by Geri Krotow
“How much does your mother know about what you’ve been doing?” Bryce didn’t relent.
“I don’t think she knows anything about it. We don’t talk very much anymore. I don’t go home until I absolutely have to, because once I’m there, I’m stuck.”
“What about your brothers and sisters, Amy? How much of the New Thought propaganda are they absorbing?” Claudia was pressing for the purposes of the Trail Hikers’ op with this one.
Mitch felt Colt tense next to him.
Amy sniffled and accepted the tissue Claudia handed her. “They’re all so much younger than me. My parents had me, and my sister, who’s in middle school, was born five years later. The rest are in elementary school. I love them, and I’d do anything for them, but I can’t stay here. We’ll all suffocate under this crazy group if I do.” Tears welled and streamed down her cheeks, dripping off her chin. She grabbed another tissue.
Amy looked nothing like the put-together student and cheerleader she portrayed at school. Compassion welled for the young woman, the student he’d taught for the past year and a half. Still, she’d been complicit in criminal acts and, at age eighteen, was considered an adult.
Bryce’s face was set in a grim expression that only hinted at the frustration Mitch knew he experienced. If Amy was only involved with the blood writing, who had thrown the rock through his window? And was it the same person who had targeted Nika’s windshield?
“Amy, let’s go over what we have so far. You’ve told us that you were the one who wrote the warnings on Mr. Everlock’s SMART Board, including the threat on his life?”
Amy nodded. “Yes. But he isn’t in real danger. They’re just words. Just a way to get to the Rainbows and make the group break up.”
“And you had nothing to with the rock throwing, no knowledge of whoever did that?”
“No, it wasn’t me. And I know you’re going to think it was my father, but it couldn’t have been.”
Mitch’s gut tightened as he watched Claudia and Bryce sit straighter.
“Why couldn’t it be your father, Amy?”
“Because he was out of town when Nika’s car got hit.”
Mitch looked at Colt. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“That Daniel Donovan may not have been out of town as much as she thinks? Yeah.” Colt pulled out his phone. “I’m texting Nika. Can you use your TH systems and get a decent photo of him, and text it to her?”
Mitch nodded. “I need to leave, anyway. As much as I’d love to hear the rest of this interview, I’ve got to be at the dance.”
Colt looked up from his phone. His eyes were knowing, unflinching. “You know you have orders to stay out of it, right?”
“Yes.” Mitch didn’t report to Colt, but they were on the same side—the same team, when it boiled down to it.
“I’m not saying don’t use your skills if you’re called to, but you can trust my officers who’ll be there, and above all else, trust Nika, Mitch.”
“I do. I know she’s the best, Colt.”
“Sometimes we can forget these things in the heat of danger, when someone we care a lot about is threatened. Do we understand each other?”
Mitch knew that if he thought Nika was in danger he’d fight through hell to save her. Whatever it took. Colt knew it, too, but it wasn’t what Colt wanted to hear and not what he needed to express to Nika’s boss.
“Yes, sir.”
Chapter 22
Friday night at the Silver Bells Ball
“It’s a miracle that we’re here and look halfway decent.” Rachel sipped the bottle of water she’d gotten off the beverage table. She held the bottle up to the sparkling lights and sighed. “I wish they’d have let us use the Rainbows water bottles instead of these ugly, environmentally offensive containers.”
Nika laughed. “It’s a good school policy. There would be booze and other things in everyone’s Rainbows bottle in no time.”
“Probably. But they look so much nicer.”
“How is the sale going so far?” They were across the gym from the long line of tables where different Silver Valley High School clubs and organizations sold everything from cookies to security whistles.
Rachel did her trademark shrug. “Okay, I guess. We’ll know more when we stand our shift.”
Nika looked at the clock on the gym wall, behind where the basketball nets had been folded away for the big bash. They had ten minutes until their shift, the third of the evening.
