There was a very timid knock at the door, and a little boy came into the room. He looked lost for a second, then saw the boys. Clark, she thought his name was, and she asked him if he was there to see the boys.
“Yes, ma’am. I am. I didn’t know they was having trouble. I’m going to a different school now, and we don’t see each other as much. I’m doing my homework.” Tru told him that was wonderful and moved so he could sit next to the bed to see them. “I surely wish I’d known what was going on. I would have been in trouble for them. They’re my best friends, you know.”
Overnight, after one night of staying with the boys, Clark really had become a different child. He started studying his homework, paying attention in class, and was no longer a bully. In fact, Tru had heard that he was making a name for himself, telling others to straighten up their act. Tru stepped into the hallway while Clark talked quietly to her mom. She’d been missing the little boy too.
Rogen was coming down the hallway, almost as if she knew she’d be standing there. “I have some news. Want to go and get something to drink with me so I can talk to you?” Tru asked her if she could tell her mom. “Yes. If she wants to come too, that’s fine with me.”
Mom didn’t want to leave the boys. Plus, she and Clark were talking about his new school. Tru would bet anything that by the end of the day, not only would Sam and Jacob be pulled from the other school, but they’d be joining their best friend at his.
“I’ve found the video of the nurse putting the stitches in his head. Christ, she didn’t even give him anything for the fucking pain. You can see him gripping the side of the bed hard enough to leave an impression on it. Fucker is going to pay.” She asked her if she’d been picked up yet. “Yes. Thankfully, or not so much, without any incident. The principal was telling the officers that picked her up that she had nothing to do with the failure to report. I didn’t know that was a state rule until then. Did you?”
“Yes. I did a stint as a teacher once. They have all kinds of rules like that. Also, that a nurse cannot administer pain medications to any child unless an adult that is related to them is there. She gave Jacob an aspirin yesterday when he was in the office for his injuries.” Rogen asked her if she’d heard about what had happened to Jacob. “Houston told me that he has a sprained wrist as well as some deep bruises. His back is torn up like his brother’s as well. Apparently, the teachers are using flyswatters and a smallish whip on them when they’re called upon in class. Not to answer questions, but to have them stand up and tell them about their parents. The boys wouldn’t do that, and it would make the teacher pissy enough that she took her frustrations out on them.”
“I have had them arrested too. The entire school is closed down for a few weeks. Long enough for me to get the lowdown on all of them. I did hear from one of the kids that the custodian would hide the boys in his closet so they’d not have to go out on the playground. That is where most of this shit happened. I’m so sorry, Tru. I know you well enough by now to know that this is killing you inside.”
“It is. But more than that, I want to hunt them down and take them out. Not even say a word to them, just kill and move on.” She looked around when she realized they weren’t alone in the cafeteria. “What have you figured out so far? I’m sure you didn’t bring me down here for a glass of the nastiest tea I’ve ever drank.”
“No—not only that, anyway. And I’m sort of glad your mom decided not to come. I have two things to tell you that are going to make you madder than you already are. Jacob’s teacher is an ex-con—for child abuse. How she got by the background test is something else that I’m looking into. You can bet that heads are going to roll with that one.” Tru asked if she could take care of her. “Seriously, it might well come to that. I’m looking into things. The second thing I have to tell you is that your nephews aren’t the first to get treated this way. Not nearly as bad, but almost so. I have six grown men coming to me about the treatment they got while in school there. It’s going to close this school up faster than anything when it gets out that they covered things up. Same principal, same nurse.”
“What else?” Rogen told her she was working up to it. When Anna joined them, she turned a file that she had in her hand over to Tru. Tru opened the file and stared at the pictures she saw there before looking up at her friend. “Is this who I think it is?”
“It is if you think that’s the president of these here United States. He was a child in one of the earlier schools that these two worked at early in their career of harming children. I put in a call to him about it, and I’m waiting for a callback. He’s running the country, I was told, and couldn’t be bothered. I’d like to hear what he has to say about that when he finds out what has happened here.” They both laughed, and Anna came back from getting a bag of chips and some juice. “I was bringing her up to date on the names of some of their victims. Especially our president. He still has a hard on about having us work personally with him. I believe that’s just too much power to give to one person. If he keeps hounding me about it, I’m going to up and quit. See how he likes that. The fucking bastard isn’t taking no for an answer.”
“Word has it that these two change their name and move on when things start to get hot. Someone warns them that there is going to be a police call, and they both skip town. They’re roomies, not lovers that I can find, but they do live in the same household most of the time. Not this time, for some reason that I’m looking into, but they do spend a great deal of time together. Anyway, have you tried this new brand of chips? They taste like horse hay.” Tru was getting used to Anna’s way of drifting in a conversation if she had things that she didn’t think you’d be happy with. “I have seventeen people that are going to be given their summons to appear in the morning. Everyone at the school, including the cooks, is going to have to appear at some point when this hits the court system.”
