Lord Have Mercy (The Southern Gentleman #2)(15)

Luckily, everything had already been taken care of and the only ones left in the parking lot were the teachers that had break during this particular period. Camryn being one of those teachers.

She narrowed her eyes on me, her face a mask of anger, and started to stomp her way toward me.

She didn’t stop until we faced each other across the hood of her car.

“Those aren’t my Doritos!” she declared loudly.

My brows rose. “They’re not? They’re in your car.”

Her arms crossed over her chest. “I was having a weak moment. I only smelled them.”

I could feel my lips twitching, and soon I would start out and out laughing.

I managed to hold onto my hilarity, but only by the smallest of fractions.

“You only smelled them,” I said, trying to keep my lips from betraying the smile. “Are you sure about that?”

She sighed, and her shoulders shrugged. “I licked one, too.”

It was at that point that I realized I wouldn’t be able to do it. I had to laugh. I just couldn’t help it.

“Oh, Elvis, I knew you’d break,” I teased her, unable to help myself.

Her arms went tighter across her chest, and she started to tap her foot. I could hear it against the rocks of the parking lot shifting beneath her foot.

“I didn’t cheat,” she repeated. “Cheating would mean that I had carbs, which I didn’t. There are no carbs in the cheesy stuff that’s on the chip itself.”

“How do I know that you’re not lying just to get me off your back?” I asked curiously.

I believed her, but she didn’t need to know that.

“I have the licked off chips on the floorboard. Look.” She pointed in the direction of the chips, and I started to chuckle.

There were like eight licked-clean chips on the floor of her car, and all of them were whole.

“That’s very odd,” I lobbed her way.

“I’m an odd duck, what can I say?” she shrugged, uncaring.

“What did you have for breakfast besides the cheese off of those Doritos?” I questioned, finding myself unwilling to end this ludicrous conversation.

“I had a shake,” she admitted. “One of those chocolate protein ones that tasted like death and children’s tears.”

I chuckled, and Dooley decided to lay down at my feet and knock me slightly off balance as he did.

Her eyes went to the dog, and then immediately came back to me.

“I’m sorry.”

She shrugged, acting for all the world like she was unaffected when we both knew that she was. “It was a long time ago. I should be over the fear by now.” She paused. “Did Carmichael tell you?”

I nodded. “She did.”

She looked at her hands. “It’s not a rational fear. I try to act like a non-sissy, but each time I tell myself to grow a pair, I think about what it felt like to be bitten and I’m back in that place all over again.”

“What happened?”

Hearing the story straight from her mouth was no better than hearing it from my sister’s. I’d hoped that Carmichael had heard wrong, but obviously she hadn’t.

“That’s a one in a million chance of that happening,” I admitted. “And the handler obviously didn’t have good control of his dog. I can’t imagine that happening, especially to a young girl.”

I promised myself yesterday that I wouldn’t look into the matter. But, my curiosity was killing me, and I wanted to know more. I wanted to know everything about the situation, and why something so monumental had gone wrong.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “And I was so fucking scared in the first place that my rational instinct was to hide. Having our door knocked down and fourteen black-clad, armored men come through the door? Who wouldn’t run?”

“How old were you?” I asked softly.

“Fifteen,” she answered hesitantly.

Her eyes were downcast, and I found myself reaching for her before I could stop myself.

I would’ve touched her, too, had the goddamn principal, who was obviously pissed at me at the moment based on the look in her eyes, not butted into our conversation.

“Ms. Presley, would you mind coming to my office for a moment?” Mrs. Sherpa, the principal, called out.

I frowned and looked over at her where she was standing next to the door that led into the south wing of the school.

“Is there a problem?” I asked, unsure why she looked and sounded so pissed.

At least not with Camryn, anyway. Me? I could see.

“You can come, too,” she said, brooking no room for argument.

Camryn’s eyes widened and met mine.

The words ‘what the fuck’ were mouthed in my direction.

I shrugged. “No idea.”

She followed dutifully behind Mrs. Sherpa, while I followed behind her with Dooley.

I was sure to keep quite a large gap between us so as not to cause Camryn to freak out.

Now that I knew it was the dog that scared the shit out of her, and why, I was going to be much more careful how I handled the situation.

“Have a seat,” Mrs. Sherpa said the moment we got into the office.

I parked myself on the farthest most outside seat and had Dooley lay down at my feet on the side away from Camryn. Camryn scooted her chair almost to the wall and then sat down, the farthest away that she could get without actually being outside of the room.