Page 67 of Dream Weaver
Shit. If Jay’s bullshit got me arrested, I would flip. On the plus side, they might lock me in a cell with him.
My bear snarled, vowing to make him pay for causing Claire distress. No kid should have to endure a scene like this.
“Police are on their way,” the security guy murmured.
That call was about all he’d contributed so far. Useless. The gray-haired principal, on the other hand, could hand Jay his ass, I was sure.
“You called the fucking police?” Jay backed away.
Wisely, they didn’t answer.
Jay watched the approaching patrol cars for another few seconds, then cussed and backed down the stairs.
“Don’t you worry, kid. I’ll be back,” he told Claire.
Her fingers dug into my leg. Oh, she was worried, all right.
And you,his eyes blazed at me.I will make you pay.
I let my canines extend a little bit to say,Try me, asshole.
A big group of fifth or sixth graders with sports bags exited the school from a side door and filed into a bus. That slowed the patrol cars’ approach, allowing Jay to rush to his truck. When the police finally got through, they approached us.
“Everything under control here?” one asked.
Jay sped away on the far side of the school’s circular drive.
“It is now,” the security guy murmured.
I snorted, watching Jay go. No, things weren’t under control. Not with Jay in the area. But at least he was out of Claire’s face.
When I squatted to check on her, she threw her arms around my neck and hung on.
“It’s okay,” I whispered again and again. “Everything is okay.”
Chapter Seventeen
ABBY
My hands were still shaking that evening, hours after I’d arrived at the school to find Claire buried in Cooper’s arms. She’d hugged me tightly when I rushed over, and I’d held her a long, long time.
I’d thanked Cooper and the principal so many times, they begged me to stop.
I promised Claire everything would be all right just as often, but she clung to me for hours.
Too shaken to work, I swapped cars at the shop, took the afternoon off, and headed home. Cooper followed us most of the way, just in case — a case I really, really didn’t want to think about.
Before splitting up, I thanked him another hundred times, and every time, he’d murmured the same two words.
“All good.”
Words I repeated to myself for the next few hours, letting his deep voice echo in my mind.
All good. All good. Somehow.
Claire put on a brave face, and feeding and grooming the horses helped too. But even after I’d tucked her into bed that evening, she wouldn’t let me leave her.
Good, because I never wanted to go.
