Escape (Harper Security Ops Book 16), page 1
ESCAPE
Harper Security Ops: Huck & Josie
A.K. Evans
Copyright 2024 by A.K. Evans
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Cover Artist
cover artwork © Sarah Hansen, Okay Creations
www.okaycreations.com
Editing & Proofreading
Mackenzie Letson, Nice Girl Naughty Edits
www.nicegirlnaughtyedits.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
Twenty-two
Twenty-three
Twenty-four
Twenty-five
Twenty-six
Twenty-seven
Twenty-eight
Twenty-nine
Thirty
Epilogue
Preview of Coerced
Also by A.K. Evans
About the Author
PROLOGUE
Huck
“Time to get up, Huck. If you snooze any longer, you’re going to be late.”
A frustrated groan escaped as I rolled onto my back and peeled my eyes open. My mom was standing in the doorway to my bedroom. “I can’t wait for the day I no longer have to do this.”
Her face lit up, something I thought should be impossible—perhaps, even illegal—at this hour of the morning. “I’m sorry to say that today is not that day, kiddo. But on the bright side, you’ve only got seven months left until you graduate.”
“I could just stop going, though,” I suggested. “There are a lot of people who’ve dropped out of school and still become wildly successful.”
“That’s wonderful for them. You aren’t going to be one of them. And considering you’ve come this far, you should want to stick it out,” she reasoned. “You don’t quit when you’ve done all this work and are right at the end.”
“I’d rather sleep in,” I grumbled.
It was my mom’s turn to let out a sigh. “I’m sorry, Huck. You’ve got to go to school. And your breakfast is going to be ready in five minutes, so like I said before, it’s time to get up.”
The last thing I wanted to do was get out of my bed, but if I didn’t do it, my mom would continue to stand in the doorway and give me crap about it. So, I sat up. “Alright, I’m coming.”
My mom’s voice was entirely too cheerful when she returned, “I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”
After she walked away, presumably to the kitchen to finish preparing breakfast, I begrudgingly tossed the blanket from my body and got out of bed to get myself ready. I knew I probably shouldn’t have given my mom such a difficult time when it came to getting up for school every morning—as a single mom, she worked her tail off to provide a good life for the two of us—but I was ready to be done with school.
I was in my senior year at high school, but it was only November. Nothing sounded less appealing than having to wake up every morning to learn things I never intended to use in my life. I was ready for the real world.
Unfortunately, my mom saw things differently, and she pushed me every day to keep going. I loved and respected her enough to limit my complaining to the morning.
Once I’d gotten myself ready, I met her in the kitchen, where she made another attempt to get me excited about school while I ate breakfast.
“Look, I know you’ve had enough of school, but I promise you’re not going to regret this, Huck,” she said. “You just have to stick it out for a few more months.”
“I know. I just wish I could sleep in or take the occasional day off,” I explained.
“I’m really surprised at your lack of enthusiasm. I thought you would find ways to be excited about everything this year, since you aren’t going to have this experience again. Maybe, instead of looking at it as something dreadful, you could go to school today and find something that excites you. In fact, I’m going to challenge you to do that very thing. Tonight, at dinner, I want to hear all about one positive thing from school today outside of your friends that you believe you could just hang out with while not in school. Deal?”
I groaned. This sounded torturous. Even still, I promised, “I guess.”
My mom smiled brightly at me. “I can’t wait. Alright, finish up, so we can get you there on time.”
Feeling starved, I didn’t hesitate to honor her request. While I ate, she finished packing lunches for both of us, and before I knew it, we were out the door. I was still working to save up for a car, and since my mom had to go to work, she would drop me off at school on her way there.
Since I’d promised my mom I’d try hard to find one positive thing about school, I attempted to make that happen as quickly as possible. Sadly, homeroom left a lot to be desired. Worse, I didn’t think I was going to find what I was looking for in my first period class, either. Aside from having two of my closest friends, Sam and Mikey, in that class, there wasn’t going to be anything else enjoyable.
My physics teacher, Mr. Lewis, started the class with an announcement that proved my suspicions to be accurate.
“It’s the first day of the second marking period, so I’ve decided to switch things up,” he began. “There are going to be three different projects I intend to have you all complete between now and the end of the year, one every marking period. You’ll need to do these projects with a partner, who may or may not remain the same throughout the remainder of the year. That will depend on how things go for each of you on this first project. The project will count for sixty percent of your grade.”
Initially, while I felt aggravated about needing to do a project, I thought it might not be so bad that I’d be able to complete it with a partner. I’d pair up with one of my friends, and we’d try to make the most of it.
