She dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, then went straight to the dining hall. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee met her at the door, but she bypassed that and headed to the small half bath. One perk of helping cook was that she didn’t have to traipse out across the yard to the bathhouse.
“Good mornin’,” Mary singsonged.
“Mornin’,” Jayden called out.
When she finished, she washed her hands, poured a cup of coffee, and carried it to the kitchen. “I had a text and a picture from Skyler this morning. They’ve been in London.”
“Are you jealous?” Mary stirred up a batch of buttercream frosting.
“No, ma’am.” Jayden flipped a bibbed apron over her head and tied the strings. “I’m just surprised that she even thought about sending me a picture. I usually don’t hear from her except at Christmas.”
“Maybe it’s her way of saying thank you for taking her place here,” Mary said.
“Maybe so.” Jayden nodded, but she didn’t believe a word of it.
They put together oven omelets and biscuits for breakfast that morning and baked three pans of cinnamon rolls that had been rising in the refrigerator all night. Mary spread the buttercream frosting on top of the rolls while they were still hot and set them out at the end of the buffet line.
“That’s my Sunday treat for the girls.” She smiled.
A vision of her grandmother, who also liked bibbed aprons, flashed through Jayden’s mind. “Chocolate chip pancakes are my Sunday treat for your grandpa. He’s got a sweet tooth, and he does love chocolate,” Granny had told her. Jayden turned away from Mary and wiped a tear from her cheek. Granny and Gramps had accepted her just like she was—tall, gangly, awkward—and never compared her to her sister. But then after she was a teenager and got her own car, Skyler only came around them when she wanted something.
Daylight was pushing away the darkness when the girls came in from their morning exercise and walk. Tiffany, the first in line, held out her tray for a bigger helping of casserole. “I’m starving this morning.” She managed a smile that didn’t even look like a grimace. “Carmella found an ant the size of a buzzard.”
“Everything is bigger in Texas,” Carmella said from the second place in line.
Lauren came next and her whole body seemed to hum with pent-up energy. Her eyes were glazed over, and her hands shook when she held out her tray. “I want more,” she said with a wicked grin. Jayden gave her a double portion and kept an eye on her when she carried her tray to the table. Jayden took a deep breath and let it out slowly, hoping that everything went well once Lauren had eaten. Jayden had had students with low blood sugar who looked like Lauren, so maybe that was her problem.
“Are you all right?” Mary asked.
“Just fine,” Jayden answered. “Lauren seems to be stressed this morning.”
“She’s been belligerent all morning,” Elijah whispered as he came through the line. “She always stops right at the edge of being given a demerit for bullying the other girls, especially Tiffany.”
Jayden caught a movement out of her peripheral vision and turned in time to see Lauren push her chair back so hard that it fell backward, clanging on the floor. Everything went quiet, and all the girls seemed to freeze in their chairs. Then she picked up her tray and threw it at the wall, scattering food all over the floor and into the girls’ hair. Jayden dropped the serving spoon in her hand and started toward the table.
“I hate this miserable place,” Lauren jumped up and yelled at the top of her lungs. “I hate everyone here, and I hate Tiffany Jordan more than anyone else.” She took a few steps to the next table, drew back her fist, and knocked Tiffany out of her chair onto the floor.
Tiffany bounced up to her feet, hands clenched in fists, and glared at Lauren. “That was a big mistake.” In seconds there were legs and arms flailing about—and screams from both girls filling the dining hall.
Novalene, Diana, and Henry all jumped up, too, but Elijah had been closest to the table, so he beat everyone to the fight. Jayden got there in time to pull Tiffany away, as Elijah was trying to corral Lauren, but she was all flailing arms and kicking legs.
Lauren got free from him and drew back to hit Tiffany again, missed the mark, and landed a right hook on Jayden. Jayden instinctively let go of Tiffany to grab her aching eye, and Tiffany went right back at Lauren.
