Without Mercy (11 page)

Except you two,
Shay thought, but held her tongue. She decided to go with confusion rather than say something that might land her in trouble. “Well, I thought so, but I couldn’t find one, and I knew there was one here, because I’d used it the first day when I was being registered. I really had to go, so …” She left the rest for their imagination and tried to look sheepish and flustered.

Missy obviously wasn’t buying it. “Really?” she mocked. “There’s a set of bathrooms just down the hallway from the conversation pit. You must’ve walked right past them on your way out.” God, her voice was grating.

Shay shrugged as if she knew she’d been an idiot. “I didn’t.”

“Well, now you know. Come along.” Wade was glowering at her as if he didn’t know what to believe. Beneath his goatee, his lips flattened over his teeth in irritation. “Didn’t your pod leader assign you an escort?”

“Yeah,” she said, thinking of Ethan Slade. “But, you know, he’s a guy.” If only she could blush! That would help. Instead she tried to appear uncomfortable, staring down at the floor. She hoped this was all worth it, that Jules would show up.

As Wade reached for the door, Shay saw movement from the corner of her eye. She turned just as “Father Jake” appeared from the shadows, walking rapidly, long strides moving him along the breezeway toward the admin building. “Is anything wrong?” he asked, quickly sizing up the situation as Wade opened the door.

“Miss Stillman apparently got lost.”

“Easy to do.” Father Jake didn’t appear worried.

“She couldn’t find the restroom,” Missy supplied, her littlegirl voice disbelieving as she rained one of her I’m-just-so-darned-cute smiles on the handsome preacher.

“But she found one. So we’re all okay?” Father Jake said with an easy smile. “Right?”

“Right.” Shaylee couldn’t help liking him a bit.

Father Jake grinned. “Good, good. Then you’d better join the others.”

“Let’s go.” Taggert’s eyes had slitted. He held the door open, and the girls passed through.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Father Jake said, then continued walking swiftly toward the chapel. Shay wanted to follow him, the preacher in jeans and a thick down jacket. He, at least, seemed real.

During the walk along the breezeway, Missy sent Shay a withering I’ve-got-your-number look, but Shaylee ignored it and opened the door to the rec hall. Inside, she walked briskly along the short corridor, past the clearly marked restrooms, and into the wide expanse of the common area.

Kids were studying and talking, and Banjo was fiddling around on her guitar while a few others from their pod listened.

Ethan was flopped in a worn chair, while Lucy Yang sat next to Banjo in the same grouping of rust-colored furniture. Lucy was one of the few people Shay liked here at the academy. Obviously smart, Lucy was as unbending as steel. She still had the tough-girl thing going with her spiked hair, untrusting eyes, and hints of the irreverent attitude that had forced her to the academy.

Thank God not everyone had been converted to freakin’ robots. Shay cast a casual glance at Nona, who leaned over her open book to chat with Maeve and Nell. Despite the differences in their looks, those three tried to be cookie cutters of each other with similar clothes, hair, and attitudes. The three girls glanced up at Shay as she walked past. When Shay returned the stare, Nona and Nell looked away, but Maeve sent Shay the same frosty glare she’d been giving her since her arrival.

When he caught sight of Shay being escorted across the cavernous room, Ethan straightened and bolted out of the chair. “Hey! I was just starting to wonder about you.”

Maeve looked peeved.

“She was in the admin building,” Wade announced.

“What?” Ethan’s gaze clouded. “Why?” he asked Shay.

“She couldn’t find the women’s room here,” Missy said, her pale eyebrows shooting up to indicate she smelled a lie.

Ethan got the message. “But—”

“Yeah, I know,” Shay said, cutting Ethan off. “I missed it, okay? Geez, everyone’s acting like I committed some major crime or something. I just needed to pee!”

Wade’s scowl deepened. “Just keep an eye on her,” he told Ethan, then went across the hall, toward the thermoses of tea and hot cocoa.

Shay wasn’t exactly sure of all the dynamics, but it was obvious Maeve was pissed. Did she have a thing for Ethan?

Missy leaned close to Ethan. “If you can’t watch her, I will.”

“Hey! I
don’t
need a keeper!” Shay had heard enough. She didn’t want any more attention thrown her way. “I made a mistake. Sor-ree. Let’s not make a federal case of it.”

