Rancher's Deadly Risk (7 page)

He looked at her, brows lifted. “You can say that after this morning?”

She bit her lip, then nodded. As nerve-racking as this had become, she didn’t want to do anything to give those bullies more fuel against James. “I can protect myself,” she said stoutly.

He took her elbow and drew her into a deserted spur of hallway that led to the janitorial rooms. “Don’t underestimate this, Cassie. That rat this morning...that’s extreme. You’d already been bullied twice. This goes a little beyond that, don’t you think?”

She looked up at him and found his gaze steady and concerned. For once he wasn’t trying to look at something else. The impact of his full attention nearly left her breathless. How could he have that effect with a mere look?

She had to gather suddenly scattered thoughts, and that involved dropping her own gaze briefly. “I’m older,” she said. “I’m an adult. I can handle it better.”

“Even a rotting bloody rat on your desk? Are you so sure, Cassie?”

“Students are different here. Hunting is a part of life for them. This probably doesn’t strike them the same way it would if a suburban student were to think of such a thing.”

“Now you’re making excuses.”

“Am I wrong?”

“I don’t know,” he said forcefully. “And that’s what’s bothering me. Yes, hunting is a part of life for most of our students, but it isn’t usually sport, and it certainly isn’t done for reasons of cruelty. A lot of families look forward to deer or elk to get them through the winter. Killing for the sake of killing isn’t approved by most folks.”

“And rats are vermin to be exterminated,” she argued, though he was beginning to make her stomach twist edgily again. Maybe there was no way at all to minimize this. Maybe she shouldn’t even try. But she didn’t want to walk around the halls of her new school looking on every student as a potential threat. Heck, she liked almost all of her students.

“Cassie,” he said quietly, “don’t be stubborn. You know this was an awful thing to do to you
and
that rat.”

Some bit of her ego deflated. Her hands came together, clasping tightly. “I know,” she admitted quietly. “But I’ve got to get through the day, Linc. I’ve got to teach, and I have to like my students insofar as humanly possible. I can’t let this poison my relationship with them.”

He sighed, then nodded. “You’re right. I just want you to stay alert, okay? Keep an eye out. Pay attention. Don’t go blithely on as if nothing happened until we get this sorted out.”

“Blithe is not my reaction to this,” she said a little tartly. “Far from it. I wish I could scrub that image from my brain.”

“I’m sure you do.” He astonished her by reaching out to give her shoulder a squeeze. “Do me a favor. Let me see you home after the meeting this afternoon. Do it for me. I’ll feel better.”

For a guy who had been avoiding her like the plague, he was getting close awfully fast. He must have a wide streak of white knight in him, she thought. “Okay, thanks,” she said finally. It wouldn’t hurt and at this point she wasn’t exactly as full of confidence as she was trying to project.

But after all her wishing that he wouldn’t remain so distant, she wished something nicer had brought them together.

With that gloomy thought, she headed down the nearly deserted hallway to take over her first class of the day, a class that was almost over. So much for great ideas. She’d have to bring them up to speed tomorrow.

She could also tell by some of the looks and whispers as she approached the group in the cafeteria that word had already gotten around. She wondered if they had the details or were going to question her about it all. Twenty-two pairs of eyes fixed on her, but no one said a word.

“Well, it looks like you guys lucked out,” she said brightly. “Since I don’t have time to cover new material, there will be no math problems for homework. And as for the project for the week, this is your turn to come up with one you’d like using the math and science we cover in class. I want to hear your ideas tomorrow.”

At least they seemed eager about coming up with their own projects. By the time they headed out a few minutes later, many were already talking about ideas.

The rest of the day held nothing unusual until she received word that her classroom was once again ready for her. She’d have liked to avoid it at least until tomorrow, but shortly after she was informed, the public address system announced the rest of her classes would be held in the regular classroom.

Damn, she thought, torn between amusement and distaste, which was an odd place to be. She gathered up her materials into her book bag and set out with the migrating students. Gus was waiting for her.

