dark hair and brows were the perfect contrast to his eyes and she was intrigued by the lines that fanned out across his forehead, his deep smile lines, the sexy cleft in his chin.
“Um, five okay with you?”
She’d never been the kind of student who was hot for her teachers, but Mitch Everlock might be her first illicit crush. Not that she’d do anything about it. Not yet, anyway.
“Is there something on my face, Nika?” His voice was stern but there was a glint of humor in his eyes.
“No, of course not. I was admiring your tie.” She nodded at the pattern of dancing laboratory Santas holding beakers and test tubes.
He grinned and opened his mouth to reply but the words she leaned in to hear were cut off by a loud crash and then a thump on the classroom floor.
“Down!” he shouted. She went to grab him but his reflexes were quicker and she found herself facedown on the linoleum floor, the weight of an extremely fit man on top of her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a large rock with a piece of paper wrapped around it. The silence was broken only by two distinct plinks of broken glass as they dislodged from the window frame and fell to the floor. The student desk she’d been leaning on had toppled over, covering her legs.
Mitch lifted himself slightly, giving her room to breathe while still protecting her. “You okay?”
“I’m fine. Was it only the rock? No explosive?”
“Yeah. Stay down while I investigate.”
As soon as he was up and on his feet she jumped to hers. He gave her a scowl but didn’t stop her from running to the broken window, scanning the parking lot below.
“No one. The son of a bitch is fast, and has a very good throwing arm.” Mitch looked poised to jump through his second-story classroom window.
She looked at the rock. “Do you have latex gloves in here?”
He turned to reply. “On the back counter, in the purple boxes.” She met his eyes and gave him one quick nod. Not in response to his directions but as an acknowledgment from one LEA to another. Because there was no way Mitch Everlock was only a chemistry teacher. His reflexes, his calm demeanor in the face of danger, weren’t natural. He’d been trained, and had kept up his training—this couldn’t all be leftover Marine Corps skills.
“Maybe it’s my turn to ask you who you are, Mr. Everlock.”
“Save it for after school, Nika.”
“Fair enough.” With the gloves on, she unwrapped the rock. She could feel Mitch’s body heat as he leaned in to read the message with her.
Ragged red letters spelled out “End the Rainbows or Die with Regret.”
“They’re focused, I’ll grant them that.” She turned the paper over and saw that the ink had soaked through the ubiquitous copy paper. She brought it to her nose and sniffed. And immediately bit back a gag. “This doesn’t smell like paint.”
“We’re waiting on analysis of the ink that was on my whiteboard. But my bet’s on pig’s blood. There are plenty of pork farms in the area that it could be from.”
“Who’s doing the analysis? Who’s ‘we’?” She hadn’t read about the lab orders when she’d been briefed by Bryce about coming in undercover.
Mitch looked momentarily stymied. If she hadn’t been staring at him she would have missed it. Within a heartbeat his expression was back to neutral.
“SVPD, of course. They told me they were going to send out the samples they took.”
“Did they? I’m not always copied on lab request emails.” She took photos of the paper with her phone and quickly put her cell back into her purse. Since she couldn’t be seen at the school before going undercover she hadn’t been part of the initial SVPD response this past week. “If this had hit you in the head, you wouldn’t be standing right now.”
“No, and I usually stand over there when I’m lecturing.” He pointed to the spot the rock had arced over. “He missed me by an hour.” Mitch grinned. “Not the smartest bad guy. But he’s got a decent throwing arm, I’ll give him that.”
* * *
He’d missed him when he’d thrown the rock. When Everlock’s face appeared at the broken window, looking for the thrower, the disappointment had been keen. His belly, full from lunch, had threatened to spew.
It wasn’t nerves. It was his disgust that the sinful teacher hadn’t been hit by the rock. He’d tried to time it better but work had kept him from getting there earlier. More government inspections. His assistant was upset, so worried that they could lose the entire business, every single farm, all of their income. The government suits wanted to know where his profits had gone. Today, they were from the IRS. Tomorrow, it would be another agency that had figured out he’d embezzled from the agricultural corporation he’d been hired to protect.
Yeah, his assistant was concerned. Frantic. She knew her job wasn’t secure. She didn’t understand that he’d been giving his money to the only cause that mattered. The only thing that was going to give them all the security mankind needed. The True Believers and their new mission, New Thought.
His wife was on board but the children didn’t know the riches they were about to enjoy when they moved into the New Thought community. He wished he’d been able to join the group years ago, when they’d been known as the True Believers. The government had shot Leonard Wise down then. But, Wise, the group, the purpose, was greater than any court of this world’s law. The True Law was with New Thought and Mr. Wise.
His biggest challenge would be getting his family to move without a fuss. The younger ones weren’t a problem but he had to make sure his eldest stayed on the straight and narrow. When he’d heard there was a new student in the school, in the chemistry classroom, he knew it was divine timing at its best. A new student was the perfect target to send home the message that things were going to change in this town. The native Silver Valley families wouldn’t get hurt, not if they heeded the message. It would be worth whatever it took to hurt the new student, as a warning.
God had come to Silver Valley and chosen him to help Leonard Wise fulfill what he’d started a long time ago in Upstate New York. He was glad Wise had picked Silver Valley because, really, it meant that they were all chosen. If they wanted to be.
“How goes it as a high schooler, Nika?” Bryce Campbell didn’t look up from his computer as he entered case notes. Nika took his query as a cue to enter his office.
“You were wrong, Detective.” She dropped into the chair next to his desk. “The chemistry teacher is definitely not gay.”
This caused the ever-busy Bryce to look at her. “I never said he was gay.”
“No, but you implied that he probably was, being the teacher in charge of the LGBT club.”
“No, I said he was a teacher who had his own reasons to be supportive of the Rainbows. What difference does it make? You have a job to do.” Bryce went back to entering his handwritten notes into the SVPD case database.
“He’s a little difficult, is all. His ego is a mile wide.”
At this Bryce took his hands off his keyboard and gave her his full attention. “SVPD is full of male egos—you’ve not been fazed by them before. Why, Officer Pasczenko, you’re not hot for teacher, are you?”
“Give me a break. It’s a case.” Oh, God, please don’t let him see how close he is.
Bryce grinned. “You know, I told myself I didn’t have feelings for someone I had to work with, and look where it got me.” His smile might melt his fiancée’s heart but it only annoyed Nika.
“It’s