Fear the Beard (The Dixie Warden Rejects MC Book 2)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Something I’d witnessed myself quite a few times over the last few months that she’d been in my life.

  “I know,” she murmured. “But I’ve got this niggling feeling in the back of my head, something’s off with her. All these years I thought that she was my friend, but I’m kind of thinking that she’s only been using me now.”

  People used other people all the time, and unfortunately Tally wasn’t any different. If it wasn’t her, it’d just be someone else.

  “She probably attached herself to you because you study your ass off and get better grades than she does,” I added my two cents. “But now it’s all making a whole lot more sense.”

  “Why?” she challenged.

  I picked up a clipboard and gestured for her to follow me.

  She did, falling in step beside me.

  “How convenient that she started acting all bitchy right around the time you started taking your tests in an alternate testing location.”

  Understanding dawned.

  “I did start taking the tests in the library right around the time Hadley started acting catty,” she murmured. “She’s asked me multiple times why I don’t test with the rest of the class anymore, and I explained to her that you were able to get me into specialized testing…” her face dawned with horror and she gasped, “It was her.”

  I smiled sadly at her as I made my way down the hallway to the meeting with the dean, Tally at my side.

  “That’s my guess, yes.” I nodded. “I need to tell you something.”

  It was time. She needed to know.

  The stress of exams were gone. Tallulah was better. And I also couldn’t hold the guilt in any longer.

  She needed to know.

  “Hadley was the one to accuse me of rape.”

  She gasped, and I realized rather quickly that she hadn’t even contemplated the thought that it could possibly be Hadley.

  She’d known it was a student, of course, but Hadley hadn’t crossed her mind. That I could see instantly.

  “You’re joking.” She moaned.

  I shook my head.

  “No.”

  She reached into her pocket for her phone, pulling it out.

  She placed it to her ear, and I knew instantly what she was doing.

  “She’s gone underground, baby.” I told her. “When you confirmed in a text that you’d seen Hadley and something had happened, Big Papa and Aaron went to the school to question her. She’s nowhere to be found.”

  She angrily smashed the pad of her finger against the red phone button on the screen.

  “I can’t believe this.” She snarled out. “I’m going to kill her!”

  I held my hand over her mouth, then dropped a kiss onto her forehead. “Trust me. I’ll find her. Don’t get involved.”

  I could tell she wanted to argue. To rant and rave.

  But she didn’t.

  She breathed out roughly, then nodded her head. “Fine.”

  The anger she had over the accusation against me was enough to make my heart happy, even though I wanted nothing more than to find Hadley and wring her stupid neck.

  I grinned.

  “That night that you were taken in, she called. And today, before the exam, she kept looking at me like I would blow up at any second. Now, at least, I know why.”

  “Has she tried to reach you?” I asked. “Since that night?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I…”

  “Ms. Slater, just the woman we were looking for. We were going to ask you to come to this meeting, although, it was my understanding that you were in a final exam.”

  I looked up to find Lucia standing there, her arms crossed high over her chest, frowning at the two of us, probably because of how close we were to each other.

  I looked past her and saw the other two fourth-semester teachers, as well as the dean of the campus, in the room beyond her, and I started to get a really bad feeling.

  “What’s going on?” Tally asked, entering the glass walled room when Lucia waved her hand for us to pass.

  “We’re investigating a few other matters,” the dean, Martin Kall, started the moment the doors closed behind us. “We’ve been enlightened to an, um, disturbing situation.”

  My brows rose.

  “Another?” Tally snottily replied, back straightening. “Or is this the same allegation of Dr. Tomirkanivov raping a student…Hadley Dunston? Which, might I add, is not true?”

  Martin’s face pinched.

  “That’s not what we’re here to discuss today,” he snapped. “What we’re here to discuss is an inappropriate relationship between you and a teacher.”

  He let his gaze shift from me to Tally and back, his eyes doing what his mouth did not, and Tally’s mouth dropped open.

  “And what proof do you have of this alleged inappropriate relationship?” I gritted through clenched teeth, crossing my arms over my chest. “Was this accusation made by the same person who also falsely accused me of rape?”

  Martin’s face paled and I knew I was right, despite him not agreeing nor disagreeing.

  “I’ll go ahead and inform you that all classes that Dr. Tomirkanivov taught this year are under review,” Martin continued, pushing through with his diatribe. “And all tests that were taken by you that were administered by him will also be reviewed to ensure that there has been no special treatment considered upon you, given your inappropriate relationship.”

  I could feel the anger rolling off of Tally, and I wanted to hold her hand to calm her down so she could control her reactions.

  “I cannot believe that you’re doing this to Dr. Tomirkanivov.” Tally crossed her arms over her chest. “He’s a highly-respected teacher and hasn’t done anything in the classroom that was untoward to anyone, including me. He’s been nothing but professional while we were in school and at the hospital. Whomever is making these accusations is mistaken. Dr. Tomirkanivov is an excellent teacher whom I’ve learned a great deal from, and any future nursing students would be lucky to have him.”

