Tempt Me
She headed inside, glad Austin was at his weekly meeting in the office. She didn’t need him to see her shaken up before she had all the details.
A quick call to Kate Collins, the district attorney, answered her questions and she didn’t like what she learned. Parker had been released from jail when his conviction was overturned due to a technicality the DA didn’t bother to explain and Mia really didn’t care why. The end result was the same. He was out and the state was retrying him. Because she’d moved to Connecticut and there had been no reason for her to leave a forwarding address, as the case had been concluded, it had taken Kate time to find Mia and let her know she’d be needed at another trial.
She was not happy.
She didn’t want her life, her job, or Austin and Bailey’s life disrupted by her having to go to New York to testify.
She sighed and was about to head to her room when the home telephone rang. She answered. “Rhodes residence.”
“Hello, is Mr. Rhodes home?” an efficient female voice asked.
“No, can I take a message?” Mia tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder and grabbed a piece of paper and pen.
“It’s the Lakewood Elementary school.”
“This is Mia Atwood, Bailey’s nanny. Is everything okay?”
“Oh, Ms. Atwood. I see you’re on the approved list to pick up Bailey. We seem to have an issue. There’s a woman here claiming to be Bailey’s mother and she’s insisting she see her daughter. She wants to remove her from the premises but she’s not on our list.”
“No, she isn’t. I’ll call Mr. Rhodes immediately. Please don’t let her anywhere near Bailey,” Mia said. “I’ll come by myself to pick her up when school is over.”
“The problem is, the children were in the hallway walking to the gym and Bailey saw Ms. Gibson. We took Bailey away and brought her to the nurse’s office but Ms. Gibson is still here and making a scene,” the other woman explained, sounding upset now that she’d gotten into the details.
Mia’s stomach flipped over. “I’ll call Mr. Rhodes immediately. Please don’t let her near Bailey,” she repeated urgently.
Mia hung up the phone, grabbed her cell phone in one hand and her keys in another. She set the house alarm and called Austin’s cell phone as she ran for the car, which she’d left in the street, thinking only of getting to the school and to Bailey as quickly as possible.
He picked up on the second ring. “Mia? What’s wrong?” he asked, probably because she never called him unless Bailey was sick.
“Your ex is at Bailey’s school.” She detailed the rest of the situation. “I’m heading over now.”
Austin swore. “Okay, I’ll meet you there. I’m already on my way home, so it shouldn’t take long. You know what to do. Keep her away from my baby.”
Mia swallowed hard. She knew. “You got it,” she promised as she reached her car.
The school wasn’t far from the house and Mia reached it in record time, bypassing yellow lights that turned red as she drove past.
Mia arrived at the school, stopping at the main office to sign in. She didn’t see Kayla and she didn’t ask where she was. “Where’s Bailey? Is she still at the nurse’s office?”
The gray-haired woman behind the desk in the office nodded. “I thought it would be best to put her someplace where she couldn’t see her mother since what she said seemed to upset her so much.”
Mia swallowed hard. “Where is it?”
“Down the hall to the left,” the other woman said.
Mia ran, slowing when she reached the nurse’s office, not wanting to freak Bailey out. She stepped into the room and smiled at the school nurse. “I’m here for Bailey?”
“Mia!” The little girl flew out from a side room and wrapped her arms around Mia, holding on tight.
“Hey, baby.” Mia glanced over her head to meet the nurse’s kind gaze. “Is she okay?”
“A little shaken up. She stopped crying when I gave her juice and a book to read so she’d put the incident out of her mind. I just thought it was best she went home early to her family.”
Mia stroked the child’s head. “Her father will be with her in a little while,” she assured the nurse. “Ready to go home?”
Bailey nodded against her.
“Do you need to get anything from your classroom first?”
“No.” She stepped back and glanced up at Mia. Tears stained her cheeks and Mia’s heart squeezed tight in her chest.
Unfortunately, to leave the school, they had to walk past the main office. If luck held, they wouldn’t run into Kayla. Mia led Bailey down the hall and turned toward the office. She immediately caught sight of Austin, having his say with the principal and the office staff, no doubt making it clear Kayla was not allowed anywhere near his child and only Austin, Mia, and Austin’s parents were allowed into the school or to pick up Bailey.