Without Mercy (Mercy 1)

“Look, Jules. I was just concerned. Do whatever it is you have to do, okay? But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Of what, Eli?”

He hesitated, then his voice lowered to a whisper. “Of whatever it is you find, Jules. You might not like it.” With that, he hung up with a loud and final click.

“Bastard,” she hissed as she hung up. The cat was looking up at her expectantly. “Not you, okay?” She slid out of her coat and hung it on a peg near the door, allowing the water to drip onto the tile of the entryway. “Let’s get you some dinner, eh?” she said, heading into the kitchen.

What was it about Blue Rock Academy that made everyone so jumpy? For all their praises of the institution, Analise and Eli were scared. But of what? They were both well out of it.

“It gets stranger and stranger,” she said to the cat as she found a half-full can of cat food and forked some into his dish. Diablo ignored the bowl and trotted after her to the living area, where she switched on the gas fire and flopped onto the couch. She needed time to think. To figure out what to do.

Everyone was telling her to let Shay be, to leave her alone. The consensus was that her half sister was getting what she deserved and would come out of the experience all the better. But Jules, ever protective of Shay, just didn’t see it that way. Others, those who weren’t close to her, and even Edie, didn’t see the inner child within Shay. Sure, she was acting out, but she was scared of going to the academy. What seventeen-year-old wouldn’t be?

But then the world hadn’t had the glimpses into Shaylee’s life that Jules had. She remembered Edie returning from the hospital with the fussy, wide-eyed bundle. From the minute Shay had entered Jules’s life, she’d been fascinated by the cooing baby, then the curious toddler who had puppy-dogged after her. She and Shay had been together throughout the rocky marriages, rough divorces, and awkward reconciliations of their parents.

Jules had been close to her father. Rip had adored her. Not so with Max Stillman. Deep down, Jules had felt a little guilty that her dad had treated her like a princess and, really, done a poor job of taking Shaylee under his paternal wing as well. Not that Shay would allow him to.

While Jules had been in grade school, Shaylee had waited by the window, looking for her older sister to return home; then, chubby toddler legs flying, she’d run out the door when the bus’s squealing brakes had heralded Jules’s arrival.

“Sissy!” she’d cry happily, her little face aglow.

“Shh!” Jules had been embarrassed as she’d taken Shay’s little hand in hers. “Call me Jules.”

“Sissy!” Shay always had the last word, and she had happily run away, giggling so that Jules would give chase.

Later, when Shaylee had entered school, they’d taken the bus together, even sitting across the aisle from each other, as Jules knew it wasn’t cool to share a seat with a kid seven years younger, especially her sister.

In junior high, they’d grown farther apart, and then in high school Jules didn’t have much time to spend with her kid sister; she had better things to do. Especially when she discovered boys and ultimately Cooper Trent.

Whoa! She put on the mental brakes.

She didn’t want to dredge up memories of the one man who’d gotten a good hard look at her soul.

Diablo curled into a ball on her lap and began to purr. Jules stroked his smooth fur and stared at the flickering flames. Her headache had rec

eded a bit, thank God, and after a few minutes and no answers, she ended up in the kitchen again, where she made herself her favorite budget dinner: ramen noodles with frozen vegetables heated in the microwave.

“Yummy,” she told Diablo. “Just like in college. Consider yourself lucky to have Tasty Tuna Treats.”

The cat didn’t seem impressed and followed Jules, carrying her bowl, upstairs to her desk and computer. She wasn’t much of an investigator, but there had to be a way to learn more. Analise and Eli hadn’t been much help, but she had faith in the Internet. If there was dirt on the academy, she’d find it.

And then what?

“One step at a time,” she reminded herself as she set her bowl on her desk and ignored the steaming broth. “One step at a time.”

So this was the room. Shay’s new “home.”

Twin beds separated by a wide aisle, two minuscule closets, two L-shaped desks that met in the middle of the room beneath the single window. Neat. Clean. Sleek. And with all the personality of a jail cell.

Home sweet home, Shay thought sarcastically, but really her room was just about what she’d expected. So far, Blue Rock Academy, or BRA as she’d begun to think of it, wasn’t disappointing.

“This is your bed,” Dr. Williams said, pointing to the empty twin. Nona’s bed was neatly made, a navy blue quilt stretched with military precision over her thin mattress. A cross was mounted over her bed, a well-worn stuffed pink koala propped on the pillow. Otherwise there was no wall decor. “You can put your things in your closet, and Nona can answer most of the questions you have, but if there’s anything else you need, I’m available day and night.” She offered her fake-o brilliant smile before giving a few last instructions about wake-up calls, prayer meetings, and class schedules. Then with a wave she said, “I’ll see you at morning service,” and left the two girls alone.

Once the door closed, Shay tossed her backpack onto the bed. “Is she a workout or what?”

“Actually, she’s great,” Nona said, sticking to the company line. “Talented and smart.”

“If you say so.”