My mind instantly slides backward thirty minutes, to a sheet across his lap and all the bronze skin against the white sheets. And, yes, he is most definitely ripped. “Not what I need to hear.”
KT rests her bag on the roof of my car, crosses her arms and leans against the door. Behind her, on
e of the kids moves out from behind another, and I recognize Xavier’s goddaughter, Piper, who, by Xavier’s estimation, should be in calculus.
“You know, he hasn’t put in for his transfer yet,” KT says.
“He’s waiting to see how Piper fares over the summer.” My gaze focuses on the e-cigarette someone just handed her. “And by the looks of it, I’d say she’s not starting off on the right foot.”
KT glances over her shoulder. “Ah, those were the days, cutting class, smoking dope—”
“As if you’d know,” I tease. “They’re probably just vaping.”
KT had an incredibly involved father who always knew exactly where his daughter was and spent every spare minute with her, right up until he passed away from lung cancer. I, on the other hand, had an alcoholic father who was either drunk or passed out. I knew exactly how to get into trouble, way worse than the kind Piper is currently flirting with.
“Back to Z.” She meets my gaze again. Her long brown hair is in one braid, her light blue eyes piercing. “By not getting involved with him, you’re all but ensuring he leaves town. I bet you could easily sway him from returning to big-city policing, because, you know, you are pretty smokin’ hot.”
I smirk. “My ego thanks you for the boost. It’s been neglected lately.”
“I’ve got your back, sister.”
“Z’s bored to tears here, and the way he goes through women, he’s going to eventually run out.”
KT laughs. “Ain’t that the truth.”
“I’ve got to get going,” I tell her. “I have a lot to do before the retreat starts tomorrow, and it looks like a little heart-to-heart with a teenager is in order.”
KT takes her bag from the roof of my car, and surveys the group—two girls, two boys. “I’d offer backup, but you could probably take all four of them.” She moves around to the driver’s side of her truck. “Just make sure there’s no surveillance cameras around, and try not to leave too many marks.”
KT’s grinning as she slides into her truck, and I start down the alley. As soon as I recognize the three kids Piper’s with, I can’t help but image how pissed Xavier would be if he saw this situation.
When I’m fifty feet away, their gazes turn toward me.
Piper swings the e-cigarette behind her back. “Hey, Chloe.”
She’s clearly the only one in the group concerned with an adult spotting them out and about town during school hours.
The boys are Smith Gunderson and Dale Hawthorne. Smith is eighteen and a second-time senior, just released from juvie where he was in jail for grand theft. Dale is the same age and has been in trouble for vandalism, shoplifting, and weed. Both boys are in danger of having their tongues fall out of their mouths as they look me up and down.
The girl is Willow Raven. She’s sixteen with tats and piercings and continues to pull on a vaping pen as I approach. She hasn’t been introduced to juvenile hall yet, but I see too much mirroring my troubled youth to think she’ll reach eighteen without an intimate introduction to the system.
Piper, on the other hand, is a wannabe, a groupie, the one who follows the others like a puppy, hoping to be taken into the fold. Any fold. Because it’s hard for a kid to feel like she doesn’t belong anywhere.
While Xavier might look at this as neighborhood crime in the making, all I see is a bunch of lost, neglected, hurting kids who didn’t get the attention, love, and discipline they needed when they were younger. And I’d know. I was one of them.
“Hey, guys,” I say to the group. “What’s going on here?”
Piper pulls in a breath to speak, but then just holds it, knowing she has no excuse that would work with me. She’s wearing way too much makeup and way too little skirt.
“We were just headed back to school.” Willow lazily pushes off the brick wall, pockets her vaping pen, and blows out the smoke, all while holding my gaze with defiance. “Come on, Piper.”
“I’ll take you,” I say. “You know, to make sure you get there all safe and sound.”
“Not me,” Willow says, then looks at Piper. “You coming or not?”
“She’s not,” I answer for Piper, tempering my compassion with a little steel. I can thank Bodhi for that. “I’ll be sure to catch your mom up on your extracurricular activities at her next yoga class.”
Willow huffs a laugh. “Go ahead. She couldn’t give a shit. Piper, come on.”