doing anything wrong, and if they get the idea that I am—”
“You’re sinning.”
“Yes.”
“You’ll be punished.”
Kandace bobbed her head. “Yes. I will.”
His expression registered another flash of confusion, but it melted into what appeared to be concern. He wet his lips, pausing for several beats. “Don’t go out that door,” he finally said in a rush of words, nodding toward the one she’d been headed toward. “Ms. Granger has a direct view from her classroom and she might see you. If she does, she’ll report to Ms. Wykes. I know a better way.”
Relief made Kandace’s breath come easier. He wasn’t going to rat her out. In fact, he was going to help her. “Are you a . . . student here?” she asked, curiosity overwhelming her as she stepped into the room. “I was told there weren’t any boys.”
“There aren’t. That is . . .” He cleared his throat, embarrassment flashing in his eyes. “We, I mean, myself and two others . . . we weren’t sent here. We were born here.”
“Born here?” she breathed, her eyes roaming his young face. She’d thought him a good-looking kid when she’d first caught sight of him, but she could see now that he was beyond that. He was a beautiful boy. “What do you—?”
His fingers clamped down on her arm at the sound of a door opening and shutting, and then feet descending the wood steps. Kandace’s heart rate jumped. Shit, someone was coming down the same set of steps she’d taken ten minutes before. Someone looking for her?
The boy pulled her, putting his finger up to his lips as he met her eyes. Shh. Kandace nodded, letting him lead her toward the door, where he then turned right. From there, he walked her toward a wall and pulled at a board. What had just looked like a planked wall, had a small secret door that swung outward on hidden hinges. He pointed inside, indicating that she should crawl in. Kandace hesitated. She’d thought she could trust this kid, but how did she know he really wasn’t just some nutjob? There seemed to be quite a few of them at Lilith House. And she wasn’t talking about the students. How screwy did you have to be to teach at a place like this anyway?
The footsteps were getting closer, the gait slow, but steady. They sounded like men’s shoes. Jasper? The boy nudged her. “Go,” he whispered, an edge of anxiety in his tone. She had so many questions, but there was no time for that. Not now. Kandace took a deep breath and climbed into the small space and the boy climbed in after her and pulled the hidden door shut. The footsteps rounded the corner and stopped. Kandace held her breath, the boy’s body pressed against her own in the mostly dark space, the only small amount of light coming in through the tiny gaps between the slats.
After a moment, the person began walking again, but she could hear that he had turned around and was heading back the way he’d come.
“Go,” the boy said, and now that her eyes had adjusted to the dark, she could see that there were rungs attached to the wall that she could climb. “Climb all the way to the top. You’ll exit into a back hallway near a utility room that rarely ever gets used. Turn right at the end of that hall and it’ll take you to a set of stairs. From there, you should be able to find your way.” He opened the latch and stepped out, beginning to close the small door.
Kandace looked up into the pitch-black above, placing her hands on the rungs. “Hey,” she whispered to the boy just as the door was about to shut completely. He pulled it open, revealing one eye in a small shaft of light. “You’re a dreamboat, you know that?”
She couldn’t see his full expression, but she thought he’d smiled, one that was both slightly shy and mildly astonished. The door clicked shut and Kandace began to climb.
CHAPTER TWELVE
As they pulled out of the church parking lot, it began to rain. Fitting, Scarlett thought. She glanced at her daughter in the rearview mirror to see her staring out at the water-streaked glass, a look of pure misery on her face. She looked up, and their eyes met. Scarlett’s heart squeezed painfully. “What happened, Haddie?” she asked. “Why did you say that to the little boy?”
“It’s not what I meant, Mommy.” Her voice was little