Finally, I resorted to throwing myself back against the bed, which banged the headboard against the wall. A sheen of sweat covered my body as I banged and banged. When the door flew open, a red faced Bishop stomped in, his face buried in some mechanical manual. “Dude, would you pipe down? I’m trying to study for my exam.”
When he finally looked up, the manual clattered to the floor. His mouth dropped open almost as far as his eyes widened, and if the situation hadn’t been so serious, I might’ve laughed at his expression.
He jerked the gag away from my mouth. “What the fuck happened to you?”
“Alexandra,” I growled.
“What did you do? Get ready for some kinky sex and piss her off? Man, she’s a feisty one.”
“Just get the fucking keys out of the nightstand and get me out of these.”
Bishop started rifling through the top drawer. Finally, he produced the key. Once I was out of my metal prison, I grabbed a towel off the floor. Pressing down on my wrists, I tried to stop the bleeding.
“You gonna tell me what the hell happened?” Bishop pressed.
“I need to find Alex. ASAP. You think Archer can put a tracer on her phone?”
“Archer went with Alex when she left half an hour ago.”
“Fuck!” I growled, as I threw open the bedroom door. I stalked down the hall to the bathroom. While I wrapped my wrists in ace bandages, Bishop eyed me suspiciously.
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t have time to explain. I need to find Alex. Now.”
“Tell me why she handcuffed and left you?”
“Alex lied to me about her meeting with Sigel. She didn’t tell me that he had asked for the cut.”
Bishop’s brows furrowed. “Why would she do that?”
“Sigel ordered Alex to bring him the cut. When I found out what she was going to do, she handcuffed me to the bed, so I couldn’t go with her.”
“You’re fucking kidding me!”
“I wish.”
“Where is she now?”
“She had this parent’s night thing at the school. I don’t know if she was meeting him afterwards…” Then it hit me. Sigel would want a safe place to get the cut—a place with a lot of people and witnesses to foil any retaliation the Raiders could plan. “Fuck. He’s meeting her at the school.”
I raced out the door with Bishop close on my heels. All I could think of was getting to Alex. Damn stubborn fool that she was. I hoped to hell I wasn’t too late.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: ALEXANDRA
As soon as I arrived at the school, I was herded into the cafeteria for a presentation by the principal. Facing the massive crowd, I found myself sandwiched between my fellow kindergarten teachers. Chewing my nails to the quick, I tried focusing on what was being said. In the end, I couldn’t tell you one word my principal spoke. Instead, I kept scanning the parents’ faces, searching for Sigel or anyone from his club.
At seven-thirty, we were dismissed to our classrooms where for the next hour, we would meet with parents. On the walk to my room, teachers chattered around me, but I couldn’t joinin. Instead, I tried focusing on keeping the frayed and tattered strands of my sanity from coming completely undone.
When I got inside my classroom, I thankfully found relief. With parents to greet and students to talk with, my worries about Sigel were forgotten. I was able to genuinely and enthusiastically talk about each student’s progress and graciously take the compliments from their parents on how I was teaching their child.
The sound of my principal’s voice on the intercom made me jump. “Ladies and gentleman, it’s now eight thirty. We would ask that you wrap up your questions and conversations and make your way to the exits. Thank you again for attending Buffington Elementary’s Parent Night.’”
I walked the last remaining set of parents to my classroom door. Just as I waved good-bye, my cellphone rang. Glancing warily at it over my shoulder, I then hurried to grab it.
“Hello?” I questioned breathlessly.
“Come down the D-hall—the wing of the school that hasn’t been finished. Go to the last bathroom on the hallway. I’ll be waiting.”