“Do you think they were all involved?” Anna told her they were and why. “So just knowing about the abuse is going to get them shit canned. Good. I’m betting that in a few weeks, there are going to be a lot of people demanding their money back. I think my parents are wishing they’d not put them in this private school now. I know I didn’t even look at anything about it when I should have. I take some of the blame for that.”
“As I said, the school will close down, and then maybe—and that’s a big maybe—it will reopen when they have a new set of teachers. I was going to ask Morgan if he’d mind helping us with that for a few months. Not teaching, but just interviews.” Tru asked if she thought he’d do it. “I do now. Perhaps not before this happened, but he will now.”
Nodding, the three of them were still talking when Houston joined them. Her dad was with him, and they seemed to be having a very serious conversation. However, when they sat down, they talked about how the boys were holding up well and would more than likely be going home in the morning.
“My parents are going to help with some of the care they’re both going to need. Not a great deal, but Thatcher wants them to have a good bit of fun for the next couple of weeks. After they heal up a little. Then they’re going to go to the pack school with their buddy Clark.” Tru had forgotten about that and was glad that Houston mentioned it. She knew that Clark was going to a different school and that his mom worked for the packhouse. Tru had simply forgotten. “There will be a lot of arrests over the next few days. Even some parents are going to be taken in concerning this. The two main people are in jail now. I’ve never been so glad of someone being arrested as I am the two of them.” Everyone agreed.
When Tru made her way back to the room, she thought about what other things had been in the file. There were pictures of other abused children, each picture accompanied by all the information of the now adults. The one that bothered her the most was the one of the young boy that looked to be about seven. His death certificate said he’d committed suicide when he couldn’t handle what they were doing to him anymore.
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br /> Tru was going to make sure that no matter what happened, the boys were going to be all right mentally. She might talk to her parents about having them see someone now before they got in any deeper. Making herself a note on it, she was happy to find the boys both awake and talking to Clark. Kids could bounce back from just about anything, she thought.
Chapter 2
Allen watched his sister. He knew she was pissed off, but talking to her about it would only put him in her sites to take it out on. So he sat at the table and read the newspaper in bits and pieces. When she finally turned around and looked at him, it broke his heart to see that she’d been crying. Getting up, he pulled her into his arms and held her.
“They had to go and hurt those little boys, didn’t they?” He didn’t bother asking her to give him more details. They’d been living together for the last four years, and he knew her well enough to know she’d get to it. “I lost my job today. Not lost it, but I’ve been put on leave pending an investigation. What the hell do they hope to find? That I helped them abuse the students? I didn’t even know anything was going on—they’ve got me chasing my tail all the time. I’m supposed to be a teacher. I went to school for a long time to be one. And what do they have me doing? Slinging hash.”
“Hash?” She glared at him. “Sorry. I’m supposed to be supportive. But you have to admit, there have been some strange things going on there. Even you noticed it.”
“I’m not blind, you idiot. I was trying to keep out of shit until I was a teacher.” Allen wanted to tease her into a better mood by pointing out that teachers didn’t say shit, but he was much too close to her. “I wish I could have been able to see what was going on with them. It’s bad enough that the cooks are fucking with the deliveries of food.”
“What? The newspaper doesn’t mention anything about the cafeteria. They only mention some children that have been hurt by the staff.” Allie pulled the newspaper to her and started reading the article. Allen started pulling things out of the fridge for their dinner. “I’ve been to the police department twice now. I can’t get in to see anyone about my supposed interview. When you were working, I had a little time. Now that neither of us are, we’re going to be hurting before long. There have been days lately that I wished we’d not moved out here. They’re a very close-knit town here, aren’t they?”
“Yes. I went to the clinic to see if I could get in for us to have our allergy shots set up, and they said I’d have to have a full background check. For a clinic? I’ve had one as a teacher—wait, a hash slinger—but you’ll need one, I guess.” He’d had one when he was in the service. Allen didn’t mention it, however. She was still pissy. “What I wouldn’t do right now for a good paying full-time job. Or a nice wealthy husband. I don’t care if he’s an old man. I’d like to have security in my life. Wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t think I’d enjoy being married to an old man. I don’t care how wealthy or old he was. Not going to happen for me. As for getting a full-time job? I’ve been looking, sweetie.” She told him she knew he had. “But I do understand what you’re saying. It would be nice to have a secure place to live, work, and be able to retire when we’re old enough.”
After having their dinner, they planned what their next move would be. In the morning, he was going to go to the new hospital and see what they were hiring for. Allen had been a medic in the service, but those kinds of jobs, he was finding out, didn’t switch out as well as he had hoped when he’d been discharged. Allen looked down at his leg and wondered daily what would have happened had he just laid there in the field and not called out for anyone to come and get him. Allie would certainly be better off.
At six, they did their nightly ritual. First, the local news, then the world news. After that, they’d watch Jeopardy, then another game show until eight. Allie would turn off the television, he’d pick up the paper where he’d left off, and she’d go and do some online classwork in her pretend classroom. He was sure that if she was ever to get herself a teaching job, she’d have all her yearly schedules filled out until the end of time. Allen’s heart broke for the two of them.