Once again, my hopes were shattered.
“I’ve already taken the liberty of pairing you up, and I’ll share those in a moment,” Mr. Lewis revealed. “Once I’ve given you the name of your partner, I’m going to pass out envelopes to each group. Each envelope contains a different project, and the two of you will need to work together to have it completed before the end of the marking period. I will provide time once each week, likely on Friday mornings, for you to work together while in class, but depending on how you choose to tackle the project, you might need to find time to meet outside of class, either after school or during study hall periods. Now, with all of that said, here are your partner assignments. Jessica Adams, you’re with Deena Stewart. Katrina Andrews, your partner is Michael Powell…”
Mr. Lewis continued sharing the names of the partners in each group, moving through in alphabetical order. After he got through those who came before me in the alphabet, I braced myself for my pairing. Because the reality was that I’d noticed Mr. Lewis had been putting people together who wouldn’t have necessarily chosen to work together if we’d been given the option to select our partners.
“Huck Davidson will be with Josie Day,” he finally declared, before continuing to the next pairing.
I didn’t pay attention to anything after he’d named my partner, because I was simply annoyed.
Josie Day.
Of all the people he could have paired me with, Mr. Lewis had chosen the one person in the classroom I hadn’t ever communicated with, not even once. I’d known Josie since middle school. She was a bit of a loner, and she always wound up sitting behind me in any of the classes we’d had together. She never talked to me, though. In fact, I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen her talk to anyone.
How was this going to work? Would we even be able to accomplish this task together, and do it successfully? I couldn’t stop myself from wondering what was going through her mind. How did she feel about needing to do this project together?
Once Mr. Lewis got through all the pairings, he said, “Alright, I want you to huddle up with your partner, and I’m going to come around with your envelope containing your specific assignment. You’ll then spend the rest of this class brainstorming ideas and coming up with a game plan for attacking the project.”
Since she was sitting right behind me, I spun around in my seat and found her looking rather nervous. I offered a smile, wanting to appear friendly, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. Her cheeks flushed, and she shrank back in her seat.
Great.
I hadn’t even said a word, and she was already uncomfortable.
“Huck, Josie, here’s yours,” Mr. Lewis said, holding an envelope out to us.
I took it from him, returned my attention to her, and asked, “Do you want to open it?”
She shrugged. “You can do it.”
I slid my fi nger beneath the sealed flap, opened the envelope, and pulled out the small square of paper. After reading it, I looked at Josie and said, “The topic is to demonstrate, through a real-world application, how to convert potential energy into kinetic energy.”
Josie offered a slight nod and reasoned, “That shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“Do you have any ideas on how we could do it?” I questioned her.
She considered her answer in silence a moment before she returned, “I guess it depends on how we want to handle the project.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, do you think we should just do some research and write a report, or should we actually attempt to demonstrate the concept by doing a project, sort of like a science fair project?”
My mom’s words from the morning rang inside my head. I needed to find something to be excited about. Sure, this was a project, but it seemed we were going to have our first period of the day on a Friday free from actual instruction. Plus, even if I didn’t know much of anything about Josie yet, at least she seemed to think this project would be simple. I could have wound up with a partner who would have left me to do all the work. Maybe I could get excited about this.
“Considering this project is going to count for sixty percent of our grade in this class, we probably shouldn’t skimp and just do a written report,” I said. “I think going above and beyond in this case is going to be worth the effort.”
Josie nodded. “I agree, and I’m glad you feel that way.”
“Alright, so how do you think we should tackle this?” I asked her.
Surprisingly, even if Josie had seemed incredibly shy when I first turned around, she didn’t hesitate to give me a detailed response. “I think we need to come up with a list of real-world applications for the project. We should make a list of all the instances where we’d be able to demonstrate the conversion of potential energy into kinetic. Once we do that, we can narrow them down to the one that’ll do the best job of proving we understand how the concept works and is likely to get us the best grade.”
My brows shot up so high, it was a wonder they didn’t become part of my hairline. “Wow. Okay. That’s a really great idea.”
A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Thanks.”
For the remainder of our time together in class, Josie and I brainstormed ideas for the project. While I came up with some options for the project, I was impressed by how many great ideas she had.
And by the time I was sitting down at the dinner table with my mom, there was something I was able to talk to her about that I was excited about at school.
“We can’t leave here until we decide.”
I stared across the table and noted the determined look on Josie’s face. Clearly, she meant business.
“Works for me. I have nowhere else to be today,” I told her.
