big hulking man’s security blanket, and he needed it for game days.

For that matter, maybe the coach was just strange.

Casey pointed down the list to another item. “I can get Kody’s necklace.”

Nick drew back at her offer. That was the one thing he had no intention of taking. “Absolutely not.”

“No?”

“No,” he repeated sternly.

She actually stomped her foot like a kid. “Why? You want to steal it?”

No, but he didn’t want her to become a criminal either. How awkward would it be to take a date to the prom with a police escort? There were some things a guy didn’t want to experience, and that was near the top of his list.

“We’re not stealing, Casey. We’re borrowing.”

“Fine. I’ll ‘borrow’”—she made mocking air quotes around the word with her fingers—“her necklace.”

And before Nick could protest that declaration, she was gone.

Come back, you little …

But there was nothing he could do. She’d left him in the dust.

Disgusted, he wished he could call her back without starting a scene. Unfortunately, there were too many students in the building now for him to use his powers.

And more were filing in through the doors.

Fine. He’d deal with Casey later. Right now, he had a scarf to find and some handwriting to borrow.

Ms. Grider kept her beady little eyes on him as he dug through the large box of unclaimed items the school kept in the checkout office. “Are you sure that’s your scarf? I don’t recall you ever having one before. Seems to me you don’t have any coats either. All I remember you in are ragged jeans, hideous tourist shirts they sell cheap at the Goodwill, and worn-out shoes.”

Nick cringed at the L&F Nazi’s unrivaled memory. At 904 years old, her memory should be going by now, or so one would think. But apparently the only things she’d lost were her personality and human decency. “Well, Ms. Grider, if you remembered everything that belonged to everyone in the school, it seems we wouldn’t really need a lost and found, would we?”

She glared at him. “That better be yours. I’m making a note of what it looks like and who’s taking it.”

Of course you are.

“If someone comes looking for it, I’m going to tell them exactly who took it.”

With a fake smile, Nick shoved the scarf into his backpack and headed out the door. The things I do for you, Mom. If it were up to him, he’d drop out of this school and go to one where he wasn’t a pariah. One where he was normal and these people were the freaks. But his mom wanted him to have the best education possible.

So here he was.

In hell for three and a half more years.

Again, thanks Mom.

As he headed toward his locker to switch out books, something moved fast to his right. Always on the lookout for Stone or his buds to ambush him, Nick jumped left and …

Nothing.

Frowning in confusion, he scanned the wall and saw no trace of whatever he’d glimpsed. Weird. A slow circle turn in the middle of the hall didn’t uncover anything either as the sea of students moved around him.

But as he looked, everything slowed down like some replay footage. The pendulum in his pocket heated up at the same time he felt Mark’s necklace vibrate.

His ears buzzed, and some noxious smell filled his head.

“That better not be you again, Mark.” He was in no mood for it.

No sooner had those words left his lips than the lights in the school went out. The screams of his classmates were deafening and thick … slowed down to match their current snail speed.

Out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning shot through his chest, picking him up from his feet and throwing him down the hallway.