Neither did we.
After telling the voices to be quiet, I shift my focus back to the woman eyeing me curiously. She hesitates for a minute before she eventually says, “Third door on the left. Your class is already seated. They arrive early.” She rolls her eyes as if annoyed by the privileges only certain members of the community get, mutters a goodbye, then loudly questions as to why the hallway isn’t vacant. “Class started five minutes ago, and for every minute you’re late, I’ll add five to the detention schedule.”
The hallway empties in two seconds when she claps her hands together.
She reminds me of the principal who snarled at me while taking in the blisters on my hands. She said I did it on purpose, that I’d do anything to slack off.
I hated her.
I still do.
No!shouts a voice in my head. She’s the kind one.Dexter will be mad if we’re late. We need to keep going.
After gritting my teeth, I bob my chin in agreement before walking to the door the witch pointed at. The man manning the door isn’t as stupid as the three I bypassed only minutes ago. He doesn’t just scrutinize my ID, but he also places it into a scanner to ensure it isn’t fake.
“Why are you late?” Think about a man who’s been kicked in the throat too many times, then you’ll have an idea of how rough his voice is. “Your ID check says you live on Ferris Way. That’s a five-minute walk from here. You could have made it on time if you—”
I stuff the taser right where his voice box is, then hit him with a long zap. The electricity surging through his body buckles his legs out from underneath him in half a second, but its paralyzing effects are a little slower on his arms. He snatches up my ankle, which sends me tumbling into the classroom instead of entering with the authority of a substitute teacher.
“Oh no,” says a little voice that sounds oddly familiar, even with it being much younger than the one that once regularly woke me in the middle of the night the past seven years. “Are you okay?” A miniature version of Nick crouches down in front of me. He is identical to his father in every way. He just isn’t mean. After placing his hand on my sweaty forehead, he says, “Do you need medicine? You look sick.”
I shake my head before clambering to my feet. “I-I’m okay.” I wipe my sweaty hands down my pretty floral dress before curling one of them around Jasper’s. “But I need you to come with me. We’re g-going to play a game. You like games, d-don’t you?” My voice has reverted to the timid, shy one I was hoping had gone for good.
“Ah…” When he twists his head back to a little girl with glossy brown ringlets hanging past her ears, she stops twisting the arm of a boy double her size to lock her eyes with Jasper’s. “Can Maddie come?”
I almost nod when Maddie’s dark eyes register as familiar, but then, just as quickly, I remember Noah was mostly kind to me when he spotted me waiting for Nick after their performances at Mavericks. He told me he was sorry that Nick had to leave early, and on more than one occasion, he offered me a ride home. I never accepted because I didn’t want Nick to be mad that I went home with one of his bandmates, but I should have because the blisters on my feet the next morning were horrific.
While remembering the time Noah handed me a card for a doctor he promised would help me, I shake my head. “N-not this time. Okay?”
Little tears prick in Jasper’s eyes before he gently whispers, “Okay.”
I pretend I’m brushing away his tears while guiding him out of the classroom. I more poke him in the eye than clear away the moisture, but I’d rather hurt him a little than have him scream when he spots the slumped form of the man paid to protect him.
When “Jasper” sounds out of the classroom, I double the length of my steps, dragging Jasper along with me. We make it to the emergency exit doors Dexter went over time and time again last night before Maddie’s head pops out of the classroom.
She screams bloody murder when she spots the slumped bodyguard, but it is too late. We’re outside, mere feet from the car Dexter is helming.
“Quick,” I mutter, my heart fluttering with more than excitement. “We’re almost there.”
Jasper’s chubby cheeks bounce as we gallop down the fire escape stairs, but they have nothing on the thud of my heart when a voice I haven’t heard in person for years trickles into my ears.
Nick is here.
He’s racing up the sidewalk, wearing a tailored suit. His hair is shorter than it was when I last saw him, and his face has aged, but he is very much the rock god you’d anticipate when someone references the sexiest musician of all time.
He’s got nothing on Dexter, though.
With my head in agreement with the voice in my head for a change, I nod before continuing my beeline for Dexter. I make it halfway down the footpath when my steps freeze as quickly as my heart.
I’m not second-guessing Dexter’s plan. I’m stunned by the horrid words spilling from Nick’s mouth.
“It wasn’t her. The burned corpse they found wasn’t her. It wasn’t Megan,” he screams down his cell phone while yanking on a tie I’m confident his wife forces him to wear. I’ll never do that to Dexter. I like his edgy look. It’s sexy. “Because the victim was pregnant! Megan can’t have kids. It wasn’t part of the report they did when she tried to fake her pregnancy to me.” He grips his phone almost as roughly as I grip his son’s wrist. “But it is why Col never took her. She was worthless to him. She was worthless to fucking everyone!”
I’ll show you worthless.
I startle to within an inch of my life when I’m suddenly clutched at the side and dragged away from Nick. “Not here. This isnotour playground.”
In quicker than I can blink, Dexter sets me into the passenger seat of his borrowed car before he shoves Jasper into the back seat with his real substitute teacher. He was already on the verge of crying from how hard I gripped his arm while his mean dad berated me, but now he’s in full hysterics.
