She considered driving around for a while, thinking she might be able to find Ruben, but she realized that would be useless. He could have gone anywhere. She’d stop by his grandmother’s place tomorrow and hope he’d be okay until then. After that, she’d make the circuit to see the rest of the students in her class.
* * *
“Since we’re stuck here with nothing to do while we wait,” Zane said, leaning back in his chair in the Coffield Unit attorney visitation room, “why don’t we talk a little more about this teacher that has you so tied up in knots?”
Brooks groaned, wondering how much longer his friend was going to keep nagging him. During the whole drive to the prison, Zane had peppered him with questions, and now that they were forced to sit on their hands, waiting for the guard to bring in Seth Oliver, he was at it again.
“Let’s not and say we did.”
Beside him, Zane snorted. “Come on. You can’t expect me to just drop this. I saw your face when you carried her out of the classroom. She got to you.”
Brooks looked at him in surprise. “You saw me?”
Zane nodded, the smile that had been on his face earlier fading a bit. “Yeah, on the video feed. I saw you throw yourself in front of her and saw the bullet hit you. When you rolled her over, I thought for sure she’d been hit.”
Brooks swallowed hard, remembering how scared he’d been. “Me too. Even after I realized it was my blood on her sweater, I was still worried she’d been hurt. She looked really out of it.”
“She was in shock,” Zane pointed out. “One of her students tried to kill her. That’s enough to mess anyone up.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Brooks murmured.
He couldn’t shake the little voice in his head that kept trying to tell him there was more to it than that. The way she’d looked at him as he’d carried her out…it was like…well…he didn’t know what it was like. But he’d seen lots of people going into shock before, and it hadn’t looked quite like that.
Zane hooked his thumbs in his equipment belt. “She wasn’t the only one who looked like they were going into shock. You looked rattled, too.”
“I was worried we’d lost a hostage. That’s all.”
“Brooks, we’ve been friends since the day you walked into the SWAT compound four years ago. If you want me to mind my own damn business, that’s fine. I won’t push. But if you think I believe that rubbish about you only being worried about a hostage, you’re bonkers.”
“I’m not trying to be a jackass about this, but the truth is, I don’t know what’s going on.” Brooks sighed. “All I can say is that when I looked into Selena’s eyes, something weird happened. I’m still trying to process it all.”
Zane dropped the front legs of the chair he was balancing to the floor with a thud. “What do you mean…weird? Are you suggesting she might be—”
“No!” Brooks said, quickly interrupting Zane before he could get the words out.
Werewolves in the Pack had been stumbling over their soul mates left and right throughout the past year, but he had a difficult time believing that was going on here. He’d know it if Selena wasThe Onefor him…wouldn’t he?
“Selena is beautiful, I’ll give you that,” he added. “She was in danger, and that got to me. That’s all I’m saying right now.”
Zane regarded him in silence for a moment, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Okay, I won’t go there—for now. Instead, for the sake of argument, let’s say you and Selena have aconnection. Are you planning on seeing her again?”
Shit.He felt like he was going through a cross-examination on the witness stand. “It’ll be too late for that by the time we get back. Even if she’s still at the hospital, visiting hours will be over.”
Zane lifted a brow. “Seriously? You’re a cop. You have her name, and you know what she looks like. It shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to pull her address out of the DMV database.”
Brooks had already thought of that but wasn’t sure that was the best thing to do. “Doesn’t that seem kind of stalkerish?”
His friend considered that. “Okay, I see your point. Some people don’t see the inherent romance in knowing how easy it is for Big Brother to track them down. You could always stop by the school in the morning before class.”
“That could work, although I think I’ll wait a couple days. You know, give her some time to deal with everything that happened.”
Even as he said the words, something inside him revolted at the idea of waiting. Before he could examine it, the door opened. Instead of the guard escorting Oliver, a distinguished older man in an expensive suit walked in, a briefcase in his hand. Everything about the guy screamed lawyer.
The man gave him and Zane an appraising look as he sat down across from them. “William Cohen, attorney for Seth Oliver. I have a few things we need to go over before you talk to him.”
“What kind of things?” Brooks asked.
Opening his briefcase, Cohen took out a document and a pen, then slid both across the table toward them.