They’d been orphans, the two of them. They weren’t related by blood but did have the same adoptive parents. Bill and Sherri Langley had taken them both when they’d only gone to the place for a little boy. Allie, they told them, was an added bonus. He thought they had been right about that.
Their parents hadn’t had a great deal of material things nor money. However, they had loved them. Neither of them cared what they didn’t have as much as other children did because they’d been chosen, not born to their family. That hadn’t worked as well as they’d hoped it would when they’d been in school that year. But once he started to tower over most of the kids in the school, the kids left the two of them alone.
Allen was six years older than Allie. He’d been ten when they’d been adopted, and her only four. Even to this day, he could never find out why she’d not been adopted from the very first day she’d been at the home. The rumors he’d heard about little Jane Doe number fifty-three were that no one wanted a redhead as a child. She also had the most beautiful green eyes he’d ever seen. Something about them having the power to look into your soul. Bullshit.
“I’m going to head to bed. I’ve been getting up so early to go to work that I’d very much like to sleep in until I just can’t sleep anymore.” Allen knew she’d be up at five in the morning, as she had been since she was a child. “What time are you going to the hospital tomorrow to apply? Maybe I can find something to do. I do know how to sling hash better than anyone I know.”
“I was going to be there at nine. They start interviews at ten. I want to look the place over. It’s supposed to be this state-of-the-art hospital. The emergency room, which is already up and running, has been featured in all kinds of articles about its lifesaving equipment. It’s also the only privately owned hospital in the state, I guess.”
Allie told him she’d go too, and he told her goodnight. After she went to her room, he pulled out the help wanted section of the paper. There were a pitiful number of ads for the area. He supposed the hospital being in the area would bring in more businesses, and after that, more people. Allen thought it would ruin the small-town atmosphere around here. It was one of the reasons that they’d picked this area for its small population.
Marking the three that were in the paper, he pulled out his laptop, which he was sure every time he turned it on would die on him. Allen filled out the applications and hoped for the best. For the time being, he could only work jobs that had him off his feet. He was still healing from the raid he’d been in on that took the lives of so many other officers that day.
Putting the paper down, he thought about what he could have done differently that day. Nothing came to mind. He’d been over and over the situation ten times a day since he’d woken up in the field hospital. They’d been able to save his life and his leg, but he’d not been able to stay a serviceman—too much muscle damage, he’d been told. Not only that, but he still had terrible nightmares about it. Debilitating dreams that would make him scream loud enough for Allie to hear from her room down the hall from his.
The knock at the door startled him. Getting up, he glanced at the clock on the wall as he walked by it. It was well after one in the morning. Allen hadn’t realized he’d been sitting there for that long. He looked out the upper window to see a man standing there. Instead of opening the door, he asked him what he wanted. The man turned to him with a huge smile.
“I’m broken down. Not only that, but I also seem to have left my cell phone at work. I know you don’t know me, but I’m hoping you’ve heard of my family. I’m Beckett Robinson.” Allen told him he had, but he still wasn’t going to open the door. “I don’t blame you one bit for that. If you could just sort of slip me a phone out that I can use, I’ll put it back on the stoop after I call for help. I don’t want to disturb my family this late at night.”
Allie stumbled out of her room just as he was going back to the table for his phone. Before he could tell her who was at the door, she pulled it open and asked the man standing there what the ever-loving fuck he wanted.
“I’m broken down.” Allie, forever taking things the literal way, told him he looked like he was in one piece to her. “My car. My car is broken down, and I don’t want to have to disturb my family.”
“But it’s all right for you to disturb strangers.” He just grinned, and she told him to either come in or stay out. She was going back to bed. “My brother will take care of you. But if you hurt him, I’m going to hunt you down and murder you. I’ve had a shitty day, and I’m not in a great fucking mood.”
The door to her room slammed shut. Allen, embarrassed at his sister’s rudeness, told Beckett he was sorry. The man turned his gaze from where Allie had gone with what looked to him like a great effort. Beckett only smiled at him and told him it was fine now. Everything was just as fine as rain.
“Yes, well, you might not think so if you plan on harming either of us. She might be tiny, but she’s meaner than a rattlesnake when she thinks someone is taking advantage of either of us.”
Beckett took the phone from him and opened it up. Allen went into the kitchen area to put his computer away. His gun was now safely in the side cushion of the couch.
That would be written on his headstone. “Here lies Allen Langley. He died young because he was too stupid to know that in order to save himself, he needed to keep his gun on his person.” It was too long, but he could see his sister making the stone cutter put every last word on it. He realized then that Beckett was staring at him.
“I’m sorry. I zoned out there for a second. What is it you said?” He repeated his question. “Shifters? I guess we are aware of them. I don’t know if I actually know any. I mean, it’s not something I’ve done before. Asking a person what they are. Are you one?”
Beckett: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 2
