The Academy (Part 2 of the Syndicate Series)

Chapter 9- Sudden Concern

Belle:

Blaise and I started to clue in my Uncle Claude with what was going on when we couldn't figure out where Rosine was. I had braved the risk of searching my father's office for the name of the school while Blaise distracted him and pulled him away, but we found nothing. We knew that alone we wouldn't be able to figure it out, but even my uncle wasn't being kept in the loop.

"I think your father knows that you girls are the line I won't cross," He explained, sitting on the chair next to my bed while Blaise and I sat on it. "He doesn't tell me everything, but I can't seem to even whittle that little bit out of him."

Blaise looked at me, "Then we're out of options- we have to find a way to communicate through Hugo."

"What are you two playing at?" My uncle looked at us suspiciously, "If it includes forcing your father's hand, I have to recommend against it."

"We're going to find a way to reach out to her. It's the only way to-"

My uncle stood abruptly, "Your father isn't about to let Rosine have a method of communication, and you both know that."

"Then he doesn't know- we disguise it as something else."

"You're both walking a dangerous line, and it's risky. I'm doing what I can to find her as well," My uncle ran his hands through his hair, looking at us carefully. It wasn't hard to figure out that this was bothering him as much as it was us- he had dark circles under his eyes, and the lines of his face seemed more prominent. "Let me do the dangerous stuff, I'm just trying to keep you two out of the line of fire."

I understood my uncle's good intentions, but I was mad. If he thought we were too young or naive, he was only lying to himself. If I was old enough to be married off, I deserved to know about it. If Blaise was able to take over the French mafia in the next few years, he should know how it was working.

"So is that why you and my father haven't told us about the party?" I asked, my voice more daring than usual. To be fair, the whole event was a ploy to marry me off, so I had every right to be mad.

The surprise on my uncle's face was evident as he whipped around. He froze at first, then sank into the chair again. "How did you...."

"Walls have ears," I shrugged off his question vaguely.

He looked at me sadly, "Yes. I don't know, part of me thought that I could convince your father to change his mind, but I don't think I can. He's become so unreasonable."

I stared him dead in the eyes. "This can't keep happening. The keeping-secret thing that you've been doing. If we're going to have a chance at changing anything, we have to share."

As if he could sense my remaining anger, Blaise set his hand on my lower back to calm me. He defended me as well, "Belle is right. There are other men who don't agree with the things that Hugo is doing, but we can't trust that many people with information or a plan. But the three of us need to know everything."

My uncle sat forward, leaning his elbows onto his knees, "So you know about the party, let's start there."

"What about it?" I questioned. "He's using it to sell me off, but it's still the least of our problems. Rosine is in much more danger than me. She should be our priority."

"We can't do much without a method of communication," Blaise murmured, thinking deeply with a furrowed brow. "And it's not as easy as the three of us passing notes when we were kids during class."

I sighed, knowing he was right. The days of our ridiculous homeschooling teacher trying to stop our shenanigans were long over. We used to sit at three evenly spaced desks, practicing French and a myriad of other things while our tutor droned on and on- all the while sliding handwritten notes around.