Lord Have Mercy

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  I would’ve been super embarrassed if this had happened with everyone still here.

  Thank God Raleigh and Croft had gone out to dinner and left me here to talk on the phone. If it hadn’t happened, they would’ve likely been privy to this shipwreck, too.

  And Flint struck me as the type not to want his dirty laundry flapping around for everyone to see.

  “Get control of yourself!” Flint barked. “I broke up with you. What I didn’t do was kill your cat! Go home!”

  Nivea stomped her foot. “I will not go home until you give me a good enough reason as to why you think we should see different people.”

  Flint cracked his neck from side to side, and I knew that he was gearing up to really let his anger loose.

  My eyes caught on the alarm panel at my side, and I tapped it with one finger.

  The screen came to life, and I saw the little blaring alarm button at the top right of the screen.

  On instinct, I pressed it, and seconds later, a loud wailing alarm was sounding throughout the gym.

  Flint’s eyes left Nivea and landed on me.

  I bit my lip and muttered, “Oops.”

  Carmichael started to laugh and walked to the screen, but suddenly Flint was there, pushing us both out of the way.

  He typed in the code—which was like eight million characters long—and turned to level his glare on me.

  I raised my hands in surrender. His glare was mighty impressive. If I’d been a lesser woman, I might’ve actually shivered at the look of annoyance and anger in his eyes.

  Luckily, not all of that was aimed toward me.

  He growled in frustration when the alarm started spouting out a concerned human female’s voice.

  “This is Jody with Armor Alarm. I note that a panic alarm has been set off from the receiver. Is everything okay?” Jody, the Armor Alarm chick, asked.

  Flint growled. “Yes, ma’am. Everything’s fine.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. Please, would you mind giving me the passcode?” she asked.

  Flint looked at me pointedly, and I got the hint rather quickly.

  Grabbing up my shit, I walked out without looking back, a small smile on my face as I did.

  That smile fell off my face when Nivea bounced out the door right behind me.

  “I fucking hate you,” she hissed at my back.

  I ignored her, or tried to, but her angry stomps at my back had my eyes twitching.

  “I knew from the moment that I started seeing him that he had a thing for you,” she continued her tirade. “Should’ve known he would cheat with you.”

  I stopped, turned, and regarded her with barely contained ire. “I did not sleep with him. We are not together. I literally don’t even like him. Whatever you think is going on, isn’t. Trust me on that.”

  “Why would I trust the word of a slut?” she asked. “And good luck trying to keep your job. I’m going to make your life a living hell.”

  I had no doubt that she would try. But I’d been there throughout my entire teaching career. I’d been there four months longer than Nivea—who was teaching Spanish and German for literally three periods a day and then nothing else—she could be spared. I, on the other hand, could not. It wasn’t boasting or anything.

  I was the lead science teacher at the high school. I was over chemistry, but also physics and biology, as well as sixth through eighth grade science. How that had happened, I had no clue. I was the one who rounded up all my fellow science teachers and made things mesh. I could cover where others could not thanks to my dual degrees in not just teaching, but biology and chemistry as well.

  Though, once upon a time, Nivea had been a biology teacher. Her children had gotten bad grades on their state testing, however, and the administration had decided to replace her. They’d kept her in her elective classes, though, meaning she wasn’t completely kicked to the curb.

  So yes, she was still very bitter about the whole experience.

  That wasn’t my fault, though. None of this was my fault.

  But instead of stooping to her level and telling her all the things that were currently running through my mind—such as you’re a big bitch and I hope you catch your clit in your zipper—I turned back around and went back to my car.

  I even ignored her when she stood behind my car for two long minutes hoping to get a rise out of me.

  Funny enough, I was plugging my phone in and trying to find a good radio station, so who knows how long she was actually standing there before I noticed. Instead, I checked my Facebook, sent back a few emails that I’d been neglecting to do all day, and paid a few bills.

  By the time that I was finished paying my electric, she was huffing her way to her car.

  I waited another two minutes for her to actually get into her car and leave before I pulled out.

  Except, I once again didn’t pay attention to Flint and nearly backed over him.

  His hard hand slamming on the trunk of my car caused my heart to nearly stall out in my chest.

  When I looked at him in my rearview mirror, he wasn’t too pleased.

  I waved at him in a universal ‘I’m sorry!’ sign, and he flipped me off.

  Biting my lip, I looked down at the picture that had caught my attention as I was backing out.

  Saving it to my phone and putting it as my background picture as well as my lock screen photo, I closed down my phone and tucked it into my cup holder before driving away—this time making sure to look behind me thoroughly before doing so.

  And, later that night, I might or might not have done some other stuff to that picture, too.

  Let’s just say Flintstone was a distraction that I definitely didn’t need.

  Chapter 5

  It’s like winter’s really mad, and it keeps slamming the door, then reopening it and sayin, “Another thing!”

  -Text from Flint to his sister

  Flint

  “Do you usually check the teachers’ cars, too?” The principal looked at me worriedly.

  “Yes,” I answered. “Every single time. It’s school property.”

  She sighed. “Okay.”

