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  Runaways © 2014 DreamWorks Animation Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Based on “Runaways” © 2014 Awesomeness, LLC. All rights reserved.

  Created and produced by Running Press Kids, an imprint of Running Press Book Publishers, Philadelphia, PA 19103.

  ISBN: 978-1941341-45-2

  This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher. For information address AwesomenessINK, 1000 Flower Street, Glendale, California 91201.

  Cover image: rappensuncle / istock.com

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  19. You People Have Safes, Don’t You?

  20. Stalkarazzi

  21. Murder Weapon

  22. Where All Bodies are Buried

  23. Daddy’s Little Girl

  24. Her Face Screamed Guilt!

  25. We Weren’t Schoolgirls

  26. Balls Like an Elephant

  27. The Party

  28. I’m the Coward?

  19. YOU PEOPLE HAVE SAFES, DON’T YOU?

  Kaylee was home early from school and had been enjoying the quiet of the house when she heard familiar voices in the living room. Mason was talking with her father? It was more than unusual; it was unbelievable. Her father had basically declared war on Mason, yet here he was. She crept close and stood silently in the hallway.

  Mason sat across from her father, the tastefully modern coffee table between them. Mason’s leather jacket contrasting with the socialite’s Oxford shirt and cashmere sweater. Mason hadn’t been sure what to expect when Abernathy called and invited him to the house. For a brief moment, he thought he might actually be trying to get to know him. Mason smiled. Kaylee’s innocence had been rubbing off on him. But then the prick spoke. “You need to break up with my daughter.” Mason immediately stood up and turned toward the door.

  “Sit,” Abernathy commanded.

  “Screw you. I’m not a dog.”

  Kaylee smiled. She knew Mason would stand up to him.

  “Sit. You’ll want to hear my offer.” To Kaylee’s dismay, Mason sat. He wasn’t supposed to entertain anything resembling an offer about breaking up with her.

  “So there’s an offer?” Mason was suspicious.

  Abernathy pulled a pile of cash out from a shelf under the table and put it between them. He kept his eyes on Mason as he slid the money toward him. “You are going to break up with Kaylee.”

  Mason picked up the cash and carefully counted it—one hundred fifty-dollar bills in all. “Five thousand dollars?”

  Kaylee cringed. This was no small gesture. That was big money to anyone, let alone someone like Mason. She felt her body tightening, waiting for his response. He had to reject it. He had to. He loved her.

  “You think I’ll break up with your daughter for five thousand dollars?” Kaylee felt herself relax. Mason was about to get going and tell her father what he could do with his money. But instead, he shook his head. “This isn’t enough.” She heard him drop the money on the table. Kaylee fought the urge to scream out.

  “What?” Abernathy had expected the punk to protest before taking the payment just to save face, but he did not expect him to bargain.

  “Double it and we’ll talk.”

  “My offer is on the table.”

  “You want me to consider it, stop insulting me. Go get your checkbook or go to your safe. You people have safes, don’t you? And get more money.” He pushed the cash back toward him. “You probably spend this much eating out in a month. I want real bones.”

  Kaylee couldn’t listen anymore. She thought of the times she had defended Mason, had defended his honor and decency to people. She’d been wrong about everything. With that thought, she slipped away toward the back door of the house, already dialing her phone. In between sobs, she told Trevor she was going to the park where they used to play as kids. She knew he’d drop what he was doing to be with her.

  In the living room, Abernathy considered Mason before quietly rising to do as he asked. Once alone, Mason looked around. Everything was beautifully decorated. It was modern, but somewhat warm. A wall of glass looked out on the pool. A party house. Mason wondered why Kaylee never had any. When Abernathy returned, the cash pile was twice as big.

  He handed it to Mason, his voice authoritative. “Of course you won’t mention this when you break up with her.”

  “Don’t worry. She’ll only hate one of us.”

  This seemed to be the final insult. Abernathy nearly spat his words. “You’re just a blip in her life. A momentary diversion that she might mention some day when she talks about boys she dated in high school. I’m her father.”

  Mason grinned at the irony. “Right. Her image of a good man.” His blood was boiling. He never felt more sorry for Kaylee, to have this asshole raise her. She’d been given every advantage in life, except a decent father. What a role model. Mason mentally thanked his own dad. He may have been uneducated and downright gruff, but he was a good man. “Here’s the thing . . .”

  “We’re done here.” Abernathy was accustomed to calling the shots, but Mason wasn’t accustomed to listening to anyone.

  “Here’s the thing. I’m not breaking up with Kaylee.”

  “Maybe I wasn’t clear. You’re breaking up with her. One way or another, I will make it happen. I didn’t have to offer you anything.”

  “Add generous to all those great things people think about you.” Mason shook his head.

  “If I see you with Kaylee, hear about you with Kaylee, anything. I will call the police and say you stole that money.”

  “No. You won’t.”

  “You little self-righteous shit. You seem to be mistaking me for some powerless sap like your father.”

  Mason nearly hit him then. He made a fist but fought the urge. This had to end with him in control. “You won’t report me, because if you do, to anyone, I’ll tell them what I know.”

