“IDs are stolen all the time,” Dr. Green said. “We know that. But you’re right, Mr. Sorenson hadn’t thought this through. Someone might have discovered eventually that Miss Sorenson’s records weren’t genuine. If she gets her driver’s license, that’d be one solid ID that she could use to get most anything else she needed, up until she tried to apply for a credit card. Either she would have gotten lucky and offices would turn a blind eye and see it as a mistake and issue her new things, or they’d check it out. It might be why he’s really interested in this particular school. She’d be eighteen before she was released. That would give him time to figure out the next step.”
“But now that we have her,” Mr. Blackbourne said, “the ideal situation would be to keep her record completely clean. If possible.”
The new realization settled into Kota, and he sat back. This made it incredibly complicated. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to care about this. Not at the risk of her safety. He knew it would never come to that. They wouldn’t allow Sang to risk her life for the hope of keeping her a ghost bird.
But if what they were saying was true, the Academy would do anything to collect her. And if their group asked for help and paid in favors to save her, they’d find out for sure.
Mr. Blackbourne nodded quietly as the group seemed to come to understand the full significance. “If we turn to the Academy for help, we’ll expose her for what she is and there’s a strong chance they’ll convince her to join and under their terms. Even if she wanted to stay with us, they’d dangle promises to release all of our favor debts and even put us in the positive in exchange for her working with a team they select. Once she realizes she has the ability to command such a price, and with her sweet disposition, she’d agree to it in a heartbeat. We already know she’d put her own life at risk just to save you guys from a fight.”
Dr. Green inhaled sharply. “If we let the police handle this, it’ll take away one of the most valuable assets…”
“She’s not an asset,” Victor barked.
“You are an asset,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Every one of you. And like it or not, right now she’s worth ten of you.”
Victor’s head jerked back. “We can’t… I mean…” His eyes turned to Kota. “What are we supposed to do?”
“We have to convince Mr. Sorenson to release her to us,” Kota said. He didn’t like this answer. It was against his morals to see Mr. Sorenson get away with anything. At least Mrs. Sorenson had an excuse, being ill. He had none, and practically caused Mrs. Sorenson’s mental state. “If we can do that, we won’t need to turn to the Academy. It’ll buy us time to win her over and to get her to understand how this works.”
“We have to find out the truth, first,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “I won’t ask any of you to go into this blindly. Whether or not Mr. Sorenson raped anyone, he still had a child with an underage girl. Who knows if there might be more. We already know he’s not beyond trying to smother secrets.”
Dr. Green nodded. “And we need to keep her where she is for now until we figure it out. We can’t let the police in on this. And if we want to keep her with us when the Academy finds out, we’ll have to figure out how we can get the Academy to let us keep her with our team.”
“I don’t want her in the Academy,” Kota said. “It’s too dangerous.”
“We may not have that choice,” Dr. Green said. “They’ll find out eventually and they’ll want her, and she’s already interested. You can tell just by looking at her.”
“We need to get to work with her,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Stay near her, build her confidence. Trust building has to start now. We might be able to circumvent any long term damage her mother has done to her. You also, though, have to give her a little time alone. Filling her life up only distracts her from processing what has happened to her and puts off the inevitable. There’s a strong possibility she’ll want to fly solo. We want to avoid that. She’s already shown signs of avoidant personality.”
“What does that mean?” Nathan asked.
“Emotional distancing,” Dr. Green said. “She shows some social isolation. She thinks it’s her versus the world. If we want her to feel connected to us, we’ll need to break through that. She might continue to keep things to herself for a while.”
“What do we do?” North asked. He crossed his arms over his chest. “We have three months to figure out what happened to Sang’s mom, try to convince her dad to release her to us, do our Ashley Waters job, and somehow convince the Academy and her that she should stay on our team, with or without her officially becoming a member. They already don’t want birds on dog teams.”
“We’re working on it,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “We don’t know what will happen. Let’s focus on finding out the truth.”
