Chapter 19
Be his peace. You already can’t cook.
— Brecken’s secret thoughts
brECKEN
Movement outside my classroom door had me glancing through the small safety glass window and grimacing.
Rupert.
He was glancing into my classroom—like he always did—and pissing me off.
“What’s the fact of the day?” a student asked as we were packing up.
I grinned, happy that they’d asked. Because today’s fact of the day was a doozie.
“So, you know what monarch butterflies look like?” I asked the group.
“Yes,” several of them answered in the affirmative.
“No, what do they look like?” one asked.
I pulled up a picture of my Zinnias that I’d planted this year and said, “This orange beauty is what is known as a monarch butterfly.”
“I haven’t seen very many of those this year,” Javier, the captain of the soccer team, admitted. “My grandfather owns Webber’s Landscaping, you know?”
I nodded. I did know. Javier’s grandfather was so awesome at what he did that he was contracted to landscape the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium as well as the Dallas Mavericks’.
I only knew that because Javier worked with his grandfather on the weekends and had lots to say about meeting “Dax” and “Luka.”
Being from Dallas, everyone knew who those two men were, and how awesome it would be to meet them.
“Yes, I do know,” I agreed.
“He’s been going on and on about how the monarch butterfly population is declining. He said that he just read a news article about how the butterfly population was down forty-three percent this year and how if we don’t do something about it, they could go extinct in the next ten years,” he said.
“That’s exactly right, and you stole my daily fact!” I pointed at him. “Who knows the only plant that monarch butterflies lay their eggs on?”
“Oh, I know this one, too.” Javier raised his hand.
“Oh, me! Pick me!” Roslyn cried out. “I know this one!”
I grinned and said, “Roslyn?”
“Milkweed!” she said.
“Right.” I nodded.
Javier looked at Roslyn with a contemplative look, as if he’d never seen her before and he liked what he saw.
I grinned at the interest in his eyes.
“Exactly right,” Javier drawled.
Despite the douchebag still lingering outside my room, I was all smiles by the time the last bell of the day rang.
The students in my class were slow to leave, as were all my students. I liked to think it was because of the fact that I was a cool teacher, and they liked my class.
But was more likely that most of them had practice after school that they really didn’t want to go to.
The moment Javier and Roslyn left, both of them talking about their plans for after school, I gathered up my things and counted to ten in my head.
Mostly because the asshole was now no longer standing outside my door but inside my classroom.
I continued to ignore him as I packed up what was left of my things.
Grabbing my knock-off Stanley—because Stanleys were expensive and the dupe versions were hardly different—I stood up and skirted around my desk.
Of course, Rupert was standing in such a way that he was blocking my access to get out.
“Excuse me,” I said dispassionately.
Rupert didn’t move, and I could tell he had no plans to.
But then another voice, this one like hot honey, drawled from somewhere behind Rupert.
“That didn’t sound like history,” the dark and dangerous man said from behind me.
I jumped and placed my hand to my heart as I glanced around Rupert to find Shasha leaning against the far hallway wall as if he had all the time in the world to wait. “Oh, you scared the crap out of me.”
He didn’t apologize, just waited for me to answer him.
Rupert stepped out of the way and glared at Shasha, giving me my opening to leave.
I hurried past Rupert, stomach turning at the familiar aftershave that he used, and completely dismissed him as I went straight to the man that kept contradicting himself.
“I’m pretty passionate about saving the insect population,” I informed him. “With us building so much,” I gestured to the world around me. “We’re decimating them one by one. It’s so sad that we’re at so low numbers to the point of possible extinction in the next few years.”
“Why are you so passionate about this?” he wondered.
“It’s just heartbreaking that all of them are dying off. Cars and suburban metropolises? They’re making it impossible for them to rejuvenate their numbers. The more we build, the less they have. I guess I’m just looking to spread the awareness.”