“I got it!” Ethan said to Missy, and the girl actually smirked a bit, as if she couldn’t wait to put Ethan in his place. In a hit of recognition, Shay decided that these two had once hooked up, but something had gone wrong. Maybe the woman-scorned thing? Missy was all about rubbing Ethan’s nose in his mistake.

A few heads turned. Nona’s group was suddenly all ears, and Keesha Bell, the sole African American girl in Shay’s pod, quit paying so much attention to Benedict Davenne. Keesha had big brown eyes that didn’t miss much and cornrows so perfect they reminded Shay of an aerial view of suburban streets. Keesha and BD were tight, and even
though there was a rule against getting romantically involved with anyone on campus, it was broken all the time. But now, for once, Keesha and BD were tuned into something besides each other.

“Is there a problem?” Shay’s group leader, Cooper Trent, cut away from the bunch of boys he’d been talking to and strode across the room.

“Yeah.” Shay held up her hands in surrender. “I guess I broke the rules.”

“We caught her in the admin building,” Missy said smugly.

“I was looking for a bathroom, didn’t see the one in here, went next door, and got caught in a fu-frickin’ toilet sting.”

Missy gasped.

A couple of kids chuckled.

Shay was surprised to see Nell actually grin.

Dr. Burdette shook her head as she passed by, frizzy red hair sprouting from her ponytail, but she didn’t stop to chastise.

“It’s all my fault,” Shay continued. “I don’t know what the punishment is for using the wrong bathroom, but I’m guilty as charged.”

Keesha giggled, then put a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

“It’s getting a little loud over here.” Wade strode over, a steaming cup in hand. “Let’s pipe down.”

“Yes, let’s move on.” Trent said to Shay, “Why don’t you go back to studying? You know where the restrooms are now, right?”

Shay nodded. So this dude had her back. Or did he? Maybe his ass was on the line because he was her pod leader. If he really wasn’t on her side, she was pretty sure she could count on Father Jake. Or was she kidding herself? Sheesh, this place was nuts!

“Good.” Trent glanced up at Ethan, a quick, silent reprimand, then said to Shay, “If you have questions, talk to me or Ethan … unless you’d prefer to have a female TA.”

Like Missy Albright? Save me!
“I’m cool with Ethan.”

Keesha swallowed a smile, and Lucy Yang actually had the nerve to give her a thumbs-up.

“Good.” Trent met Taggert’s unhappy glare. “No harm, no foul, right?”

Taggert looked about to argue, but the main doors opened and Reverend Lynch walked in on a gust of cold air. Wearing a long black coat, he strode to his favored spot in front of the oversized fireplace. He stretched his arms out like an eagle spreading its wings—the motion for everyone to gather closer.

“Sorry I’m late.” He glanced at the clock. “It’s nearly time for lights-out. So, quickly now, let’s lift our voices in praise, then close with a quick prayer.” He motioned toward the piano in the corner while finding the English teacher with his gaze. “Dean Hammersley,” he said to the woman with the body of a marathon runner, “if you could please accompany us?”

Shaylee squeezed into the space between Banjo and Lucy. Ethan, properly chastised, was only a step behind her and was next to Zach Bernsen, the TA whom Shay had silently christened the Viking God because of his Nordic features.

A few feet away, Drew Prescott smirked, as if he felt some satisfaction with her discomfiture, but then she’d already pegged him for a loser. He was good-looking enough, despite his acne. With his dark hair and eyes and with the build of a soccer player, he was always smug, like he knew her innermost secret.

Another one to avoid.

Near Reverend Lynch, Mr. DeMarco, her new chemistry
teacher, stood as if he were some kind of sentry. Black haired, swarthy skinned, face set, he stared at the group as a whole, but Shay was certain she was in his sights. He had what she thought of as a lizard’s gaze, one you couldn’t follow.

She tried not to stare at him and looked at the floor, but that didn’t help much.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Missy glaring at her, but she pretended not to notice. When Father Jake returned to stand a few feet behind Shay, somehow she felt a little safer.

As the first few notes of the hymn reverberated through the hall, Shay hoped that Jules had taken her seriously and was finding a way to get her out of this madhouse.

Later, after the final prayer in the rec hall, the Leader slipped outside to stand in the shadows. A few steps out of the lamppost’s circle of illumination, he was hidden behind a copse of saplings while a stiff winter breeze ruffled his hair and cooled his blood.