“I’m going to tear you into pieces and feed you to the hogs for hitting Jayden,” Tiffany yelled. The other seven girls stayed in their chairs, but they began to argue—some taking up for Lauren, others for Tiffany. Carmella and Ashlyn finally broke the rules. Carmella rushed over to Jayden and helped her get ahold of Tiffany again, and Ashlyn bowed up to Lauren.
Novalene and Diana waded into the melee.
“Get out of my way,” Lauren screamed. “I hate you as much as I do that bitch.”
Henry had the good sense to cross the room and hit the button to blow the siren. The noise made every one of them stop and stand at attention. Novalene grabbed Lauren by the arm and marched her toward the door. “We’re going to the cabin. You’ve racked up so many demerits that it’ll be a wonder if you get to stay here another day.”
“When I get to that miserable cabin, I’m going to get my razor out of my footlocker and slit my wrists, and if you try to stop me, I’ll cut you, too. I’d rather die and go to hell as spend another night here,” Lauren hissed.
“I’ll get her things and the van,” Elijah said. “You keep her on the porch until I get here. Jayden, will you help watch her?”
“Of course.” Jayden nodded.
“Put me in jail. My folks will get me out and send me off to a fancy center, and even that will be better than this place. I’ll be out before you losers finish serving your time in this slum.” Lauren broke free of Novalene’s grasp on her arm, ran around the end of the buffet line, and slapped Mary across the face. “And I hate your cooking, so add that to my demerits.”
All the color rushed from Henry’s face as he ran across the room and wrapped his arms around his wife. Jayden grabbed Lauren and held both her hands behind her back with one hand, whipped off her apron with the other, and tied the girl’s wrists together with the strings.
“You can’t do this to me,” the girl screamed.
“I just did.” Jayden’s heart raced and her breath came out in short gasps.
Lauren struggled against the restraints and screamed. “My daddy will sue this place.”
“Bring it on, sweetheart,” Jayden said. “I’m going to take you outside now. You got any last words for your teammates?”
“Go to hell, the whole bunch of you,” Lauren said.
Henry’s hands knotted into fists and he took a step away from Mary. She reached out and got his arm. “I’m all right, darlin’. Let it go. I just wish we could have helped her.”
“Some people can’t be helped.” Henry hugged Mary tightly. “She’s not the first one to be sent away, and she won’t be the last.”
Jayden felt like a police officer as she grabbed Lauren’s collar with one hand and the makeshift handcuffs with the other. She and Novalene together took Lauren outside, but the girl fought them every step of the way.
Elijah pulled the van up and parked it. Jayden and Novalene got Lauren into the back seat, but it was no easy feat. She tried to fall down on the ground, then braced a leg on each side of the van door and used every cuss word in her vocabulary. Jayden finally got the girl into the back seat and was fastening her seat belt when Lauren slammed her head against Jayden’s. Everything went dark for a second, and Jayden felt the earth coming up to meet her—then strong arms bore her up. She shook off the dizziness and looked up into Elijah’s eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” Jayden answered. “I don’t think I’m hurt. More shocked than anything. Should I ride along in the back seat with her? You have to drive, and Novalene might need my help corralling her.”
“No, you need to get some ice
on that eye and your forehead,” Elijah answered. “When I get back, we’ll take you into the emergency room and have you checked out.”
“That’s not necessary.” Jayden took a step back. “I’ve had this bad and worse from my students at the school where I teach, but you could order a couple of sets of handcuffs in case this ever happens again.”
Tiffany seemed to appear out of nowhere. “Take those strings off her and give me five minutes of her time. I’ll show her that she can’t treat people like that.”
“You just see to it that Jayden gets some ice on her eye,” Elijah said as he got behind the wheel and closed the door.
“Yes, sir,” Tiffany said.
Tiffany threw an arm around Jayden’s shoulders and led her inside the dining hall. Somehow the mess had been cleaned up, and the rest of the girls had continued eating breakfast. The difference was in the buzz of conversation in the room. Where things had gone quiet as a tomb when the siren blew, it now sounded like a beehive.
