A Jeep appeared through the curtain of snow, slowing at the window of the gatehouse. Rolling down his window, the Jeep’s driver slowed to talk to the officer in the gatehouse. A moment later, the gate swung open and the Jeep rolled through, headlights heading straight for her. The Jeep wheeled to a sliding stop next to her car, and the door popped open. Jules turned casually to look at the driver, and her heart sank. Something about his profile seemed familiar.
Jules’s heart clutched as she squinted against the swirling snow.
She told herself she was imagining things. She had to be.
Cooper Trent was not crossing the parking lot!
Not in a million years.
Her tired, distraught mind was just playing tricks on her.
Nonetheless, her heart was trip-hammering, her pulse jumping, her nerves strung to the breaking point.
It was just her subconscious dragging him up again as it did in her nightmares, or her headache giving her eyestrain.
He was out of her life.
As in forever.
Right?
It couldn’t be.
No way, no how.
But no amount of denial could erase the fact that Cooper Trent now stood outside her car, looking better than any man had a right to look and acting as if the past five years were just a heartbeat.
Gone were the dusty chaps, ratty old Stetson, and cocky cowboy grin. Instead he wore faded Levi’s, a pair of worn boots, and a sheepskin jacket. Bareheaded, snow collecting in his hair, he stared downward.
Her foolish heart knocked.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded through the open window.
He hesitated a second, glanced over his shoulder to make sure the deputy couldn’t hear him, then met her gaze again. “You know, Jules,” he drawled in a low voice she’d once found so sexy it had turned her inside out, “that’s just what I was gonna ask you.”
CHAPTER 18
Jules decided that the nightmare had just taken a turn for the worse. What were the odds? Out of the billions of people in the world, how did she end up face-to-face with the one man she’d never wanted to see again?
So God did have a sense of humor after all.
And a wicked one at that.
“You know why I’m here,” Jules said. “Someone—probably Dean Hammersley—sent you to get me.”
“That she did. And that’s when she dropped the bomb that you were the new history teacher.”
“Perfect,” she said with sarcasm as bitter as the wind chasing down the mountainside.
“And the funny thing about that,” Trent observed, “is, I’ve already got a job here.”
“Yeah, real funny,” she said. “You’re not listed on the Web site.”
“They’re updating. I’m the newest person on staff. Well, I was until you showed up.”
Great, just damned great! All her scheming and plotting and lying were for nothing. She’d been afraid that Shaylee might blow her cover or that Lynch’s wife might figure out
that she was related to Shaylee, but she hadn’t thought—couldn’t imagine—that Cooper Trent would be here. She rolled up the window, opened the door, and stepped onto the icy parking lot where the wind, like a frigid knife, cut through her jacket. “I didn’t see that they were teaching bronc busting or bull riding down here, so what’s your job?”
“I’m the phys ed teacher.”
“Why?” she demanded, wondering why her pulse still pounded at the sight of him. “The rodeo circuit run out of bulls?”
“Change of profession.”
“Oh, right. You traded in your spurs for Nikes. Don’t think so.”
Deputy Meeker glanced over at them. Frowning, he started heading across the lot again.
“Don’t ruin this for me,” she whispered. “I need this job.”
“Deal. You do the same.” He was waiting. When she didn’t respond, he added, “Does Lynch know your sister is one of the students? I think there’s some rule against family members—”
“Shh!” she warned, feeling heat in her cheeks. She had to stay cool, to calm down. She couldn’t blow it with the deputy.
“Is there a problem, Officer?” Trent asked, and it was all Jules could do not to kick him in the shins. Instead, she pasted on a smile that she didn’t feel.
“Just checkin’,” the deputy said, and handed Jules back her ID. “Your license expired two days ago.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ve been busy. I thought once I moved down here and took the job and had a permanent address I’d renew it.” Oh, God, she hoped the deputy was buying her lie.
He studied her with eyes used to sorting fact from fiction,
but finally he nodded. “All right, then. You take care of it. There’s a DMV in Cave Junction. It’s quite a bit closer than Medford.” The deputy’s cell rang, and he answered, turning his back to them.
“Thanks,” she said, relieved.
“Great. So we’re good to go?” Trent asked, but Meeker was deep in conversation.
