AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ladies,” I crooned to the front office staff as I stepped into the elementary school, slightly delaying their shock at seeing me enter the front doors that had been locked.
“Um, e-excuse me,” the older woman at the main desk said when I continued through the office as if I had somewhere to be, because I did. Standing, she smoothed her hair with one hand while touching her flushed cheek with the other. “You can’t be in here.”
I pressed a hand to my chest in mock offense, twisting to keep my eyes locked on her and letting a wicked grin shape my lips. “Baby, if you’re trying to wound me...I can think of better ways that are much more fun.”
Her eyes widened and snapped to the other woman before shifting to me again, but they didn’t hold. Her blush deepened and her eyes darted everywhere as she stammered, “T-the school day h-hasn’t ended yet, sir. You’ll need to go—”
“What was that?” I cut in, my voice a lighthearted tease. “I need to continue on my way and think of nothing but you until I return?” When her lips parted, I winked at her before turning away. “If you insist.”
A stunned huff sounded from behind me, but neither of the women said anything else or tried stopping me as I made my way to the principal’s office, letting myself in without so much as a knock.
“We need to talk,” I said in way of announcing myself after I’d already locked the door behind me.
The elementary school’s principal blinked rapidly as she looked up from her computer, fingers reaching for the frame of her glasses and an irritated huff pouring from her when she noticed who was in the room with her.
“Mr. Pierson,” she muttered and gestured to one of the chairs on the opposite side of her desk.
I shifted my head, stopping just before I could show my full discomfort with that name.
Once again, it was something I didn’t associate with.
Only this name? It truly wasn’t my own. It was the only thing Maverick and I had changed when we’d been brought into the family.
Einstein had done some sort of genius witchcraft so our prints and faces wouldn’t set off alarms if they were ever scanned, considering we were extremely wanted by the government. But we were still known.
Our names and military photos had been top news for weeks, even before the Borellos had rescued us from the black site we were being held in. They’d continued being top news for a while after, even though the military had never admitted that they’d lost us. Probably because they’d been trying to pin a secret op gone wrong on us, and we’d known the truth.
So, we’d remained out of the public eye for years, but our surname was something we’d had to drop. Forget completely.
Before they’d even grabbed us, Einstein had created new identities and legitimized backstories for us. But the name Pierson was something only she’d found funny, even after explaining it to everyone as if it should’ve been obvious. “Because we found them in a prison.”
But that wasn’t exactly something I wanted to be reminded of.
Thankfully, I hardly heard that name, so I wasn’t forced to remember that time in my life often.
I cleared my throat as I strode through the office, bypassing the chairs the principal had gestured to and slipping around her desk to lean against it, near her.
“May I ask why you’re in my office when it’s only the first day of school?” Her sigh had the corner of my mouth lifting because it only partially covered her fear.
She wasn’t exactly sure who our family was and what we did, but she had her suspicions. Then again, her brother owned The Jack. And while Zeke was the only owner, we were in every part of that business.
Libby was a bartender.
Older generations of Borellos who hadn’t fled when Dare disbanded the family were bouncers, and their kids were barbacks.
Maverick had worked there until he’d broken someone’s jaw because the guy had touched Einstein, and where one of us went, the other always followed.
Suffice to say, we were there often, and Zeke had probably seen more than he should. So, his sister was smart to hold a level of fear whenever she encountered one of us.
“Security’s lacking here,” I muttered, folding my arms over my chest.
Her head slanted in disagreement. “I assure you, we’re taking every precaution to make sure—”
“I got in,” I said over her. “Not only that, but the women in your front office let me talk my way right past them.”
She tossed her glasses onto the desk and rubbed at the corner of her eye, where her skin was just beginning to wrinkle. “Past the locked doors?” When I nodded, she asked, “How?”
“Can’t tell you that.”
