Marie’s tears trickled down her beaten face.
Claire felt all the pent-up frustration about to boil over.
She could go to Mr. Green, make the administration take over, but if anyone was watching, they’d know something didn’t add up.
She needed more time.
The team needed more time.
“We might be able to set you up with an outside system so you can make the money for your trip.”
An outside system took time.
Claire felt a single tear drip down her cheek. She slammed the side of her fist on the wall and turned around.
She had to get out of there before the floodgates opened.
The coach called after her when she grabbed her backpack and left his room.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Coach Bennett filled Cooper in on what had happened with Claire.
Without talking to her, he knew exactly why emotion had overtaken her. He, too, felt like the hourglass was turned upside down and someone was shaking it.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she skipped track today,” Bennett told him.
“She’ll be here.” Even if she hated it.
“If she shows, pull her aside, talk to her. I would, but I don’t think she’ll listen to me.”
“Isn’t there any way to get her into the tutor job?” Cooper asked.
“I’ll see what I can do. Maybe get one of the kids that can’t afford to pay for a tutor to come in so I can sign off on her skills.”
Cooper looked at his watch. “C’mon, Claire.”
The team was halfway through their warm-up before she walked down to the field.
Instead of joining in, she sat under a tree with her back resting against the chain-link fence on the far end of the field. Her eyes followed the runners.
Cooper knew where her thoughts were.
Bennett walked up to him. “Part of the job is listening to teenage girls cry, and teenage boys rant.”
Cooper made it to her side and sat on the grass beside her.
She’d been crying.
“You okay?”
She closed her eyes. “I don’t cry.”
“Did Richter burn that out of you?” he asked. Their end of the field was empty. Being overheard wasn’t a concern.
“I’m so frustrated, Cooper.” She picked at the grass by her side.
“We all are. But this is when we need to keep it together.”
“I know that.”
He picked at the grass, gently touched the side of her hand that sat between them. “You didn’t process her. I expected tears when we left, maybe on the plane . . .” He kept his voice low.
“I have no business doing it now.”
He couldn’t argue that.
“Do you know how hard it is to sit here and not pull you into my arms?”
She avoided looking at him, and nodded. “I’d just cry harder.”
“That would make me hold you tighter, then I might accidentally kiss you. Then everyone would talk.”
She looked up at him, nudged his arm with her shoulder, and smiled.
He could die a happy man if she just kept smiling at him like that. “Dunnan doesn’t want to work with you because you’re a pain in the ass.”
“I have repented and changed my evil ways,” she said, a lift in her voice.
“What do we really need from him?”
She picked the grass more. “Get into the pool. Find which troubled students go to which tutors and are any of them a player? We’re running out of time.”
His pinky reached for hers. “Every time I thought that today, I found myself staring at the clock. My mind would go blank. Nothing productive happened.”
“Glad I’m not alone.”
Cooper stared downfield, saw Bennett working with the sprinters. The man was just as big a teddy bear as Neil. He really wanted to help Claire. “Sometimes we get so stuck in the weeds . . .”
“What?” Claire asked.
“Wouldn’t the head of the math department have access to the tutor need and tutor pool on his own computer? At least for the students at his school?”
Claire stopped picking the grass.
“Aren’t you our resident hacker?” Cooper turned his head, his eyes collided with hers. “Sometimes to steal the car, all you have to do is ask for the keys.”
Those tears were gone. “I want to kiss you so hard right now,” she said, smiling.
Cooper settled with helping her off the grass and a hug.
They walked over to Bennett together.
“Hey, Coach?”
Bennett turned around. “You all right?”
Claire looked at the ground and talked slow even though Cooper saw her fingers twitching. “I’m better. I just need to go . . . I need a few minutes.”
“Of course.”
“I forgot something in the desk where I was grading papers. Mind if I go get it?”
Bennett shook his head, pulled the keys from his pocket, and singled out the right one. “Lock up when you leave.”
“Thanks.”
Cooper watched her run off.
“Is Claire okay, Coach?” The relay team had moved in when Claire left.
“She’s fine.”
“What’s wrong?” Chelsea asked.
Cooper didn’t respond.
Leah, who was sporting crutches, said, “I heard Sean Fisher asked her to prom and she turned him down.”
Cooper bit his lip until actual pain to keep from laughing.
Claire and Jax sat in their Tarzana house with a situation board of their own.
Aunt Sasha had left the decoy house and Claire hadn’t returned.
The rest of the team was at headquarters or out in the field.
“The mail location in the strip mall is owned by an Aram Aghassian. He owns three of these types of stores. Two in LA, one in Orange County. They rent out mailboxes, send post through all the major carriers, have a notary service, passport photos, and sell all the things you need to send Nana a package on her birthday.” Isaac was the one reporting.
Claire and Jax had him on speaker.
Jax was typing in names on her computer and putting faces to them. Between the two of them, they had identified several pairs in less than an hour. Finally, Claire felt like they were getting somewhere.
“Any link to Milo?”
“Only through Brian and Gorge. However, after photographing several of their patrons, it’s safe to say this location has an unusual number of customers that have spent time in jail. The security cameras are visible in the usual locations, front door, back door, and register. Typical alarm system, but we can’t locate a monitoring service.” Isaac stopped talking.
Claire stared at a picture of one of the juniors at her school. “That should give Detective Warren more than enough to obtain a search warrant.”
“We’ll have our own knowledge of what they’re hiding before we waste anyone’s time,” Neil said.
“I wish I could be on that detail,” Claire said, more to Jax than the team. Running around in the dark wearing spandex and breaking into places sounded like a lot more fun than a giant jigsaw puzzle of high school kids.
“Not this time, Yearling.” Just hearing Cooper’s voice made her smile.
Jax shoved her aside with a grin. You have it bad. She mouthed the words but they were easy to read.