Without Mercy (Mercy 1)

Great, just damned great! All her scheming and plotting and lying were for nothing. She’d been afraid that Shaylee might blow her cover or that Lynch’s wife might figure out that she was related to Shaylee, but she hadn’t thought—couldn’t imagine—that Cooper Trent would be here. She rolled up the window, opened the door, and stepped onto the icy parking lot where the wind, like a frigid knife, cut through her jacket. “I didn’t see that they were teaching bronc busting or bull riding down here, so what’s your job?”

“I’m the phys ed teacher.”

“Why?” she demanded, wondering why her pulse still pounded at the sight of him. “The rodeo circuit run out of bulls?”

“Change of profession.”

“Oh, right. You traded in your spurs for Nikes. Don’t think so.”

Deputy Meeker glanced over at them. Frowning, he started heading across the lot again.

“Don’t ruin this for me,” she whispered. “I need this job.”

“Deal. You do the same.” He was waiting. When she didn’t respond, he added, “Does Lynch know your sister is one of the students? I think there’s some rule against family members—”

“Shh!” she warned, feeling heat in her cheeks. She had to stay cool, to calm down. She couldn’t blow it with the deputy.

“Is there a problem, Officer?” Trent asked, and it was all Jules could do not to kick him in the shins. Instead, she pasted on a smile that she didn’t feel.

“Just checkin’,” the deputy said, and handed Jules back her ID. “Your license expired two days ago.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been busy. I thought once I moved down here and took the job and had a permanent address I’d renew it.” Oh, God, she hoped the deputy was buying her lie.

He studied her with eyes used to sorting fact from fiction, but finally he nodded. “All right, then. You take care of it. There’s a DMV in Cave Junction. It’s quite a bit closer than Medford.” The deputy’s cell rang, and he answered, turning his back to them.

“Thanks,” she said, relieved.

“Great. So we’re good to go?” Trent asked, but Meeker was deep in conversation.

“Sounds like a go to me,” Jules said.

“Let’s get your things out of your car and into the Jeep.”

She popped the trunk and pulled out the smaller of two bags, her pillow, and a laptop computer case. He-Man could get the larger roller bag.

/> They loaded up the Jeep quickly and stopped at the gate, where Trent waved to the guard. All this was done in relative silence, questions pounding through her head.

Stupidly, her mind flashed to another time and place, when she was not quite twenty, still a virgin, and Erin’s brother had introduced her to him. She’d expected he’d be brash, loud, and all macho; she’d discovered he was quiet, thoughtful, but with a sharp sense of humor that matched her own.

Now, five years of pent-up fury and bitter disappointment gnawed a hole in her gut. She’d thought she would never see him again, much less end up in a vehicle with him as he drove her to a school where, if Shay could be believed, a murder had recently been committed.

What kind of cruel twist of fate was at play here?

“Okay,” she said, once they were completely alone on the precipitous road leading deeper in the mountains. “Why don’t you tell me how you went from bull rider to teacher in one fell swoop?” She still couldn’t believe it.

“Better yet, let’s start with you,” he countered. His cocky smile slid from his face, and his gloved fingers clenched the steering wheel. The temperature in the Jeep seemed to drop ten degrees. “Your sister’s already here and up to her eyeballs in trouble,” he admitted, his face grim. “Her roommate was murdered, or possibly killed herself—that hasn’t been determined yet—and another boy is probably going to die from his injuries.” He let his breath whistle through his teeth. “The sheriff’s department is still trying to sort it all out, but whatever happened, it was brutal.”

“Shaylee called. She warned me.”

“Called? How? I thought—”

“Don’t ask.” She held up a hand. “But she’s freaked.”

“We all are.”

“But you said that she was in trouble.”

He nodded, glancing down at the gauges for a second. “Shaylee claims she knows nothing about what happened, but her baseball cap was found at the scene.”