Conflict of Interest (The McClouds of Mississippi 2)

He put his hands to the keyboard again and let himself be drawn back into the world that existed solely in his mind.

Emerging from her colorfully decorated classroom with a stream of other students, Isabelle greeted Adrienne with a bright smile. “Hi, Miss Corley. Did you come for me?”

Adrienne returned the smile, pleased that the child seemed happy to see her. “Yes. Your brother is busy writing, so I volunteered.”

Thelma Fitzpatrick, the gruff-voiced, squarely built owner of Miss Thelma’s Preschool and Daycare, hovered nearby with a frown on her irritable-grandmother face. “This is highly unorthodox,” she grumbled. “We are not accustomed to releasing our students to complete strangers.”

Since Adrienne had already provided Gideon’s letter of authorization and her driver’s license, she didn’t know what else it would take to reassure the woman. “I respect your concern for your students, Mrs. Fitzpatrick. I know the McClouds must have the utmost confidence that Isabelle is safe here.”

The woman folded her hands in front of her and eyed Adrienne with lingering suspicion. “I suppose we’ve done all we can, considering that her guardian is off on his honeymoon and her appointed caretaker had to leave town. Though I can’t imagine anyone leaving a small child with Gideon McCloud,” she added in a murmured aside.

Immediately defensive on Gideon’s behalf—after all, he was her client—she smiled coolly. “Actually, I think she’s in very good hands with her brother.”

“Humph.” The other woman was notably unimpressed. “You obviously don’t know him very well.”

“Gideon’s taking good care of me, Miss Thelma,” Isabelle said earnestly, proving she had been playing close attention to the conversation. “He made me spaghetti for dinner last night.”

“Yes, well…” Miss Thelma cleared her throat. “Go with Ms. Corley, Isabelle. I’ll see you in the morning. And don’t forget to bring a stuffed animal for our jungle party.”

“I won’t forget.” Demonstrating that she wasn’t particularly intimidated by the stern-looking woman, Isabelle gave her a big hug before skipping out of the school at Adrienne’s side.

Sheltering the little girl beneath her umbrella, Adrienne ushered her to the car and secured her into the booster seat in the back. Isabelle started babbling about her day the minute Adrienne slid behind the steering wheel. Trying to concentrate on the child’s chatter and negotiate the wet roads at the same time, Adrienne murmured what she hoped were appropriate responses. Isabelle must have been satisfied, since she continued with barely a pause for breath.

Cute kid, Adrienne thought with a faint smile, but the child did love to talk.

A traffic light glowed red ahead of her as she approached the last intersection before leaving the city limits. It changed to green several seconds before she reached it, so she didn’t slow down. The nose of the rental car had just entered the intersection when a blur of red passed in front of her, so close she could almost feel the heat of its exhaust.

She slammed on the brakes, missing a collision by a heartbeat. The lightweight rental car slid on the wet pavement, squealing into a spin that she fought with her heart pounding in her throat. The spin ended with a crunch of metal when the back of the car made jarring contact with a lamppost. Her hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel, Adrienne sat for a moment in frozen silence, trying to remember how to breathe again. And then a wail from the back seat got her moving.

She whipped around in her seat. “Isabelle, are you all right?”

Still strapped securely in her safety seat, the little girl was uninjured, though she was obviously frightened. Going limp with relief, Adrienne swallowed hard before saying, “It’s okay, sweetheart. The car’s a little crumpled, but you and I are fine. You don’t hurt anywhere, do you?”

Drawing in a tremulous breath, Isabelle shook her head. “I’m not hurt.”

“Good.” Because the child still appeared to be in need of comfort, Adrienne reached for the door handle. “Hold on just a minute. I’ll come around to you.”

The rain had dwindled to barely more than a mist. Adrienne didn’t bother with an umbrella, figuring that after what they had just been through, a little moisture certainly wouldn’t hurt either of them. No other vehicles were immediately visible when she stepped out of the driver’s door, though she could hear a car engine approaching on the intersecting street. She hoped whoever it was would call for assistance while she comforted Isabelle. She had carelessly left her own cell phone sitting on Gideon’s kitchen table.

Opening the rear passenger door, she reached inside to unbuckle Isabelle, who had stopped sniffling, but still looked shaken. The child wrapped her arms around Adrienne’s neck and buried her face in her throat. “I was scared.”

Adrienne rocked her soothingly, an instinctive movement that somehow seemed appropriate. “So was I, sweetheart.”

Fear was rapidly changing to anger for her. That moron in the red car could have killed them! And he hadn’t even stayed around to see if anyone was hurt.

The vehicle she’d heard approaching stopped at the traffic light, then turned to slide in behind her car. She wouldn’t have to ask anyone to call the police, after all. The police had already arrived, she thought, relieved to see the marked patrol car. She was even more surprised to recognize the officer who exited the vehicle and moved toward her. He was the same man she’d almost bumped into that morning when she and Gideon left the diner.

“Are you all right, ma’am?” he asked her in the rough-edged drawl she remembered from earlier.

“Yes, we’re okay. Just shaken.”

He studied the crumpled rear of the nondescript compact. “What happened? Did you hydroplane?”

Her temper flared again. “Some jerk in a red sports car ran a red light right in front of me! If I hadn’t practically stood on the brakes, I would have slammed right into him.”

The officer’s cool gray eyes narrowed. “A red sports car?”