Page 20 of Even if You Fall

But before I could settle on any one of those, she whirled around as if she wasn’t balancing on the high heels she always wore and forced out a stuttered breath. “Uh...sorry. Spider.”

Even though the words had clearly been a lie, even though she was staring unseeing at some spot on the floor, my gaze still swept over her, checking for an eight-legged creature I already knew wouldn’t be there.

“I, uh...” she began again, then quickly shook her head as a strangled laugh left her. “Bathroom. I’ll be back.”

“Uh-huh,” I muttered, watching her intently as she nodded unsteadily and shakily moved past me and toward the back of the office.

Once she was around the corner, I slipped into the chair and started reading over the file. None of the information was new—this was a file Briggs had sent me that first day. But for it to create that kind of reaction in Chloe?

I swept over the details again.

Owen Vance. Sexual harassment against teachers and staff in his school district. Sexual assault on teachers and staff. Blackmail against teachers and staff.

I read the woman’s name who’d filed the complaint, the school she worked for, and the school district. But none of those things meant anything to me.

None of it meant anything to me, unless this Owen Vance actually ended up being some kind of creep—not that we’d found anything on him yet. In fact, it’d been the opposite. People idolized him. Honestly, it was unsettling how much people seemed to love and practically worship the ground a school district superintendent walked on.

But my reservations and suspicions were my own, and they didn’t explain Chloe’s panic when she’d opened the document.

Unless . . .

I openedEmployee Recordsin a new tab, then pulled up Chloe’s. Glancing over the only thing Asher had put in there—her employment papers—I skimmed the details to see if Chloe’s last name might be an indicator, butWhitlockdidn’t match our potential suspect or the person filing the report.

Just as I started closing out the document, my gaze caught on Chloe’s prior employment, and I stilled.

The elementary school Chloe had worked for up until this past spring wasn’t the same as the one our complainant worked at, but a twisting in my gut had me looking it up to see what district it was in.

As soon as I had the confirmation they were in the same district, I closed out of her folder, then hurried back to the unorganized documents. Opening and closing them as I looked for any other information I might’ve missed this week—any indication that would’ve had Chloe panicking the way she had.

When I found nothing, I opened a new tab on the internet browser and searched for Owen Vance and Chloe Whitlock. But the only links and news sites that loaded were for Vance alone—his accomplishments and outcomes of meetings. The insane amount of praise he seemed to get fromeverywhere.

The school board and schools he was over. Mom groups and PTAs. The city in general.

All things Gray and I had already looked into earlier this week.

Just as I was finishing setting the website up the way it’d been when she’d left, Chloe came back around the corner, and I narrowed in on her excited features as she spoke.

“Goodness, sorry,” she said brightly, then gave a little shiver. “I didn’t find it on me, which worries me more because now I know it’s somewhere up here.”

A grunt crawled up my throat at the easy way she lied now that she’d composed herself. And she truly had.

As they had been ever since I’d barreled into her days before, her eyes were dancing and her smile was bright, but not too bright. Almost as if she knew exactly how much to give without looking like she was trying too hard or in a beauty pageant. Then again, her entire joyful, bubbly personality was like that: as if she knew exactly how much to give to draw a person in, to charm them, without coming across like an over-excited cheerleader on too much caffeine.

Unfortunately for her, I wasn’t so easily played.

“You’re fine,” I finally said as I stood, vacating the chair for her. “I killed it.”

At that, her hazel eyes darted up and locked onto mine. The flash of worry in them told me she was acutely aware that I wasn’t lying to play hero; but that I was in on her lie.

“U-um,” she began, then cleared her throat before that feigned joy was bursting from her on a stuttered laugh. “I didn’t realize Superman also killed spiders. But thank you.”

Another rumble sounded in the back of my throat, but I just lifted an eyebrow and gestured to the computer. “You understand everything?”

Chloe’s gaze flashed to the computer, then fell to the floor. “Yes,” she said softly, then added, “Yep,” more resolutely as her eyes once again met mine. “Thank you.”

I didn’t bother responding as I left, ignoring the way the subtle scent of coconut and vanilla teased me as I brushed past her.

I hated that scent. I wanted to get that girl out of this office before whatever threat she posed was unleashed on the people who had become my family. And yet, I faltered in my steps, wanting to breathe her in as I studied those eyes so I could unveil every one of her secrets.

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