She immediately looked away.
When I walked her home that night, I couldn’t resist the urge to try my luck and asked, “Ready to scream my name again?”
The glare she gave me should have boiled my blood. “Burn in hell, Landon.”
Her hips swung as she stepped forward to let herself in. The door clicked closed. Through the glass panel, I watched her look around to make sure nobody was watching. Then she smiled and flipped me off with both fingers.
12
Mercy
IT WAS WEDNESDAY morning. I hadn’t heard from Ben since he’d limped out of my apartment Saturday morning, and I was going out of my mind with worry. I’d bitten off my fingernails—a habit I’d broken years ago—and I wanted nothing more than to crawl back into my bed and call in sick. But alone with my spiraling thoughts was the last place I needed to be right now. Besides, I’d painted on enough makeup to hide my exhaustion, and I refused to let it go to waste.
Determined to turn this day around, I stood in my closet, agonizing over what to wear. It was too bad I worked at a preschool, because I had a little black dress that would knock Landon on his ass, right where he belonged. I wasn’t sure why the man continued to pick me up every morning, but I enjoyed torturing him with the sight of what he’d never have again. Keeping that goal in mind, I paired a fitted Christmas-themed V-neck sweater with a cute little knee-length red-and-green plaid skirt, adding tights so I wouldn’t freeze to death on the walk. With my makeup flawless, my hair shiny, and my heels making my ass pop, I carried my coat, purse, and laptop bag downstairs.
Just as he had been for days now, Landon was waiting outside my building like a stalker when I emerged. Without acknowledging him, I lowered my bags next to the building where the cement was dry and slowly put on my coat, reveling in the way he watched me. Sure, I was being petty, but this bastard had chased off Ben and deserved every punishment I could come up with.
Eat your fucking heart out, asshole.
Once my coat was on, I gave him a quick once-over, careful to keep my expression unimpressed. “We’re still doing this?”
Amusement played on his lips. “Told you I would.”
“And I told you it’s unnecessary.” I marched past him.
We picked up Beth and continued toward the school, but when we were still a block away, an alarm blared on my phone. Recognizing the tone as the one I’d assigned for the preschool’s security system, I tugged it from my purse and checked the screen.
“What’s wrong?” Landon asked.
“It’s the school. The alarm’s going off.” Straining my ears, I could hear it in the distance.
“Stay here,” Landon said, taking off in a dead sprint.
Like hell I was staying behind. I raced to follow him as quickly as my three-inch heels would carry me, seriously regretting my shoe choice. Beth’s panting echoed almost as loud as our footsteps in the quiet of the early morning as she kept pace behind me.
“Stay back, Beth. We’ll get this,” I assured her as we rounded the block. I doubted the alarm was even real. It had gone off once before during a power surge, and that was likely the case now.
But then the glass door came into view, and a massive spiderweb of cracks glistened in the security lights. Stumbling to a stop, I stared in shock, unable to process the scene. The basketball-sized hole in the middle of the cracks had to be intentional. Who would smash up a preschool?
Movement drew my eye, followed by the sound of something shattering. Someone was in the school.
“Get back!” Landon waved wildly at me and his mom as he pulled something from beneath his jacket.
A gun. He was carrying a gun!
Beth and I backpedaled as he aimed the weapon at the door, shouting, “Come out. And keep your hands where I can see them.”
The alarm company should have alerted the police, but I reached for my phone anyway. My fingers trembled as I called in the break-in.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” the operator said in my ear.
“Someone’s broken into Bold Beginnings Preschool, and they’re still inside the school.” I rattled off the address as two figures in black, wearing ski masks, exited the building.
It was real. People had actually broken into the building. “They’re coming out,” I relayed to the dispatcher, and even I could hear the panic in my voice. “Two of them. There may be more in the building.”
“That’s it,” Landon said, keeping his gun leveled at the masked intruders. “Nice and slow.”
“Stay calm,” the dispatcher said in my ear. “The police are on their way.”
