Fire

by Lynnette Bonner

  Kyra took in a slow breath to ease the nervous jitters that suddenly swept through her. Confrontation was not her strong suit. And that was complicated by the undeniable truth that she’d been massively attracted to him when he’d been in the salon that day.

  Case stopped before her desk and lifted his brows to question why she’d detained him.

  Feeling at a distinct disadvantage, sitting as she was, she stood. “Case listen, I know you are new to the area and especially since you transferred in as a senior that can mean some turmoil with getting settled. But it’s the third week of school and I’m beginning to see a pattern of tardiness. And there’s also the sleeping in class.” She pegged him with what she hoped came across as a stern but compassionate look. “Is there anything troubling you at home? Or something I should be aware of? I’m happy to work with you in any way I can.”

  He shuffled his feet and hooked one thumb into the strap of his backpack.

  She felt chagrinned when his action drew her gaze to his chiseled bicep and quickly swept her focus back to his face.

  He shook his head. “No ma’am. I’ll try and do better.”

  “Are you getting enough sleep?”

  He cast a longing glance toward the exit and scrubbed at the back of his neck. “Yeah.”

  Kyra folded her arms, not sure what else she should say. This was his first warning, so she supposed she’d said enough for now. “Okay, in the future please do your best to be on time, and I won’t tolerate sleeping in my class.”

  He dipped his chin in a nod and started for the door.

  She had a sudden question and spoke before she thought better of it. “Case? You haven’t heard anything about this new drug, have you?”

  He froze with his back to her for a long moment, and then slowly turned to face her. His features seemed a little pale, but he said, “No. I haven’t heard anything.”

  Kyra narrowed her eyes. “Your expression tells me otherwise.”

  He shook his head. “No, ma’am. I just think maybe you should leave the investigating up to the police. I’d hate to see something happen to you.”

  Kyra felt a chill slip down her spine. She stiffened. “Was that a threat?”

  Case’s eyes widened. “No, ma’am! I didn’t mean it like that.”

  She relaxed a little. “Well, alright then. I hope you’ll let me know if you do hear anything. And I’ll be sure to go straight to the police with it. Alright?”

  He gripped the back of his neck and said, “Yes, ma’am.”

  But she had the feeling that she’d likely be the last person he’d tell if he really did know something. Yet now that the idea had claimed her, she couldn’t seem to let it go. “Tell you what…” She held out one hand to stop his retreat once again. “If you do learn something you can let me know anonymously. Just leave a note anytime in my inbox.” She motioned to the metal compartment on her wall where she had students turn in their papers and assignments. “And you can help me spread the word about that to the students I don’t have in classes too, alright?”

  Case looked like he was about to say something else, but just then Simon Hall stepped through her classroom door. He looked nicely put together with a cornflower-blue shirt and matching tie. Noting that she was with a student, he motioned to her that he would wait by the door.

  Kyra smiled at him and then returned her focus and a serious expression to Case. “Thank you for staying. You’re free to go. Please spread the word, and do let me know if there is any way I can help to make your transition to this school easier.”

  Case looked back and forth between her and Simon, before he said, “Thanks,” and made his way toward the door.

  Kyra loosed a sigh of satisfaction. It was nice to have finally thought of a way that she might be able to help with the drug situation. Her helplessness to fix the problem had been plaguing her all week. But this was a tangible way she could help and it might garner some leads for the police. She would make the announcement to all her classes for the rest of the day.

  Kyra smiled at Simon, then bent to straighten some papers on her desk. “What can I do for you?”

  CHAPTER 8

  Case was thankful to see that the hallway outside Kyra’s classroom was empty. He’d be late for second period, but he had more important things to attend to at the moment. He leaned back against the wall, his heart thundering a hundred miles an hour. She was going to get herself into deep water trying to put herself into the middle of an investigation. If she learned something she wasn’t supposed to and the dealer found out about it? There was no telling what might happen to her. But how to convince her to let it go? That he’d have to ponder on.

  As for her accusations…

  The truth was, he’d been late to first period several times because he’d been stopping at the empty lot behind the school where kids hung out to take a smoke before heading into classes. So far he hadn’t seen anyone doing drugs, but he figured that group of kids was probably the best place to start hunting down information—and Chloe Schumacher had been happy to introduce him to everyone. Case doubted that Chloe’s preacher daddy—something he’d recently learned about her—would appreciate learning where his daughter spent the bulk of her mornings before school.

  As for Miss Radell’s second charge, he’d never fallen asleep in her class. But a little snoozing act went a long way to fostering the reputation he wanted to create for himself. Kids tended to open up more when he passed himself off as just a little bit of a ne’er-do-well.

  And right now, fostering that reputation coincided nicely with his need to learn a little more about Simon Hall. The police had picked him up for questioning in the death of Greg early last Saturday, but he’d said that Greg had asked him for help on a chemistry assignment and that their meeting at the restaurant had been about that. The bulky folder that Simon had handed the kid had been in the passenger seat of Greg’s car when they’d found his body, and it turned out that the folder had a thumb drive inside that contained instructions and video examples for the assignment. Simon had been released and cleared of suspicion.

