Her bottom lip trembled, and she shook her head. “N-Nowhere. I’m fine. I j-just fell.”
I lowered my lashes, hiding the tears that blurred my vision. But I couldn’t let her see them. “All right, Josie. Go back in and continue stretching.”
She practically ran away from me, and it broke my heart. But I couldn’t let this go. My instinct was to call Howler and tell him, but I didn’t know his number. Which left only one other option.
I quickly grabbed my phone out of my bag in the locker room and rushed back so I could watch the littles through the door as I hit Lyla’s number.
“I’m at the gym,” Lyla said, out of breath when she answered. “Can I call you back? I’m about to show this cousin of mine just who is boss.”
“I need to tell you something,” I confessed, and there was suddenly tension on the other end of our connection. “It’s about Josie.”
“What about her?” she half shouted. I knew she was close with Howler’s daughter, so I could only imagine the explosion this was going to cause.
“Josie was acting off. You know how bubbly she is, and she’s always ready to be my star. But tonight, she’s been acting like she’s sore and stiff. I just… There are bruises under her arm that look like fingerprints and I think she might have them other places, but she keeps saying she fell at the park. But, Lyla, these aren’t the kinds of bruises from a fall off the jungle gym.”
“I’m on my way,” she said without hesitation, her voice ice-cold. “Braxton, call Howler. I have to go. Tell him to get to Josie’s dance class.”
“What’s—” But I didn’t hear the rest of what Braxton was asking because she’d already hung up.
Clutching my phone in my hands, I glanced back inside the classroom. Josie stood in front of the wall of mirrors, stretching out like the others were, but she still wasn’t moving like she normally would.
There were still thirty minutes left of class, and I needed to teach. But tonight, I couldn’t concentrate. Instead, we had fun, dancing to some of my favorite songs while I showed them some of the other dance styles I’d learned on my summers traveling abroad.
The girls loved it, including Josie, and by the time Lyla stormed into the class fifteen minutes later, she was all smiles.
“Lyla!” Josie squealed and jumped into the other woman’s arms. “Did you come to pick me up?” she asked, and the spark of hope in her eyes broke my heart all over again.
Lyla held her close, kissing the top of Josie’s head as she inhaled deeply. “I’m never going to let you out of my sight again,” she vowed to Josie.
“Really?” The little girl’s head fell back, a beaming smile on her beautiful little face. She looked so much like Howler with her dark-blond hair, and the feminine version of his features gave her an almost angelic appeal. “You promise?”
“Pinkie swear,” Lyla said, her voice choked as she offered the little girl her finger.
Howler’s entrance had the other littles scurrying to the other side of the classroom, and I quickly put myself between him and them. This class was my final one of the day and I was the last teacher in the building, but I knew I was going to have to tell Mrs. Cora what had happened. I’d already texted her before I’d come back in that I thought one of my students was being abused at home, but I’d told her I was handling the situation with the other parent to make sure the little girl was safe.
Barely a minute passed before the door to my classroom opened again, this time to give Barrick entrance. He was in workout clothes and sweat soaked through his shirt, but it was his eyes that worried me.
They were wild and dangerous, and I wouldn’t have wanted to be the person who got in the way of whatever he was searching for.
Which was me.
He wrapped his arms around me in the next second, making my students giggle. “Are you okay?” I nodded against his chest, trying to breathe because he was cutting off my air supply from holding on to me so tightly. “Braxton called me and said something was going on and that Howler was on his way. I didn’t know what was happening. I was scared something had happened to you.”
Across the room, Howler was waiting impatiently for Lyla to hand over his daughter, but she was refusing.
“Barrick,” I gasped out. “I need to get the girls out of here before Howler blows up.”
His hold instantly eased, and he nodded. I turned to my other students. “Who wants cookies?” I offered.
“Me! Me! Me!” They chorused. Laughing, I rushed them out of the classroom with Barrick’s help and down to the staff lounge. There was a whole pantry of snacks, and I pulled out a package of cookies, making a mental note to replace them as I handed each girl two Oreos.
While they sat on the floor eating their snack, Barrick pulled me off to the side. Some of the wildness had eased from his dark eyes, but not all of it. “What’s going on? Did something happen to Josie?”
“She has bruises under her arm,” I confided. “They looked like fingerprints. I think she’s being abused.”
“Not by Howler,” he rushed to defend. “He’s a good dad, Mia. He would never—”
I held up my hand, stopping him. “I didn’t suspect Howler. I think it’s Gwen.”