Nodding furiously, she returned, “That’s good. Coming here was an excellent idea, Huck.”
A confident smile formed on my face. It felt good to receive that kind of praise from a girl who was as smart as I was learning Josie was, but I especially liked hearing her say my name. For someone I’d believed was a loner and weird for the longest time, the reality was that she had been quick to open up and be friendly enough with me for us to work on our project.
It had been just over two weeks since Mr. Lewis had paired us together. We spent that first day a week ago and yesterday in class simply brainstorming ideas for our science project. Before class was over yesterday, I had suggested to Josie that we get together outside of school to continue working on it. She agreed, and now we were at the Steel Ridge Public Library, something she felt keen on praising me for suggesting.
“Thanks, Josie. I just figured it would be easier to not have the limited time or the distraction of everyone else in the class,” I explained.
“Alright, so what do you think of what we’ve got so far? Do we have enough options to choose from, or should we allow ourselves to brainstorm for just a bit longer before we decide?” she questioned me.
I glanced down at the list of ideas we’d come up with and believed we’d done a great job of coming up with some concepts. “We’ve got a good list already, I think. Is there one you like best?”
Her eyes roamed over the sheet of paper, scanning the list, before she declared, “Well, I certainly think we can make one of these work. I really like the water behind the dam. It could be the perfect project. Obviously, some of these other ones are great, but they might be difficult to turn into an actual project—like the ripe fruit on the tree before it falls.”
“So, you want to do the water behind the dam, then?” I asked.
Josie chewed on the inside of her cheek, almost as though she was worried that she’d give me the wrong answer. “I don’t know. What do you think?”
I shrugged. “Honestly, except for the fruit one, which I agree might be difficult to demonstrate with a hands-on project, I don’t think we can go wrong with any of them. I’m good with whatever one you want to do.”
“Hmm.” Her eyes narrowed slightly with concentration. “I like the idea of the dam, but I wonder if it could get messy during the testing and final presentation.”
She had a point. I liked the way Josie didn’t just settle for anything and wanted to be sure we selected the best possible option.
“Okay, so if we didn’t do that, is there another one that might work better? What about the slide? Maybe we could build a model size slide and use a figurine to demonstrate it?”
As soon as I presented that option, Josie leaned forward with a sparkle in her eye and asked, “Or, what if we take it a step further and do something similar but in the scope of an amusement park?”
My brows furrowed. “Like, a roller coaster?”
Smiling brightly and sitting up taller, she confirmed, “Exactly like a roller coaster.”
The idea was excellent, but I needed to a take a minute before I could respond. I’d never seen Josie smile like she’d just smiled at me. I didn’t even think I’d seen her smile like that in our yearbook pictures. Even though I couldn’t recall what her picture looked like, I had to believe I would have remembered it if she’d been smiling like that.
Eventually, I nodded and returned the smile. “I think we just figured out our project.”
“Me, too. This is perfect. Okay, so now we just need to come up with ideas on how we want to build the coaster.”
I started laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
Shaking my head, I said, “Nothing. I just… I hadn’t anticipated you’d want to dive right into the next step immediately.”
Josie shrank back in her seat, the bubbly demeanor gone. “Oh. Oh, well, I, it’s just that, I mean, well, I thought since you said you didn’t have anywhere else to be today that it would make sense to continue working on it for a bit.”
Instantly, I felt awful.
I hadn’t intended to make things awkward and quickly realized it was on me to fix it. “I’m sorry. That didn’t come out right. I only meant to say that I’m impressed by you. I think it’s great that you’re motivated for the project. It’s clear you want us to do well.”
She tipped her head to the side, studying me. “I believe it’s important to do well and learn everything I can. Don’t you?”
Even if I’d spent the better part of the beginning of this school year wishing I could have just quit, I was realizing now just how bad of an idea that would have been. I was so embarrassed; I couldn’t bring myself to admit that truth to Josie. Instead, I offered a slight nod in return. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”
Following a beat of silence, she asked, “So, you’re okay with continuing to work on this today?”
“I am.”
With that, Josie and I got to work, and I hoped she felt I was putting in just as much effort as she was.
“Jeez, Huck, you scared me.”
“Sorry, Mom.”
“What are you doing up so early? I was just about to start breakfast before I came up to pry you out of bed this morning.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess my body’s getting used to waking up early.”
My mom sent me a look that indicated she didn’t necessarily believe what I was telling her to be the truth, but it was clear she didn’t think this was a fight worth starting. She likely believed it was better to count her blessings that her son woke up on his own on a Monday morning, eager to go to school.
