The Unmasking

Part 36

Mr. Blackbourne POV

We all succumbed to bewilderment in the aftermath, all staring at the doorway where Sang had disappeared, still bewitched.  I was a bit taken aback myself, trying to calm flurries in my stomach by smoothing down my tie. If I was strung as tight as Miss Sorenson had just tuned me, all my stings would be broken now. I threw a look at North, who was still frozen on the motorcycle. I raised an eyebrow at him.

Does she know?

He squinted at me, rubbing at the wet area on his shirt.

I sure as hell didn't tell her.

I cast quick glances at the rest of my team. Silas was grinning dreamily at the empty door. Gaberiel's mouth was still open, but then snapped it shut suddenly and spun on North.

"What in the ever living fuck did Dr. Green give her while she was at the hospital?"

North just shrugged and shared a long look with Luke, whose music was loud enough that it could be heard now that his earbuds were hanging loose. He was half smiling, half confused, and he reached back to tug at the rear of his jeans. "Did she just flirt with every one of us?"

Nathan guffawed and then the entire team was a kaleidoscope of speculations, emotions scattered every which way as the boys argued back and forth in a hushed murmur. It took me a moment to catch up to myself, put all the new feelings into a box that I could examine later. I had to focus on my team. That same team, all now crowding past me in through the door, looking for answers. I sighed, stepping inside myself, only to witness Mr. Morgan's equal befuddlement as tiny Ms. Sorenson towered over him in the hall, Mr. Lee still in tow, and bent down to his level where he worked at a laptop to whisper in his ear. She turned from him as he sputtered incoherently from his dis-vantage and put her hands on her hips, looking me squarely in the eye.

She knew about the plan. How, I wasn't sure, but the challenge in her eyes made it unmistakable. I cleared my throat and tried to clear my head, hoping my voice wouldn't betray how ill at ease I felt. The situation itself,  plus the worry that she was getting in too deep with everything that was happening with our team was tumbling over in my mind in a worried mess that I was unsure I could clean up without ruining everything. 

"Miss Sorenson?"

"Mr. Blackbourne."

She waited. Ball in my court then. The boy's shoes shuffled uneasily around me and I found myself struggling to find something to say.

She finally lifted an eyebrow at me. "All for one?" she offered hopefully. 

I hesitated, shocked, then locked eyes with her. "And one for all, so it would seem?"

She nodded once, verifying everything I suspected she knew, searching my eyes with a thousand questions in her own and turning away all too soon back to Victor, still gaping up at her from the floor.

"Are you almost finished?" she all but whispered, but we could all hear her. It was hard not to when all were holding our collective breath.

He closed the laptop with a muted snap, eyes wide as he looked at the rest of us crowded around in the small hallway, searching for answers to her increasingly bewildering behavior; not unlike the rest of us. 

"If I wasn't I don't remember now. It'll keep."

Sang POV

The way the boys quieted around me and wouldn't stop staring. I knew. They knew that I knew, and I knew that they knew that I knew...and somehow all this knowing was making the small room unbearably heavy. And hot. My tongue had such a time fighting with the gravity of it all that my next words were slow, too sassy from the strain.