  “Make up any story you want. No one will believe you.” But the man clearly was uncomfortable. Mason let the silence sit. The prick probably had several big secrets and wasn’t sure which one he was talking about. But Mason knew the one he had was a game changer. Screw this asshole for thinking he wasn’t good enough for his daughter. Screw him for thinking he could be bought like a whore. Screw him for underestimating Mason Henry.

  20. STALKARAZZI

  “It’s sort of unethical, really, if you think about it,” Glinda reasoned. Kaylee’s dad offered money to Mason to break up with his daughter, and Mason took the money but refused to hold up his end of the bargain. “If I gave money to someone to buy a really great fringed leather jacket, and they took the money but gave me a jacket that didn’t have fringe, I’d be hellza angry. And this is way worse. I mean, he didn’t even get the jacket. Forget the fringe.” Glinda was sure William Abernathy must have felt the same way. “Do you think this might be what led to his getting killed? Like, the old man went after Mason and they fought?”

  “So people at school knew what happened with her father?” The old detective sounded impatient.

  “Of course. Word got out. And it was obvious when Kaylee started avoiding Mason.”

  “They were still together as of last night.”

  “But they almost broke up before over it. I saw the whole thing. I was on a balcony at school.” Again, very Ruliet.

  “So they fought. . . .” The older detective was also tired.

  “Right. Mason was sitting on the steps after school. He was throwing rocks at a fire hydrant, looking all angsty. I waited around to see what was going on. He has a total crap arm, by the way. Couldn’t hit the hydra
nt to save his life.”

  “Go on.”

  “What else can I say about it? He wasn’t a jock.”

  “Go on about the fight.”

  “At this point, everybody knew something was up with the two of them. Kaylee had missed a few days of school, and when she came back, she was always getting to class late or leaving early. Totally not like her. Word on the street was she was doing that so Mason never had a chance to be alone with her and to talk to her. Apparently, he was getting tired of trying to track her down, so here he was, sitting and waiting like a stalkarazzi for her to walk by. When Kaylee came out of the building and saw him waiting, she was all ready to turn around, but for whatever reason, she didn’t. She walked down the steps, right by him, and he called out to her. He asked why she hadn’t answered any of his calls or texts. Kaylee had to hear him, but she pretended she didn’t. Then he chased after her. He said he wanted to show her something.” Glinda paused. “That really got my interest.”

  Kaylee had been avoiding Mason after the incident between him and her father. The last thing she’d heard was Mason taking the money to break up with her. She was furious and heartbroken. She almost turned around when she saw him waiting for her outside of school, but she wanted to have the fight and just get it over with.

  Still, she didn’t approach him and made him chase after her. “Why are you avoiding me?”

  “Why would I want to meet with you when I know it’s so you can break up with me?” It seemed like a good question to her, but Mason seemed genuinely confused.

  “What are you talking about? I’m not breaking up with you. Ever.”

  Kaylee finally stopped to face him. “I really thought we had something. Something more than all this.” She gestured to the school and the few students nearby.

  “We do. You know I’d do anything for you. Anything.” His eyes pleaded with hers.

  “You’re lying. I know about the money. I saw you with my father. I know you cut a deal.” Mason finally understood why she’d been avoiding him. What a mess.

  “Please, let me explain.”

  “There’s no explaining what you did. I thought I meant something more to you. I thought you knew that money couldn’t buy what we had.”

  “Money can’t buy what we have. Nothing can. People could spend their whole lives searching and never have what we have.”

  The more Mason protested, the more upset Kaylee got. She never believed he could be such a hypocrite. “I trusted you.”

  “I deserve your trust! I would do anything for you. I know I’m lucky to have you.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “I’m not. I won’t. I will never do anything to hurt you.”

  Kaylee couldn’t even look at him. She knew if she did she’d burst into tears. She tried to escape before she lost it, looking down so he wouldn’t see her eyes, but Mason grabbed her. “Look at me. Yes. I took the money.” Kaylee yanked away, but Mason wasn’t letting go. “But I’m not breaking up with you.”

  “You took my father’s money,” Kaylee spat out the words.

  “I did. I took his money. He offered me money to break up with you, and I took it. But I’m not breaking up with you. I never planned to break up with you. Ever. If you’ll have me, you’ll be stuck with me forever.”

  Now it was Kaylee’s turn to be confused. Mason shook his head. “I can’t be bought. Not by him or anybody else.”

  “But he paid you.”

  “He did. But he’s a fool who thinks he can fix problems by throwing cash at them. He offered money and I took it.” When Mason recounted this part, he seemed pleased with himself, like he’d outsmarted someone who was trying to trick him. But Kaylee knew her father better than Mason did. He wouldn’t give up that easily. She didn’t like what her father did trying to buy Mason out, and she was secretly relieved that Mason wasn’t breaking up with her, but his double crossing her father worried her.

  “My father isn’t going to just walk away. You took his money. He’ll make things hard on you. Maybe on your father. You need to think about what you’re doing.”

  “He won’t do anything.”

  “You don’t know him the way I do.”