  Then she went inside, and I was left wondering what that was all about.

  Every single Monday and Friday I did a sweep of the parking lot with Dooley, and every single week the woman asked me questions that she likely knew the answers to.

  As I passed with Dooley past a certain teacher’s car that I couldn’t stop fucking thinking about, I hurried faster, not wanting to look at the laundry basket in the backseat that had a hot pink thong on top. Nor the lacy black bra that probably made her breasts look magnificent.

  I also didn’t notice the bag of Doritos open on her front seat as if she’d been eating them on the way to school.

  I grinned, thinking that I was going to get her for that later during boot camp, and stalled out when Dooley hit on the car beside Camryn’s.

  Fuck.

  Sixty minutes later, I was filling out a police report and the new track teacher, who’d literally been hired just a week ago, was meeting with the principal, likely about to be fired.

  A crowd had gathered, and it wasn’t a surprise to see Camryn in the crowd of onlookers.

  Her eyes narrowed on the car I was standing at—which was hers—when she started to stomp forward.

  I knew what she was thinking. She was thinking that Dooley had a hit on her car, not the one beside it. I could practically see the fire as it lit inside of her.

  Luckily, everything had already been taken care of and the only ones left in the parking lot were the teachers that had break during this particular period. Camryn being one of those teachers.

  She narrowed her eyes on me, her face a mask of anger, and started to stomp her way toward me.

  She didn’t stop until we faced each other across the hood of her car.

  “Those aren’t my Doritos!” she declared loudly.

  My brows rose. “Th
ey’re not? They’re in your car.”

  Her arms crossed over her chest. “I was having a weak moment. I only smelled them.”

  I could feel my lips twitching, and soon I would start out and out laughing.

  I managed to hold onto my hilarity, but only by the smallest of fractions.

  “You only smelled them,” I said, trying to keep my lips from betraying the smile. “Are you sure about that?”

  She sighed, and her shoulders shrugged. “I licked one, too.”

  It was at that point that I realized I wouldn’t be able to do it. I had to laugh. I just couldn’t help it.

  “Oh, Elvis, I knew you’d break,” I teased her, unable to help myself.

  Her arms went tighter across her chest, and she started to tap her foot. I could hear it against the rocks of the parking lot shifting beneath her foot.

  “I didn’t cheat,” she repeated. “Cheating would mean that I had carbs, which I didn’t. There are no carbs in the cheesy stuff that’s on the chip itself.”

  “How do I know that you’re not lying just to get me off your back?” I asked curiously.

  I believed her, but she didn’t need to know that.

  “I have the licked off chips on the floorboard. Look.” She pointed in the direction of the chips, and I started to chuckle.

  There were like eight licked-clean chips on the floor of her car, and all of them were whole.

  “That’s very odd,” I lobbed her way.

  “I’m an odd duck, what can I say?” she shrugged, uncaring.

  “What did you have for breakfast besides the cheese off of those Doritos?” I questioned, finding myself unwilling to end this ludicrous conversation.

  “I had a shake,” she admitted. “One of those chocolate protein ones that tasted like death and children’s tears.”

  I chuckled, and Dooley decided to lay down at my feet and knock me slightly off balance as he did.

  Her eyes went to the dog, and then immediately came back to me.

  “I’m sorry.”

  She shrugged, acting for all the world like she was unaffected when we both knew that she was. “It was a long time ago. I should be over the fear by now.” She paused. “Did Carmichael tell you?”

  I nodded. “She did.”

  She looked at her hands. “It’s not a rational fear. I try to act like a non-sissy, but each time I tell myself to grow a pair, I think about what it felt like to be bitten and I’m back in that place all over again.”

  “What happened?”

  Hearing the story straight from her mouth was no better than hearing it from my sister’s. I’d hoped that Carmichael had heard wrong, but obviously she hadn’t.

  “That’s a one in a million chance of that happening,” I admitted. “And the handler obviously didn’t have good control of his dog. I can’t imagine that happening, especially to a young girl.”

  I promised myself yesterday that I wouldn’t look into the matter. But, my curiosity was killing me, and I wanted to know more. I wanted to know everything about the situation, and why something so monumental had gone wrong.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered. “And I was so fucking scared in the first place that my rational instinct was to hide. Having our door knocked down and fourteen black-clad, armored men come through the door? Who wouldn’t run?”

  “How old were you?” I asked softly.

  “Fifteen,” she answered hesitantly.

  Her eyes were downcast, and I found myself reaching for her before I could stop myself.

  I would’ve touched her, too, had the goddamn principal, who was obviously pissed at me at the moment based on the look in her eyes, not butted into our conversation.

  “Ms. Presley, would you mind coming to my office for a moment?” Mrs. Sherpa, the principal, called out.

  I frowned and looked over at her where she was standing next to the door that led into the south wing of the school.

  “Is there a problem?” I asked, unsure why she looked and sounded so pissed.

  At least not with Camryn, anyway. Me? I could see.

  “You can come, too,” she said, brooking no room for argument.

  Camryn’s eyes widened and met mine.

