Page 44 of Above All Else
“Well, aren’t you just full of surprises?”
“My rebellious teen years contributed to my criminal knowledge.” My fingers filed through the folders.
Carter laughed.
Tatum...
Tatum...
T...T...T...
“They still have paper documents?” He leaned against the tall gray cabinet with his arm braced on top as he stared down at me.
I shrugged, glancing at him for a split moment. “We were working on the transition to digital, but it had some setbackswith funding.”
Ah, ha.
Snagging the file, I opened the docket and ran my finger along the paper, stopping when the address appeared.
“Got it.” I held the document in the air, my heart skittering in my chest. “We’ve got forty-five minutes.”
“For what?”
I spun on the balls of my feet and rushed down the hall toward my classroom, my bare feet slapping against the tile.
“June, let’s go.” His voice echoed down the hall, cocooning me in a blanket of concern.
Why did it have to be like this?
“Give me a minute.” I ducked down behind my desk and pulled out a pair of flats I’d kept for the days my feet grew tired and slipped them on.
Carter appeared at the door as I stood, his gaze dipping down to my covered dirty feet with a raised brow. “I would’ve bought you a pair.”
“Now there’s no need.” Shrugging, I walked around the desk and slipped past him through the doorway, and continued further down the hall into the gym.
Mr. Finnegan, the elementary school P.E. teacher, left his sports closet in a meticulous fashion, leaving us teachers in awe of the organizational skills he’d developed from a four-year tour in the Navy.
My hand wrapped around the hard wooden handle, the smooth grain fitting in my palm as though it belonged.
“And what do you plan on doing with that?”
I turned with a lopsided grin. “I plan to make use of the remaining forty minutes.”
“If you think I’m going to let you have a weapon, you’ve lost your mind.”
Lifting the bat from its holder, I swung it towards his crotch, stopping a few inches from impact.
Carter flinched, his large hand seizing the bulbous end of the bat and twisting it.
My wrist wrenched to the side, but my grip remained firm. I tugged the bat from him with both hands and used it as a pointer. “You no longer get to dictate what I do, Carter Morgan.”
He snarled. “Stop calling me by my full name.”
“Why?” I dropped the bat, the dim sports closet causing his silhouette to tower like a nightmare from a child’s dream.
“Because it makes me want to throttle you.”
My belly fluttered, and a smile crept over my lips. I wiggled my shoulders and stepped into him, pressing my mouth against his throat. “Maybe if we weren’t on a time crunch.” I licked his Adam’s apple and then shoved his chest when he groaned, moving him out of my way. “And if you hadn’t tried to murder me.”