Tiffany went to the kitchen, got a bag of frozen peas from the refrigerator, and handed it to Jayden. Jayden held the peas against her eye and crossed the room to sit with the adults. Her heart had settled down to a slow, steady beat, but the pain in her eye and head would take a while to disappear. It wasn’t her first black eye, and she’d had a minor concussion before, so she knew this wasn’t one of those, but it still hurt like hell.
Mary leaned across Elijah’s empty chair and laid a hand on her arm. “Are you all right? Did they get her into the van without too much trouble?”
“I’m fine and she’s on her way to Alpine,” Jayden answered with a reassuring smile. “And this casserole is good enough to eat cold. I earned two of those cinnamon rolls after this. Are you and Henry all right?”
“We’re fine, but I got to admit that’s the first time I’ve had a girl hit me,” Mary said.
“Hopefully, it will be the last,” Henry added.
“While you were outside—” Diana began, but then drew in a short breath. “Good Lord, girl, your hands are shaking. Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Just a little shook up.” Jayden made a conscious effort to still her nerves. “What happened when I was outside?”
“Rita told me that Lauren said she wasn’t going to stay here no matter what she had to do. She was so mad when she stepped in horse crap this morning on their walk that she declared this was her last day here. Rita also said that Lauren told her she had some pills that she’d hidden with her cigarettes and managed to hang on to them even when Novalene confiscated the smokes,” Diana answered. “I’ve dealt with kids that were high in my school before, but I’ve never seen anyone as wild as that girl.”
“Me either.” Jayden willed her hands to stop shaking so she could finish her breakfast.
“Diana, would you drive the second van to church this morning?” Henry asked. “Mary and I like to steal away for an hour and go to our church on Sunday morning. After what’s happened, it’ll be good for both of us to go sit quietly before the Lord for a little while.”
Jayden’s three girls finished their meal and came over to form a circle around her.
“What can we do to help you?” Tiffany asked.
“You can help me and Mary out in the kitchen.” Jayden could see that they needed something to do, and Mary was covering it well, but her hands were trembling.
“Yes, ma’am,” Tiffany said. “I’ll start rinsing trays.”
“It’s a good thing Lauren is gone, or I might have done something stupid and gotten sent away with her. If I get a demerit for not staying in my seat, it’ll be worth it.”
Carmella led the way to the kitchen. “Me too, but let’s go get started.”
“That Tiffany is a tough cookie,” Henry whispered.
“She’ll have bruises,” Jayden said, “but she’s showing all the other girls that she’s meaner than Lauren was.”
“I admire her and hope my girls take a lesson from what happened this morning.” Diana picked up her tray and headed toward the kitchen with it. “Since Lauren isn’t here for slop duty next week, that’s going to be Rita’s job. She stole my cell phone last night and was attempting to call her boyfriend when I caught her.”
Jayden just nodded and joined her girls in the kitchen.
“I hate this job.” Ashlyn sighed. “I’d rather clean horse stalls any day of the week than wash nasty old trays. We’ve got an amazing chef at home who makes whatever each of us wants, and she does the cleanup.”
“Stop griping,” Tiffany said. “We’re here to help Jayden.”
Jayden turned away so they couldn’t see her smile. She was proud of them for stepping up to the plate and taking on extra work.
“You mean you don’t have to eat whatever is fixed?” Carmella asked.
“Nope, we get to tell Martha what we want in the morning, and it’s ready for dinner.” Ashlyn rinsed trays and stacked them in the dishwasher. “I’ve never had to work like this before. I don’t like therapy, but I’ll take it over this.”
“Therapy ain’t so bad,” Tiffany said. “And I like Karen. I wasn’t going to talk to her when it was my hour, but she’s so sweet and she really listened when I said something.”
Jayden appreciated the meeting the counselors had with Karen. She addressed several of the girls’ problems and gave the counselors positive ways to help with them. Hearing that Tiffany liked Karen was a plus and gave Jayden hope that the girl would truly leave with a better self-image.
