Page 25 of Lion’s Den

“Nope. I have to visit the giraffes. It’s been too long.”

Sedona held up her hands. “All right. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

An hour later, Cam looked over his shoulder at the children in the bus. Absolutely unbelievable. How could children that size create so much noise? Somebody should have warned him. He turned to Sedona. “I’m holding you responsible for me going deaf.”

“I warned you.”

“Not strong enough, Tiger. What happened to the quiet, respectful students who walked into your classroom?”

She chuckled at the nickname. “It’s called classroom control, and I’ve discovered nothing turns down the volume on a bus ride. You just tolerate it until we reach our destination.”

Cam watched the students literally bouncing in their seats and talking at the loudest volume possible. Thank goodness they were staying in their seats at least.

As soon as the bus stopped in front of the entrance to the zoo, Sedona and another kindergarten teacher from across the hall stood at the front of the bus. The driver handed Sedona the PA microphone. She held up her hand and waited for her students to tell the others that was her signal to stop talking.

Cam waited, timing it. Thirty seconds. Pretty good.

“We’ll line up by classes. Follow your teacher and form a line outside the bus. Mrs. Whitmore is our helper today, along with Mr. Sims. Ms. White’s class will line up after my class is outside. Does anyone have questions?”

Miraculously, no one did. Wouldn’t last, he knew. Some children naturally had to ask one million questions and still wouldn’t be satisfied. Sedona nodded at Cam, who began leading students off the bus and helping them line up. Her friend from across the hall took over moving the students down the aisle, while Sedona helped those who needed a hand getting off the bus. Cam corralled students who wandered away from the line.

Once Sedona’s students lined up, she went down the row, checking off children from her list. “Perfect. All my students are present.”

Now if they could just leave with the same ones she came in with, the trip would be a success. He wasn’t holding his breath on that score. Although he might not have children of his own, Cam had nieces and nephews about this age who were notorious for not following the rules, no matter how simple they were.

At the front of the line, she held up her hand again. When her students quieted, she said, “Stay in line and follow me to the front gate.” When a cheer went up, she laughed. “Have to admit, I’m excited about getting out of the classroom today, even if I didn’t sleep last night.”

She glanced at Cam. “Levi wasn’t happy with our answers at the hospital interview.”

He flinched. “I know. David would have tried his hand at interviewing us, but he ran into a boatload of paperwork. The rest of the Montgomery brothers took turns interviewing your new friends. They’ll get around to interviewing us again soon. If they’re still not satisfied, Elliot will interrogate us.” Interrogate was exactly the right word, too. The Navy SEAL was skilled in interrogation techniques. Whatever was missing in Sedona’s sketchy memory, Elliot would find it.

Sedona rolled her eyes at his careful description of her kidnappers. Friends. But the last thing he wanted was to scare the children if they overheard his and Sedona’s whispered conversation. “The Montgomery brothers won’t forget, will they?”

“Not a chance. Even though they’re focusing on the men and processing evidence, they’ll come back around to us before the day’s over.”

“I hope they believe me.” On those mysterious words, Sedona left him in charge of her hooligan kids while she went to the ticket booth to check in and pick up the tickets reserved for her class.

A moment later, she returned. “We’re all set.”

“I’ll meet you on the other side of the gate. I need to purchase a ticket.”

She waved that aside. “I took care of it. Because this is an educational field trip, we get a huge discount on the tickets. If you want to pay me back, you can buy me an ice cream cone at lunch.”

“Deal.” He was an ice cream fan anytime, day or night.

Cam dropped to the back of the line, keeping the kids corralled as the line inched toward the park entrance. As he followed the last kid through the turnstile, he turned Sedona’s last statement over in his mind. I just hope they believe me.

What skeleton hid in Sedona Hart’s past that might cause law enforcement officers to question her honesty?

CHAPTER EIGHT

SEDONA MENTALLY REPRIMANDED herself. What a slip. The lack of sleep was interfering with her normal, rigid control over her mouth. Slipups like that might cause more than trouble. They could cause her death.

She rolled her eyes, grateful Cam couldn’t see her face right now. Melodramatic much? No one had come looking for her in more than a decade. Good old Mom, a gift that just kept giving. She’d tried everything to get away from her past. Nothing worked for long. Her stay in Maple Valley had been the longest without trouble breaking out. If this turned out to be what she suspected, her reprieve was up.

Sedona scowled. Why wouldn’t they leave her alone? She didn’t have what they wanted, didn’t even know what it was.

More important to her situation was what Cam would say. Would he accuse her of lying to him? She hoped not. Cam was special, the kind that made a woman rethink her nomad ways and contemplate settling down in a small town.