“It looks like it,” I told him. “That’s why I called you.”
“You called me because you didn’t want to pick up your dead kitten,” he countered. “Something in which you’ve never been able to handle.”
He was right. Mostly.
I’d never been able to handle dead things. Not people. Not pets. Not anything.
I avoided death like the plague.
Which sucked because a couple of weeks ago, I’d seen my first up-close and personal dead body thanks to Ares’ fiancé shooting our campus resource officer who was holding a student and his child at gunpoint.
Needless to say, I was still having nightmares about it.
I also had to sleep under covers despite it being hot as balls out, and all the lights in the house blazing.
“I called you because I wanted you to come look at the kitten that was stabbed,” I murmured. “I was… I don’t know.”
I didn’t know why I called him now.
It seemed stupid.
I mean, what was Louis going to do about a dead cat? Nothing.
He could do nothing because it was just that. A dead cat. It wasn’t a dead body. It wasn’t anything that most people would even care about.
But I cared about it.
I’d been staring at that kitten all week online, trying to tell myself that I didn’t need a cat.
My house was too small for animals. And, even worse, it was in need of repair.
His eyes took me in with a long sweep of his gaze. “You heading out?”
I nodded. “Work. I’ll be late, but I can’t let that poor baby sit there all day.”
He looked at me long and hard for a few seconds too long before saying, “I’ll take care of it. Go ahead and go.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he shook his head. “Go.”
My eye twitched.
Taking orders from Louis was so annoying.
What was even more annoying was my body’s willingness to do it without first consulting my rational brain.
“Fine.” I snapped, marching toward my purse.
When I marched back, Sammy had the nerve to laugh.
“It’s not funny.” I snapped.
He held up his hands. “Have a good day at work.”
I flipped them off, made sure to wave at the others that were holding back, and left before Louis could make me do something even more stupid.
Like kiss him goodbye.
***
My stomach clenched when Romeo walked into my office.
He smiled his creepy smile at me, and it took everything I had not to squirm.
His eyes went to my computer monitor which was still a picture of my kitten—my now dead kitten—then back to me.
“Ms. Alvarez,” he said sweetly. “I have a stomachache.”
I nearly rolled my eyes. “Have you gone to the bathroom?”
He had a stomachache every day.
I asked him the same thing every day.
I was honestly wondering why the hell the teachers let him out of class at this point.
He was only doing this because it was getting him out of class—most specifically English.
“I don’t need to use the restroom,” Romeo all but snarled.
I clenched my fists underneath the desk, wishing he would leave.
“Well, just like yesterday and the day before,” I said softly, “there’s really nothing I can do for your upset stomach.”
Romeo gestured to the seat. “I can just sleep it off right here.”
No, no, he couldn’t.
“I’m sorry, Romeo, but I can’t allow you to do that. You need to get back to class,” I said, hoping today would actually be the day that he listened.
Before Romeo could object like he always did, something interrupted him.
“Knock, knock.”
I looked away from Romeo to see Louis standing in my doorway.
And a rush of relief hit me full force at seeing him.
God, Romeo really did give me the creeps.
I was fairly sure the seventeen-year-old was in a gang, and I was also sure that he only came to my office because he wanted to make me uncomfortable.
“Hey, Lou,” I said almost as an afterthought. “What are you doing here?”
He gestured to the office behind him. “Hayes came to see Ares. I thought I’d tag along. See how you were doing after this morning.”
“What happened this morning?” Romeo asked, sounding concerned.
My belly clenched all over again.
“Ms. Alvarez’s cat passed away this morning,” Louis answered, his eyes on the kid.
His narrowed eyes on the kid.
Jesus, was the man intimidating when he wanted to be.
Louis was six-foot-three inches of intimidating muscle. He had dark brown hair that was almost black, cut in a high and tight haircut that left just the smallest amount of hair at the top of his head. His eyes were dark brown, almost black. And his beard, although nicely trimmed, was intimidating to say the least.
The kid took a step back away from me, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Jesus, the kid really did know how to give me the creeps.
Romeo Ricci was of Italian descent, and I only knew that due to his last name.
But his dark hair and dark eyes paired with his all black clothes never ceased to give me the heebie-jeebies.
Which was saying something because Louis was virtually the same way—at least appearance-wise.
But there was just something about Romeo that made my skin crawl, and I couldn’t pinpoint exactly why.
“That’s unfortunate,” Romeo said, his body twitching slightly at the news that Louis had just given him. “Was your cat sick?”
No. The cat was not fuckin’ sick.
“No,” I said stiffly. “It was quite unexpected.”
I didn’t want to be talking about this, mostly because I didn’t want to be thinking about this.
“Now, Mr. Ricci, as much as I feel bad for your stomachache, I think it’s time for you to just deal with it and get back to class,” I said. “Unless you’re actively throwing up or running a fever, there’s nothing I can do for you.”
Romeo looked pissed all of a sudden.
“I can call my mom,” he snapped.
He could. Yes.