“Sounds like a go to me,” Jules said.
“Let’s get your things out of your car and into the Jeep.”
She popped the trunk and pulled out the smaller of two bags, her pillow, and a laptop computer case. He-Man could get the larger roller bag.
They loaded up the Jeep quickly and stopped at the gate, where Trent waved to the guard. All this was done in relative silence, questions pounding through her head.
Stupidly, her mind flashed to another time and place, when she was not quite twenty, still a virgin, and Erin’s brother had introduced her to him. She’d expected he’d be brash, loud, and all macho; she’d discovered he was quiet, thoughtful, but with a sharp sense of humor that matched her own.
Now, five years of pent-up fury and bitter disappointment gnawed a hole in her gut. She’d thought she would never see him again, much less end up in a vehicle with him as he drove her to a school where, if Shay could be believed, a murder had recently been committed.
What kind of cruel twist of fate was at play here?
“Okay,” she said, once they were completely alone on the precipitous road leading deeper in the mountains. “Why don’t you tell me how you went from bull rider to teacher in one fell swoop?” She still couldn’t believe it.
“Better yet, let’s start with you,” he countered. His cocky smile slid from his face, and his gloved fingers clenched the steering wheel. The temperature in the Jeep
seemed to drop ten degrees. “Your sister’s already here and up to her eyeballs in trouble,” he admitted, his face grim. “Her roommate was murdered, or possibly killed herself—that hasn’t been determined yet—and another boy is probably going to die from his injuries.” He let his breath whistle through his teeth. “The sheriff’s department is still trying to sort it all out, but whatever happened, it was brutal.”
“Shaylee called. She warned me.”
“Called? How? I thought—”
“Don’t ask.” She held up a hand. “But she’s freaked.”
“We all are.”
“But you said that she was in trouble.”
He nodded, glancing down at the gauges for a second. “Shaylee claims she knows nothing about what happened, but her baseball cap was found at the scene.”
“Her cap?” Jules repeated, stunned. “Wait … let’s just start from the beginning. Shaylee’s a suspect?”
“Everyone is.”
“Including you?”
He slid her a look. “Probably. But my college team baseball hat wasn’t found at the scene.”
“So Shaylee’s number one on the list?”
“Don’t know, but she’s up there. The last person to see Nona Vickers alive, it seems.”
“So what? Look, Shaylee couldn’t kill anyone! And attack a second person? Get real! Besides, I think another student might be dead, too, the one who no one can find.”
“Lauren Conway,” he said. “I know.”
“You know?”
“I don’t know that she’s dead, but she’s certainly still missing.” He downshifted as the Jeep slid around an icy corner. Jules grabbed the door handle to brace herself. “Let’s start over. Why are you here?”
She wanted to lie. To tell him that it was all coincidence,
but he wouldn’t buy it, and unless she somehow got him on her side, Cooper Trent could ruin everything. “How far is it until we get to the school?”
“Five, maybe six miles.”
“Drive slowly,” she said, “and you go first.”
He slanted a hard look in her direction, then stared out the windshield. “I needed a job.”
“Bull! You don’t have the patience, temperament, or desire to teach kids badminton.”
“Maybe I’ve changed.”
She let out a disbelieving breath. “Sure.” How much more complicated could this get? She twisted in the seat to stare at him harder. “Let’s cut to the chase. Both of us, obviously, have ulterior motives for being at Blue Rock.”
Beneath his beard shadow, his jaw tightened. “Okay I’ll bite. What’s yours?”
“I want to get Shaylee out of here.”
“So yank her.”
“Can’t. Nor can Mom. Judge’s order.”
He swore under his breath, but she had a feeling she wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. “Isn’t her father rich? Can’t he hire some hotshot attorney to spring her?”
“Max seems to think being at the academy will be good for her,” Jules admitted, all the tension of the day seeping into her bones. “For once Edie agrees.”
“But you don’t.”
“I’ve done some research. Things here aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, and all this pseudo-Christian rhetoric doesn’t ring true. I’ve seen the mansion on Lake Washington. Someone’s making big bucks off of messed-up kids. It all seems about as real as Disneyland.”
“And then there’s Lauren.”
“You got it,” she agreed. “The girl no one seems to want
to find.” She thought of her phone conversations with Cheryl Conway. “Except for her mother.”
