Neil’s expression told Claire he wasn’t amused.
Cooper looked like he had more to say, but kept his lips shut.
Lars patted Cooper on the back as he walked by. “I need coffee.”
“There’s a fresh pot in the surveillance room,” Claire informed him.
“We start in ten,” Neil said before heading to his office.
Once the door was closed, Cooper slid beside Claire. “Mind elaborating about this ‘doesn’t date’ thing?”
She slowly looked at him, took a sip of her coffee. “Why deny all the men?” she asked, tossing back the words he’d used on her only a week before.
“You’re lying.”
Any amusement in her faded with the seriousness of his voice. “Why are you so interested?” And why was Cooper standing so close and watching her as if an expression was going to give something away?
When his eyes dropped to her lips, her belly did a little twist.
It was then that her brain started to short-circuit and the coffee felt bitter in the back of her throat.
There were two reasons a man stared at a woman’s lips.
The first was if they were a family member or possibly a gay friend that wanted to comment on the shade of lipstick.
And the second . . . he wanted to kiss her.
Holy shit!
She blinked several times.
Cooper wanted to taste her.
The realization of that fact had her head spinning. Then, because she couldn’t stop herself from looking, she took in his lips, and then the expression on his face.
So many things clicked together. With them, a thousand questions.
Lars pushed through the door from the surveillance room talking and had Cooper taking a step back. “Have you met the new guy?”
Claire’s eyes stayed on Cooper. “Yes, I have.”
Cooper blinked and turned away. “I have not.”
A few more steps and Cooper walked into the other room.
“What the actual hell?” Claire asked the universe out loud.
Lars walked by, oblivious to what had just happened.
“What?”
Claire glanced over at Jax to see her soft smile.
In German, Claire asked, “Did you see that?”
“I felt the static in the room,” Jax replied.
“You know it’s rude to speak in a different language, right?” Lars said.
Jax shook her head and went back to writing on the whiteboard. “Sorry,” she replied in English.
Cooper listened, participated, reported his end of Operation High School, and did everything in his power to not look Claire’s way.
He’d blown it. Got caught salivating over her as if she was ice cream on a hot summer day.
Put it out of your mind, dude.
Manuel had joined them and was brought up to speed.
“And what exactly do you plan on doing to get out of participating in the track competitions?” Neil asked when the conversation came up about Claire having the fourth position in the relay.
“Cooper and I talked about this. I can always throw a race or two and then fake an injury or fail a class and be prohibited from competing.” Claire looked at Cooper.
“I like the idea of an injury, but want to wait until the first meet. Right now Claire is popular enough with the team, and I think we should cement that before we take her away.”
“If she’s injured, does she drop track?” Neil asked.
“No.” Cooper shook his head. “She has to come along to the meets and the practices, even if it’s just to time other students. If there’s an academic probation, she’s likely to lose favor with the coaches and her fellow students. Which might be something we pull later if we need to.”
Neil nodded in agreement. “I like that. Lars, what do you have?”
“Both decoy residences are up and running,” he told them.
“Good, because I’ve struck up a couple of ‘friendships’ with the promise of study dates,” Claire said.
Jax pointed between the two of them “We met last week, and together we’ll start to narrow our search. We’ll bring the students I’ve struck friendships up with from Bremerton together with the Auburn kids. There is a surprisingly large number of kids that are close with those from the other school.”
“Which of these players are involved?” Neil nodded to the whiteboard.
“Elsie is Kyle’s girlfriend. She doesn’t fit the profile as victim or perp, but because of Kyle’s comments, we thought she needed flushing out,” Claire told Neil. “We’re meeting at Jax’s place, because her dad is working late. And my aunt is home.”
“Yeah, and there’s a new student at Bremerton, Ally. She’s living with her grandmother, parents lost custody and think the best place for her is a prep school. A couple conversations and I can already tell she’s looking for trouble. Parties, sneaks out at night.”
Neil narrowed his eyes. “What about this guy?” He pointed to one of the names and photographs on the board.
“Sean is the class bad boy at Auburn,” Claire said. “Spends a lot of time with the vice principal and barely makes the grade. But he drives a brand-new car and yet lives with his single mom and older brother. Something there doesn’t add up.”
“Maybe the absent dad feels guilty and buys big toys,” Lars suggested.
“We need to get to know him in order to find out. The decoy houses are the safest places to talk,” Claire pointed out. “Where is Sasha, anyway?”
Lars answered instead of Neil. “Sasha’s chasing a lead in Seattle. We’ve been spending time looking into the dropouts over the past few years.”
“All the way up in Washington?” Jax asked.
“If this is as organized as Warren suggested, moving girls away from people they know would be key for going unnoticed.”
“Warren said he’s had deep undercover work going on at Auburn for several years and is convinced there’s something sinister lurking they couldn’t dig up.”
“But not Bremerton?” Claire glanced at Cooper when she asked the question.
“If Warren had undercover cops there, the principal wasn’t aware. Which is exactly how we are playing it with Manuel. He’s the school’s new resource officer. There shouldn’t be a reason you don’t get to know Bremerton’s problem kids.”
“Are the principals at either school suspects?” Manuel asked.
“Burke passed inspection, but we have no idea if he talks to his teachers at Bremerton. So the less he knows, the better. Hanley and Green seem to be exactly who they say they are. Backgrounds check out.”
“Mrs. Hanley is a middle-aged woman, not exactly the profile fit for this behavior,” Cooper added.
Claire cleared her throat. “Never underestimate a middle-aged school administrator.”
Cooper found her gaze and was brought back to a moment in time shortly after they’d met when they were infiltrating Richter and learning just how sinister middle-aged women could be. “Right,” he said, acknowledging her thoughts without them being spoken.
Jax broke the silence. “If anyone at either school knows we’re there, I can’t imagine them doing anything so long as we’re on campus.”