“Roslyn has become pretty interested in the insect population herself,” he said. “I was just wondering if it was a fad that was going around the schools.”
I nearly laughed.
The reason she was interested likely had more to do with a certain boy than the insect population.
But I wouldn’t be telling him that.
I had a feeling that Roslyn’s dad was just as bad as the man standing beside me.
“Do you need to lock the door to your room?” he asked.
“Oh, yes.” I smiled and started to turn with the keys in my hand, but he caught them and walked to the door.
“If you don’t mind stepping out,” Shasha said amicably.
My gaze flicked to Rupert, who looked to be fuming, and back to Shasha, who was showing no outward signs of annoyance.
Yet, I could see the way that his veins were pulsing, indicating his heart rate was accelerated.
He was angry, all right.
That made me feel super happy, too, because I knew he was angry on my behalf.
Shasha got the door locked, and then he handed me back my keys, and the two of us left without another word to the douchebag behind us.
Of course, the day wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t see Jolessa, too.
We were almost to the double doors that would lead outside when she popped out of the office, looking angry as a hornet.
A year ago, I would’ve dropped everything—even the sexy man beside me—to find out what was going on.
Now I didn’t spare her a single glance as I headed out to the main drop-off area where the teachers parked.
Luckily being at the high school, drop off and pick up was a breeze, meaning even though it was a few minutes after the bell had just rang, almost all of the kids were gone.
There were only a few left in the corner of the stoop, blocking themselves from the rain with the small amount of roof overhang there was.
I looked at the parking lot in dismay.
“Dammit.”
I could feel his gaze on me as he said, “What?”
“I wore my UGGs today, and they’re not really supposed to get wet,” I grumbled.
Before I could comprehend what happened, I was being carried to my car, and my shoes were tucked beneath his coat, being blocked from the rain.
“I see you have doors today,” he mused.
“I didn’t when I parked this morning,” I admitted. “But my brothers know I need help putting them on, so they must’ve stolen it during the school day, taken it to Holden’s house, and put them on for me.”
“Do your brothers always take care of you so thoroughly?” he asked as he opened my Jeep door and tossed me inside.
My shoes went to the passenger seat, and then he was standing in my open Jeep door, using his big body to block the rain from entering into the cab.
“They try,” I said, voice kind of shaky now.
The water was dripping down his face, and his clothes were soaked.
Yet, he didn’t seem to care.
He stared at me with such intense eyes that I felt like I was being undone.
“I’ve tried really hard,” he said out of the blue.
I blinked. “Doing what?”
“To stay away,” he admitted.
My eyes refocused on him, taking in the look on his face.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because it’s dangerous in my world,” he said. “People get kidnapped here. I don’t think I could do it again.”
“What makes you think it’d happen again?” I pushed.
“Because I’m a bad person, Brecken. Good things don’t happen to bad people,” he continued.
The rain let up, going from a downpour to a thick, misty rain.
“‘Bad’ seems a little too harsh,” I said. “I haven’t seen you be a bad person yet.”
His eyes changed then, becoming incredibly serious, as he said, “And you never will.”
I fully expected him to back out of my doorway and retreat like he always did, but this time, he surprised me by staying and saying, “Are you sure, Brecken Navy Sweat? Because if you’re not, you need to tell me now.”
“Do you kill innocent people?” I blurted.
“No,” he answered.
“Do you kill women and children?” I asked.
“No,” he repeated.
“Do you hook little kids on drugs?” I wondered.
His eye twitched and his mouth quirked up before he said, “No.”
“Then I’m sure.”
He backed away and shut the door before tapping the top of my Jeep.
I wondered if that was supposed to mean I was supposed to leave.
Guessing that it was, I cranked the Jeep up and started out of the parking lot.
I kept an eye on my rearview mirror for the man that I knew was behind me, but I didn’t see him until I pulled up at my apartment complex a half hour later and saw him sitting in my guest spot, waiting for me.