The Court had a warning in their eyes before they headed back to their conversations, and that couldn’t be denied. They were telling me to tread lightly.
They were telling me to stay away.
I’d been naive about the power within this place, the almighty Court ruled the school, but I hadn’t been on the receiving end of it. I only saw that power thrust upon teachers, other students, the headmaster, and even my own dad. These people were threatened by eighteen-year-old boys and a club/society way older in this town than me.
“Have a good evening, Ms. Lindquist.”
I did still have Hubert, the older man staring at the rearview mirror when I let myself out to go inside the house. I didn’t have to work tonight, thank God, and called in sick after the one shift I had these past few days. I realized very quickly during that shift I wasn’t welcome there either. LJ, though he talked to me, had me scrubbing down that whole place with basically a toothbrush he called a scrubber, and he stayed with me too, stood over me like slave labor. He watched me scrub, and when he didn’t like the way I scrubbed, he made me do it again. The cherry to the night was coming outside and seeing him, Jax, and Knight and some other boys in the Court at their cars, Royal with them. Royal had been with Mira, just talking, and though he didn’t have his arm around her or anything, it still hurt seeing them together. Needless to say, I rushed into my car, not that he actually looked at me or anything. He didn’t at school, and he hadn’t then.
I dragged my feet up the stairs and into the house, my only saving grace out back, who I immediately went to tend to after I hung up my bag and took my uniform jacket off. Hershey continued to basically double in size, and though I probably should check around for my dad, I needed to see her so bad today. It was another lonely day at Windsor Prep, and I immediately went for the one thing who would ease that. Taking my key out, I unlocked the door to the guesthouse.
The kibble… was everywhere, like she’d turned over her dish and left it scattered, but not just that. The sheets on the guest bed were tattered, the pillows tossed as if she’d had a fit or something and her box was crushed, a shoe print right in the center of it.
A shoe print.
“Rosanna, Rosanna!” I screamed once inside the main house. I ran both upstairs and down, freaking out through the whole house. “Rosanna, it’s Hershey. She’s gone. She’s—”
“You won’t find her.”
My dad’s voice came from his office, a place in the house I never ventured through. I never had a reason. It was his space.
He looked up at me as I backed up, getting into his vantage point. He sat at a wide desk, going over papers.
I dampened my lips. “Where is she?”
“I fired her,” he said, completely dismissive about it. He bowed his head, writing. “Fired her for allowing you to bring an animal into this house and helping you harbor it.” He gazed up with a frown. “Really, December. What were you thinking?”
My world literally crumbed around me by what he was saying, Rosanna… Hershey.
“Dad, I…”
“You what?” He folded his hands. “What could you possibly say when you’ve been lying to me for God knows how long about a damn dog—”
“Her name’s Hershey.”
I cut him off and his eyes twitch wide, borderline madness within them.
His jaw ticked. “I don’t care what its name is.”
“Well, you should care,” I challenged, making him blink. “You should care about me, and that dog is the only real kind of anything I’ve had since I’ve been here. From you or anything else.”
“You have food from me, stuff, and education. Not to mention a roof over your head.” He curled fingers in his hair. “What more do you want from me?”
If he had to ask, he’d never know. Being a parent wasn’t just taking care of me physically. One would think he’d learn that since his eldest ran out on him.
“Where are you going?” Dad came around his desk, but I was already leaving, heading to the kitchen where I grabbed keys. “December—”
“I’m going to get my dog, and I don’t care if I have to tear up this city to find her.”
“She’s been taken by animal control, but you won’t bring her back to this house,” he said, coming around the bar. “You saw what that anima
l did to my guesthouse.”
I did see, the evidence of a frightened dog being taken by people she didn’t know or trust. My throat thick, I shook my head at him. “Bye, Dad.”
“I’m warning you, December. You leave this house and bring that dog back, you might as well not come home.”
The words chilled me, but they didn’t stop me. I went out to the garage, got in my sister’s car, then pulled out. I was going to have my puppy with me when I came back.