  “I know something. Something he doesn’t want anybody else to know.” Mason held her gaze. He thought she would be pleased he had bested her father. He expected her to ask what the information was, but instead Kaylee looked concerned.

  “This thing you know. Does it have something to do with me?”

  Mason smiled. “You don’t have any secrets this big.”

  Kaylee wished he was right.

  “I need to show you something.”

  Mason took Kaylee’s hand and guided her around the corner of the building to where a dark gray Mustang was parked. It was a muscle car, all waxed and sexy.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s the car your father bought us. You don’t have to ride around in my old piece of shit anymore.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Your father gave me the money. I bought a car. It’s simple.”

  “My father must be furious,” Kaylee said. Mason hugged her. “Let him be furious,” he said. “He can’t hurt us.”

  Kaylee looked doubtful. If she’d looked up toward the balcony, she would’ve seen that Glinda looked doubtful as well. Mason was screwing with some powerful people.

  “Mr. Abernathy offered Mason money to break up with Kaylee. Mason took the money and bought that white-trash hot rod of his. That’s how little he thinks of Kaylee. Everybody thinks he loved her so much. But he was willing to be bought off.”

  Jared was getting impatient. He didn’t see why the police needed to rehash all this information when they should be out looking for Mason and Kaylee.

  “And then he didn’t break up with her,” Jared pointed out. “He made a deal and didn’t honor it. That was Mason, no sense of decency.”

  “Why didn’t Abernathy report the incident? Mason had essentially stolen money from him.”

  “Rumor had it that Mason knew something about the man and was blackmailing him. What he knew, I have no idea.” Jared realized he needed to find out. There was a lot going on with Mason that he didn’t know about. First, he managed to avoid getting punished for throwing Jared into the lockers. Then, he took a large amount of money from William Abernathy without honoring the agreement they had, and Abernathy had let him go unscathed. Mason clearly knew something, something that the people who ordinarily would be able to punish him wanted kept secret. Jared couldn’t tolerate the thought of Mason being better at the information game than he was.

  He left the interrogation and immediately pulled up his computer with recordings from the various camera feeds he had around the campus. He settled into a comfortable chair in the student lounge. There was a lot of footage to sort through and Jared wasn’t sure where to start. He knew it had something to do with William Abernathy, so he pulled footage from the day he received his community service award. Most of his cameras and bugs were in places people had private conversations: locker rooms, restrooms, the dean’s office. Jared was surprised at how many people popped pills, or worse, in public restrooms. They seemed so dirty for something so personal. Maybe Mr. Abernathy had a drug problem. That seemed the most likely.

  Jared thought of his sizable trove of information. He knew things about numerous students and he was waiting until he needed to use them. He’d known about Keesha’s pill habit a full six months before he thought it necessary to call her attention to it. And he knew about Olivia Abernathy and Dean Van de Sant. He had considered telling the police about their affair in case it could help their investigation, but thought he might need to pull favor with the dean at some point so he changed his mind.

  That was part of the game, knowing when to use information. It was like playing the stock market. Sell too soon and you lose. Sell too late and you lose. The best investments are monitored carefully for optimum profit. He had something on Lily Mars too. She’d had
an embarrassing issue and made the mistake of taking a call about it in the restroom. He had no idea when he would need to curry a favor from her, but he was sure he would at some point.

  He continued fast-forwarding through what amounted to hours of footage. Jared was somewhat heartened by how little dirt he actually did gather on people. Sure, he had his share of nose pickers and cheerleaders passing gas, but he had a standard and would only use evidence of people doing things he thought were actually wrong. Not just human.

  William Abernathy appeared on the screen. Jared let the recording slow to real time. Abernathy wasn’t alone. And when Jared saw who he was with, everything that had happened in the previous night made total sense to him.

  Jared not only understood why Mason killed William Abernathy. He approved.

  21. MURDER WEAPON

  Van de Sant walked down the hallway near his office, talking to the detectives. He was very pleased with himself.

  “I was making my usual rounds this afternoon when I noticed something was askew. Something had not been cleaned properly. Ordinarily, I’d consider this a reason to have a little chat with our cleaning staff. But in this case, I believe their shoddy work can benefit your investigation.”

  They passed numerous trophy cases jammed with the spoils of a century of the school’s successful athletic teams. Gold cups, ribbons, and bronze statues of athletes filled the shelves. Photos dating back to the days when the football team wore what looked like pillows to protect themselves hung on every open surface.

  “Danbury has always been one of the better preparatory schools for athletics,” Van de Sant explained. “We believe firmly in nurturing our students’ minds and bodies equally.”

  He smiled at the detectives. It was the same spiel he gave to all new families on prospective student tours, though most would apply no matter what he said. Danbury was prestigious and they all wanted prestige. If their athletic program was made up of just synchronized swimming and square dancing, they’d still apply.

  The dean and the detectives reached the destination. Another trophy case, but this one was filled with more contemporary awards. Van de Sant pointed out a conspicuously empty section. The shelf was dusty, save for one perfectly clean square spot. Someone had removed a trophy since the last time the cleaning crew had dusted.