Without Mercy (Mercy 1)
“Don’t think I ever will.”
“It just takes time.” She tossed the smudged tissue into a trash can tucked under her desk. “Look, I’d better get to my homework. We’ve got a paper due in English tomorrow, and I need to study for a chemistry test.”
Shay nodded and tried not to stare at the phony sprinkler head. Wasn’t it against the law to have a camera and listening device set up without a resident’s consent?
She considered the myriad of papers she’d signed in the past few days, some of which she hadn’t bothered, in her agitated state, to read. Then there was everything Edie had put her John Hancock on while being so damned hell-bent on sending Shay down here. Dear old Mom … Edie would have signed anything to get her out of Seattle so she could be with that worm of a fiancé. It was all just sick.
Suddenly claustrophobic, Shay felt as if the walls were closing in on her. She could barely breathe. When she looked over her shoulder to the sprinkler head, her blood turned to ice. Who was on the other side of the small camera? Who was watching her every move? Listening to anything she had to say? She wasn’t one to scare easily, but there was something off about this place, something evil.
Stop it! That’s paranoid!
But as she glanced out the window to the darkening night, the towering hills seemed dark and forbidding, barriers to the rest of the world. She felt small and helpless.
Don’t go there! That kind of thinking is just what they want to break you down.
As Nona snapped on her desk lamp and opened a thick chemistry textbook, Shay continued to stare out the window. She saw her own pale image shimmering in the reflection and Nona’s as she looked up and met Shay’s gaze in the glass.
Her eyes were a warning.
A warning that underlined Shay’s desperation. She had to find a way out of here and fast.
CHAPTER 7
“What do you mean, you haven’t heard from her?” Jules demanded as she sat at her desk, cell phone jammed to her ear.
“That’s the way it works, Julia. You know that,” Edie explained, her voice tight. “There’s to be no contact for two weeks. Then just a short phone call. If she wants.”
“But she’s your daughter. Underage. You should get a report.”
“I can talk to the counselors at any time, just not your sister.”
“That’s nuts.”
“It’s their policy.”
“Well, it’s crap. Shay’s just a kid.” But it was basically the same thing Analise had told her.
“We’ve been through this. Blue Rock Academy knows what it’s doing. I trust them.”
“But I want to talk to her.”
“You can write a letter in care of the school.”
“A letter? What is this, the Dark Ages?” Jules shoved back her chair and paced from one end of her small office to the other. “What about cell phones or e-mail or Facebook?”
“Not allowed.”
“Of course. The place is starting to sound Draconian, Mom.”
“And you’re starting to sound like a drama queen! The very thing you accuse me of. Just slow down, give the school a chance. And, please, don’t go bothering Analise anymore.”
“What?”
“Eli called me, you know,” Edie said.
Jules’s heart sank.
“Of course he did.” What a pansy, running to Aunt Edie and tattling. Like a three-year-old.