Rogue Investigation Read online

  Rogue Investigation

  Godslayer Academy, Book 2

  Isadora Brown

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Newsletter Information

  Did You Like Rogue Investigation?

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  The last thing I ever expected from my Thanksgiving this year was sitting across my small dining table, eating turkey and macaroni and cheese with Robert Lannister. And yet, that was exactly what I was doing.

  I took another bite of the dark meat, trying not to stare at him. I was acting ridiculous. I had been working for Robert the last few weeks. I should be used to his presence by now - even if he was kind of a superhero who created the Godslayer Academy and a bunch of technology that saved lives. Even if he was GQ’s most stylish man two years ago. Even if he was one of the most brilliant minds on the planet - up for a Nobel Peace Prize because of the technology he created and implemented during the god attack on South Haven three years ago. Even if he was the most beautiful man I had ever met.

  But to see him pouring extra gravy on his mashed potatoes and wrinkling his nose at my mother’s extra-bitter homemade cranberry sauce, I couldn’t help but feel like I had walked into some kind of realm that was most definitely not supposed to exist.

  I lived in a funky apartment with my mom at twenty years old, not a ritzy flat or a mansion on Lake Michigan. I wasn’t a supermodel or an actress and I couldn’t carry a tune or dance in a sexy rhythm to save my life. I was not supposed to be the girl that hung out with Robert on a daily basis.

  But I was.

  The thing I knew I had in spades over everything else was a passion for science and a desire to learn. Robert might be friends with Elon Musk and he might be dating the latest Miss America winner, but he cared about expanding scientific knowledge and advancing technology even faster than Apple. And I helped him with that.

  “Robert, how do you like the food?” my mother asked from my left. She was practically beaming at this point. I doubted she ever expected to have Robert Lannister in her tiny little home either.

  I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at my mom. She always softened when Robert was around. Even now, she was dressed in one of her only nice outfits - a blue and gold dress that my father got for her when they were in Italy. She had golden earrings in her ears and pink lipstick on her lips. It was nice to see her dressed up, even if she had never gone to these lengths to get dressed up for Thanksgiving now that my father wasn’t here to celebrate with us. I would say she had a little crush on Robert, but I didn’t think it was that. It was like she was happy he was here. Like she missed having a male presence in the house.

  “Delicious,” Robert said after swallowing his bite. “Best I ever had. You’ll have to give me the recipe for everything before I scurry on out of here.”

  My mother giggled and I rolled my eyes goodnaturedly.

  I understood the emptiness she probably still felt, despite the time that had passed. My father died in the Tragedy of South Haven, when the gods made their presence known and slaughtered a bunch of humans as a way to demand fealty, worship, and offerings. Apparently, they tired of our wicked ways and wanted to remind us just who was in charge here. No one knew what set them off, what triggered such a reaction. My father was one of the casualties. I still didn’t know why he was in South Haven of all places and why he wanted me to go with him. I wished I could ask him. I wished I could ask him so many things.

  “I hope you’re not leaving soon?” she asked tentatively, as she slowly came to her feet. My mother was in her sixties. She had me at an older age. It was hard for me to see her moving so tepidly when I always remembered her filled with so much life, but I tried not to think about it. She was alive, and that was all that mattered.

  “Not without having at least one slice of your homemade pecan pie,” he said. “Lara hasn’t stopped talking about it all week.”

  He gave me a wink, and I pointedly ignored the way my heart did a little flip. Robert was a notorious charmer. He did it to everyone. I was not anyone special, even if my body reacted like I was.

  “One time,” I said, sticking up a finger. “I mentioned it once.””

  “Maybe one hundred,” he said before scooping more potatoes up with his fork, dipping it in the river of gravy that sliced through his plate, and sticking the food in his mouth.

  I pressed my lips together to keep myself from saying anything more. But I leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest, a smile on my face. I couldn’t remember being this…content since Dad died. A trickle of guilt ride to infiltrate my gut, tried to remind me that it wasn’t very becoming to be happy when Dad wasn’t here to celebrate his favorite holiday with us, but I reached for my iced cranberry juice and smothered the feeling with a long gulp. I didn’t want to feel guilty right now. I wanted to enjoy myself.

  “Well, let me get that pie,” my mother said from the kitchen. “I’m sure you’ve had much better, Robert. But I try.” She grabbed a couple of plates from the cabinets, having to stand on her toes to reach them. “Tell me, are you working on anything interesting right now? I’ve noticed Lara is at the lab later and later.”

  Robert and I locked eyes. A warmth spread across my chest and I forced myself to hold his stare, even if my first instinct was to look away. I liked we could communicate nonverbally, but it made me feel things I wasn’t sure I wanted to face just yet.

  “Just the usual stuff,” Robert called over his shoulder. He set down his fork and began to drum his fingers on the surface of the table. “She’s helping me save the world. You know how it is.”

  “Oh, yes. Well, I’m just glad she listens to you,” she mother said. Her grey brows pushed together as she carefully began to slice the pie. “Everything I advised her not to do, she had to apply the scientific method on and discover the answers to herself.”

