Invincible Chronicles of Nick - By Sherrilyn Kenyon Page 0,55

the ceiling in frustration. “Was one break really too much to ask?”

That being said, Nick wasn’t without a few skills. One of them being the ability to pick a lock fairly quickly. It’d been a gift from one of his dad’s “roommates” who’d thought it would be funny to teach a six-year-old how to enter.

Even though he should have, it was a skill Nick had never allowed to atrophy.

Just in case.

Five minutes later, he was inside the office. Making sure to stay away from the cameras and to keep the lights off, he went through the desk drawers first.

Nothing.

Just the typical stuff you’d expect to find in a coach’s desk. Grade book. Whistle. Pens. Pencils. Paper clips. Agenda. Hall passes. Play books. Schedules. Rosters. Player lineup.

And then it struck him. Something that had toyed at the edges of his mind last night at the coach’s house, but here in the office, it was epically clear.

There was nothing personal in the entire office. Not a photo, a trophy, certificate.

Not even an Altoid.

Nothing.

Hired at the same time as Devus, Principal Dick had completely taken over Peters’s office and made it his own. This one looked like the coach could quit and walk straight out the door without packing up a single item.

Literally.

His house last night had been the same way. Sterile and impersonal. Ubiquitous. Unremarkable. Just like the coach himself. Everything was forgettable.

Now it all made sense.

Wow … Devus must owe some serious change that kept him running constantly. What kind of mondo gambling debt had he accrued? It must be steep for him to live in this kind of fear all the time. A fear that wouldn’t even allow him his choice of car since he drove one that wouldn’t stand out on the road. Everything about him was a study in vanishing.

No wonder we can’t find any trace of him.

He must be staying off grid to avoid loan sharks or collection thugs. Nick almost felt sorry for the man. Had Devus not been the ruthless killer who was blackmailing him, he would have. As it was, Nick wouldn’t really mind handing him over to whoever was after him.

Shaking his head, he slid the drawer shut.

“What are you doing here, Gautier?”

He jumped out of his skin at the deep baritone of the coach’s voice coming from behind him.

Ah, crap. I’m dead.

CHAPTER 13

Trying to act as normal as possible, Nick turned around even though he was shaking so hard, he wondered if the coach could hear his knees knocking and his heart racing.

C’mon, Nick. Think. Don’t blow this.

But in his mind, all he heard was the sound of a police siren coming for him to take him away. Meanwhile, an image of him hanging dead in an isolated jail cell danced in his head. Ah, gah, don’t let that be my psychic powers kicking in now. Not when he really didn’t want them.

His panic rose higher.

Nick forced it down and decided on the simplest tactic.

A bald-faced lie. “Waiting for you, Coach.”

Devus’s gaze narrowed dangerously. “How did you get in here?”

Okay, time to seriously jack it up a couple of notches. Save your butt while you can. He swallowed hard before he answered. “Door was open.”

Granted he’d unlocked it first, but it was true. It had been open when he’d entered. Minus one important detail.

Normally such a lie would bother him. However, new rules were applied when dealing with a homicidal lunatic.

Devus closed the distance between them to stand toe to toe with Nick so that he could intimidate him. He shoved one shoulder into Nick’s and glared down his nose. “You’re lying, boy. I always lock it.”

That wasn’t a smart tactic to use on a backwoods Cajun whose father was a career felon currently sitting on death row. One who was used to standing up to the worst sort of people and not backing down, no matter what.

Not even if they were holding a loaded gun on him.

As his mama so often said, Gautiers don’t run. Sometimes you want to. Sometimes you ought to. But Gautiers don’t run.

Ever.

Nick rose up on his tiptoes to level the difference in their heights and stiffened as his anger overrode every shred of fear … and probably his sanity, too. “I opened it without any problem at all.”

Actually that was the truth.

And that made Devus furious. “Why were you in here, boy? What were you looking for?”

Since he couldn’t admit the truth, Nick blurted out the only lie he could think of. “I lost the list