“I like to cook,” Carmella said. “Our cook lets me help in the kitchen all the time, but Mama decides what the menu is, and I can eat what’s put on the table or have a peanut butter sandwich.”
“What about you, Tiffany?” Jayden asked.
“My folks are gone all the time. They don’t give a crap what I eat or even if I eat. The housekeeper will fix food some of the time, but mostly I just live on takeout,” Tiffany answered.
No wonder the girls got into so much trouble, Jayden thought. Seemed to Jayden like their parents were much more taken up with careers and their own lives than seeing to it their daughters had the right kind of positive attention, but then she was used to seeing similar in her own school.
Elijah would have much rather been back at camp making sure that Jayden and Mary were really all right than taking a petulant girl to the county jail. His thoughts were all over the place. What if Mary had a heart attack over this incident? What if Jayden’s eye swelled shut? Would that affect her ability to help Mary or to take care of the girls in her cabin?
At first Lauren didn’t cry, but when Novalene and Elijah wouldn’t argue with her, the waterworks started. She cussed, long and loudly. She tried to kick the side window out, but then she got sick and threw up in the barf bag that Novalene had the good sense to bring along.
“Daddy is going to hate me. He loves my brother, but then Joseph is perfect and never does anything wrong. I wish he would die so Daddy would love me.”
“That’s your problem.” Elijah didn’t care right then if she hadn’t been loved enough or potty-trained right, or if her brother had wings and a halo.
“If you would take advantage of group sessions and your counseling, you might get over that feeling,” Novalene told her.
“Counselors are stupid,” Lauren said and stared out the window. “Take me back. I’ll be good.”
“Can’t do that,” Elijah said as he eased into a parking space behind the jail. Two deputies waited beside a patrol car and started walking toward them. “Looks like your dad has already arranged something.”
“I hope someone sets fire to Piney Wood and you all die,” Lauren hissed.
Elijah rolled down the window and said, “We’re delivering Lauren Fielding into your care.”
A deputy slid open the side door and held out a pair of cuffs. “Young lady, your father has instructed us to take you back to the airport, where he will have a private plane waiting to take you to a rehab center.”
Elijah go
t out of the van and walked around the front of it.
“Is Daddy going to be on the plane?” Lauren asked as she slid out of the seat.
“Fancy ties you got there,” the deputy chuckled as he fastened the cuffs around Lauren’s wrists before he untied the apron and tossed it in the back seat.
“No, ma’am,” the other deputy answered. “He’s sending your brother to accompany you. Are you going to go quietly?”
“Yes, I’ll be a good girl.” Lauren almost sounded like a sweet little mistreated child. “Just don’t make me go back to Piney Wood. They abuse all us girls at that place.”
The deputy winked at Elijah as he escorted Lauren to their unit. “That’s a shame. Deputy Jones will get your bag, and hopefully this next place will be nicer to you.”
“Well, that’s that,” Elijah said as he got back into the vehicle with Novalene. To his surprise, his hands trembled when he put the van in gear and drove out of the parking lot. Elijah didn’t handle failure well, and he felt as if he’d failed Lauren. As he drove north, he thought back to the time when he’d flown out to get his teammates. He didn’t know at that point how many were hurt, if any were dead, or exactly what he was going to find. The only information he had was that there had been an explosion and Matty, their corpsman, was hurt too badly to render help to the others. The picture of Buddy and Tim running across the ground between those two mountains was forever burned into his brain. Elijah had smelled fresh blood many times, but anytime he thought of that day when three of his teammates were killed, the metallic smell that filled his nostrils always came back to his mind.
“Where’s Tim and Matty?” Elijah had yelled over the whirring noise of the blades.
“They’re right behind us. Their Humvee got hit. Matty’s hurt bad,” Buddy answered. “But he’s alive.”
Tim was a huge man, six foot four and weighing in at 280 pounds, but there wasn’t a spare bit of fat on his body. He carried Matty like a baby across the desolate field that day and held him all the way back to base. Elijah could still hear his deep southern voice telling Matty to hang on.
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