Page 107 of Coerced

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He shrugged. “Mock me all you want, but I learned something important last night.”

“Oh?” Chance raised one eyebrow. “What was that? She hogs the covers?”

“No! Monkey’s from our college! Or at least I think she is.”

“You got her to say something?” I was shocked.

“No. She talks in her sleep. I couldn’t make out all of it because there’s something wrong with her voice, but I swear she was talking about giving a speech in the Stork’s class.”

“Thewho’sclass?” Tara and Maddy asked at the same time.

“The Stork,” Chance told them. “His name’s Storey, but everyone knows him as the Stork. He’s all legs. It’s comical. Spin, when did we have to do those speeches?”

“I don’t know.” Spin scratched his head, then spoke through another yawn. “Like, three weeks ago? It was the same time we heard—”

“The first college team had gone missing,” Chance finished for him. “If Monkey was one of the members, then thisisthe organization that’s been taking out our novice teams.”

“That’s why we’re here?” Tara’s face paled at the news. “That’s why they captured us?”

“Seems likely to me. But how did they know what we are?” Chance tapped his bracelet. “We’re all protected from detection.”

“Only by the Diabolical.” Jax raised his eyebrows. “I’m more curious how they knewwherewe were. How are they finding us, finding our teams, to take?”

As the others continued to ask questions none of us could answer, my eyes darted to Monkey. She hadn’t woken during our conversation, but, even if she had, I couldn’t ask her what I wanted to know the most.

Jax was on my wavelength, though, and had no trouble voicing my thoughts.

“Where’s the rest of her team?”

“I think we all know the answer to that question.” Spin’s face turned grim. “Look, we can’t count on a rescue in time. We need to plan our own escape.”

That sounded good to me. Even if we came up with nothing feasible, it would keep our minds busy and distract us from the worry and fear that would overwhelm us if we let it.

We had enough enemies outside the door. We didn’t need them in our own minds, too.

#

For the most part, our captors left us alone, which was both a relief and a worry. They had seemed excited to find us, so why had they chucked us in here and forgot about us? What were they planning to do with us?

Chance had recognized the man in the gray suit and told us his name was Reginald Hubler.

“He’s a big deal in human politics. He’s planning to run for president in the next election.” Chance scrubbed his hand through his hair. “Wonder why he’d jeopardize that by getting involved in neph hunting? He’s uber rich, so it’s not as if he needs money to finance his campaign.”

Since none of the rest of us really paid attention to politics, we had to take his word for it.

The other man, whose name we learned was Samuel Castle, brought us food twice a day. It wasn’t a lot, and we divided it out evenly until I realized Jax wasn’t getting enough. His stomach rumbled loudly and often, and I started giving him half of my share. He wouldn’t take it at first, but I badgered him into it, and Maddy and Tara gave some of theirs to Chance and Spin.

Speaking of Spin, his silent little monkey was a handful. She became agitated each time he went into the bathroom and downright panicked whenever Castle appeared, but Spin would hold her and talk softly until she settled down. He was very comfortable taking care of her. He coaxed her to eat and convinced her to take a shower and distracted her with amusing stories. Maybe it took his mind off his own situation, but he appeared to enjoy fussing over her.

His mother-hen act was cute in its sincerity and comical in its enthusiasm, but Chance and I traded increasingly worried looks.

What would it do to Spin if we found out his monkey was broken beyond repair?

#

One afternoon, Tara and I used the distraction of lunch being delivered and dragged Maddy into the bathroom.

“What’s going on with you and Travis?” I asked.

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