Arden Read online

  He knew that was a road too hard to make a U-turn on, and he wanted to be harsh to prevent them from starting down that path. Now, coincidentally, after they got a new principal, they also got a drug ring associated with their school. Declan had been right. Dammit!

  He called his brother, giving only a few curt words. Declan said he’d notify the authorities and they’d be there quickly. Arden hung up without bothering with a goodbye. Neither of them was in the mood for pleasantries.

  Keera was doing her best to answer the kids’ questions and calm their fears. He studied her pale face, the disappointment she was trying to hide, the tense set of her shoulders. Everything within him said there was no way she was involved—at least not of her own free will.

  He’d learned long ago to trust the voice within. But this was his school, and he was just as responsible for these kids as she was. Therefore, he had to keep his eyes wide open and not let his attraction toward the principal skew his investigation. His brother might have begun this, but he was now involved.

  Keera hadn’t tried to keep him from the locker area, hadn’t tried to steer him away. That didn’t speak of guilt. Him thinking of her as innocent wasn’t because of his attraction. He could afford to believe in her innocence without compromising his integrity.

  Max hadn’t moved from the locker, guarding his find. He looked from Arden to Keera, then Ethan, who was standing by in shock. The dog really didn’t like the vice principal. Arden didn’t blame him. The smarmy VP had never been a favorite of Arden’s, but he tried to give the guy the benefit of the doubt.

  Right now he didn’t see Ethan as being very helpful, which was making it much more difficult for Arden to be gracious. The man just stood there while Keera did all the damage control with the students.

  “You did good, Max,” Arden said. Max looked at him as if he was already bored with the scenario. “Take the praise like a real dog,” Arden grumbled. He would’ve sworn on a Bible that the dog had rolled his eyes. He turned away before he got into a fight with the mutt. That would certainly be on YouTube within minutes with the number of cell phones around him. Damn dog.

  Footsteps could be heard coming down the hall, and Arden turned to see an eager student leading Declan and a couple of crime-scene techs their way. The girl then went and joined the other kids as they waited to see what would happen next. This was a pretty exciting Saturday for them.

  “Wow, we’ve never been called here twice in the same weekend,” Joe said with a grin.

  “I’m sorry,” Keera told the tech.

  “Hey, I like a mystery. Wish it wasn’t at a school, but we’ll get to the bottom of it,” Joe assured her.

  Arden noticed how men acted around Keera. They puffed out their chests and had extrawide grins for her. The vice principal did it—hell, half the students did, too. He also noticed that she was seemingly oblivious to it.

  “Please figure it out,” Keera told the tech while placing her hand on his shoulder and squeezing. Pink infused Joe’s cheeks, and he turned, catching Arden’s gaze. There must have been some sort of ominous look on Arden’s face because the young man turned away and scurried over to the locker. Arden needed to cool it.

  “Max did good,” Declan said as he gazed over Joe’s shoulder at the plastic-wrapped white powder.

  “Yeah, the mutt’s been useful,” Arden admitted.

  “I’m not happy about this,” Declan said.

  “I know you aren’t. I was just hoping you were wrong,” Arden admitted.

  “I was hoping the same thing,” Declan told him.

  Joe had taken a sample from one of the bags, putting the powder into a vial and swirling it. He turned around, and Arden knew there was no doubt. Of course there wasn’t. If it hadn’t been drugs, Max wouldn’t have bothered with the locker.

  “Yeah, it’s coke,” Joe said. He turned back to the locker, and he and his partner carefully inventoried the drugs and the few other items in there before taking their time swabbing the area, getting every trace of evidence they could find. The techs were thorough.

  Declan hovered over them, making Joe sweat a little more than he normally did. There was just something so damn commanding about his brother, it tended to make anyone around him a little jumpy.

  The kids were chattering with each other as they did their best to share this latest bit of gossip with the entire town of Edmonds. It wouldn’t do them any good to try to keep this contained. But, then again, Arden didn’t want to do that. The more people talking about this, the more likely they’d find whoever was responsible. In a small town, secrets tended to be unwrapped rather quickly.

  Keera began questioning the kids, her shoulders more set now that the initial shock had worn off. She was firm as she looked them in the eyes and began asking some hard questions.

  “Have any of you seen anything suspicious around this locker?” she asked. Arden noted how she looked the students in the eyes, never being the first one to break contact. A few kids squirmed as if they might want to talk, and that made both Arden and Declan step closer to the group, which only appeared to make them more nervous.

  Good. They should be afraid. Enough dope had been found in their school to OD half the students. It wasn’t something to be taken lightly. All it would take was one student stepping forward, and they could end this.

  Most of the kids looked clueless, but there were a couple who might have information. Both he and Declan seemed to zoom in on them, and those kids were inspecting their shoes an awful lot.

  “Come on, you guys. This is your school. Take pride in it. You won’t be in trouble for sharing information,” Keera pleaded with them.

  Ethan had disappeared into his office and hadn’t emerged again. He was a coward who should’ve been out there dealing with the situation instead of hiding. Some people preferred to live in the shadows while others couldn’t help but seek the light. Arden respected Keera for being a light-seeker, and he found himself drawing closer to her.