“I got it all cleaned up,” he told her. “All of it. Sorry, had to throw out a few things. The school will replace them.”

“Thank you, Gus. I’m sorry you had to deal with that.”

“I clean up messes all the time, but never one that made me so mad. Don’t choke on the air freshener, but that smell didn’t want to quit.”

She sniffed the air. “You did a good job.”

He smiled awkwardly. “You need anything at all, just let me know.”

Another white knight, she thought. “Can I be honest? I hope I don’t need you again for anything like this.”

He laughed and headed out as students began pouring through the door.

In all, the day felt fractured, everything off-kilter, and she was sure she didn’t do the best job of teaching. She wound up giving all her students a night off from homework because she wasn’t sure she had really explained anything clearly enough. They seemed to be happy about coming up with their own projects, however, and she found herself anticipating hearing their ideas. So at least something good had happened that day.

The faculty meeting after school disturbed her, too. She was tired to begin with, probably because the day had been emotionally stressful, but to get in there and find there were teachers who didn’t believe the bullying needed to be addressed left her both astonished and disappointed.

There were a significant number who felt the incident with James Carney was so unusual that it didn’t really mean anything. Others felt that kids were just being kids. She was relieved, however, to find that more than half the teachers agreed bullying needed to be addressed firmly and quickly.

She was so glad Linc did most of the talking. Within ten minutes she realized that if she had tried to present the problem and the plans, she would have been dismissed. She was an outsider who knew nothing about their school or their students, and she would have been marked as being hypercritical about things she didn’t understand.

Linc’s presentation was at least received with respect, if not a hugely warm reception from everyone.

“They don’t want to believe it’s going on,” she said to Linc as he walked her home. “Is it really that invisible?”

“My guess is yes. The students don’t engage in that kind of behavior around teachers. At least not when they get to this age. Maybe that’s why we thought it was tapering off after middle school. You heard what I said Friday to Les. We usually don’t see this kind of extreme bullying at this age. Obviously, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.”

“Obviously.” She sighed. “And maybe this really was an isolated incident. But I don’t like the way it seems to be snowballing.”

“Me, either. I’m really sorry about this morning. That must have given you a distaste for this place.”

“Actually, no,” she answered truthfully. “There was a while this morning when I didn’t want to be in school. I admit it. The hardest part turned out to be trying not to be suspicious of every student in my classes. I like most of them. I don’t think any of them were involved, but it still felt like I was attending a lineup for a few hours there.”

He cracked a laugh. “I have no trouble imagining that. But you got past it?”

“Of course. It was temporary. The thing is, Linc, I’ve been teaching for a few years. Bad things happen, students do stupid and ugly things sometimes. It’s all a part of growing up. It’s not like I’m going to judge this entire county by one incident.”

She felt him glance over at her, but she kept her gaze fixed on the street ahead. He might be stepping in right now out of a concern for her, but she had already realized he wasn’t interested in any more than that.

“So you’re not going to quit and leave?”

That startled her. She looked at him then. “It hadn’t crossed my mind. Should it?”

“I hope not. I hear good things about your teaching. Your students mostly don’t hate math, which is something approaching a miracle to my way of thinking.”

She laughed. “We’ll see what happens as the year goes on.”

“I suppose we will.”

They had reached her door. She had planned to invite him in for a coffee or a snack, but something in the way he said that caused her to pause and face him. “What is it?” she asked him. “You keep saying things that sound like you expect me to leave, or fall flat on my face. Did I do something?”

His face froze for an instant. “No,” he said finally. “Most people who didn’t grow up here don’t like living here for long. Hell, some who
did
grow up here can’t wait to leave.”

She tilted her head, studying him. “Then I guess we
will
have to see, won’t we?”

“That’s all I’m saying. Keep your doors locked and don’t hesitate to call the sheriff if anything worries you. It’s been my experience he’d rather be called over nothing than not be called when he’s really needed.”

She nodded.