  But Case hadn’t been able to shake his doubts. Couldn’t the drugs have been handed to Greg at the same time as the folder? He’d hoped that the baggie of drugs would have some fingerprints on it, but unfortunately, it had come back clean, inside and out, which was another thing in Simon’s favor since he had not been wearing gloves that night at the restaurant. If he’d touched the baggie, his fingerprints would have been on it. Not that there weren’t ways around that.

  But, at any rate, Case wanted to hear what the chemistry teacher had to say to Miss Radell. And if that had even more to do with personal curiosity than any premonitions he had about Simon’s potential as a drug dealer, well, he could still justify it as work. Had Simon overheard Kyra’s plan to offer kids a way to anonymously let her know if they learned anything about the drugs? How long had the man been at the door before they’d noticed him?

  Case gritted his teeth. Maybe he needed to have one of the officers come and tell her what a bad idea it was for her to get involved.

  A sound from inside the room drew him back to the present. He eased closer to the opening and strained to hear the conversation happening in the room he’d just left

  Simon’s footsteps grew fainter as he obviously strode toward Kyra’s desk. “It’s Friday.”

  Case almost rolled his eyes. The guy needed a better opening line than that if he was going to win the “sworn-off-the-double-crossing-species-known-as-men” Kyra Radell.

  “I know and I’m so happy about that. I finally got the last of the unpacking done the other day, but I started painting my living room and I’m hoping to finish that this weekend.”

  Score one for Kyra.

  Despite her subtly perfected put-off, Simon pressed his luck. “But you have to eat at some point, right? Let me take you to dinner tonight? There’s this great fish and chips bar, right down near the water. It gets great views of the sunset and the food is g
ood too.”

  Kyra tapped some papers on her desk and Case heard her heels click against the tiles and the swish of the white-board eraser she must be putting to use. “That sounds lovely, but I’m not sure that we should be going to dinner with each other, especially since we work together.”

  “Oh!” Simon did his best to sound shocked. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t—I was just asking you out as one colleague to another. My way of welcoming you to the team, so to speak. I didn’t mean—Sorry if it came across differently.”

  Case twisted his lips. Yeah right.

  “Well then, let’s make it a group thing. How about we bring along Ashley and Darcy and Dave, as well? We can all pay for ourselves.”

  Case grinned. Kyra Radell was no dummy.

  “S-sure. That sounds great. What time works for you?”

  “Say…six? Can you check with the others and let me know if the time changes?”

  “Perfect. I’ll do that.” Simon’s shoes snapped against the tiles in a rapid-fire aim for the door.

  Case scrambled for a hiding place. The women’s bathroom door was the closest one, and he’d been standing here for a good five minutes so it was certain no one was in there. He pushed through, and the door slipped shut just as he heard Simon’s steps move past in the hallway.

  He heard another sound then—one that he hadn’t paid attention to in his haste to escape being seen by Simon Hall—the click of high heels on tile. And getting closer by the second. The door was already pushing in!

  He leapt over to press his back against the wall where he would be hidden for a brief moment when the door was fully open. There was a privacy wall and if she just walked around that without noticing him, he’d hopefully be able to make his escape.

  But his luck was running a little thin today. Kyra pushed into the room, but as the door started to shut, she must have noticed him from the corner of her eye. Eyes widening, she swung around to look his way, and gave a half-gasp-half-screech in the process.

  Great. Now what was he going to do?

  “Case Sheridan what are you doing in here?!” Her tone fell solidly in the camp of outraged school teacher confronting delinquent adolescent.

  She took a breath and then he saw a moment of fear flash across her face and her eyes widened.

  He stepped forward and put one hand on the door to keep her from yanking it open and making a run for it and potentially alerting Simon Hall to the fact that he’d been spying on them. He raised the hand he hadn’t pressed to the door to show her he meant her no harm. “This is not what it looks like.”

  “This is exactly what it looks like! You skulking around in the women’s bathroom when you are supposed to be in second period, young man!” She gave the door a firm yank, but he kept it closed. He needed to think here. Because if she marched out there and took him down to the principal’s office, and his “father” got called in, they would have to explain that he was an undercover officer and that had the potential to blow his whole cover. They had received special dispensation from the governor to come into the school without even letting the administration know about the sting, because they had no leads on who the distributor might be, and if he was part of the administration then clueing them into the investigation would render the whole operation pointless.

  “Case Sheridan, you let me out of here at once. Do the right thing. The sooner you let me out, the easier it will go for you.” She tugged at the door again.

  “Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you.” He kept his voice low, so as not to scare her but took her by one arm and pulled her into the main part of the bathroom. Quickly he pushed in each stall door to make sure they were indeed alone in the room. After assuring that, he let her go, but placed himself, arms folded, between her and the exit.