  Robert’s brow rose. “Really?” he asked her. “A scientist after my own heart.”

  “Well, let me tell you, Robert, it made for an interesting twenty years,” she said.

  At that moment, my phone began to ring from my bedroom. I made it a point to leave it there so nothing would interrupt our dinner. Besides maybe Charley, I didn’t think anyone would have any reason to do just that.

  “Who is that?” Robert asked.

  “I have no idea,” I said.

  “You’re not going to check?” He shifted in his seat. “What if it’s an emergency? What if it’s Charley? What if -“

  “Why are you worried about it?” I asked, tilting my chin down and letting hair fall in my face. “It’s not important.”

  “Yeah, but how do you know?” Robert asked.

  “How many calls have you gotten in the last ten minutes that you haven’t answered because you were eating?” I shot back.

  He paused. “That’s irrelevant.”

  I laughed in disbelief as my mother made her way over with a plate of pie in each hand. I pointedly ignored the clatter of the forks as the plates shook in her grasp. She carefully set one down in front of Robert before doing the same for me.

  “Are you two bickering again?” she asked.

  “He’s mad because someone called me and I don’t know who it is,” I said, picking up my fork.

  Robert stood up abruptly and proceeded to grab my dinner plate, my mother’s, and his own before my mother could clear the table herself, leaving more room on the table for our pie.

  “I’m not mad,” he insisted as he walked to
the sink. “Hilda, do I look mad? No. I just think it’s weird someone is calling her on Thanksgiving.”

  “He does make a point, dear,” my mother said as she leaned back in her chair. She brought her newly topped-off glass of milk to her lips before looking at Robert over her glass. She should be wearing glasses but refused. “You don’t have friends.”

  “Mom!” I bellowed, nearly choking on a pecan.

  “See? That’s what I said too.” Robert placed the dishes in the sink before coming back to the table. “I mean, she has Charley but that’s it.”

  “What about that boy?” my mother asked, shooting me a look before taking a large bite of her small slice of pie.

  “What boy?” Robert looked between me and my mom. He had yet to take a bite of pie, setting down his fork, and lacing his fingers on the surface of the table. “What boy? I haven’t heard of any boy. What boy?”

  “The one from her training,” my mother said. “Your teacher told you he was going to be your sparring partner, didn’t he?”

  My cheeks were set on fire. They burned like my mother left a pie in the oven. My chin dipped down and I swallowed the bite of pie that was in my mouth. I didn’t even taste the starchy-sweet flaky pie because I was contemplating excusing myself to go to the bathroom.

  I barely found out about this late last night. Logan, the physical trainer at Godslayer Academy, cut my running - jogging is probably a more accurate term - in order to tell me that Dalton Rogers, son of Dean Firth Rogers - volunteered to be my sparring partner once I completed my under six-minute mile. I didn’t even get a chance to question why the hell Logan would even do something like that when he grunted and disappeared.

  But I forgot about it except, apparently, having told my mother in order to give her something when she asked about my day. It was getting tiresome for us both when all I told her was that I couldn’t tell her much.

  “Training partner?” Robert asked. “Well, Freckles? Are you going to leave us hanging?”

  I rolled my eyes, though it did nothing for the blush lining my cheeks, and heaved a sigh. “Logan told me Dalton volunteered to be my sparring partner,” I said.

  Robert’s shoulders loosened slightly. He opened his mouth, glanced to the ceiling, shut it, then pursed his lips. He dropped his fork and leaned back before sitting up straight.

  “Why?” he finally got out.

  I released a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding in. “I don’t know,” I said, dismissing the notion with a flick of my wrist. I started stabbing at the pecans with my fork, avoiding his intense gaze. “I didn’t get a chance to ask. You know Logan. He told me and then left. It’s not a big deal.”

  “The hell - I mean, excuse me language, Hilda, I’m not usually this uncouth, the heck it’s not,” he said.

  “Are you going to eat your pie?” I asked, raising my brows and jerking my chin to his plate.

  “Stop trying to change the subject.” He gathered a piece of the pie on his fork before pointing it at me. “How come you didn’t tell me?”

  “To be honest, it slipped my mind,” I said quickly before I shoved another big bite of pie in my mouth. “It happened last night.”

  He furrowed his brow. “Not enough for you not to tell Hilda over here,” he said. “Come on, Freckles. That’s kind of a big deal. Aren’t you curious as to why Rogers Jr. would even want to volunteer for that kind of thing? Isn’t Charley in your class?”

  I nodded.

  “I think it’s cute,” my mother said, giving me a wink, which definitely did not help the situation.

  “No, Hilda,” Robert said, shaking his head. “No. This is not cute. This is…” He let his voice trail off.

  “What?” I asked. “This is what?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted.

  I nearly choked on my pie once again. Robert never admitted to being ignorant about anything. Ever.

  He locked eyes with me once again. “But it’s nothing good.”

