Deadly Past by Reus Katie

Author:Reus, Katie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KR Press, LLC
Published: 2020-10-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Autumn was barely paying attention as she hurried across the parking lot. Both Lincoln and Adeline had texted her that Joe had been found—alive, thankfully—and was at the hospital. She wished she could have left school earlier, but she’d forgotten about a couple parent-teacher conferences today, both of which had ended up being ridiculous. A couple emails could have covered the “issues”.

So now she was on her way to pick up Adeline, who’d left her vehicle at the marina since her friend had rode to the hospital with Mac Collins.

“Ms. Perez?” An angry male voice drew her attention as she nearly reached her car.

Startled, she turned to find a man getting out of a big Chevy truck. He left the driver’s side door open, the engine still running. She guessed that his hair had once been a dark brown, but it was liberally peppered with gray throughout. In jeans, sturdy boots and a faded T-shirt, he stalked toward her, his shoes making thumping sounds against the pavement.

“Can I help you?” Instinctively she held her teacher’s bag in front of her and slid her hand into her purse to grab her pepper spray. As her fingers wrapped around it, some of her tension eased.

The older man’s eyebrows were drawn together and his mouth was pinched into a tight line. And he was big too, looked as if he might have once played football or some kind of sport.

“My son, Mark Cadman, is in your class. He’s a senior—and it’s your fault that he’s not getting to play in next Friday’s game!”

She recognized the name immediately because Mark hadn’t been turning in any of his assignments. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I have no control over football or basketball or whatever.” She knew it took an incredible amount of discipline for kids to participate in sports, but she wasn’t sure what Mark played because he didn’t wear any sort of sports paraphernalia to indicate.

He took a menacing step toward her. “It’s football, and because you’re failing him, now he can’t play!”

Autumn stood her ground. “I think what you mean to say is that because he’s not turning in his assignments, he’s failing. He is literally failing himself because he won’t do the work. It’s art class,” she added, giving him a hard look. She hated being confronted by such a big guy but she wasn’t backing down. She’d learned that with bullies, sometimes that was the best thing to do. And it was very clear that this guy was a bully. Because any man who would confront a woman alone in a nearly deserted parking lot like this? Yeah, he was definitely trying to intimidate her.

“He’s too busy for art,” he snapped.

“Then he needs to take another elective class. I’m not going to give him good grades for doing nothing. How hard do you think my class is?” The question was more or less rhetorical. “And if you would like to schedule a conference, I would be more than happy to do that—and to include the principal.

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