Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
RORY
Iscrubbed furiously at the bar top, the rag in my hand drawing hard circles in the exact same spot over and over as I worked to temper my rage.
But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t settle.
That was because I’d called the school three times to speak with the principal about what I’d found out the evening before, and all three calls had gone unanswered.
The messages I left had been ignored. It was now a quarter past one, well into the school day, and I hadn’t heard a word back.
“Calm, dollface,” Cord ordered gently, his hand coming out to halt mine. “Everything’s gonna be all right.
“Oh, it will be,” I growled, snatching my hand away to resume scrubbing. “It’ll be fine when I get that man removed from his job for being a complete and total asshole.”
I heard Eden’s giggle and looked up to where she sat across the bar, tucked into Lincoln. The two of them had come in to have lunch together, and seeing as Cord had been coming in on his lunch break almost every day since we got together, he’d rounded out our little foursome.
I appreciated that he was trying to sooth me, but until I had my chance to lay into that incompetent principal, I knew there was no chance of that happening.
“You’ve gone all mama bear,” Eden pointed out, her smile radiating with approval. “It’s a good look on you, babe.”
“Not sure it’ll be such a good look when I’m arrested for beating that man unconscious,” I grumbled in return, making both Cord and Lincoln laugh.
“I’m not joking,” I informed my man. “I’m dead serious.
I don’t know what all you guys do at Alpha Omega, but I have a general idea, and I know you guys have connections, so just a heads-up, you’re probably gonna have to pull some strings to get me out of the clink. ”
The humor remained on Cord’s face as he declared, “Dollface, first off, no one calls it the clink. Second, you get arrested, I’ll get you out. You don’t have to worry about that. But can you at least try to hold yourself back? At least until you’re a full-fledged foster parent?”
He had a point. Since my case had been fast-tracked, seeing as there were extenuating circumstances and Zach was already living with me, I’d made a lot of headway in my training classes, and my application had already been pushed through, but I wasn’t quite done yet.
“Fine,” I said on a sigh. “I won’t beat him up, but I reserve the right to give him a verbal lashing.”
“That, I can accept,” Cord decreed. “I’m actually looking forward to witnessing that.”
The phone in my back pocket began to ring and I whipped it out, looking at the display before muttering, “Looks like you’ll be getting that chance sooner than expected.” I engaged the call and lifted the phone to my ear. “It’s about time someone got back to me,” I clipped. “I’ve been calling all—”
“Miss Hightower,” Principal Jefferies broke in, “I’m afraid I’ll need you to come down to the school as soon as possible.”
“What? Why?”
“I have Zachary in my office. It would appear he’s beaten up another student.”
Well, son of a bitch.
“Stay with me, Rory,” Cord murmured from beside me, giving my hand a squeeze. “Just try and relax. It’s gonna be all right.”
I took the strength Cord was offering, letting it fill me up as I clenched his fingers with mine. We passed a sea of lockers and pushed through the door of the front office. A second later we were escorted into the principal’s office.
Seeing Principal Jefferies for the first time, I instantly disliked him.
He was a short, rail-thin man with a heavily receding hairline and an unpleasant disposition.
It was written all over his pinched face.
I could read him like a book, and if that hadn’t been enough, I’d gleaned from our conversation the night before that he was one of those unhappy people who had no business working in a job with children for the simple fact that he didn’t seem to care much for them.
And looking at him now, I could tell my assumptions had been right.
My eyes scanned through the rest of the room.
In the back corner, seated on a dark leather sofa, was a woman clutching the shoulders of the blond boy sitting next to her.
His face appeared to be in much the same condition as Zach’s, and I knew by his vicious sneer that this was the kid who’d been bullying my boy.
Ignoring everyone else, I disengaged from Cord’s hold and moved to where Zach was seated in one of the two straight-back chairs in front of the principal’s desk, crouching down low and resting a hand on his knee. “Hey, honey. Are you okay?”
My question seemed to take him aback, and his eyes went wide as his lips parted to issue a reply. But before he could, Principal Jefferies spoke. “Miss Hightower, if you wouldn’t mind, please take a seat.”
I pushed to my full height and gave the man a withering look. “I’ll take a seat after you tell me what’s going on.”
