There was no way to express the anger Arden was feeling. He’d been teaching at Edmonds High School for ten years, and in that time, nothing like this had happened before.
Sure, kids had been caught with bags of weed, and those students had been expelled. The staff took an incredibly hard stance on drugs. He was even harsher with his football team. If a player was caught with drugs or alcohol, they were off the team—no second chances.
He knew that was a road too hard to make a U-turn on, and he wanted to be harsh to prevent them from starting down that path. Now, coincidentally, after they got a new principal, they also got a drug ring associated with their school. Declan had been right. Dammit!
He called his brother, giving only a few curt words. Declan said he’d notify the authorities and they’d be there quickly. Arden hung up without bothering with a goodbye. Neither of them was in the mood for pleasantries.
Keera was doing her best to answer the kids’ questions and calm their fears. He studied her pale face, the disappointment she was trying to hide, the tense set of her shoulders. Everything within him said there was no way she was involved—at least not of her own free will.
He’d learned long ago to trust the voice within. But this was his school, and he was just as responsible for these kids as she was. Therefore, he had to keep his eyes wide open and not let his attraction toward the principal skew his investigation. His brother might have begun this, but he was now involved.
Keera hadn’t tried to keep him from the locker area, hadn’t tried to steer him away. That didn’t speak of guilt. Him thinking of her as innocent wasn’t because of his attraction. He could afford to believe in her innocence without compromising his integrity.
Max hadn’t moved from the locker, guarding his find. He looked from Arden to Keera, then Ethan, who was standing by in shock. The dog really didn’t like the vice principal. Arden didn’t blame him. The smarmy VP had never been a favorite of Arden’s, but he tried to give the guy the benefit of the doubt.
Right now he didn’t see Ethan as being very helpful, which was making it much more difficult for Arden to be gracious. The man just stood there while Keera did all the damage control with the students.
“You did good, Max,” Arden said. Max looked at him as if he was already bored with the scenario. “Take the praise like a real dog,” Arden grumbled. He would’ve sworn on a Bible that the dog had rolled his eyes. He turned away before he got into a fight with the mutt. That would certainly be on YouTube within minutes with the number of cell phones around him. Damn dog.
Footsteps could be heard coming down the hall, and Arden turned to see an eager student leading Declan and a couple of crime-scene techs their way. The girl then went and joined the other kids as they waited to see what would happen next. This was a pretty exciting Saturday for them.
“Wow, we’ve never been called here twice in the same weekend,” Joe said with a grin.
“I’m sorry,” Keera told the tech.
“Hey, I like a mystery. Wish it wasn’t at a school, but we’ll get to the bottom of it,” Joe assured her.
Arden noticed how men acted around Keera. They puffed out their chests and had extrawide grins for her. The vice principal did it—hell, half the students did, too. He also noticed that she was seemingly oblivious to it.
“Please figure it out,” Keera told the tech while placing her hand on his shoulder and squeezing. Pink infused Joe’s cheeks, and he turned, catching Arden’s gaze. There must have been some sort of ominous look on Arden’s face because the young man turned away and scurried over to the locker. Arden needed to cool it.
“Max did good,” Declan said as he gazed over Joe’s shoulder at the plastic-wrapped white powder.
“Yeah, the mutt’s been useful,” Arden admitted.
“I’m not happy about this,” Declan said.
“I know you aren’t. I was just hoping you were wrong,” Arden admitted.
“I was hoping the same thing,” Declan told him.
Joe had taken a sample from one of the bags, putting the powder into a vial and swirling it. He turned around, and Arden knew there was no doubt. Of course there wasn’t. If it hadn’t been drugs, Max wouldn’t have bothered with the locker.
“Yeah, it’s coke,” Joe said. He turned back to the locker, and he and his partner carefully inventoried the drugs and the few other items in there before taking their time swabbing the area, getting every trace of evidence they could find. The techs were thorough.
Declan hovered over them, making Joe sweat a little more than he normally did. There was just something so damn commanding about his brother, it tended to make anyone around him a little jumpy.
The kids were chattering with each other as they did their best to share this latest bit of gossip with the entire town of Edmonds. It wouldn’t do them any good to try to keep this contained. But, then again, Arden didn’t want to do that. The more people talking about this, the more likely they’d find whoever was responsible. In a small town, secrets tended to be unwrapped rather quickly.
Keera began questioning the kids, her shoulders more set now that the initial shock had worn off. She was firm as she looked them in the eyes and began asking some hard questions.
“Have any of you seen anything suspicious around this locker?” she asked. Arden noted how she looked the students in the eyes, never being the first one to break contact. A few kids squirmed as if they might want to talk, and that made both Arden and Declan step closer to the group, which only appeared to make them more nervous.
Good. They should be afraid. Enough dope had been found in their school to OD half the students. It wasn’t something to be taken lightly. All it would take was one student stepping forward, and they could end this.
Most of the kids looked clueless, but there were a couple who might have information. Both he and Declan seemed to zoom in on them, and those kids were inspecting their shoes an awful lot.
“Come on, you guys. This is your school. Take pride in it. You won’t be in trouble for sharing information,” Keera pleaded with them.
Ethan had disappeared into his office and hadn’t emerged again. He was a coward who should’ve been out there dealing with the situation instead of hiding. Some people preferred to live in the shadows while others couldn’t help but seek the light. Arden respected Keera for being a light-seeker, and he found himself drawing closer to her.
They’d get to the bottom of this, and they’d get Keera answers about her brother, as well. When he made a promise to another person, he delivered on his word. It was a code of conduct that had been instilled in him from the time he could barely walk.
His ego took a surge when Keera leaned a bit closer to him. Whether she’d done it intentionally or not, she needed him. He just hoped neither of them let the other down. He had no doubt she’d been disappointed too many times already in her life, and he was determined to show her what faith in another person looked like.