He grimaced. “You’ve talked to Cheryl?”
“Yeah. Have you? Wait a second,” she said, putting some of the ill-fitting pieces of the puzzle together. She’d read that he’d once worked for a sheriff’s department in Montana. “Is that why you’re here? You’re trying to find her, right? Come on. Your turn, PE teacher. What brings you to the Blue Rock Academy locker room?”
“I can’t really talk about it.”
“Why not? I was straight with you; I expect the same.” Really she didn’t. Hadn’t he proved what a jerk and liar he was once before? Why should she trust him now?
Because you don’t have much of a choice. You’re committed now, backed into a pretty tight corner. On top of all that, now Cooper Trent knows you’re lying. You have to trust him, Jules. You’d better get him to keep your secret!
“Damn,” she swore. If she’d thought things were bad before, she now knew how much worse they could get.
He stared straight ahead. “I’m being as straight with you as I can.”
“Sure.” She glanced out the window, wondering at the mountains she’d seen in the brochure, invisible tonight. Snow fell fast and hard, piling on the windshield before the wipers brushed it away.
“I can’t tell you anything else,” he said. “Really.”
“Then maybe I can help you fill in the gaps. I read about you working for some sheriff’s department in Montana.” Her eyes narrowed as she remembered Cheryl Conway indicating that sometimes it wasn’t enough to rely on the police to do their jobs; sometimes a person had “to do more.” Meaning what? “So are you working undercover? Is that it?”
“As far as you’re concerned, I’m a teacher here,” he said slowly as he cranked on the steering wheel. The Jeep
rounded a sharp corner, tires shimmying on ruts from the winter’s storms. “And it would make what I’m trying to accomplish here so much easier if you’d refuse your position.”
“What?”
“Tell Hammersley and Lynch you changed your mind. No one would blame you.”
“I’m not backing down now!” she said.
“It’s dangerous.” A tic was working near his eye as he tried to hang on to the threads of his temper. She remembered that telltale sign from the past.
“So I should just abandon my sister?”
“You’re not abandoning her.”
“Damned straight. So don’t waste your breath trying to talk me out of it!” She was seething now, her blood pressure climbing. “Until Shaylee is out of this place, I’m on staff!”
His lips drew into a blade-thin line. “You always were stubborn.”
“So don’t try to talk me out of it, okay? It won’t work.”
“I don’t want you getting in my way.”
“Fine!” she said, years of anger roiling deep inside. “Then you stay the hell out of mine!”
“Jules …”
Her heart cracked a little at the sound of his voice saying her name, but she wasn’t going to let some long-forgotten, stupid, and oh-so-childish romantic fantasy deter her.
“I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“Didn’t I just say I’d keep my distance?”
He winced a little at her harsh words, but she had to make him see she was serious and strong, not the weak, fragmented girl he’d known five years ago. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You got that right, Cowboy,” she vowed. No one had
ever had the ability to wound her like Cooper Trent. She’d make damned sure it didn’t happen again.
“Look, I just don’t want to worry about you.”
“Easy solution: don’t.”
“Goddammit, Jules—”
“Julia. It’s Julia. Get it straight! There just may be a test tomorrow.” She arched an eyebrow, and as angry as he was, his lips twitched a bit.
“You’re impossible,” he said without a hint of admiration.
“One of my finer traits.”
“What happened to kind, honest, loving?”
She flipped a hand dismissively. “Overrated. Let’s not go there.”
“Fair enough.” Was there just a spark of humor in his eyes? She felt herself warming to him again and gave herself a swift, silent mental kick.
“So give me the rundown on the school. And don’t sugarcoat anything.”
“Yes, ma’am!” He barked out a laugh, and she didn’t blame him. In all the time she’d known him, Cooper Trent was a straight shooter, telling it like it was and damn the consequences.
“Well, since I can’t talk you out of resigning …”
“You can’t. Forget it.”
He frowned. Seemed to wrestle with a decision and finally appeared to accept the fact that, like it or not, he had to deal with her. “Well, to start off, you said something about there being a test about you? That’s really not too far from the truth. If we’ve got anything, we’ve got rules, regulations, and tests at Blue Rock.” He shook his head and swore again, but some of his ire had dissipated.