Page 109 of Desperate Victory

BODHI

Counting the guard I took out on our way in, we found a total of four men on the grounds. They were all low-level men, hired more for brawn than brains. The people who ran the school, including Juraj Vedriš, were nowhere to be found.

A sweep of the offices showed they’d left in a hurry. Papers were scattered, computers were broken, and files had been shredded.

Someone warned Juraj Vedriš we were coming. I couldn’t even get that angry about it. Too many people were involved the moment Margareta Waldemar and her people involved themselves.

The operation wasn’t shut down. I could only imagine they hadn’t taken the kids with them because they lacked the time to get them all into vehicles without threats of bodily harm.

Despite the locks on the doors, the kids didn’t seem afraid. Uneasy? Yes. Unsettled? Definitely. They were more worried about us, though, than their captors.

Levi—Levente Cassidine Noble—matched the picture Hans had sent through. He’d finally arrived in Prague an hour earlier with many apologies. He’d been tracking down more physical data on the boys.

As it turned out, we’d found them on our own. But there was a lot to do. Margareta Waldemar had brought in more people. Lainey had Andrea wrapped up in a blanket and parked inside a car where she was still speaking to her.

In addition to Andrea, there were five boys and three girls in residence. The girls were silent as ghosts, they barely made eye contact, and didn’t respond to English.

Adam hovered near Lainey and Andrea both, but he was letting the girls talk. A lot had changed in Andrea’s world. Ezra was inside with the Vandals, tearing the place apart for any information they could find.

Levi had been standing with his arms folded and a mutinous expression on his face while he watched Andrea. He clearly wanted to go over there but he didn’t. The other boys were all beginning to isolate themselves from each other.

Abruptly, Levi left that grouping and headed toward me. I spared him a look and took a sip of coffee. The only thing it had going for it was that it was hot.

“Are they really her family?” It came out more a hostile demand than a question. “Like her actual family?”

“Yes,” I told him. “Adam is her brother. Lainey is her sister.”

He blew out a breath, deflating a little. “So they’ll take her back to the States.”

“That’s the plan.” I studied him. “What about you?”

Frowning, Levi twisted to face me. “What about me?”

“Where do you want to go?”

Levi snorted. “Nowhere. Pretty much where I’ve been my whole life.” He waved his hand back at the building that seemed even uglier with the floodlights that someone had set up. “This place…just the latest in a long line of places that take me and eventually don’t want me. I’ll skip the next one.”

I couldn’t blame him. Yet, I wanted to know more. More about what happened to him. Who…

I would need to make another list.

At the same time, I couldn’t stop staring at him. Years of looking. Years of searching. Years of wondering whether he really existed. Now I could reach out and touch him.

“You could take a picture, it might last longer.” The sarcasm fit, but the hostility and the damage shouldn’t. Finally, he shifted and glanced behind him before looking at me again. “Why are you staring at me?”

“Debating how to tell you something.” No point in lying.

“If you’re about to tell me I’ve been sold or something?—”

“No,” I said, cutting off that train of thought before he could pick up any speed. “You said you have nowhere to go. That’s not true.”

“Unlike Andi over there, I don’t have any family.”

“Also not true.”

He scowled at me. “You know something I don’t?”

“I know a great many things that you don’t. I will tell you if you let me finish.” I could see elements of me in him. The belligerence. The need to challenge authority. To push back.

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