Rescue- Runaways 2

Chapter 9: Luke

"I thought Mr. Clayson was supposed to come," I asked Reese. It was almost noon.

"He said he would be here today. I assume he'll get here soon," she answered. "He's busy with some inside stuff at the camp right now, more than likely. I mean, he may be totally against them, but he has to at least pretend to help them and that still requires a lot of time at each one."

I nodded. "Where are they exactly?" Peyton asked.

"Um, in super remote areas you've probably never heard of. There are twelve of them across the country. I think this one is the largest. I know there's one in Hazard, Kentucky, another in Aledo, Illinois, and a few others in Blue Lake, California, Kamiah, Idaho, and Zephyr, Texas. I can't remember any others off the top of my head though." She shrugged.

"I've never heard of any of those places," Marcus stated.

"Told you." He just rolled his eyes.

Just then there was a rhythmic tap on the door. It was six or seven taps, almost like they were to the tune of a song. I raised an eyebrow at Micaiah who was standing next to Reese.

"That's him," he replied indignantly before I could even ask the question. Skye moved to open the door and we were met with a tall man with shoulder-length blonde hair. His eyes were a deep blue, but he had the exact same freckles that Eli did. He was in a business suit that was a little rumpled, probably from walking almost a quarter mile to get here.

He gave Aaliyah and Peyton a sly smile before greeting all of us with a gruff, "Hello." I saw Aaliyah take Peyton's arm protectively. Neither of them seemed very comfortable here, but I couldn't understand why. His smile threw me off though.

"Hey," Micaiah answered, going in for a handshake.

"You know you don't have to do that anymore Micaiah. We're less business partners and more just people working together to stop the insane government from getting what they want," Mr. Clayson stated. He blushed, embarrassed, and lowered his hand.

"Sorry." Mr. Clayson shook his head.

"Who's here with you?" he asked roughly. He met my gaze without wavering, with none of the charm he'd given the girls earlier. I feared for them, wondering why it was just them and not Marcus and I, or even Reese and Skye.

"Um, they showed up two days ago. Friends of Eli's. They found him in Georgia, and he led them here. Well, sort of." Colin shuffled his feet awkwardly as he answered him. For a man they spoke so highly of, none of them seemed at ease around him.

"Where is he?" For the first time since he'd gotten here, his tone softened into something more sincere. I immediately felt a pang of guilt and regret. We'd have to tell this man that his nephew was murdered, and we hadn't been able to do anything about it. To him, we might as well have been the ones holding the gun.

"He was found by bounty hunters. Shot and killed. We tried to stop them, but he took a bullet that should have been mine. We're sorry." Peyton spoke sheepishly.

Mr. Clayson's eyes dropped to the ground. "I can't say I didn't expect that. Was he able to explain everything to you?"

"He never said a word about any of this," she replied. "He never even said he could disguise himself like that. We met him as a tan, brown-haired boy with blue eyes and never knew any different until he died."

He seemed surprised to hear that, but his gaze went cold a second later. "Why?"

"Protection," Aaliyah said quietly. "He cared about us and perhaps he didn't want to wrap us into all of this."