Dr. Green cleared his throat. “At any rate, we’ve got a lot to do with her right now. We’ll have to help her adjust to living alone in that house.”
“She won’t be alone,” Silas said.
“No, she won’t,” Kota said. “If we back off now to give her space, she might feel we’re abandoning her, too.”
“It’s too late to back down, and I doubt any of you would, anyway,” Mr. Blackbourne said.
“This is what I thought we should talk about as well,” Dr. Green stated. “I know you boys are trying your best to make her feel included. Goodness knows, she needs it. You have to take it slow with her, though. She’s already admitted that she’s never really been touched or hugged or anything before.”
Mr. Blackbourne nodded. “I think it’s best we establish ground rules now. The first one should probably be no intimate contact of any kind. No dating. Nothing romantic.”
The surge of rejection toward this idea reverberated, surprisingly, from the others in the group around Kota.
“I don’t approve,” Victor called out, using the more formal method of rejection established by the Academy.
“I don’t approve,” echoed Gabriel, in a louder voice, as if trying to establish he felt stronger about it than Victor. Their eyes locked on each other, and Kota recognized the challenge in their faces.
“I more than disapprove, I reject it entirely,” North grumbled.
Mr. Blackbourne pushed a palm to his forehead. “Good god, don’t tell me it’s already happened.”
Stares zoomed across the table, accusing and daring anyone to speak up and say they’ve done anything to Sang. Kota, most of all, wanted to know exactly what his friends had been up to. He’d dismissed the hand holding, because he did it, too. He dismissed it when she sat in their laps, because he felt a comfort in it. He’d done it with her, so he couldn’t blame the others for doing it. His Academy brothers were friends, yes, and sometimes they shared brotherly hugs. It was limited. Touching Sang was different. She wasn’t a sister or someone out of reach. She was beautiful and sweet and willing to please. When she was near, it was difficult not to reach for her and hang on to her. He didn’t do it all the time just because he didn’t want to scare her.
It was also addicting. The more he touched her, the more he wanted to touch.
He wasn’t so sure he wanted her to share more intimate touches with the rest of his family. When he looked around the table, though, the rage in the others’ eyes established more than enough proof of something Kota had been worried about since they had brought her in.
Mr. Blackbourne nearly jumped to his feet from the stool, pushing his palms to the table to lean on it. “I can’t believe this. This is exactly why we never, ever bring a bird into a dog group. I’ve warned you. I’ve warned all of you.” He lifted a finger into the air to take stabs in Kota’s direction. “You. I’ve warned you about this.”
“I know,” Kota said, lowering his eyes at the table. “She needed us, though.”
Mr. Blackbourne huffed. “Yes, she needed us.” The frown deepened and his critical eyes bore down at the others. “None of you understand what this means, now. You brought her in without thinking. You’ve moved too fast. Now you all will have t
o focus. It’s bad enough that she’s at risk for hero worship with any of us, or all of us. She could equate what she believes to be real feelings of love for helping her. That would be dangerous enough for her at her present emotional state. What we don’t need is countertransference on top of it.”
“That’s not what... I mean that’s not how...” Victor said.
“Spit it out, Mr. Morgan,” Mr. Blackbourne said.
Victor frowned. “I’ve already asked her out,” he said flatly, his chin lifting to the air. “She said yes.”
“Did she say yes or did she divert to figure out what answer you wanted and did whatever would please you?”
“She said she wanted to,” Victor countered, but his voice wavered. “She can tell me what she wants or doesn’t. She’s done it before with me.”
Mr. Blackbourne narrowed his eyes at him. “She’s hungry for attention. A certain kind, at least. She doesn’t know what is too far because she’s socially inept. I’ve seen what she does. She’s done it to me, too. She’ll fix those eyes on you and lets you touch her, even if she’s uncomfortable or unsure, because she doesn’t want to disappoint you. And from the looks from your brothers here, I can tell she’s done that to everyone.”