intimate violation made her stomach churn, and brought sweat to her skin despite the now chilly blast of the air-conditioning.
She had never thought much about having children, and when she did, it was off in the future somewhere while she concentrated on her career in the here and now. Although she had empathized with Rainy’s quest, she had often doubted that she would be horrifically upset if she herself never had children at all.
But that was before she came face-to-face with the outrageous possibility that that choice had been stolen from her, taken away without her knowledge or consent.
This scraped raw something in the very core of her being. Her world, her whole life, while never dull, had always been within her control. Academics and athletics came easily to her, and she chose what courses she would take and then proceeded to excel in them. Then she had decided to show her parents and her grandfather that she wouldn’t always dance to their tune, and had done so.
In the face of her grandfather’s disappointment she had then decided she’d made her point and worked hard to turn it around. And she had learned quickly that the rigid expectations she’d feared at Athena were in fact the keys to doors too often locked against women in the world.
Athena’s stated goal was to open those doors, expand possibilities and promote opportunities in all fields for women. The bigger picture included empowering women far beyond just the work-place. But above all, the goal was to help students find the person they were meant to be. They were never pushed or prodded in any direction, only given the tools necessary to make the right choice, and the chance to make that choice work.
Choice.
Such a simple thing. Or it should be.
She thought again of Rainy’s craving for a baby. Of the nights she’d spent on the phone listening to her old friend talk about it, so longingly.
“You never had a chance, Rainy,” Alex murmured. “And maybe now, neither do I.”
A slow, burgeoning heat began to build in her. She recognized it for what it was, a rising anger. It would reach the level of red-hot fury, she was sure, before this was over. But then it would cool, set and become rational, become the driving force of a woman with the knowledge and tools to exact retribution.
“Hurt one Cassandra, hurt us all,” she spoke into the now chilly air of the car. “Use one of us, and all of us will exact payment. Whoever you are, whatever your goal, you will regret it.”
The moment she cleared the dead zone, that brief stretch along Olympus Road where her cell service always failed, her phone beeped at her. She quickly dialed her voice mail to play her messages. There were two, the first from Christine letting her know she was still off campus, finishing up interviews with a couple of potential instructors.
A smiled quirked one corner of Alex’s mouth. She didn’t envy the applicants, who were likely expecting a typical job interview. An interview for Athena Academy was anything but typical. No one was even brought to the school until they had passed both the initial and secondary screenings, and the first interview with Christine. And they only got that far if they passed an extensive background check.
The second message was from Kayla. It was short. A bit cryptic. And very disturbing.
She had searched Rainy’s papers and her computer at home and at her office, and was now reluctantly working with a police detective who was looking into Rainy’s accident. Reluctantly, because Kayla was as protective of Athena Academy as Alex and all Athena graduates were. And the suspicion Kayla had developed about Rainy’s death echoed Alex’s deepest fear.
Someone at Athena was part of it.
Chapter 5
Odd, Alex thought. She believed Kayla, trusted her suspicions. Or perhaps not odd; after all, it had never been Kayla’s intelligence or abilities that had been in question, only her judgment.
The judgment of a teenage girl, Alex reminded herself. And only her judgment about men.
That teenage Kayla, in hot-blooded anger and at the height of their dispute over just that, had said Alex could never understand how she felt about Mike because Alex would never climb down off her high horse long enough to let a man get close to her.
Alex had been stung, painfully, that of all people her closest friend would throw that accusation at her. Strangers had often assumed she was a snob before they’d even met her, simply because she was a Forsythe and had the Forsythe millions behind her. She’d developed a reserve because of it, which had in turn fed the image. But she’d never thought to hear it from a friend. Let alone her best friend.
Besides, she’d proven Kayla wrong. She and Emerson would be married…sometime. He’d been pressing her for a date, but she’d continued to put him off. Something always seemed to get in the way—her work, his work, something. She had a heavy caseload this month, he had a big operation scheduled, or a trip for a consultation the next month. Something always interfered. Their mothers had both threatened to intervene and take over, but fortunately so far she and Emerson had managed to stave that off.
But she had never expected anything like this to be the roadblock. She couldn’t even begin to think about a wedding with Rainy gone like this, and her death shrouded in inconsistencies and suspicions. And if that gave Alex a vague sense of relief, she didn’t dwell on it now.
Kayla had been wrong, of course.
And then, for the first time in years, the rest of what her fellow Cassandra had said came back to her.
Unless you happen to find a guy who’s on as high a horse as you are, Kayla had added, just before she’d slammed the phone down on the last conversation they would have for a very long time.
Alex’s mouth tightened. Emerson certainly rode a high horse, and she had no doubt he was exactly the kind of guy Kayla had been referring to. His family was one of the oldest and wealthiest in Virginia, almost in the Forsythe stratosphere, as Kayla had called it.
She had been teasing then. At least, Alex always thought she had been. But in the end the bitterness all came out, as if it had been too long bottled up, and a friendship that was as close as sisterhood had been shattered. Alex had always hoped they might someday heal the breach, but neither of them had ever made the move.
And now they had to deal with each other. In a sad way, Rainy had brought them together again, as she had all those years ago.
Christine was still out when Alex returned to her bungalow. Alex paced, trying to decide whether to call her and risk interrupting an interview.
“She’s probably got her phone off,” Alex told herself aloud as she crossed the small but comfortable living room. Christine had lived here since the beginning of Athena, and she’d made a warm, welcoming home out of what could easily have been cold, impersonal staff housing.
Not for the first time Alex wondered at how thoroughly Christine, an attractive, vibrant woman, had given herself to Athena. She seemed to have no life outside the school, and dedicated herself to the students completely. Alex had often wondered if she herself would ever feel so passionately about anything.
Now she knew. Because the need to find the truth about Rainy’s death was consuming her. And that was a bottom line she knew Christine would understand. She made the call, just in case the principal was finished and on her way back, but as she’d expected got her voice mail. She spelled out the situation quickly, as much as she felt safe doing over a cell-phone call, and told Christine what she planned to do. She knew Christine would okay her next step.
Unfortunately, Christine had the master keys with her. She kept them on hand at all times, just in case.
“I’m going to be a B and E master before this is over,” she muttered. This was putting her lock-picking and breaking-and-entering skills to the test. It was a good thing she’d brought her picks along with her other gear.
But since there was no other way in, and she knew she’d never be able to wait until Christine returned with