  They’d get to the bottom of this, and they’d get Keera answers about her brother, as well. When he made a promise to another person, he delivered on his word. It was a code of conduct that had been instilled in him from the time he could barely walk.

  His ego took a surge when Keera leaned a bit closer to him. Whether she’d done it intentionally or not, she needed him. He just hoped neither of them let the other down. He had no doubt she’d been disappointed too many times already in her life, and he was determined to show her what faith in another person looked like.

  Chapter Seven

  Keera’s nerves were frayed as she watched Arden and his brother huddle together away from the group of kids. What were they discussing? Did he still think she had anything to do with this?

  She’d been so confident nothing amiss was happening, and just that quickly she’d been proven wrong. Had the drugs been brought in since the night before? She couldn’t remember if she and Arden had walked this path with his dog the previous night. She’d been incredibly shaken, though, so she could definitely give herself a break for not remembering all the details.

  She’d come to this town for a fresh start—to become a new person. But it seemed her past wasn’t something she could outrun. For now, she had to keep her fears and worries locked tightly away. There were kids who needed reassurance, and cops who needed answers. And it would be great if they didn’t think she was the guilty party in all this. She could see how they’d believe that, since she was so new—and since she did have a past.

  One of the kids looked up, determination in her eyes as she faced Keera. “I noticed Jeff Engel hanging in this area even though his locker’s around the corner,” Deanna said.

  Only a few tense moments had passed since Keera had pleaded with the kids for any kind of information that would lead to who was behind this, but it seemed a lifetime with how frayed Keera’s nerves were.

  “That’s just gossip, Deanna,” another of the students growled, glaring at the girl. “Jeff’s been getting h
is shit together.”

  “Let her speak, Mitch,” Keera sternly told him. She’d speak to all the kids one-on-one, if need be, but for now she needed to figure out who knew anything that might help the case. All of the students were obviously afraid to rock the boat.

  “I just saw him in this area,” Deanna insisted, though her voice had lowered, and she was now looking at the floor. The shy girl didn’t normally step up, and Keera was proud of her.

  “Yeah, well, I hang around areas my locker isn’t at, too. Does that mean I’m dealing dope?” Mitch snapped.

  Deanna seemed to sink within herself as she took a step back. Keera wanted to pull Mitch aside and tell him to keep his mouth shut, but instead, she studied him. Maybe he knew more than he was letting on. When he noticed her full attention had turned to him, he stood his ground and glared at her. He was an angry boy to begin with, and having any adult try to put him in his place infuriated the teen.

  “Do you know something you aren’t sharing, Mitch?” Keera questioned. “All we want is to ensure the safety of the school,” she added. He obviously came in on weekends, so this place was a refuge to him as well as the others. She figured none of them would want to mess with that.

  “I don’t think it’s a student at all. It’s not like people can’t come and go as they please,” Mitch said.

  “What do you mean by that?” she asked.

  “There’s always a door open. If a person looks long enough, they’ll get in, whether there’s anyone else in here or not,” he said.

  Keera’s eyes narrowed. This wasn’t good news—and certainly not what she wanted to hear. Was more going on in her school than she’d realized?

  “We lock up every day,” Keera told him.

  “The gym door is hardly ever locked. The coaches are constantly running extra classes, doing weight lifting and stuff, and I think they just figure someone is always here,” another girl said. She was on the volleyball team, and Keera knew they were required to lift weights twice a week.

  “We always lock up when we leave,” Arden said from behind her.

  “Not all the coaches are as thorough as you,” Mitch said with a grin.

  “And how are you so aware of this?” Arden questioned the kid. “You aren’t on any of the teams and shouldn’t be going through that door.”

  The boy tried to keep his composure, but it wasn’t as easy to do with Arden as it apparently had been with her. She hated the lack of respect she sometimes got from the students. But because she was small, and young, they tended to seek out the older, male staff members more than her. That would one day change, she assured herself.

  “Come on, Mr. Forbes, it’s not like I have information that everyone here doesn’t have,” Mitch said, not seeming quite so tough now as he realized the hot water he was in.

  Declan stepped forward and eyed the boy, and Mitch shifted on his feet, clearly wanting to be anywhere but where he was.

  “Do you have anything useful for us?” Declan asked. Even the way Arden’s brother spoke was enough to send shivers down their spines. He was a man of power, and there was no denying it.

  “No. I’m sorry,” Mitch said. “Can I go? I promised my mom I’d be home by now.”

  Declan paused for several moments, and the boy shifted again. All of the students were looking at the ground now. Even if they hadn’t done anything wrong, with the way Declan was studying them, it probably made them feel as if they had.

  “You’re all dismissed,” Declan said, and there was a visible sigh of relief until he spoke his next words. “For now.”

  Mitch and the remaining students practically ran from the scene, all of them knowing they could be questioned again. They were probably regretting hanging around to see what was happening. In this case, out of sight, out of mind seemed a much better option.

  “I’m going to check on things. I’ll see you in a few,” Declan said before he left.