But I knew for a fact Mrs. Ricci wouldn’t come. She never did. After the second time that I’d called for Romeo, I’d gotten the ‘don’t call me unless it’s an actual emergency’ from her.
From that point on, I hadn’t called for Romeo. What he did on his own was out of my control.
“Well, just make sure you don’t do it during class,” I said. “Hope you get to feeling better.”
Romeo didn’t take the hint for a few long seconds, his mouth tight.
Louis shifted into the room, walking to my side and standing next to me with an expectant look on his face directed right at Romeo.
Romeo glared harder, then abruptly turned and left the room, leaving me with Louis entirely way too close—and me feeling entirely way too comfortable with his proximity.
I twisted in my seat and stared at him, though his eyes were still on the door where Romeo had disappeared.
“That kid is freaky,” he muttered, moving so that he could give me a bit more space.
I hated that I cared that he was no longer close.
Steeling my spine against that unwanted thought, I watched as he moved to the seat that was beside my desk and sat down.
“He is,” I confirmed. “What is Hayes doing here?”
“Hayes wanted to see Ares,” he said. “This is the first day back after… you know.”
After she was held hostage by our principal. After Hayes had shot the school resource officer who’d been sleeping with a student.
Yeah, I didn’t really want to talk about it either.
“The new principal is a dick,” I
said. “But they say he’s good with kids. I’m not super fond of his attitude.”
Louis’ lips tipped up in amusement. “Do you remember him?”
I frowned. “I know that he used to be the principal at the middle school when we were there. But I don’t remember him being bad. Or good for that matter.”
“I remember,” he murmured, leaning back in his chair and stretching his feet out in front of him. “Do you remember when I got sent to the principal’s office in seventh grade because I refused to take that standardized test? The one that my mom told me to refuse?”
I nodded. “He made me sit in his office for six hours while he berated me and my mother. Remember how pissed my mom was?”
Oh yeah. I remembered all right.
“Your mother came up to the school and tore him a new one.” I grinned. “In front of the entire school.”
“That’s him.” He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder. “He’s implementing new security protocols as we speak.”
“Meaning he didn’t want to let you in?” I guessed.
Louis winked. “One and the same. But Ares happened to be there to vouch for us. We had to get office passes, though.”
He pointed to the printed off label that showed his name and picture on it in black and white.
“I’m not sure what that’s supposed to do,” I admitted. “I mean, what’s it accomplish?”
Louis shrugged. “I’m sure somewhere there’s a reason. He just didn’t give it to me.”
I groaned and covered my face with my hands.
“He told me that I wasn’t allowed to come in ‘on time’ anymore. I had to be here ‘with all the other teachers.’” I paused. “I’m not a teacher, though. I’m the nurse. I don’t do school drop off. I come in here on time. I’m not even hired through him. I shouldn’t have to obey his edicts.”
Louis grinned. “Did you tell him that?”
I scrunched up my nose. “No. He gave me this stern look when I started to argue, and I felt like I couldn’t.”
And why was I talking to Louis, anyway? I should be mad at him, right?
But I wasn’t mad at him.
Ever since I’d done the interview and found out that he carried my hair around with him everywhere—even if that was a tad bit weird—I’d started softening toward him.
And I really didn’t like the idea of being mean when I didn’t want to be.
Louis started to chuckle. “I remember him being a hardass in school, too. But, saying that, maybe he’s not bad as an adult. Maybe he’ll be cool, and you won’t have to worry about it.”
I doubted it. First impressions were important. They set the tone of a relationship. And Mr. Carruthers—he didn’t even give me his first name—didn’t seem like the type of man that I would like.
Kind of like I knew Romeo Ricci was going to be a creepy adult just like he’s a creepy teenager.
“We’ll see,” I murmured, only just then realizing that at some point during our conversation, I’d turned my chair to face Louis. And I was now so close to him I could reach out and touch him.
Run my fingers along the length of his erection.
Wait… he had an erection.
I quickly looked away, hoping that he didn’t see me looking at his penis.
A penis that I wanted to stroke and lick and…
Get ahold of yourself, Calloway!
“What are your plans for this evening?” he asked, sounding casual.
I didn’t want to tell him my plans.
In fact, I didn’t want to tell him anything at all.
I now wanted him to leave, because now all I could think about was him in his uniform, stripping out of it. Him pulling his gun belt off, but plucking the handcuffs from the little holder at his side belt, flipping me over onto my belly, and handcuffing me. Then, when he’s done restraining me, he pulls my clothes off, one article at a time, and tosses them to the floor.
All but my shirt. That can’t come off because of my hands being restrained. My shirt and bra pool at the base of my wrists, covering my ass partially so that all he can see is the bottom curve of it.
Then he delicately runs his finger down the curve of my spine, chuckling softly when the move causes goosebumps to pebble my flesh as his thumb moves.
His fingers move over my bunched-up clothes, then rounds down the curve of my ass to run lightly over the seam of my…
“Earth to Calloway.”
I blink, startled.
