Keera’s throat tightened as she stood trembling on Ethan’s back lawn. She hated the waiting but understood why it had to be done right.
“What if he’s hurt? We need to get in,” she said, fighting back her fear for Ethan. It wasn’t as if they were best friends, but he’d been the first one in this town to take the time to know her. She felt she owed him her loyalty.
“I’ll go in,” Declan said a few minutes later. Two squad cars were now there, and the policemen nodded. No one was going to argue with his authority.
He opened the back door, his gun drawn as he disappeared inside the house. It felt like the longest seconds of her life as she waited for him to do a quick search before allowing anyone else to enter.
Max was still growling as he strained to follow Declan. Something was in there that interested the dog. Keera wasn’t sure what it was, but she was definitely afraid to find out. She didn’t want any of this to be true about Ethan. She didn’t want him to be a bad guy.
Declan came back to the door. “Ethan’s not here. You can come in now,” he said.
Keera didn’t wait to see if that included her. She needed to make sure he wasn’t lying to her. She didn’t take him as the kind of man to do that, but right now it felt as if her world had once again been flipped upside down. And a person could only have that happen so many times before it all became too much.
As soon as Declan allowed him to, Max sprang forward, disappearing down a hallway. They moved quickly after the dog, who entered what looked like a spare room that was sparsely furnished, with a rickety desk with papers strewn about it and a rusty file cabinet.
Max went to the closet and sat, his growl low as he waited for them to open the door.
“Did you check this closet?” Keera asked, terrified she was going to find Ethan’s bloody body on the other side of the door.
“No,” Declan said. He inched forward, his gun still ready. Then he opened the door, and Keera gasped.
“Looks like we found our drug supplier,” Arden said with a low whistle.
“And why he might want to stop Keera from digging any further,” Declan said.
“But I wasn’t the one who started this. Of course I don’t want drugs in the school, but why would he come after me?” Keera asked, unable to look away from the massive amount of cocaine wrapped in plastic.
“I don’t know, but I hope you now believe he’s after you,” Arden said, sympathy in his eyes. Keera took a few steps back, unable to deny the truth any longer, but feeling betrayed by a person who’d claimed to be her friend. The sad thing was, that’s how it always happened. She hadn’t ever been able to maintain relationships because of exactly what was in front of her.
Her father had been a high-ranking drug dealer, and apparently Ethan was, too. He certainly didn’t live like her father, though. Did he know her dad? Is that why he had been so nice to her? Was it a show all along?
Keera was so disappointed; she didn’t know what to think or feel.
“I’m sorry,” Arden said, wrapping his arms around her. For a single moment she allowed him to take a bit of the burden from her. Ethan was just one more person in a long line of people who had zero qualms about betraying her. It hurt more than she wanted to admit.
“He was a heck of an actor,” she said. She pulled back to look at Arden. “I really had no clue it was him bringing drugs into the school. I guess he had the perfect cover-up, though. He knew which lockers were safe, knew the schedule, and normally had the school all to himself. He made a comment my second week there that most principals didn’t stay so late. He wasn’t happy about my after-hours activities with the kids, either. I guess it was messing with his operation.”
She was so disheartened. But at least the drug problem was solved, or getting closer to being solved.
“We still don’t know if anyone else is involved,” Declan said.
“I was wondering the same thing,” Keera admitted. “I don’t know if he brought students into this or staff members. I feel like I can’t trust anyone.”
“Right now, you can’t,” Declan said, making Keera wince.
“You can trust us,” Arden told her, shooting his brother a look. If she wasn’t so frustrated right now, she might have found that amusing.
“Sir, you might want to look at this,” one of the cops said, holding up a file.
“What is it?” Declan asked. The cop looked from Declan to Keera as he squirmed on his feet. “Spit it out.” Declan wasn’t the most patient of people.
“Uh . . . well, it has Ms. Thompson’s name on it.”
Arden tensed next to her. Declan’s eyes narrowed as he stepped over to the cop and took the file. He looked at it a moment, and his already steely gaze became even more glacial. He looked at Keera and then his brother.
“This goes deeper than I realized,” he said. Keera felt her insides clench. She didn’t want to read that file, didn’t want to know what it contained. But she also couldn’t bury her head in the sand any longer.
She held out her hand, and Declan gave her the file. She knew when she opened it her life would change again. Her world so often spun out of control, she wondered what it would be like to live a boring, normal life. She would probably never know.