  He tilted his head. Considered his options. Mick had said that he could read her in if he needed to. And while he hadn’t been able to eliminate any of the other teachers from his list of suspects in the last couple weeks, the one person he could say with almost one hundred percent certainty was not a drug dealer was Kyra Radell. He’d checked her out and she had just moved to the island the week school started. Before that the only record of her being on the island was on the day she’d come out for her interview several months ago.

  This was his only solution. He just needed to read her in. That would also solve the problem of how to tell her to stay out of the investigation for her own safety. He could do it himself. Mick wouldn’t be happy with him. Oh, not one little bit. But it was read her in or lose the entire operation. He stepped toward her but stopped when she retreated a few steps, blue eyes going dark with fear.

  The quickest way to alleviate her fear was to just tell her the truth. “I have something to tell you and I need to know you can keep a secret.”

  She tugged at her dress jacket, and he could almost see her shoring up her courage. “Case Sheridan have you lost your mind?” She lifted a finger to admonish him. “You listen to me. We are going to walk out that door, and we are going to go down to the office, and you can tell your story to the principal. But we are not standing here for another second, do you hear me?”

  She raised herself to her towering height—all of five feet four inches—and took several steps toward him, obviously hoping to cow him into moving out of her way.

  He widened his stance and spread his arms to prevent her from darting around him. “I’m an undercover officer.”

  She stopped so suddenly she might as well have slammed into a wall.

  She glanced up at him, close enough that he could see the rim of dark blue that circled her irises. She swallowed and took a step back. He could see her assessing him, thinking back to their first meeting, considering if what he was saying could be true.

  Feeling an urgency to extract himself from the room, he said, “Listen, I need to get out of here before someone else comes in. But I can prove it to you. Will you at least give me till this evening? I’ll come by your place with proof.”

  She threw up her hands and swept a gesture around the room. “What are you even doing in here?”

  “Avoiding being seen by Simon Hall.”

  Her eyes widened. “You were spying on us?!”

  He eased open the door to check the hallway and couldn’t resist tossing out, “Had to see if Simon could coax some interest from you that I couldn’t seem to. At least I’m not the only one you’ve shot down recently.” The hallway was clear. He looked back at her. Gave her a quick wink. “I need your word. Give me at least until tonight?”

  She remained silent, jaw slightly slack, but nodded once.

  “I’ll come by your place at six. And Kyra, please stay out of this investigation.” He left quickly then, before she could change her mind.

  He prayed she would keep her word.

  Kyra collapsed back against the sinks as soon as Case left. The boy—man—had given her the fright of her life! She spun to face the mirror and studied her pale features.

  Could he be blatantly lying to her? Yet hadn’t she been shocked on the first day of school to learn that he was a senior in high school and not the man she’d thought him to be when they’d met at the salon? And it would certainly explain some of his odd behavior over the past couple weeks.

  Her thoughts turned to another vein. They must be taking this drug situation very seriously if they’d sent an undercover cop to ferret it out. She leaned wearily in to the counter and massaged at the headache pulsing behind her temples. She supposed there was no hurt in giving him till this evening to prove himself.

  But she didn’t see how it could hurt to let the kids know they could anonymously give her information. She wanted to be a help, and if she learned anything she would go straight to the police.

  Realization shot through her and she straightened. Case had said he was coming by at six!

  Her eyes narrowed at her reflection. If he’d been listening at the door like he claimed then he had known that was the very hour she’d agreed to meet Simo
n and the other teachers for dinner.

  Her lips pinched together in aggravation.

  Lucky for Case she hadn’t really been too excited about going out anyhow. But now she had to come up with an excuse to cancel! And how was Case even going to know where she lived? Her address wasn’t on any paperwork because she hadn’t filed anything yet.

  She threw back her shoulders and arched her brows at herself. Well, we’ll just see how good of a detective this guy really is.

  And if he didn’t show up and she discovered that he really was just a kid who had duped her? She eased out a breath. She’d deal with the answer to that question when the time came. But she couldn’t deny that there was a great deal of relief pumping through her that her attraction toward one Case Sheridan wasn’t toward a teenage boy, but toward a man. Providing he really was telling the truth.

  CHAPTER 9

  Six o’clock came and went. As well as six thirty. And Kyra was still waiting alone in her living room. She wrinkled her nose. So maybe he wasn’t such a good detective, after all.

  The minute she’d gotten home from school (having pled an unforeseen complication in her schedule to Simon and the other teachers) she’d set to work putting the finishing touches of paint on her living room. Why she’d cared what it might look like she couldn’t quite say, but it was obvious now that all the work she’d put in would not go to impressing any police officer, undercover or otherwise, on this evening.

  With a huff, she shoved herself up off the couch and headed into the kitchen to hunt through the fridge for some leftovers that might still be edible. She’d just decided that it would have to be scrambled eggs tonight, when there was a tap on the glass of the kitchen door.

  With a gasp, she spun around. Case was standing on her doorstep hunched into a hoodie, and obviously going out of his way to keep his identity secret from anyone who might chance to glance into her backyard. Despite her mental remonstrations to keep this relationship professional, her pulse did a little dance as she crossed to the door.