The
message was from Paul’s phone, but Paul didn’t have his phone. Vinnie did. Grey
wanted to run. That was his instinct. Run. He’d done it in Baltimore after his
foster father died.
“Sucks
to be you right now.” Sarah flipped the screen to another picture of him and
Paul, and then another. All of them damning. “There’s rumor you fucked at the
game Friday night.”
A
moment of clarity settled over him. He turned to Sarah and leaned into her
face.
“You
should know all about fucking students. How many did you host at your apartment
this weekend? At least three on the football team, and a cheerleader if my
sources are correct.”
He
had no sources, but he could read between the lines. Sarah was the type who
wanted to hold on to her youth at all costs. And partying with the kids was the
ultimate high for someone like her. She went white around her lips but didn’t
react otherwise.
“Will
it be the unemployment line, or jail? I’d be shitting myself right now if I
were you. Have a good day Dr. Talbot.”
By
the time he made it to the front office, the halls were empty of students and
teachers. Three uniformed cops and a large plain clothed detective came in the
front entrance just as he opened the office door.
“Wait
out here,” the detective told the uniforms, his gaze focused on Grey. “Dr.
Talbot,” he said by way of greeting. “Shall we?” He held the door and motioned
Grey inside.
* * * * *
Vinnie
dragged Paul by his arm through the parking lot to their car. He popped the
trunk and pulled out their real wallets and gave Paul his.
“Where
the hell did those pictures come from?”
“I
don’t know. There was no one on the street. I didn’t see a soul or I wouldn’t
have…” But Paul remembered something he’d seen in the rearview mirror just
before he pulled out on the main street. “I think there was someone…Grey was
with someone, and they were arguing.”
“Did
you see who?” Vinnie combed his hair and straightened his clothes using the
side mirror. “Because this sure as hell throws one hell of a kink in this
investigation.”
“Cole.
I think his name is Cole. He’s the guy Grey was seeing. The one who beat him up
that morning. I threw him out of Grey’s apartment. He was high on something.
Really scary eyes. Probably meth.”
“Cole
Tanner. He’s the junkie we picked up Saturday night at a night club. He’s the
one who gave us Grey’s name. And he knew about you.”
“Yeah,
he knows I’m a cop. But I doubt he knows I’m undercover in the school.”
“Unless
he’s stalked Dr. Talbot.” Vinnie stood unnaturally still his head inclined
toward the street and the one car still sitting against the curb after hours.
“Does that look a bit like your boy, Cole?”
Paul
tried not to be obvious. He lifted his sunglasses to get a better look. The occupant
moved, and the car sped off down the street.
“Could
have been. He was in shadow. I can’t tell.”
Vinnie
sighed and rubbed his temples. “This is a fucked up mess, Spicoli. He’s going
to lose his job over this.”
“I
know. Shit. I know. But Vinnie, he isn’t dealing drugs. He’s not going to jail
because his asshole ex has an ax to grind. Man, you have got to promise me
you’ll look past Grey.”
“Yeah,
I’ll look past him. How about to the wonderful Ms. Sarah Hastings? She seemed
incredibly happy to show him something on her phone. How in the hell did that
junkie get those pictures on this campus? Why would he have a student’s number?
None of it makes any Goddamned sense.”
“She
would have the numbers. She’s been after him all term. He turns her down. I’ve
watched them at lunch. Makes my stomach churn the way she turns on the charm.”
“You
saying, Miss Hastings, could be our on-campus source?” Vinnie pulled the outer
door open, and they made their way through the deserted halls to the front
office. Three cops stood sentinel in the lobby.
“I
don’t know, Vin. I’m just trying to figure out how this went tits up so damned
fast.”
“
Too
damned fast. Let’s go in. See what damage has been done.”
* * * * *
Grey
sat, too stunned to speak, while the detective and vice principal shouted over
him in the conference room. The computer on the table displayed the pictures of
him and Paul from the day before. Cole. He knew without a doubt who’d sent
them. Revenge was becoming the story of his life. The quick knock on the door
and the shouted, “What?” from vp Douglas made him jump. Paul and the other
kid—cop—Vinnie, walked in and sat at the table with the rest of them.
“Sorry
we’re late, have we missed anything?” Paul spun the chair at an angle and
propped his feet on the table. He exuded bored attitude and irascible charm.
The detective just crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. Douglas,
on the other hand, was on the verge of blowing a gasket. Paul leaned over the
table and pulled the computer to him and flicked through the slide show of more
than the three pictures Sarah had shown Grey. Many more. Some of them on the
balcony the day before. As well as the night before.
“Well,
this looks very bad. Dr. Talbot is a very bad man. Wining, dining and seducing
little old me like that.”
“Are
you about finished, Sergeant Gaines?” Grey could tell that the detective was
Paul’s superior. He could also tell the man's patience was stretched past the
breaking point.
“Well,
sir, that all depends on how this is going to go down.” Paul’s voice oozed
disrespect, his smile cocky, and Grey could guess from any of a dozen
conversations, he’d come by that cockiness honestly. What was worse, he knew
how to use it.
“Yes,
I did something stupid. I got involved. I shouldn’t have. But before we all get
our collective drawers in a bunch, he knew who I was long before anything
inappropriate happened. He’s kept his mouth shut. He hasn’t compromised our
investigation. And he’s been the voice of reason. But I pursued him. This is on
me, Captain.”
Douglas’s
eyes seem to bug from his head as the confession he was hoping for became
something else entirely. That the older detective seemed to ignore the
principal didn’t help matters any.