  Chapter Two

  By the time Robert finally left for the evening, I was ready to pass out. My mother gave me a long hug and whispered how happy she was that I was making friends with the likes of Robert Lannister doing something I loved before I helped her use the restroom and tucked her into bed.

  “My, how the tables have turned,” she murmured, looking up at me as I hovered over her. “I remember it wasn’t that long ago when you made me check under your bed and in your closet for monsters.”

  “I should have made you check the sky,” I said before handing her the ereader from her nightstand. “Is there anything else you need, Mom?”

  “Go to bed, darling,” she murmured, already unlocking the ereader.

  I waddled into my bed, stifling a yawn, already peeling my bra out from under my shirt and tossing it into my hamper. I slowly pulled off my clothes after that and then replaced them with a heavy pair of pajama pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a hoodie on overhead. We had the heater on, but it was set to a timer that went off around midnight because we couldn’t afford to have it on all night. I was just about ready to floss when I took notice of my phone and remembered the random phone call.

  I frowned, grabbing it from my nightstand after unplugging it from its charger. The number came up as unknown but there was a voicemail.

  “This is Eddie Ronin, returning your call. Call me back so we can talk.” He left a number I could reach out to and hung up without saying goodbye.

  I held my breath. Eddie Ronin called me back.

  Eddie Ronin called me back.

  This wasn’t something I could pretend I didn’t do anymore. He called me, even left a message. This was real now.

  I chewed my bottom lip. Should I return the call? Should I wait? And what about Robert? He specifically said not to reach out to this guy at all.

  That didn’t stop you, though, did it?

  I ignored the voice in my head and typed in the number from the voicemail. At the very least, I was going to save it so I had it.

  Just in case.

  I didn’t like the possibility of there being some sort of traitor at Godslayer Academy. I didn’t like the fact that anyone could side with the gods, could work with them, especially after everything they did during the Tragedy of South Haven. My stomach twisted in knots. I slid into bed, trying to ignore the sinking feeling. My cheeks heated up, flushed and stimulated. My mind began to whir. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to sleep tonight. On the one hand, I had a possible solution to a terrible problem. On the other, by using said solution, I’d be betraying the one person who believed in me when no one else had.

  I didn’t know what to do.

  I woke up a few hours later. I hadn’t realized I had fallen asleep in the first place but apparently I had.

  My phone wound up tangled in my pillowcase. I must have forgotten to put it back on the nightstand. I knew it wasn’t the healthiest thing to do, falling asleep to my phone and then sleeping right next to it, but I couldn’t be bothered to care. I had hoped even a few hours would give me some sort of revelation on what I needed to do when it came to Eddie Ronin, but I was still unsettled about the whole thing.

  I wasn’t a fighter. The only way I could contribute to this cause of defending earth against vicious, merciless gods, was through my mind. And I hadn’t realized I wanted that opportunity until Robert practically forced me to take it.

  But I could help find out who was betraying the academy. I could do something about that. That would help. Sure, it wasn’t fighting the gods or even running a six-minute mile, but it was something. And I wouldn’t just be handing tools to Robert. I’d be accomplishing something on my own.

  I sighed. I should just call Ronin, at least set up a meeting. But even contemplating that felt like a betrayal to Robert. And I didn’t want to do that. Not when I knew Robert didn’t trust many people. Not when, for some reason I still didn’t understand, Robert trusted me.

  I knew contacting Ronin was our best bet at discovering who the traitor co
uld be. He might be dealing with some kind of mental breakdown since the Tragedy, but he was supposed to be the best PI around. Of course, I wasn’t going to do it without letting Robert know.

  I decided to bite the bullet and send him a text: You awake?

  If he was, he’d respond immediately. If he wasn’t, he’d sleep through the alert.

  I was awake, however, so I forced myself to stand up and stretch. I needed to distract myself with something so my mind wouldn’t linger on Ronin and Robert and traitors and gods invading our school, our world.

  I had never felt so hopeless.

  At that moment, my phone chirped. I glanced down and saw Robert’s message.

  Couldn’t sleep.

  That didn’t surprise me. The more time I spent with Robert, the more time I got to know his habits and his tendencies. He didn’t sleep much. It was like his brain couldn’t shut off. When he worked, it released this pent-up energy his body seemed to store within him, keeping him up. Sometimes, I wished I knew exactly what to do to ease the tension he carried within himself, to help motivate him to sleep. But I doubted I could shut his mind off.

  I wondered if maybe that was why he dated so much. Sex released endorphins, specifically dopamine that caused the muscles in the body to relax. Maybe he could only relax after sex.

  And you’d be more than willing to help with that, wouldn’t you?

  I promptly ignored the voice and scrambled to unlock my phone so I could respond. It took me three tries before I was able to get in.

  You okay?

  I bit my bottom lip again. Guilt seeped through my pores like a puss I couldn’t extract.

  I’m just anxious about this whole -

  Is this about Dalton?

  I paused, mid-sentence. Before I could even begin to formulate a response, my phone pinged again. I quickly flipped it to silent mode. I doubted the soft noise could wake up my mother but I wasn’t sure, especially if Robert continued to text so incessantly.