  My heart swelled in my chest as I tried not to smile at the things she was saying, and the things she wasn’t saying.

  Like how I wasn’t very professional when we were outside of this setting.

  Such as when I was fucking her in my bed…or hers.

  “Until we can review all of your tests, your diploma will be held,” Lucia started to say. “Unless you have any…”

  “You can’t disqualify her grades in my class,” I murmured, breaking into the conversation. “She only had one test in my course, and that was re-administered in the library two days later by one of the aides, who was there the whole time to supervise. Where, you should know, Ms. Dunston, who I presume is the one making these allegations, was not in attendance, so don’t even try to go there, Martin.”

  Lucia’s face was pinched with dismay over the whole situation, and I realized that she really was in a bad position.

  I could tell that she wanted to believe me.

  We’d known each other for years, even before we started working together, but obviously, my youthful reputation still hadn’t completely refreshed despite my efforts to fix it.

  “How do we know that you didn’t give her the answers to the tests?” one of the other teachers asked.

  “Lucia’s the head of the nursing department,” I broke in before she could finish. “Meaning I had nothing to do with her tests. The test that was sent to her was made up by the other campus teachers, and given to her in the library, according to the new campus bylaws.”

  Lucia’s mouth dropped open and her face showed stark relief.

  Martin, however, wasn’t satisfied.

  “What about the quiz grades?” he asked.

  “Those can be vouched for by every single nurse that was at the hospital on the days of her shifts,” I countered. “Any grade she received for that day was given by the nurse she was shadowing that day.”

  Martin c
learly wasn’t happy to see that this wasn’t working like he’d planned for it to.

  In fact, he was pissed.

  And it was then that my eyes started to narrow, and I made a mental note to have Aaron stick his nose into a certain school administrator’s business.

  He was going to need to work all of his connections to find out exactly what Hadley had on this stupid piece of shit who was trying to act like he was a professional instead of a man who was desperate to fix a problem he’d gotten himself into.

  Martin sighed.

  “I, of course, have no physical proof of anything, and if this all checks out, I see no reason why you should be delayed from graduating,” Martin finally ground out. “However, if I find any evidence of a relationship between the two of you before you’re graduated next week, I will be taking action.”

  Meaning we needed to watch our steps or this could get ugly.

  What, exactly, did Hadley have on this man? And was it big enough for him to risk losing his career over?

  Apparently, it had to be, otherwise he wouldn’t be grasping at straws to get Tally removed from the course.

  “You may go,” Martin snapped at Tally.

  Tally turned, ready to take her leave, and I stopped her departure by asking her to wait.

  “I’m sorry,” I apologized to the other teachers. “But I was made aware of a student caught cheating off of another student, and I believe you’ll be interested in this information.”

  Cheating in class was a big no-no, and it would immediately get you expelled from the program.

  Hadley was fucked, and thanks to Lucia informing me of the video cameras in the library, I would now have the proof that was needed to get rid of her.

  Not necessarily out of the picture completely, but most definitely out of the program, and it would definitely discredit her.

  Something that wasn’t in her favor since she was already on shaky ground because of her allegations.

  You know, since I had a rock-solid alibi for the night of my supposed ‘rape’ of her person.

  Something I’d found out thirty minutes ago on my way to this useless meeting.

  “Which student?” Lucia asked. “Are they in the final semester?”

  I grinned.

  “Yes,” I confirmed. “Ms. Slater just informed me that she caught Hadley Dunston cheating off of her during her final exam today, and she believes that it’s been going on for some time before that.”

  “How do we know that this is true?” Martin grasped at straws again.

  I smiled then.

  “Well, according to Lucia, y’all just put in a new security system that covers not just these offices, but also the library.”

  “Since when?” Martin gasped, turning to look around the room wildly.

  I made another mental note to have Aaron find the feed to these videos and do a little investigating.

  If my suspicions were anything to go by, he might find some pretty exciting stuff!

  Seems Lucia hadn’t told the dean about the cameras, either. Things were likely about to take a turn for the worse. For him and Hadley, anyway.

  Fucking awesome!

  Lucia’s smile was a little wild.

  “It’s easy enough to corroborate, Martin,” Lucia informed the man. “With the cameras we installed to catch the person who has been stealing from the labs, we’ll know within thirty minutes whether this is true or not. Ms. Slater has always been an exemplary student, something that I think we can all agree cannot be said about Ms. Dunston. I believe her claim, and it’s easily verifiable. You may go, Ms. Slater. Congratulations.”

  Martin started to sputter, but Lucia just waved off his annoyance.

  “We can continue this tomorrow. As far as I’m concerned, Ms. Dunston is officially suspended from the program, pending an investigation into these new allegations.”

  I walked out on Martin’s annoyed sputters.

  Tally was already at the end of the hall, but she wasn’t laughing or smiling.

  No.

  She was exactly the opposite.

  “She was my friend.”

  “I know, Tally. I know.”