The dance was almost a third of the way through and still no Mitch. She had to stay vigilant in case anyone tried to disrupt the dance, but her mind wanted to wander to the what-ifs of the situation at SVPD. Had Amy confessed to all of the incidents? Had she pointed the finger at someone else?
There was no way to know until Mitch showed up.
“Stop worrying about him. He’ll be here.” Rachel grinned at her in the dim light of the huge room, the glittering Christmas lights twinkling all around them.
“I’m not worried.”
“Yes, you are. And, honestly, we caught who was writing the words on the board. She’s probably the same person who threw the rocks, right? All’s safe for now.” Rachel looked like a mature woman, far beyond her years.
“We can’t ever let our guard down. Not with—” Nika cut herself off. This was Rachel’s senior Silver Bells Ball. Her last holiday dance as a high schooler. “Rachel, we haven’t really talked about this, but is there anyone you’d like to dance with?”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “I know you’re trying to be all sensitive and everything, and I appreciate it. There’s no one special, not really.”
“I’ve seen how you look at Neel. And how he looks at you.” Neel had a gay older brother and had joined the Rainbows because of the struggles he’d witnessed. Nika didn’t think she was too far off the mark to try to fix these two up.
A bare ghost of a smile flitted at Rachel’s lips. “He is kind of cute, isn’t he?”
“Why don’t you go ask him to dance? It doesn’t have to be a slow dance.”
“Hell, no! I don’t want to be in that sea of disgusting pubescent children, gyrating and grinding for everyone to see.”
Nika raised her eyebrows but remained silent. She didn’t want Rachel to know how worried she’d been about her with the revelations of the past few weeks. It was a relief and empowering to see that Rachel still had some healthy teenage emotions going on.
“I have to agree, it is pretty gross. But you should ask him, anyway. You can dance at the side of the floor, away from the ‘ickiness.’” Nika made a pretense of looking at the decorations, but she was doing a security sweep. Nothing looked amiss or warranted extra inspection. “Tell you what, I’m going to head over to the basketball table and get one of those homemade Amish root beers they’re selling. I’ll meet you at the Rainbows table in five minutes, when our shift starts.”
“Don’t be late.” Rachel tried to sound bored but Nika saw her scouring the crowd. For Neel, perhaps?
She understood completely, for the minute her eyes found Mitch, standing at the entrance to the gymnasium, she breathed a sigh of relief. It would be okay, no matter what. Mitch was here.
*
Mitch spotted Nika the minute he walked into the gym and hadn’t let her leave his peripheral vision since. She played the part of a student well, and from his vantage at the bleachers she looked like she was handling the horny teenaged boys with aplomb. He met her gaze and allowed the instant chemical reaction that always accompanied being near her jolt along his nerve endings. But he’d have to wait until well after the dance to do something more concrete about his physical need for Nika.
They had students to protect. He checked his cell phone, frustrated that Bryce hadn’t sent word yet on Amy’s continued questioning. There was always the chance that Amy wouldn’t divulge more about her mother and father’s involvement in New Thought, but his instinct told him otherwise. The question was when Bryce got Amy to confess all.
&n
bsp; Finally his phone dinged with a text from a Trail Hikers’ IT technician. A photo of Daniel Donovan, Amy’s father. He immediately texted it to Nika and watched as she looked down at her phone. He knew exactly what she was thinking, what she was feeling. If Daniel Donovan was involved in this mess they were going to get him.
“What are you doing this weekend?” Kristine, the PE teacher Nika had seen at the New Thought meeting, broke through his concentration as she breathed into his face. Mitch quickly put his phone away.
“Hanging out, grading papers.” He knew not to reciprocate the query. Kristine had been too familiar with him since he’d started working at Silver Valley High, always trying to get him to have a drink after school. She wasn’t his type. But she had let up on getting him to go out with her over the past several months.
“I was thinking of having a Breaking Bad marathon at my place. Interested?”
