Backstreet Hero

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He did glance at her then. “Well, I wasn’t sure it was the right one. To me, then, school was just another form of jail.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I’ll bet you loved school. Becoming a teacher and all.”

“I did love school,” she said. “At least, until I got old enough to realize that I was being fed somebody’s particular version of the world, to be memorized and spewed back when required.”

“Sounds like school to me,” he said dryly.

“I wanted the truth,” she said, “and to learn how to learn for myself. And that’s why I thought I wanted to be a teacher. To teach that. But when the trouble with my husband began, he used his influence to have me laid off. He didn’t want me working.”

“Hurt his self-image?”

“No, teaching was acceptable. It was control. He couldn’t keep me sufficiently under his thumb if I was out working every day.”

A little bitterness had crept into her voice, and it startled her. She’d thought herself long past such a feeling. Determined to end this now, she turned the conversation back to him. “So Josh made you go back to school?”

He accepted the change with surprising ease; perhaps he had sensed her discomfort. “Not back. To a different school. A college prep academy. I thought he was crazy. Me, in some snobby, upper-crust college prep? I laughed in his face.”

Since she had gone to such a place herself, Lilith had a full album of images to draw on. She couldn’t picture the kid he’d been in any of them. Nor could she begin to imagine how hard it must have been for him.

“But he didn’t give up,” she said.

“No. I told him it was a joke, no place like that would ever let somebody like me in. He said that was his problem.”

“And they did.”

“Turns out it was run by a friend of his.”

“He has them everywhere, doesn’t he?”

“That’s because he helps people everywhere.”

“I’ve often thought,” Lilith said, “that if Josh ever called in all the favors he’s owed at once, he could run the world.”

“And it’d be a better place,” Tony said.

“That it would,” she agreed. “So, after that college prep, what happened?”

“College.” He said it lightly, a small joke. But she was looking at him, saw the expression that flitted across his face, and guessed he’d still not quite gotten over the unexpectedness of it. “Business major. Which,” he said, still lightly, “as you can see, I’m not really using.”

She could not for the life of her imagine him tied to a desk. “Where?”

“U.C.L.A.”

She blinked; she hadn’t known that. “Great school.”

“Yes.” He flicked a glance at her. “And I’ve paid Josh back. Every cent of the tuition he put into me.”

Somehow that didn’t surprise her, although she knew Josh would never have expected it. She wondered for a moment what it had taken for him to get Josh to accept the payback. That, she decided, must have been quite a discussion.

As if he’d read her thoughts, she saw him smile. “He fought me when I started, so I put it all into an account I never touched. Then I handed it over. He finally took it, but only for the next person he decided to help. It became the Redstone Scholarship Fund.”

She smiled in turn. “That is so Josh it doesn’t even require a comment.”

That it was Tony as well didn’t escape her.

She studied him for a moment. His hands were relaxed on the steering wheel and one elbow was resting casually on the armrest of the driver’s seat. Logic, and her knowledge that Redstone Security was known worldwide even in traditional law enforcement circles, told her he might be relaxed now, but if anything happened, he would turn into what he was, a trained agent. John Draven would have seen to that.

But there was something more in this man, something somehow more intense than even Draven, who had arrived at Redstone via the military, a veteran of battles in various parts of the world, including the one that had taken from Josh his brother and last surviving relative.

Tony Alvera had been in only one war, but it was an insidious one that claimed casualties in a way that seemed little different to her.

Except that it took place at home, where kids should have been safe.

It struck her then that it was no small miracle that this man was here, now, where he was. And while he might want to give all the credit to Josh, she knew better. It didn’t take much imagination to figure out he’d had to fight every step of the way.

She suspected the thing he’d had to fight hardest was himself.

Chapter 7 (#ulink_2904850b-6891-5a42-89b8-dd9015fb9668)

She had acted, Tony thought as they waited in the visiting area, as if they were simply going for a pleasant drive. Totally at ease, as if he were a casual acquaintance she didn’t mind spending time with.

Why not, since that’s all you are? he told himself.

Of course, she wasn’t feeling any of the internal tension he was feeling. She had no idea that he’d volunteered for—or to be honest, commandeered—this assignment, let alone why. So why should she feel anything but relaxed?

And if she did know?

His first thought was that she’d run, screaming. But his second thought was no, she wouldn’t, she had too much class for that. She’d think of some graceful, tactful way to deflect his idiocy, and probably try to do it without being cruel.

But she wasn’t happy to be here, that he could see. She kept looking around, the only sign of nerves he’d seen in her, which was a testament to her determination.

“Depressing,” she muttered.

“Yes,” Tony agreed.

“‘In case of lockdown,’” she read off a posted sign on one wall that explained what visitors must do.

“Doesn’t happen often, not during visiting hours. They’re pretty much sacrosanct.”

“I’m sure no one wants to lose a chance to see the people they care about.”

“Not to mention that that’s when they get their contraband,” he said dryly. “Nobody wants to risk that.”

She went still, then turned away from the posted sign to look at him steadily. “What is it you’re after, Mr. Alvera? Am I supposed to assume you know all these things because you’re Redstone Security, or because you’re a badass yourself?”