“What’s going on is that little hooligan beat up my son!”
I spun around to take in the woman on the couch.
She was dressed in a trendy twinset, khaki ankle pants, and designer flats.
A delicate string of gleaming pearls was wrapped around her neck, and the massive rocks on her finger and in her ears shined as if they’d just been polished.
Her blonde hair was pulled back in a demure ponytail at the base of her neck, and her face was made up to absolute perfection.
It was obvious by the quality of her clothes and her jewelry that she came from money, but it was the way she held herself, with her back rigid as a board, her ankles crossed primly, and the haughty tilt of her chin as she stared down her nose at me, even from her seated position, that told me she’d also let that money go to her head.
She thought she was better than Zach and me.
And she thought wrong.
Ignoring her rude outburst, I looked back to the principal, feeling Cord come up to my side in solidarity, and issued a sharp “Well?”
“Mrs. Niedermeyer is correct, ma’am. Zachary was witnessed by two teachers striking Matthew in the face multiple times.”
I crossed my arms, cocked out a hip, and turned to face him fully. “And?”
“And?” Principal Jefferies asked in bewilderment and began to sputter “I… we… that is… the school’s policy on physical altercations is quite clear, Miss Hightower. Because of his actions, Zachary is suspended, effective immediately.”
“Oh, that’s not going to happen.”
“I—what?” the beady-eyed little man cried at the same time Mrs. Niedermeyer sucked in an affronted gasp.
With Cord’s heat at my back, his strength spurring me on, I gave my attention back to Zach and asked, “Is that the kid?”
He pulled his lips between his teeth, not out of shame or embarrassment or anger but to hide his smile as he nodded.
At his confirmation, I whipped back around to the principal. “You won’t be suspending Zach unless that boy”—I flung my arm in the punk kid’s direction—“is suspended as well.”
“Excuse me?” Mrs. Twinset yelped, but I didn’t have time for her.
“I called you yesterday to report that my boy had come home with a bloody nose and black eye. I called you again this morning, three times, all of those calls unanswered and my messages unreturned, to report to you that Zach had been attacked on the bus on his way home from school by this kid and his friends. Now, I understand this school has a policy against fighting, but it’s my understanding it also has a policy against bullying, something that has been happening to Zach on an alarmingly regular basis.
I can imagine that today he finally had enough of being pushed around and—” I slapped my hands down on the desk and leaned closer to the small man—“he... pushed... back. Something I don’t blame him for one single bit.
And I’ll be damned if I’ll allow him to be punished for defending himself when no one else would. ”
“That’s ludicrous!” Mrs. Pearl Clutcher cried. “Your boy was clearly seen assaulting my son!”
“Because your kid’s a bully,” I shot back, pinning the woman with a vicious glare.
“I know what he’s been saying to Zach, and they’re some of the most vile, despicable things I’ve ever heard, which leads me to believe that your son is nothing more than a mean kid.
And looking at him now, I feel confident in saying he got what he deserved. ”
“Miss Hightower, that’s quite enough,” Principal Chickenshit piped up. “Your ward—”
“My son,” I threw back. “You’ve disrespected my son enough, not only by not protecting him from the likes of pathetic schoolyard bullies but by treating him as the problem child when he was the victim, then punishing him when he did your job of defending himself.
A word to the wise, Principal Jefferies.
Don’t do it again, and that includes referring to him as my ward. ”
He reached up and adjusted his ugly monochromatic tie before sallying forth. “Zachary was seen striking another student. I understand that you’re upset he had an altercation—”
“Is that what you call being pinned down by three other students while another one punches him in the face?”
He stopped to clear his throat at my glare. “Yes, well… I understand you’re upset, but as I was saying, there are no witnesses to that incident—”
“If you were to pick up the phone and answer a single one of my calls this morning, then you would know that the bus driver was most certainly a witness to this incident. When we spoke yesterday, you assured me that you would be investigating the matter. And since it appears you don’t take your job seriously, you’ll forgive me if I don’t have faith that your investigative skills will turn up anything of value.
Therefore, I’ll be handling the situation on my own. ”
Jefferies’s entire face blanched white at that, and he fell back into his chair, his throat bobbing on a heavy swallow.