“Umm, sorry. What were you saying?” I asked.
“I was asking whether or not you had any plans for tonight,” he repeated. “I wanted to know if you wanted to go out to dinner with me.”
I was just about to answer when the dower-faced Mr. Carruthers breached the hallway between Ares’ office and mine and looked into both of them, alternating directions of his head so he could peer into both offices.
What he saw, apparently, didn’t make him very happy. Because his eyes narrowed and he folded his arms across his chest before gently beginning to tap his foot.
I rolled my eyes.
“Wonder if he thinks that’ll actually make us nervous,” Louis mumbled so low that I could barely hear him. “He does know who our parents are, right?”
No joke.
Ares, Louis, and I had all grown up with fathers that were on the SWAT team. Men that fully expected us to behave, or else.
Mr. Carruthers was likely intimidating when I was a kid, but now? Not so much.
“Agreed,” I murmured, laughter filling my voice. “He’s thinking that his stare’s gonna get him somewhere with us, and it’s not. I’ve stared down kids that were more intimidating than him. Romeo, the creepy-eyed weirdo, being a good example.”
I smacked him on the arm, causing his eyes to sparkle with mirth.
But before I could say anything about it, Mr. Carruthers got tired of standing there and stormed into my office.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Alvarez, but this is not acceptable workplace conduct,” he snapped, filling my doorway with his body. Trying to appear intimidating.
He didn’t even know what intimidating was. He’d never seen a pissed off six-foot-six police officer—better known as my father—tear into my ass for doing something stupid.
So no, Carruthers didn’t intimidate me.
Louis stood to his full height, straightening up out of his chair as if he was just a lazy cat looking for a stretch. When in reality, he was pissed off.
How did I know he was pissed off?
Louis had a tell.
Outwardly, he’d appear calm, cool and collected. But when he was pissed, he’d roll his right shoulder, almost as if he was anticipating a fight.
See, back when we were in high school, Louis was a wrestler. His senior year, he’d had his shoulder dislocated. Going on to win the match, he’d then gone to the hospital and had it popped back in—something which I’d watched, and still cringed thinking about.
Now, every time he thought he might have to fight or deal with something physically, he’d absently roll that shoulder as if he was anticipating trouble and wanted to get it warmed up.
Because, sadly, dislocating his shoulder was a whole lot easier to do now that he’d dislocated it once. It’d apparently happened three other times since the first.
“I’m sorry, correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re not actually the boss of the staff. You’re the boss of the students,” Louis drawled, slowing his words down to sound lazy and uncaring when I knew that he wasn’t uncaring at all. “And, what we were doing was far from ‘inappropriate.’ It was actually quite tame compared to what we could’ve been doing.”
He was pissed.
Then again, Carruthers had fucked him over good in middle school. I remembered that clearly now. There were definitely some hard feelings there.
Carruthers narrowed his eyes.
“If it affects my students, actions like this, then you bet your behind
that I’ll be doing something about it,” Carruthers snapped.
“Randy,” Louis said. “I don’t want any hard feelings. I’m just here trying to get her to go out on a date with me. We’re not doing anything wrong. She has no students in here right now that need her. The moment that changes, I’ll leave.”
‘Randy’ apparently didn’t like being called Randy.
“It’s Mr. Carruthers,” he growled, looking pissed.
Great.
Another principal that hated me.
Exactly what I needed.
Not that it was entirely Louis’ fault. I was well on the way to having him dislike me myself. And it’d only been one morning.
“Whatever,” Louis said. “Something tragic happened here a few weeks ago. We’re all on edge. I’m just here to make sure that she’s all right.”
And that was the truth.
That really was why Louis was here.
He may have had an ulterior motive—asking me out—but ultimately, he was here because he didn’t want me to be here alone all day stewing in my own bad thoughts.
“I know exactly what happened,” Carruthers snapped. “Which is why I’m trying to make this as seamless as I can for my students. Seeing police officers here right now, after one held one of the students hostage, isn’t what I think they need right now.”
Carruthers had a point.
Toomey, the man that’d held one of the students, Slone, hostage, had been only aiming for Slone. There were some things that I was still a bit foggy about—mostly because I didn’t want to ask for any more information than I already had—but from what I’d been able to piece together, Toomey had convinced himself that Slone’s child was his. Mostly because Toomey had been sleeping with Slone’s girlfriend.
There really was a whole lot more to the story that I didn’t know about, but since I knew that Slone, Ares, and Hayes would’ve told me had they wanted me to know, I chose to keep my mouth shut.
“What they need is to see positive police interaction,” Louis challenged Carruthers. “When I was here, I loved my school resource officer. He was awesome. When he retired the same year I left, we threw him a huge going away party. Even had a pep rally for him. The students need that.”
Especially nowadays.
With the way the world was going, I would feel much safer in the school—and I knew the students would, too, as well as the parents—if there was an officer in the school just in case something ever went wrong.
May Contain Wine (SWAT Generation 2.0 Book 5) Page 5