“Uh, no. You know, Kristine, that not all chemistry teachers are secret meth cooks, right?” He tried to keep his tone light while making it clear they were never going to date. He didn’t think dating another teacher was a good idea to begin with, and unless it was someone he could get very serious about, not worth the stress. Kristine would never be more than a work colleague to him. But if she was part of the New Thought group, maybe he should try to see what she saw in it.
No. Way. He’d let Bryce and Claudia know she’d approached him here, but other than that, he wanted nothing to do with Kristine.
And now, with Nika in his life, there would never be another woman he’d look at in that way. The realization hit him in the gut.
“Are you hitting on our favorite chemistry teacher again, Kristine?” He breathed a sigh of relief as Ken Thomas, the agricultural studies teacher, teased Kristine.
“No, just trying to find someone to spend a lonely Saturday night with.” Kristine didn’t miss a beat. And Mitch didn’t miss the look in her eyes—it wasn’t her usual friendly spark. It was flat. As if she was thinking about something else.
“Why don’t you ask me? I’m single. And I’m not a geek like Mitch.” Ken smiled at Kristine. She ignored him.
“We’re supposed to be watching the kids, aren’t we?” Mitch spoke as his mind worked overtime like it did when he was trying to solve a complicated chemistry equation.
“They’re either standing in a corner afraid to talk to anyone or grinding up against each other.” Ken made a salacious face at Kristine.
“Spoken like a true farmer.” She wasn’t impressed. “Stop looking at the kids for a minute and you’ll see something funnier, over there.” Kristine nodded over at the snack tables, stretched along the side opposite of the DJ’s stage. “Check out the parents. They’re more into the music than the kids.”
Sure enough, several sets of parent chaperones jiggled and moved around to the heavy hip-hop beat. As Mitch watched them he wondered if his parents had ever looked as silly.
As lights blinked and the crowd swayed to the beat, he saw Nika in her formal wear that was supposed to be teenage sexy but her body reminded him of her very adult moves when they’d been alone. He knew she had a hidden mike so that Bryce could communicate with her as needed. She wore her long hair down, covering her ears and earpiece. He thought he could make out her lips moving and with no one close to her, he wondered if Bryce was talking to her. Screw pretending to be here as a teacher. He had to know if Amy had confessed more after he’d left the station.
“Mitch, where are you looking at?” Kristine’s voice was sharp. Too sharp.
“I’m looking at my favorite chemistry student. I need to check in with the Rainbows, so I’ll take a walk around the room. Do you have a problem with that?” He stared at Kristine, hard. She lowered her eyes and walked away without saying a word, as if in a trance.
“Mitch, what the hell?” Ken looked at him like he was insane. Maybe he was.
“Trust me for a minute, Ken. Keep an eye on her and don’t let her leave your sight.”
“Does this have to do with the writing on your SMART Board?” Ken, as well as every other faculty member, knew what Mitch had dealt with. Principal Essis had briefed them so that they’d all be on board with SVPD investigating the threats. Of course, no one had known there would be an undercover officer involved, or that there was a tie to the cult.
“I’m not sure, but she’s not acting her usual self, is she?”
Ken stared at Kristine’s retreating form and shook his head. “She hasn’t been herself for the past few months. Since school started this year. I thought it was maybe because she’d been taking care of her mother, who moved in with her last spring.”
“Her mother’s an odd duck.” Mitch couldn’t mention New Thought, not now and not where any student could overhear. “Just keep an eye on her.”
“Will do.” Ken was also prior military. Navy, if Mitch remembered right. Kristine wasn’t going anywhere without Ken following her.
Mitch looked back around the room and at first he couldn’t find Nika. All too familiar feelings of powerlessness and anxiety rushed at him.
No. Breathe.
He envisioned Nika as he’d last seen her. The edges of impending panic subsided and, when he opened his eyes, there she was. At the Rainbows table, selling the cupcakes with candy snowflakes on them.
