Page 14 of Honorable Sins

Something happened today to Sadie.

It was bad enough for Fitz to send two boys to A& E over it.

He doesn't believe his actions are enough to stop it happening again.

Regardless of his lack of emotions with others, my husband has a deep sense of honor. He's not the dinosaur where women are concerned that my father can sometimes be, but Mick believes absolutely that we are to be protected.

He broke the arm of an older boy when he was a mere eight years old when that boy shoved his sister, Brigid, from the monkey bars. He did much worse to the men who stood by and did nothing when Chivon's husband hurt her physically.

Sadie hugs herself, drawing my attention to the missing buttons at the top of her white school uniform blouse.

My stomach tightens and my ire rises.

I fix Mark Bentley with a gimlet stare. "I am going to assume that the police officer is here to take Sadie's statement and that others have been dispatched to take the miscreants into custody once they have had medical treatment."

"You would think so, wouldn't you?" JoAnn Young says with clear dissatisfaction.

"I…well…the issue here is Fitzgerald's violent attack on his classmates."

A little moan comes from Sadie and my ire turns to pure rage. "The issue at hand is the safety of your students, Mr. Bentley, and it is clear that Sadie was not safe and my son stepped in to fix that."

"You haven't even heard—"

I put my hand up, cutting the man off. "I don't have to hear the details to know that Fitz would not have acted as he did without provocation commensurate to his actions."

"There is no justification for—" the man splutters before I cut him off again.

"Have Sadie's parents been contacted?" I ask JoAnn.

She shakes her head grimly. "Mr. Bentley did not believe it was necessary."

"It's just my mom," Sadie says, her voice low and ashamed.

Why ashamed? Because of what those miscreants tried to do to her?

"Is she at home?" I ask the traumatized girl.

Sadie shakes her head. "She works for Mr. Shaughnessy."

"Which Mr. Shaughnessy?" I know she doesn't mean my father.

"Kenny's dad," my son answers before Sadie can. "It's not good. I don't think Mrs. Gallagher is safe there, mom."

The repressed rage in Fitz's voice tells me he's a long way from calm over this situation.

"I'll take care of it," I promise him.

I retrace my steps and peek my head out the door, catching Kieran's eye. "Please collect Sadie's mother, Mrs. Gallagher, from Kenneth Shaughnessy's home and bring her to the mansion."

Sadie might prefer returning to her own home, but there's no way Mick is going to allow me and Fitz to go to an unsecured location. And neither my son, or I, are going to leave the girl to fend for herself right now.

Kieran nods and indicates one of my security team should take his place at the door before he leaves.

I turn and walk to stand beside Mick, his silent strength giving me a measure of calm despite my anger at this situation. "It is obvious that the protocols in place to handle an issue of this nature are not adequate," I tell the principal scathingly. "I will be contacting the president of the school board and requesting an emergency board meeting so that an immediate investigation into the handling of similar past and present occurrences can be gotten underway."

JoAnn says, "Tell him he'll have my full cooperation."

Nodding to her, I put my hand out toward the kids. "Come on. I believe my husband has some things he wants to discuss with your former principal."