she’s been like a crazy woman.” Rachel made air quotes around New Thoughts. “Yesterday she actually told me that she believes if we don’t listen to some old guy she met, we’re all going to end up in hell. She’s fixated on doing whatever he says, reading whatever he tells her to.”
“What about your dad?”
“He left us, and town, months ago. I have an older sister and brother, too, but they’ve left home. Everyone thinks I’m having a great time, being spoiled by my mother.”
“And you’re not.”
“Not at all. She’s changed too much for that.”
“Why don’t you two ladies pay attention and help us out? Want to share what you’re talking about?” Mitch spoke up from his seat and Nika wanted to tell him to shut the hell up. Of course, he had no idea that Rachel had all but given Nika what she’d been looking for.
A connection to the True Believers and the hate crimes against the Rainbows.
* * *
Mitch could only ignore Rachel and Nika’s low murmurs for so long. He had to play along and treat Nika as any other student. They couldn’t risk blowing her cover under any circumstances. Nika’s angry eyes looked like the flame when germanium was burned. The palest blue, but bright enough to resemble the silver-white heat from aluminum’s flame. He’d prefer to see her eyes lit with heat that he caused, but right now her glare was glacial.
“We were figuring out when to meet to make cookies for the newcomer event.” Rachel saved them both. Interesting.
“In my old school we did bake sales all the time to fund-raise. Can we do it here at SVHS? To raise money for the table rental at the Silver Bells Ball?” Nika smiled, her student persona perfected.
“You only have a week to do it. What do you say, everybody?” While Mitch was the teacher representative for the club, he didn’t run it. That was up to the kids.
“The other clubs hold all kinds of fund-raisers. Anybody got a better idea?” Jon took the reins back.
“Sounds good to me.”
“Good idea.”
“I’ll go to Costco and bring in some muffins to sell. You know, those huge, ginormous chocolate ones?”
“We can sell as soon as we get permission from the school administration, in the lobby during lunch, and before school.” So many club members spoke at once that Jon had to tell them to repeat their statements for the group secretary, whose fingers were flying over her tablet computer’s portable keyboard.
The club went on to decide the details for the bake sales and then, thinking optimistically, what they’d want to give away at the dance with any extra money earned. Mitch avoided staring at Nika, but just barely. She was sending off vibes she had to be aware of, even if the kids didn’t notice. Didn’t she realize how hot she was in that tight T-shirt and those smokin’ leggings? She’d obviously checked out the school dress code, because nothing was outside of the fairly strict rules. But, like any other teen girl, she was playing very close to the lines. As if she wasn’t aware of the power of her sexuality yet.
But Nika knew damned well the effect she could have. So did Mitch’s dick.
As soon as the group cleared, he watched Nika walk out with Rachel and felt a pang of disappointment.
It’s a case, jarhead. Let her do her job.
He hadn’t been this hot for a woman since...since he couldn’t even remember when.
* * *
Nika dialed Bryce’s number as she prepared to head to Rachel’s house after school.
“I’m going over to her house in ten minutes.” Nika spoke to Bryce from her mother’s car.
“Be careful. Are you sure she’s not on to you?”
“Not at all. At least, I don’t think so. We’re going to bake cookies for the Rainbows bake sale, to raise money for the Silver Bells Ball. She says her mother’s into cooking and baking, and they have lots of ingredients on hand.”
“Won’t her mother take issue with you baking cookies for the club that supports LGBT kids?”
“No, Rachel supposedly told her that it was for the school dance and Toys for Tots, never saying anything about the Rainbows.”
“Okay, well, check back as soon as you leave her house.”
“Will do.”
She put the small SUV into gear and drove. As she made her way through Silver Valley toward its outskirts she thought about how surprised Mitch had looked when she’d glared at him. That was too funny. Of course, she’d almost blown it by laughing at him. That would have made it harder for their cover story that she was interested in a career in chemistry and Mitch was her mentor of sorts.
In reality she’d never allow a man like Mitch be a mentor, or more, to her. Her inherent mistrust of military men, from her parents’ lifelong issues with military authority, was one reason. The other reason was that she’d learned early in her career to not get involved during a case. Those relationships often ended once the fuel of the threat of danger was depleted. And made future work together incredibly uncomfortable.
There’s more. You don’t trust him.
She couldn’t trust him, not yet. She didn’t know him well enough to gauge his trustworthiness. He was honorable and had proved it by protecting her from the thrown rock. But the way he and Bryce had conversed, she’d felt shut out. Exactly how her parents described living in Soviet times. As if there was a big secret and she wasn’t part of it. It only added to her deeply imbedded mistrust of men in positions of power, and how easy it was to cut women out of important decision making, intentional or not. And, in all truth, it reminded her of how deeply she’d fallen for Ron, believing he’d accept her career as something she needed and wanted, not something she’d throw away once they were married.
Mitch’s job as a teacher didn’t intimidate her, but his past left her feeling less certain. He’d been a US Marine during wartime. Special Forces. That was heavy duty. There was more to Mitch than met the eye, and Nika had enough work keeping herself on track and happy. Adding a man to the equation, especially one as complex as Mitch, was overwhelming.
Nika was sick of the men she hooked up with being threatened by her job. For once she wanted a relationship with someone who wouldn’t compete with her. She wanted a man who wouldn’t require huge amounts of work and energy when she was at the end of a long shift. Was that too selfish?
“In eight hundred feet, turn left.” Her GPS jolted her back to reality and she looked for the name of the road Rachel had given her.
Turning onto the blacktopped street, she was dismayed when it turned into a gravel road. At least it hadn’t snowed, so her mother’s practical SUV traversed it okay. She pulled up at the end of the “street,” where a modern-looking ranch house with a steep roof and round attic windows perched on a slight ridge.
It looked menacing in the fading December light. No porch or indoor lights appeared to be on, but it was definitely the address Rachel had given her. Single electric candles were visible in each front window, a typical decoration in many homes in central Pennsylvania. The window candles were a sign of welcome, a holdover from a century ago when Pennsylvania Dutch culture had thrived in the area. But, like the rest of the lights surrounding the property, they weren’t lit, either.
“So much for Pennsylvania Dutch hospitality,” she muttered to herself as she got out and slammed the car’s door. She almost jumped when she saw the lace curtain of the far right window move to the side a few inches. She couldn’t make out a person but she knew she was being watched.
Nika walked up the middle path to the front door and before she rang the bell the door popped open.
“You found it. Welcome to purgatory.” Rachel stood in stockinged