Better When He's Brave

Brysen let out a shout and took off running toward the duo. I should’ve stopped her considering the building still wasn’t secure and I still had no idea where Roark was lurking, but I didn’t have the heart to keep her away from her sister. The two blondes hugged and then they were both crying as Booker was ripped away from the teen and slapped into cuffs by the same cop he has shoved over only moments before.

Karsen started yelling when the cop began to haul Booker away, but Brysen shushed her and guided her over to where I was still standing. I watched curiously as the guys dressed in black tactical gear unloaded a robot that looked like something from Star Wars and used a computer to guide it toward the front of the school. I was dying to know if they were going to find anything or if this had all been some elaborate ruse Roark had staged only to show me he had me right where he wanted me.

“Are you okay?” The teenager was crying big, fat, silent tears but she looked unharmed. She nodded and looked in the direction where the cops had taken Booker.

“Why is he getting arrested? He was the only one that came and looked for me.” Ouch. That accusation burned hot across my skin.

“He pushed a cop. They tend to take offense at that. Why were you still inside the building, Karsen? What happened?” I didn’t want to press her too hard because she was obviously pretty shaken up but I didn’t have any time to waste either.

She frowned and leaned her head on her sister’s shoulder as Brysen stroked her fair hair. “Yeah, why were you still in there?” Brysen sounded mad.

Karsen swallowed hard and looked up at her sister with wide eyes. “They announced that we all had to evacuate over the PA system. We do drills all the time, so it was no big deal. My whole class got up and headed to the door like usual. Well, Mr. Kline, my math teacher, stopped me and told me that I had to wait for a minute. I thought it was weird, but then he told me that he had to have a witness to verify that the room was totally empty, so I stayed.” She blinked her eyes like an owl and looked between the two of us. “I knew something was off. I was getting ready to bolt for the door when he grabbed me and shoved me back into one of the desks. He kept rambling about how he has a family and that he was so sorry. He locked me in the room. I couldn’t get out.”

Brysen said every dirty word that had ever existed and glared at me over her sister’s head. “Tell me you are going to do something about this?”

I nodded. “Karsen, is the teacher still here?” I asked the question just as the bomb-squad guys hollered an all clear and stormed the front of the school, finally making their way inside the building. It hadn’t been a real threat. It was all a distraction. Unease and something stronger, scarier, raced up and down my spine.

She gave a cursory glance to where the crowd was thinning out and shook her head in the negative. “No. I don’t see him. This is because of that guy, isn’t it? The guy who burned down Nassir’s club and who burned up Race’s car and killed his dad.”

I didn’t see any reason to lie to her, so I was going to tell her yes, but, like she had conjured him out of thin air, Race was suddenly there looking beyond furious and ready to take on the entire police force and anyone else that might be in the way of him getting to his girls. He wrapped them both up in a hug so tight it had them squeaking, and glowered at me over their heads.

“Seriously? A kid is getting dragged into all of this? It ends now, Titus.”

I couldn’t agree more but I wasn’t sure what any of them expected me to do. I was already dangling the carrot in front of Roark; he just hadn’t bitten at it yet.

Karsen pulled herself out of Race’s suffocating embrace and looked up at him with pleading eyes. “Booker was the one that came in the school and found me. I heard him calling my name and pounding on all the doors until he found the right one. They arrested him. You have to help him, Race.”

There was more in her tone than concern for her savior. Oh, boy, I didn’t envy Race or Brysen having to deal with a crush like that on a guy like Booker. It was just asking for all kinds of ugly heartache.

Race gave me another hard look and I just shrugged. “This is my job, Race. Booker decided to ignore police orders and went in even though we didn’t know if the scene was clear. He could’ve been putting Karsen at greater risk. He got handsy with a cop when they tried to stop him, so they hooked him up.”

His green eyes flashed to black with fury and his mouth pulled into a hard, tight line. “What if there had been a bomb, Titus? What if she was just stuck there waiting to die because some madman has daddy issues?”

Deciding that things would just get nastier with Race because I didn’t have an answer to his questions, I asked Karsen to give me the teacher’s full name and promised her I would do what I could to get Booker out of lockup as soon as possible. The poor kid had been through enough for one day.

I called Dispatch to get an address on the math teacher and decided I better call and check on Reeve since she was on her own. My hackles lifted straight up when the phone just rang and rang. She was supposed to be at the loft, and she was too smart to venture out into the city on her own knowing Roark was winning this deadly game hands down. I tried to remind myself of that as the phone continued to ring unanswered. She wouldn’t willingly put herself in harm’s way knowing what the stakes were. I also tried to keep in mind that if she had left the condo, the feds were supposed to be keeping an eye on her per our deal, so she wouldn’t be out there in the war zone alone.

The teacher lived in that weird in-between neighborhood where Bax had bought a house. It was nice enough not to need bars on the windows, but still close enough to the city that you could feel the grime and the dirt under your feet. The teacher had a simple ranch-style house that was well maintained and looked about as lower middle class as one could get. There were no signs of anything that would indicate that he was somehow mixed up with Roark, but I knew looks could be deceiving. I shot Reeve one last text demanding that she tell me where she was before climbing out of the sedan and walking up to the front door.