“You’re
damned right it’s on you, Gaines. You come into my city and run amok. I don’t
like it. Not one bit. When I put you in here, it was with orders
not
to
do exactly what you did…I don’t care if Dr. Talbot knew you were a cop, he’s
still a teacher here. And a suspect.” The detective, Russell, Grey thought he'd
heard was his name, stood and paced the room. Righteous indignation oozing from
every pore.
“What
do you mean, suspect?” Grey found his voice, finally, while the vice principal
stopped even trying to get a word in edgewise and just stared at him, as if
he’d known all along.
“They
unsealed your juvenile files, Grey, you’re now on the short list of teachers
possibly involved.” Paul’s voice and attitude changed right before Grey’s eyes,
going from street smart punk, to the warm loving man he’d fallen for. One
second, cocky indifference, the next…? Like a chameleon. Or an undercover cop
just doing his job by playing all sides. Playing Grey.
“I
see,” Grey said, although he didn’t. Not really. “I guess you got what you came
here for. It was all a set up. I should have followed my instincts. But I let a
pretty face…I believed the lie.”
“Is
that a confession, son?” The older detective stopped cold, his dark eyes gone
narrow as he pinned Grey to the spot.
“Of
what? Being stupid enough to believe Paul when he said he wasn’t here to…That
this was about drugs and not trying to lure me into an inappropriate
relationship? Then yeah, I’m so fucking stupid. He said he was thirty.”
“I
am thirty…Jesus, Grey, is that what you’re thinking?” Paul seemed to lose every
ounce of his cockiness, he held out his hand for Grey’s.
Grey
stood up and walked away from the table to lean against the wall. He had to put
distance between them or…Or he’d end up in jail for hitting a cop.
“What
am I supposed to think? There are pictures of us. Kissing. You’re almost naked
in my lap in a couple of those. Someone went to a lot of trouble to make sure
those pictures ended up in this office. Everyone in this school knows where you
were this weekend. If that wasn’t your plan—"
“It
wasn’t, I swear, Grey. I…That wasn’t what…That wasn’t supposed to happen.” Paul
had the grace to look miserable. He slumped in his chair now, defeated, or out
of lies to tell him. “You weren’t supposed to get caught up in the middle of
this.”
“But
my juvenile arrests make me an easy target? I thought those records couldn’t be
opened without a court order. I was
sixteen
. That’s not me anymore.” His
past always had a way of coming back to bite him in the ass…So why not now? The
best thing to happen to him since his mother died and now, because of a pretty
faced liar—another in a long line of liars—he was going to lose everything he’d
worked so hard for.
“Will
someone tell me exactly what the hell is going on in my school?” Vice Principal
Douglas bellowed making Grey jump. “And start from the beginning or I’m—Fuck, I
don’t know what I’ll do. But someone better start talking and there had better
be a great deal of truth and fact involved.”
The
detective in charge took over, and the two undercover detectives kept their
mouths shut while every damning minute of the last few weeks was laid out
before the principal’s eyes. Grey watched and listened from across the room.
When it was over, Grey’s life was even more uncertain than a few minutes
before.
They
suspected him of dealing drugs in the school. His criminal past would be used
against him. The pictures and his relationship with Paul were damning, for both
of them. If the truth came out then Paul’s cover would be blown. If the truth
didn’t come out, then it looked as if Grey was having a sexual relationship
with one of his students.
And
his say in the matter didn’t count.
Chapter
Sixteen
Detention
had sucked when he was a kid, and it sucked even worse as an adult. Paul sat in
the library after hours with a group of other kids writing a two page essay on
some stupid topic while Ms. Sarah Hastings walked around “helping”. Paul
watched her lean over for the boys, a flash of cleavage and a soft word of
encouragement. For the girls she offered very little, unless one asked a
specific question then she’d grudgingly stop what she was doing to help.
She
gave Paul wide berth, never stopping to talk or offer any words of
encouragement. Not that it mattered. He sat at the table with his hands in his
pockets, daring her to say something about him not doing the assignment. He
wasn’t a fucking kid and this sucked. Grey was on paid suspension while he was
still here, dealing with the smirks and downright nasty comments from his
fellow students. Was this what it would have been like to be out and proud gay
back in school? He’d been shoved into the lockers no less than six times before
he shoved back, threatened a couple of times, and called fag more than he
wanted to think about. But what pissed him off the most was the shit they were
saying about Grey when Grey hadn’t done anything wrong.
His
fault.
God,
he was fucked.
Just
completely fucked.
He
couldn’t have any contact with Grey. Not that Grey would answer if he called
him anyway. He’d been very specific about where Paul could stick himself
yesterday when the police escorted him from the campus. Vinnie had dragged Paul
away, and drove them to the shop where they were both reamed, and reamed hard.
His ass still hurt from the kicking he’d gotten. But this was how it was going
down. Him left to face the consequences, and Grey under investigation, by the
school and the law.
Just
completely fucked as all fuck.
He
laid his head down on the table and listened to the scratch of pens on paper from
around the room. He didn’t give a shit what anyone thought of him.
“You’re
in love with him?” The voice was soft, feminine. Paul sat up straight and
looked around. He was alone with the other history teacher. Sarah. She sat at
the small table beside him and reached for his hand.
“Did
I fall asleep?” He felt disoriented and his mouth tasted like he fell
asleep…But he never slept that hard.
“Yeah,
you looked like you needed it.” She handed him a bottle of water and sat
quietly while he oriented himself.
“What
time is it? Vinnie is probably pissed that I’m keeping him from something.” He
tried to think of some excuse not to talk to the nosy teacher, but she sat
giving him the concerned adult face with the big eyes…Kind of like puppy eyes,
but with an agenda.
“Around
three-thirty. I let the others go early. Your brother is probably hanging with
his friends watching soccer tryouts.” She released his hand when he didn’t take
hers in return and looked around uneasily, as if she just realized they were
alone.