There's an Invisible Man Sleeping in My Bed

Chapter 35

            Colt frowned as William thumped down into the cafeteria seat beside Thalia. He didn’t care for the sharp gaze and lowered brows of William’s face, and liked even less the look he turned on her. “Have the Builders been bothering you?”

            Thalia’s eyebrows rose, her pink lips forming a delicate o for a moment, before she caught herself and said “Not exactly.”

            “What exactly then?”

            The way William’s voice was deepening, matching the darkening of his brows, had Colt edging closer to Thalia. She only shrugged. “One of them tried to convert me yesterday. He got the door slammed in his face.”

            Ruth chuckled. “Good girl. But next time, can you try to record it? I’d love video evidence of you being something other than polite.”

            William didn’t look amused in the least. “Who was it?”

            “MacQueen. I don’t remember his first name. He looks like a two-ball snowman.”

            A low hiss came from William’s clenched teeth. “Did he do anything to you?”

            “No. He only talked a bit. He…he was off in some way. I had nothing to back-up my feeling, but he just felt off,” Thalia replied, frowning. “Why?”

            “He’s dangerous. You need to stay away from him as much as you can.”

            Colt snorted silently. On the one hand, maybe Thalia would listen better if two people told her the same thing. On the other, he didn’t like William echoing him. It brought forward certain…possibilities. Ones that had Colt shifting so that he was directly behind Thalia.

            Now even Ruth’s face had lost its smile. “What do you mean, Liam?”

            “The way he talks…It’s like he’s saying he’ll do something to Thalia if I don’t listen to them. You can’t trust him.”

            Ruth’s eyes widened and she turned to Thalia. Thalia nodded slightly, after a quick glance at William. Her friend shook her head. “Well then, looks like we’ll need to keep a closer eye on these bastards. Between me and Thalia, I’m sure we can rig up some kind of surveillance equipment. And some traps, in case they try to break in or something. Then we’ll have evidence and we can turn them over to the cops. They’ll have a hell of a time coming up with a good reason to be watching/stalking a high school student. And a girl to boot. We throw in some tears, some hints about inappropriate comments, and bam, they’re instant sex offenders.”

            “I don’t think catching them in traps would count as evidence,” Thalia said.

            Grinning, Ruth said “That’s the beauty of it. It’s proof of them breaking and entering, and your parents are gone so much in this second honey-mooners stage, that you can just say you were worried about being home alone. Though it’d be better if you threw some stuff in about feeling like people are watching you. I bet a jury would eat that up.”

            William shook his head. “No. It’s too dangerous. And there’s no guarantee, even if you go to the police. And even if we were sure about the cops, there’s still too much of a chance of something going wrong. I’m not letting anything happen to you. Either of you,” he said, nodding at Ruth, who looked away, blushing. “Especially not because of me.”

            Colt found himself torn. He applauded William’s attempts to keep the girls out of harm’s way and the boy’s proto code of honour. But, he also knew, William had no idea what he was up against. He was barely out of childhood, and his schoolyard brawls had given him an inflated opinion of his fighting abilities. He sighed, resolving to speak to Thalia on the matter. She was quite possibly the only person William would listen to on this matter.

            “I’m not going to sit by and let anything happen to you,” Thalia replied. Colt noticed the steel in her eyes and backed up a step. “So don’t try and push me out of this. I’m not going. Not that that matters. The Builders have already gotten me involved. You might as well accept that we’re going to help you, whether you like it or not.”

            William gaped. Colt assumed because he wasn’t any more used to Iron Thalia than he was. “But…”

            Ruth had roused herself, as well, puffing up and crossing her arms over her chest, putting Colt in mind of an irate cat. “She’s right. We’re all in this together. Or do you really think, given their behaviour so far, that they’ll just agree and leave us alone?”

            “Well…maybe if…”

            Thalia cut him off with a head shake. “No. They won’t. Which is why we need to plan for this properly. Doing anything without preparation at this point will just make things worse. We need to gather as much information as we can. If we know we’re likely to expect from them, our plans will be that much better. Especially since they won’t know as much about us. Ruth,” she said, turning to her friend. “Do you think Anna can find anything more out for us?”

            Ruth snorted. “Yeah. The brat’s good at it. And she likes you, so she’ll be happy to help. She’ll want to be involved though.”

            Shrugging, Thalia said “We’ll deal with that when we have to.”

            Colt watched as Thalia took charge, laying out the basics for information gathering and what they should focus on. While he still felt that she should rely on him more, Colt found Thalia the leader quite…attractive. Maybe it was the passion smoldering in her eyes, or the added spark in her voice. Whatever it was, he decided that he, kind of liked it.