Page 87 of Shelter for Morgan

“Well, Benji burned himself so he can’t do the cooking anymore. You’re the next volunteer.” She really didn’t know anyone in the science building, certainly not enough to recognize him by voice and she didn’t know who this classroom was assigned to.

Hindsight being twenty/twenty and all, she knew she should have learned more about the other teachers and buildings.

“Well, I don’t want to do this. It’s fucking dangerous!”

“Dude,” another student, “what do you think Munder is going to do to us if we don’t have the product ready for sale?”

“Maybe we shouldn’t be selling this stuff? It’s not going to be worth the money if-”

“You wanna end up like that other teacher?” Morgan had heard that voice before in the lounge. She just didn’t know who it had belonged to.

“Really, Mister Christwell? He wouldn’t do that to you? You’re helping him.”

“Again, man.” The other student. “You’ve seen what he did to Benji’s arm.”

“Benji burned his own stupid arm!”

“To get away from doing this!”

The students were arguing and under it all she could hear the other teacher.

It physically hurt to hear what they were talking about.

The school resource officer was making the kids make drugs?

How was that possible? Why would he do that?

Morgan turned away from the window and pulled her phone out of her pocket, but before she could lift it up to unlock the screen a hand clamped down on her wrist.

“You don’t need that, Morgan.”

She swallowed hard. “Officer Munder.”

“Call me John, Morgan.”

“Officer is fine with me.” She cringed. Her mouth was going to get her into trouble.

He stepped in closer until she could smell his breath and whatever product he put in his hair. None of it was good.

“You and I need to come to an understanding, Morgan.”

She barely kept silent.

“I know your background,” he smiled and looked down at her, almost licking his lips. “Your brother’s in law enforcement. You know how it goes. People will listen to me. They’ll believe me.”

Morgan wanted to argue with him, but she bit the inside of her cheek to keep silent.

“If you choose to be a problem, I don’t want to have another shooting on my hands. That doesn’t leave a lot of options for me. After all, you’re new here. So I have a few things I could do if you don’t choose to fall into line. You don’t want people to think you were the wrong choice for a teacher when they find your body in a bad part of town.”

No, she shook her head. That wasn’t going to happen.

But she wasn’t going to make things easy for him.

“So, you can choose to keep your pretty mouth shut or I can make sure that you don’t talk at all. Got it?”

Oh, she got it.

She wasn’t sure that he understood what she was willing to do to get away from him.

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