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10
IRINA
This was bullshit.
“I don’t care if you think you have some kind of obligation to protect the staff that may have been aware of the situation. A boy is dead. A good boy who was turning his life around and pulling it out of the gutter that he was born into. The system failed him, and we are all a part of that. People need to be held accountable when they turn a blind eye to the bullying and gang activity that happens in this school,” I argued, leaning forward in my seat with my hands on the arms of the chair.
“Miss Ryan, certainly you can imagine that this has come as a shock to all of us,” Principal Davis said, steepling his hands in front of him on his desk and staring me down. I was sure the man was used to the intimidation tactic working with irate parents who wanted to defend their children.
Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t an irate parent. I was a woman who would see justice for a boy who’d been wronged, and do everything in my power to make sure it didn’t happen to another.
“Oh yes, you certainly must be shocked. I know the children of this school better than you could ever dream to, Mr. Davis. If you took the time to get to know them, then you’d know your school has been inundated with heroin in the last few months, and Tiernan Murphy’s men regularly seek out the most vulnerable among your students to deal it,” I said, watching as he sat back in his chair. I stood, smoothing my dress down my legs as I did, then squatted slightly to lift my briefcase from the floor. “I expect you will give your full cooperation to the investigators, and I expect a list of names of all staff members who failed to prevent this from happening to be in my email later today.”
“Of course we will cooperate with the police, but they already interviewed the teachers who had contact with Zachariah. I’m not sure what else we can offer to help them,” he said, standing as well and holding out a hand to shake.
“You think I would leave the lives of the children of this city in the hands of the Chicago Police Department?” I asked, huffing a laugh and raising my chin a little higher as I ignored his outstretched hand. “You will cooperate with my investigators as well.”
“And if I don’t?” he asked, quirking his eyebrow back at me and finally dropping his hand as he got the hint.
I turned, stepping over the tile floor with a slow pivot as I made my way to the door. “Then I can only assume you don’t value your position here very highly. I’ll find someone who does.”
“Now wait a minute. You can’t threaten my job. I don’t care who your daddy is.”
“If you look at me and see a woman who makes threats, then you haven’t been paying attention.” I left the fact that I most certainly didn’t need to rely on my father to do my dirty work out of the conversation. “I’ll be in touch.” I tugged the door open, seeing myself out of the office with a stride that had taken years of practice to master in heels. The one thing my mother had taught me of value, aside from expecting people to disappoint you.
I strolled through the receptionist’s office with a smile on my face as she hurried to her feet. On my way out, I carved a path through the hallways of the high school. The bell rang as I made my way across the front lobby and out the doors, students flooding the halls behind me as they hurried to their next class.
I scanned the fence line at the edges of the property for any sign of people who might not belong, but there was nothing but empty city streets and the occasional passerby. No one who lingered.
Normally I would consider that a blessing in a city consumed by brewing turf wars, but it would be a lie to claim there was no moment of disappointment when a tall, scarred stranger didn’t step out of the shadows to tell me he regretted rushing off the night before.
I still wanted something reckless, a distraction to take my mind off my grief even for a brief moment, but there was something more to the way my body lit up and my heart raced when Scar pinned me with his piercing stare.
The ring of my cell phone in my briefcase made me jump, hurrying to grab it out of the exterior pocket on the leather. “Hello?” I asked when I didn’t recognize the number.
“Irina?” a woman asked on the other end. The voice was oddly familiar, but it wasn’t very common that people who called me referred to me by my first name casually.
“This is her,” I said, pulling my car keys from my briefcase and making my way toward the visitor parking lot around the block.
“This is Ivory. I promised to call you after the art gallery a few months ago, but life has been a little hectic,” she said.
“Oh! I can imagine. You must have had the baby by now,” I laughed. “I assume everything went well?”
“As well as complete agony can,” Ivory said with a laugh. “She’s happy and healthy. That’s all that matters to me.”
“I’m so glad. I’m sure you and Matteo are going to be very happy together. If you can get past your history, you can overcome anything,” I teased.
She laughed. “We should get together!” She paused, something hesitant leaking into her voice. “But, as much as I hate to admit it, I do have a favor to ask you and this call isn’t entirely selfless.”
“Anything for you. You know that,” I said, clicking the unlock button on my car remote. Ivory and I might have lost touch since high school, but her involvement in the Bellandi family had thrown us back together occasionally in recent months. Galas, charity events, and the like had all become Ivory’s new normal, thrusting her directly into the world that I’d been raised to thrive in.
“Lino told me he saw you and Scar talking at Indulgence yesterday,” she said, her voice trailing off slightly as if it were a secret. “I know he isn’t the easiest person to get to know, but promise me you won’t give up on him. No one has ever made him feel like he’s worth the effort, you know?”
“How do you know Scar? I mean, that’s kind of obvious, I guess, but I didn’t think you were that close to Matteo’s men,” I said, correcting myself. It wouldn’t do me any good to feign ignorance. I’d known Scar was dangerous.
I’d still intended to take him home with me.