“We’ll get through to the holdouts on the bullying,” he said firmly. “It may take a little time, but not much. With one or two notable exceptions, the faculty here are primarily interested in student welfare.”

She nodded, hoping he was right. “Coffee or a snack?”

He shook his head. “I’ve got to get back to practice. See you tomorrow.”

The shields had slammed back into place, the conversation firmly on business again. Perplexed, she went inside, locked the door and watched him walk away back toward the school. The wind was picking up again, and leaves swirled around the sidewalk and streets.

He looked lonely, she thought, as he strode away into the gray afternoon. But maybe she was imagining that because he seemed determined to keep a distance between them.

One minute approachable, the next as far away as the moon. He was going to drive her nuts with that. Not worth it, she told herself. Maybe he was the most attractive man she’d ever met, but attraction was meaningless without a lot of other important stuff, stuff which he clearly didn’t intend to offer.

She needed to think about other things, and quit letting her hormones get the better of her. It was one big waste of time, and she had more important matters to spend energy on.

Like class planning, upcoming parent-teacher conferences and the bullying program.

Then it struck her she hadn’t seen James around the school today. Not even in class. How could she have missed that?

Because of a butchered rat on her desk and all the ensuing dislocation. Frowning, she pulled out her class roster, shoved the disk into her computer and called up James’s name and phone number. It wouldn’t hurt to find out if he was sick. For the moment she refused to consider other possibilities.

James answered the phone on the first ring. “I’m fine,” he said, almost truculently. “Just fine. I felt sick this morning is all.”

“Will you be in tomorrow?”

“Probably. It’s okay, Ms. Greaves. Stop worrying about me.”

But as she hung up, Cassie was even more worried than before.

* * *

Practice kept Linc pretty well preoccupied until he finally closed up the gym around six-thirty. He needed to get back to his animals, but it was as if the instant he stopped thinking about his team, all he could think about was Cassie. That was so not good on a bunch of levels.

He got in his truck, fully intending to ignore all other impulses and head home. Instead his truck took charge and he found himself parked in front of Cassie’s place.

Hell, he thought, rapping his fingers on the steering wheel. Then with a sigh, he gave up the battle. Climbing out, he walked up to her door and rang the bell. He was glad to see that she peeked out the side window before opening the door. While such measures were rarely needed around here, given that phone call and the rat, a little caution seemed in order.

“Linc!” she said in surprise as she opened the door. “Is something wrong?”

“Not a thing.” Boy, this was going to sound stupid. “I just had a wild idea and wondered if you’d like to come out to my ranch with me. You can help me feed animals and see a different part of life around here. Unless you’re too busy.”

Delight chased surprise across her face. “I’d really, truly like that.”

“I can get you home in plenty of time,” he offered reassuringly. And maybe if she saw what the rest of his life was like, she’d stop looking at him with those unmistakable flickers of longing, flickers that were definitely getting under his skin. He tried to tell himself it was just because he was a man who hadn’t been with a woman in a long time, but that didn’t seem to be working.

So he’d give
her
the cold shower, the one he called the rest of his life. He could only listen to his own reasoning with amusement, wondering if he were engaging in a little self-deception, or really so sure this would work.

No, of course it wouldn’t work. It had taken Martha more than a year to get totally fed up. On the other hand, Cassie struck him as being a whole lot more honest in her reactions than Martha. Sometimes he looked back at his engagement and wondered if Martha had believed from the outset that he’d sell the ranch, move and support them in a more comfortable lifestyle, one she seemed to want.

The thought now almost made him laugh. Like you could sell a small ranch these days. It wasn’t as if there were enough around here to make some wealthy guy from the city want to plant himself here, even for a summer home, unless all he wanted to do was ride horses until he dropped and maybe hunt in the autumn.

He’d seen other places like his sell, but these days they were usually part of a larger buyout of a group of ranches, usually for industrial farming, or subdivisions. No subdivisions likely to be built around here in the foreseeable future, and he doubted many, if any, of his neighbors would want to sell. Most of them, like him, seemed firmly rooted in Conard County.