  Keera watched the intimidating man walk away and felt herself wanting to flee with the rest of the kids. That seemed to be preferable right now. Arden was quiet for a few moments before he spoke.

  “My brother would like us to come down to his office,” Arden said.

  “I can’t leave,” Keera told him. The police were still working, and she had to make sure the school was cleared out—and locked.

  “I can take care of everything here,” Ethan said, finally deciding to make another appearance.

  “You need to come in, too,” Arden said, making Ethan’s eyes narrow.

  “Why?” the vice principal asked. “I have no information.”

  “You’re here as much as I am, Ethan. You might have info you’re not even aware of until someone asks the right question,” she said, hoping to appease the irritated man. “You’ve been at this school for a long time.”

  “Maybe I’ve been here too long,” Ethan grumbled. “It seems the kids are getting worse the more the years go on. Drugs used to not be such a big deal. Sure, the occasional hit of pot would happen, or someone would find it funny to slip a mushroom into their soup, but this hard stuff, this new day and age . . .” He stopped talking as he shook his head. “I don’t get it.”

  Keera didn’t know what to say. Had he been doing this job too long? Would she feel the same as he did after running a school for ten or fifteen years? She certainly hoped not. She loved her job and wanted to continue feeling that way. She loved her students and doubted that would ever change. One bad apple shouldn’t ruin it for everyone else.

  “Let’s get the school closed up and make sure the kids are out. Then we can go speak to the authorities. The sooner this problem gets solved, the sooner it will go back to normal,” Keera said to both Ethan and Arden.

  “We’re finished here,” the techs said as the locker was shut. The evidence was fully contained, and they had plenty of it to analyze. If anything turned up from it, then they were on their way to solving this mystery.

  Arden thanked them, and they walked to the front doors. Keera and Ethan began clearing the school. Not many students were left, and it didn’t take them long to get the building locked up. Ethan took off out the back with a grumbled promise to meet her.

  Keera stepped outside, finding Arden leaning against his car, Max sitting at his heels. She wanted to walk past him, suddenly feeling more tired than she had in a long while.

  “Why don’t we ride together?” Arden asked as he opened his passenger door.

  “I’m good. I have my car,” she told him.

  “Let’s save fuel, and we can discuss what I missed while you were speaking to the kids,” he said, placing his hand on her lower back and steering her inside the vehicle.

  She either had to crawl in or have his body pressed against her back. She decided to jump into the seat. Yeah, it was going to play hell on her senses to sit next to him, but it wasn’t a long ride, and she was a bit too shaky to be driving, anyway.

  Arden shut her door, then let Max into the back seat. She could feel Max’s hot breath on the back of her neck as she pulled her seat belt over her with shaky fingers. Whether or not Arden felt as if she was an outsider unfit to run his school, she had been hired for the job, and she intended to keep it.

  Keera didn’t know what to think. All she knew for sure was there was a problem, and the sooner they got to the bottom of it, the sooner everything could get back to normal—whatever normal was.

  Though his excuse to give her a ride had been for them to talk, the drive was ominously quiet as they made their way through town to one of the older government buildings. Keera hadn’t seen Declan leave the school, but she had no doubt he’d beat them there. Arden’s brother was intense—and that was putting it mildly.

  Arden parked the car, and Keera felt as if she were being led down the green mile as he walked next to her into the dark building, passing several people who nodded at them but didn’t say anything.

  “How’s your brother involved in this?” Keera asked. She didn’t know much about the Forbes fami
ly, to tell the truth, just what was said through the gossip channels. She knew they put a lot into the community, and knew they were ridiculously wealthy, but from what she’d heard, they also seemed to lead normal lives.

  Of course, could you really call it a normal life when they owned private jets and took off to another country for a weekend picnic? Sure, they might work what most would call regular jobs, but they had big toys, as well. She’d grown up with wealth, and she knew exactly what that could do, and often did, to a family.

  “Declan’s FBI, but he doesn’t share much about what he does,” Arden said with a chuckle.

  “He doesn’t share with his own family?” she questioned.

  “Top secret,” Arden said with a wink.

  “So this is a federal office?” Keera asked, feeling like the walls were closing in on her.

  “Not officially,” Arden said.

  Keera had nothing to hide—not really. But her past was coming back to haunt her, and she felt a deep-rooted fear that she was going to be hauled away to some secret chamber, never to be seen again.

  Arden led Keera into a small room with windows up high and an old table with rickety-looking chairs sitting on both sides of it. She was cold as she fought the urge to run from the room. Ethan was sitting at the table, looking completely put out. She knew exactly how he felt.

  Declan Forbes stood in the corner of the room where he could view the doorway and the table—where he was making it clear he was in control. His hands were clasped behind his back as if he was trying to give the appearance of being at ease, but the intense look in his eyes told her he was a man who never let down his guard.

  She moved a little closer to Arden, wanting some of his natural light to infuse her. As much as she was trying to keep her distance from Arden, she was also finding herself wanting to lean on him. That made her uneasy.

  “Please get comfortable,” Declan told them, though his gaze was boring into her. Another shiver racked her body. There was no way she wanted to make herself comfortable. The moment this was over, she was out of there.