  I wanted to pull her into my arms so fiercely that it astounded me, and I realized right then and there that I was in love with her.

  I didn’t like seeing her hurt.

  I didn’t like seeing tears in her eyes.

  And I detested that she had to go through all of this today.

  The fact that I played a small part in the reason behind those tears that were falling down her cheeks slayed me.

  “It’ll all be okay, honey,” I murmured as I pressed the elevator button.

  She swiped away her tears.

  “I know,” she cleared her throat. “See you when I see you.”

  She took off toward the stairs, and I rode the elevator down to the first floor.

  By the time I got out into the parking lot, she was already pulling out of it.

  But she had a smile on her face, and that was good enough for me.

  Chapter 23

  Raise your hand if you’re a little bit of an asshole in the morning.

  -Raises hand

  Tally

  I walked into the backdoor of Tommy’s place, expecting to find it just as empty as the last time I’d seen it, but I was pleasantly surprised.

  “Whoa,” I murmured, hitching Tallulah up higher on my hip. “Nice!”

  “No,” I heard Tommy say. “What happened when you arrested her?”

  My brows rose as I walked around the corner of Tommy’s kitchen, stopping just inside the entrance to the great room.

  My eyes automatically were drawn to the large cedar beam that ran the length of the room, and my eyes widened when I saw the fan hanging in the middle of the room.

  It was a Big Ass Fan.

  Literally. That was the brand, and I found myself smiling.

  Something I’d done quite a bit over the last four hours since I’d left the dean’s office.

  I’d headed in there with a lead weight in my stomach at having to turn in my best friend, and had left with a resolve that would dissolve any and all guilt that I felt.

  I still couldn’t believe that that stupid girl had thought she could accuse Tommy of rape.

  Seriously?

  Tommy?

  He was the most ethical teacher—until me—on the whole campus!

  He had five quiz grades (all grades given by nurses that interacted with you during your clinical) and five test grades. He didn’t tolerate cheating, bullying or foul language in any of his classes or shifts. Though, that was kind of hypocritical since I’d heard him drop the f-bomb no less than four times in the last two minutes.

  “You really shouldn’t curse,” I murmured. “She has delicate ears.”

  Tommy turned, a smile appearing on his face as he did.

  He wedged the phone between his ear and shoulder and held out his hands for Tallulah, and I watched as my daughter instantly went into his arms, babbling happily once she was against his chest.

  She lifted one chubby hand and pressed it against his beard, watching him rapturously while he continued his conversation—despite Tallulah’s happily screeching in his ear every five seconds.

  “And did Hadley explain to you exactly why she falsely accused me once you had her brought in for questioning?” Tommy continued.

  My brows rose as my heart started to race.

  Hadley was arrested?

  “Good,” Tommy grumbled. “Make sure you keep an eye on her, though. That girl is a sly one. She has split personalities, too. She may look like an angel on the outside, but I’m fairly sure she’s the goddamned devil when no one is watching.”

  I snorted and turned to survey the yard through the windows while Tommy finished his conversation.

  Some sort of green mixture was covering the ground, which I assumed was grass seed.

  There was also wh
at I assumed were sprinkler heads interspersed evenly throughout the yard as well.

  “All right, talk to you later, Aaron. Have a good one.”

  Tommy came up to my side and Tallulah slammed her open palm down onto the glass.

  “What do you think?” he asked, his eyes taking in his yard, too.

  “I think it looks good. That weird foamy green shit is grass seed, correct?”

  He grinned. “Hydro mulch…which turns into grass, yes,” he confirmed. “I didn’t know you were going to come by.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “I wanted to see you,” I murmured. “And little Miss over here was being a cranky toad, so I decided to go for a drive. See where we ended up.”

  He sighed and dropped his arm around my shoulder.

  “I’m glad your drive led you here. I like being the end of your road,” he rumbled. “And she isn’t acting that cranky now.”

  Dropping his arm from around my shoulder, he tickled Tallulah’s belly and dropped a kiss to her smiling cheek.

  “No,” I agreed. “She sure as heck isn’t.”

  He sighed. “I’m guessing you want to know what that phone call was about.”

  I nodded my head patiently. “I do.”

  He took Tallulah to the playpen that I didn’t notice when I entered the great room and placed her carefully down in it.

  Tallulah automatically face dived into the stuffed animals and immediately commenced chewing on every single one of them.

  “You know her well,” I teased.

  “Stopped by the store on the way home and got her her own shit,” he confirmed with a wink.

  My heart swelled.

  My little girl well and truly had this man wrapped around her little finger. Which made me happy. She hadn’t had much of a father figure to love her like she deserved to be loved, and I was grateful that she would have that.

  “So, tell me what else happened since we parted ways this afternoon,” I ordered.

  “Nothing.”

  I growled, causing him to chuckle.

  “That’s just it. Nothing.” He held up a hand when I went to protest. “They arrested Hadley for filing a false police report and likely will get her for extortion as well.”

  “Extortion? And what did you find out about the dean, Martin?” I continued.