  The words ‘what the fuck’ were mouthed in my direction.

  I shrugged. “No idea.”

  She followed dutifully behind Mrs. Sherpa, while I followed behind her with Dooley.

  I was sure to keep quite a large gap between us so as not to cause Camryn to freak out.

  Now that I knew it was the dog that scared the shit out of her, and why, I was going to be much more careful how I handled the situation.

  “Have a seat,” Mrs. Sherpa said the moment we got into the office.

  I parked myself on the farthest most outside seat and had Dooley lay down at my feet on the side away from Camryn. Camryn scooted her chair almost to the wall and then sat down, the farthest away that she could get without actually being outside of the room.

  “I was coming to deal with y’all when I was informed about the new track coach,” she sighed. “Y’all do realize that it’s unprofessional to have a relationship such as the one that y’all have, correct? The students need to be able to rely on you, Officer Stone. And you, Ms. Presley. They don’t need to be getting any whiff of the type of relationship y’all share.”

  I stiffened. “I don’t know what you’re implying, but I don’t like it. I’m more than capable of doing my job, and have never, not in all the years of working here, given you any indication that I couldn’t. My record is nothing less than exemplary.”

  “And I haven’t done anything either,” Camryn said, a lot less eloquently, might I add.

  Then she crossed her arms over her chest and glared, causing me to snort.

  She turned to me with a glare. Our earlier camaraderie was gone. She was now back to her pissed off, prickly self.

  That was the girl I was beginning to fall for.

  Grinning slightly, I turned back to Mrs. Sherpa who was looking at us curiously.

  “A photo of the two of you is circulating around the school.” She pulled out her phone and started tapping. The moment that it was up, she turned her phone around and showed us.

  It was a photo of us from last night. I was stretching her out, unluckily all you could see was my back and her bare legs.

  Camryn hissed in a breath.

  “You can’t even tell that that’s me and her,” I pointed out. “All you can make out are legs and a back. A back, which I might add, is completely covered.”

  “It has your name on the back,” she pointed out.

  “Actually,” Camryn said. “It has the gym’s name on the back. CrossFit Gun Barrel. Even I have a shirt that says that since I started boot camp there.”

  Mrs. Sherpa sighed. “I know you’re right. I just wanted you to know that you need to be more careful about what you’re doing, and who you do it in front of.”

  “Who sent you this?” I asked curiously.

  The way it was positioned, it could’ve been anyone on the south side of the building. But it’d definitely come from someone inside the building.

  Right about where Nivea had been standing.

  With her phone, I might add.

  Anger surged through me, and I started to wonder why, exactly, I’d spent any amount of time with her crazy ass.

  It would be my luck that I’d attract the crazy ones.

  “It was sent anonymously,” she said. “To about half the student body.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Of course, it was. How, exactly, does that happen?”

  “Technology is the bane of our existence,” she said. “And, speaking of technology, I heard that y’all are now wearing body cameras. Does that include you in this school?”

  I nodded. “Every time I step out of my cruiser and get so far away from the main hub, it starts recording. It’s for our safety and theirs.”

  I saw Camryn nod
in my peripheral vision.

  “The only problem is that the school district has a no recording policy. Which is why it’s so difficult with the students having their cell phones.” She sighed. “We’re going to need to talk to the school board about this, but I don’t see why it would be a problem with you having it.”

  My brow rose. “It’s either I have it on, or I’m not here…which one would you rather?”

  Mrs. Sherpa rolled her eyes. “You know damn well what I’d choose, Flint.”

  With that, she stood and gestured for us to leave. “Do try to be a little more circumspect next time, children.”

  If it wasn’t so rude and unprofessional to flip-off an old lady that held control over my being at that school, I might’ve done it just to see what she’d do.

  Camryn turned and walked out without another word.

  She was halfway down the hallway by the time I made it out with Dooley.

  “Don’t forget to roll those chips up or they’ll go stale,” I called to her back.

  She stiffened, then turned. “Yes, Flintstone.”

  I couldn’t wait to see her at the gym later that night.

  ***

  She needed to get the fuck out of my gym.

  She’d walked in wearing black spandex shorts, a black cut off T-shirt that had barely an inch of fabric right at the waistline holding it all together, and a bright, hot pink bra that molded to her every curve.

  Every single goddamn curve on her pretty little body was driving me insane, and she knew it.

  Her eyes were on me, and they were shining with mirth.

  And, to make matters worse, today was deadlift and burpee workout, meaning I’d be seeing a lot of her ass bent over in front of me.

  The warm-up was bad enough, but then she started talking to Croft, and I started to get irrationally angry.

  By the time we were starting the workout, my anger was nearly to the boiling point, and I was annoyed.

  Croft was talking to her like she was a new shiny toy. Yet, I distinctly remembered him complaining about his sister’s best friend, and how she was always hounding him for a date when he didn’t want anything to do with her.

  He never really said why he didn’t want anything to do with her, and now that I’d met her, I couldn’t really figure out why because I liked everything that I saw and heard. But I seriously wanted to know why the fuck he was suddenly showing her so much attention.