Without Mercy - Lisa Jackson [72]
He studied her with eyes used to sorting fact from fiction, but finally he nodded. “All right, then. You take care of it. There’s a DMV in Cave Junction. It’s quite a bit closer than Medford.” The deputy’s cell rang, and he answered, turning his back to them.
“Thanks,” she said, relieved.
“Great. So we’re good to go?” Trent asked, but Meeker was deep in conversation.
“Sounds like a go to me,” Jules said.
“Let’s get your things out of your car and into the Jeep.”
She popped the trunk and pulled out the smaller of two bags, her pillow, and a laptop computer case. He-Man could get the larger roller bag.
They loaded up the Jeep quickly and stopped at the gate, where Trent waved to the guard. All this was done in relative silence, questions pounding through her head.
Stupidly, her mind flashed to another time and place, when she was not quite twenty, still a virgin, and Erin’s brother had introduced her to him. She’d expected he’d be brash, loud, and all macho; she’d discovered he was quiet, thoughtful, but with a sharp sense of humor that matched her own.
Now, five years of pent-up fury and bitter disappointment gnawed a hole in her gut. She’d thought she would never see him again, much less end up in a vehicle with him as he drove her to a school where, if Shay could be believed, a murder had recently been committed.
What kind of cruel twist of fate was at play here?
“Okay,” she said, once they were completely alone on the precipitous road leading deeper in the mountains. “Why don’t you tell me how you went from bull rider to teacher in one fell swoop?” She still couldn’t believe it.
“Better yet, let’s start with you,” he countered. His cocky smile slid from his face, and his gloved fingers clenched the steering wheel. The temperature in the Jeep seemed to drop ten degrees. “Your sister’s already here and up to her eyeballs in trouble,” he admitted, his face grim. “Her roommate was murdered, or possibly killed herself—that hasn’t been determined yet—and another boy is probably going to die from his injuries.” He let his breath whistle through his teeth. “The sheriff’s department is still trying to sort it all out, but whatever happened, it was brutal.”
“Shaylee called. She warned me.”
“Called? How? I thought—”
“Don’t ask.” She held up a hand. “But she’s freaked.”
“We all are.”
“But you said that she was in trouble.”
He nodded, glancing down at the gauges for a second. “Shaylee claims she knows nothing about what happened, but her baseball cap was found at the scene.”
“Her cap?” Jules repeated, stunned. “Wait…let’s just start from the beginning. Shaylee’s a suspect?”
“Everyone is.”
“Including you?”
He slid her a look. “Probably. But my college team baseball hat wasn’t found at the scene.”
“So Shaylee’s number one on the list?”
“Don’t know, but she’s up there. The last person to see Nona Vickers alive, it seems.”
“So what? Look, Shaylee couldn’t kill anyone! And attack a second person? Get real! Besides, I think another student might be dead, too, the one who no one can find.”
“Lauren Conway,” he said. “I know.”
“You know?”
“I don’t know that she’s dead, but she’s certainly still missing.” He downshifted as the Jeep slid around an icy corner. Jules grabbed the door handle to brace herself. “Let’s start over. Why are you here?”
She wanted to lie. To tell him that it was all coincidence, but he wouldn’t buy it, and unless she somehow got him on her side, Cooper Trent could ruin everything. “How far is it until we get to the school?”
“Five, maybe six miles.”
“Drive slowly,” she said, “and you go first.”
He slanted a hard look in her direction, then stared out the windshield. “I needed a job.”
“Bull! You don’t have the patience, temperament, or desire to teach kids badminton.”
“Maybe I’ve changed.”
She let out a disbelieving breath. “Sure.” How much more complicated could this get? She twisted in the seat to stare at him harder.
“Let’s cut to the chase. Both of us, obviously, have ulterior motives for being at Blue Rock.”
Beneath his beard shadow, his jaw