Surreptitiously, he watched as Shaylee left the rec hall, just as he’d observed her when she’d lagged behind her group on their way to clean the stable. There was just something about her that intrigued him.

Now, Shaylee followed the shoveled path along with the group of students heading to the women’s dorm. While the other girls were talking and laughing under the glowing security lamps, Shaylee hung back from the crowd, the lonely new girl who had no friends. She looked worried, fragile, though he knew better. If nothing else, Shaylee was a fighter.

Even the strongest warrior needs an ally.

Smiling inside, he knew it was nearly time to strike. To
take advantage of her frayed emotional state. He would offer her comfort. Solace. A friendly ear and a strong shoulder to lean on.

Shaylee Stillman.

He rolled her name through his mind as she walked beneath the lamp, her features caught in the light.

Surly.

Sexy.

Sultry.

Sassy.

Over the past few days, he’d spoken with her, of course, welcomed her. After all, it was expected. But he hadn’t yet shown his hand; he didn’t dare. Not until he was certain she would be a willing candidate.

He needed to learn more about Shaylee, test her, find out if she was ready.

He couldn’t afford another mistake.

CHAPTER 10

With cell phones that connected to the Internet and beamed up to satellites around the world, Jules knew there must be a way to reach her sister. She called Erin, who knew a few tricks to retrieve numbers because of her job working with cell phones. They tried a few tacks, without success. When Jules called the school, no one answered and a recorded message advised her that someone would be in the office the next morning.

It was closing in on ten when Jules called her mother. In response to her concern, Edie laughed. “Really, Julia, what did you expect? Of course she called you, because she thought she could get to you. Reverend Lynch advised me that this would happen; it’s totally normal.”

“It is not normal, Mom.”

“You have to get over this.”

“I can’t. She called me.”

“She can only blame herself for ending up there.”

“Then let’s talk about Reverend Lynch. What about that mansion on the lake? That’s not normal, either. Preachers—at least upstanding Christian preachers—don’t normally live in houses worth several million dollars.”

Edie sighed dramatically. “Of course they don’t. I already explained that the school owns it, and I think it was bequeathed by someone connected to the academy, or maybe some grateful grandparent; I’m not really sure.”

“Grateful
rich
grandparent.”

“It’s not a crime to have money,” her mother admonished. “Why do you have to be so negative, Julia?” The conversation went downhill after that.

Jules hung up feeling even worse. Was she really putting her own negative spin on this? For all her help, Erin had warned Jules that the way Shaylee was being treated was normal. “All rehab centers cut off communications,” Erin had said. “They have to break negative patterns.”

Maybe Jules was taking this too seriously. Shay was, and always had been, the princess of high drama, waiting to become queen, but so far, Edie wasn’t giving up her crown.

Jules tossed her pen onto the desk and told herself to give it a rest, consider the fact that everyone seemed to think Shay was in the best place for her.

Diablo jumped onto the desk. His long tail flicked, and his gold eyes stared at her fingers as she took another turn at the keyboard of her computer. “Don’t tell anyone,” she whispered, and Googled Cooper Trent. Ever since having drinks with Erin and Gerri, she’d wondered about him. It was stupid and she knew it, but she couldn’t stop herself.

“Oh, great,” she muttered, seeing that there were dozens of articles about him. Photos, too. She weeded through them all, searching for the most recent information, and found that a few years back, he had signed on with the Pinewood Sheriff’s Department in Grizzly Falls, Montana. He was listed as the arresting officer in a few articles, but those had been several years before. When looking at the Web site for the county, Deputy Cooper Trent’s name wasn’t listed, his picture missing.

So either he was fired or he quit and was now off the radar.

Not that she should care. The cat hopped into her lap, looking up at her and meowing. “I know,” she admitted, stroking his sleek head. “I’m an idiot. So what else is new?”

Trent locked the door of the equipment storage shed and gave it a tug, hearing the metal bolt rattle as it held fast. Used as storage for the canoes, snowshoes, kayaks, and hiking and fishing gear, this outbuilding near the boathouse was one of his responsibilities. Satisfied his gear was secure, he turned his collar up against the wind and headed across campus to his cabin, one of several that housed the staff. His place was a long haul from here—over a quarter mile away, on the far side of the dorms and rec hall, closer to the kennels, stable, and barns.