As he approached the table he enjoyed seeing her acknowledge him with her eyes, the slight smile that she kept friendly while detached as a student should be from a teacher. He wished her aloof appraisal of him could turn into a warmer welcome. The kind a woman gives a man she’s interested in. The kind she gave him when they were alone, in her bed, making love.
Hell, where was that coming from?
He’d always been able to keep his mind on his work no matter what. With Nika, all the rules were off the table. She’d somehow gotten not only under his skin but into his every thought, his dreams, his...shit. His heart.
You’re in love with Nika.
“Thanks for the text. Hey, what’s wrong?” Her eyes were large, her beautiful lips parted.
“Nika, I have to tell you—”
“Wait a minute.” She pressed at her ear, listening. Her eyes met his and he saw acknowledgment, a flare of concern and then grim determination.
“Copy. We’ll get on it.”
“What’s going on? Was that Bryce?” At this point he didn’t care who heard, if he blew her cover wide open. All he cared about was keeping her safe.
Nika’s expression warned him to back off. Calm down. She had this. “Come over to this side of the table.” Louder, for the benefit of the three boys walking up to the table, she said, “Mr. Everlock, we’ve saved you some cupcakes for the teachers, back here.” When she bent over to reach under the tablecloth for an unopened box of baked goods the boys snickered. And Mitch’s control was pushed to its limits. They were all staring at the same thing—Nika’s ample cleavage, her breasts straining against the white silk of her strapless dress.
“Boys, are you here to order something?” He used his best teacher voice and was rewarded by their nervous coughs and immediate focus on the assortment of cookies and cupcakes.
“Hey, Rachel, can I have one of those water bottles with a cookie?”
“Me, too.”
“Same.”
All three boys pulled out money to pay and Rachel kept them busy as she played the consummate saleswoman. Mitch used the opportunity to walk around the table and stand next to Nika.
“What’s going on?”
“Amy’s still denying she knows who threw the rocks.” She leaned toward him, her arms crossed across her beautiful breasts. “So there’s nothing from Bryce on that. But as I told him, some of the girls have told me that a group of kids have planned to crash the dance with liquor and drugs.”
“What kind of drugs? Which kids?” He knew the school had a growing heroin problem; he’d referred two students to the specialty counselor for showing up high to class.
“It doesn’t matter. The fact that they thi
nk they can get past Principal Essis’s gauntlet, as well as police security, is what bothers me.” She looked away, a bored expression on her face as two parents walked by and nodded at Mitch. He admired her professionalism, her ability to handle the undercover op, her dedication.
He admired her.
“Did you tell Principal Essis?”
“I haven’t had a chance.” She jumped a little and he knew Bryce must have said something.
“Was it something I said?”
She lifted one side of her mouth and rolled her eyes. “Bryce says ‘hello.’ And tells me to inform you that he’s got it under control. He’s let the officers on duty out front know, and they’ve informed the principal. He suggests you might want to stick to chemistry tonight.”
He grinned, but didn’t say anything. They were all in this together. “Tell you what, I’ll head over to the main entrance and keep an eye out for trouble. Let me know the minute you hear anything different. And if you see a man who looks like the photo I sent you...well, never mind.” Hell, he’d been about to tell her to call him. What would it take for him to get it through his skull that this was Nika’s op? Bryce’s, as well, and Silver Valley PD’s. Not Mitch’s, not Trail Hikers’. He felt so goddamned powerless and he hated it.
Hated that Nika was in danger and he had to step back.
Nika watched him and he knew she saw right through him. Classic Nika, though, she didn’t call him on his almost slipup. Instead she shot him a dazzling smile.
“Will do. Any reason you’re looking down my dress, Mr. Everlock?” Apparently Nika didn’t care if Bryce heard her. In fact, she was probably having fun at his expense. Cop humor was similar to military humor, from what he’d observed. Bryce was probably groaning on his end of the connection, rolling his eyes at the flirting. But Bryce couldn’t call them on it, as he’d fallen for his fiancée during a similar case. A case that had endangered a large part of Silver Valley before it was solved.