UNKNOWN ALLIANCE (School Marshal Novels Book 2) Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Acknowledgments

  Introduction

  Reader Club

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Unknown Threat Sneak Peek

  Unknown Threat - Chapter 1

  Unknown Threat - Chapter 2

  Unknown Threat - Chapter 3

  Unknown Threat - Chapter 4

  Review and Reader Club

  Author's Note

  About the Author

  UNKNOWN ALLIANCE

  A School Marshal Mystery/Thriller

  Book 2

  Robin Lyons

  COPYRIGHT

  UNKNOWN ALLIANCE

  Copyright © 2018 by Robin Lyons

  UNKNOWN THREAT Sneak Peek Copyright © 2016 by Robin Lyons

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, events, or locales is purely coincidental. No part of this publication may be reproduced or electronically transferred in whole or part, without express written permission from the author. Brief quotes may be used in reviews.

  Kindle/eBook ISBN: 978-0-9968529-4-4

  Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9968529-5-1

  UNKNOWN THREAT Sneak Peek eBook ISBN:978-0-9968529-0-6

  UNKNOWN THREAT Sneak Peek paperback ISBN:978-0-9968529-1-3

  Click or visit author’s website: www.RobinLyons.com

  Published by: Singing Dog Media

  To Jon, with love—

  Believing in me and supporting my passion to write fiction means the world to me.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  LAW ENFORCEMENT: El Dorado County Sheriff Jeff Neves, retired. Thank you for your time and expertise.

  SWIMMING CONSULTANT: Danielle Trevino-Long. Thank you for your assistance.

  CREDITS:

  PROOFREADING: Mark Schultz at www.WordRefining.com

  COVER DESIGN: Bob and 99designs

  INTRODUCTION

  Dear Reader,

  UNKNOWN ALLIANCE picks up where UNKNOWN THREAT left off. Students and staff at Blackstone Academy in Brookfield, California, return after their Winter Break. Don’t worry if you haven’t read the other books yet, readers have enjoyed them as standalone novels. However, the stories have more depth when read as a series.

  Brookfield is a small fictional town set in rural Northern California. Blackstone Academy is a public school that operates much like a private school in that affluent parents, hoping to keep the school exclusive for their children, make generous donations annually to retain control.

  It won’t take you long to learn, on any given day, Blackstone Academy is home to the seven deadly sins: Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride.

  After an exciting 20-year military career in the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Pararescue unit, Mac MacKenna in UNKNOWN THREAT, accepted a temporary civilian assignment from the Police Chief – Clean up Blackstone Academy. It’s going to take longer than he anticipated.

  Best regards,

  Robin Lyons

  p.s. If you haven’t already read UNKNOWN THREAT, Book 1 in the School Marshal Series, there’s a sneak peek at the end of UNKNOWN ALLIANCE. Enjoy!

  ROBIN’S READER CLUB

  Reader Club members receive weekly emails with news, true school crime case research, behind the scenes content, updates and more. U.S. members are automatically included in exclusive Handley’s Coffee Shop swag *giveaways.

  Email addresses are never shared. Robin values your privacy as much as hers.

  JOIN THE CLUB: READER CLUB

  Join the club at www.RobinLyons.com

  *Due to sweepstakes laws.

  Chapter 1

  Elaine spat out a mouthful of toothpaste and asked her husband Scott, “What time is it?”

  From the bedroom, he said, “Ten minutes before eleven. What time did you tell Brandi to be home?”

  “Eleven.” She sensed his worry.

  With a mischievous look on her face, she ran from the bathroom and dove onto her side of the bed causing the down comforter to puff up between the two of them.

  “It’s not Brandi who concerns me. It’s Simone. She’s a bit wild,” Scott said.

  “The party’s at Fred and Vanessa’s. The kids won’t pull anything there.”

  “But it’s an indoor pool party and a bunch of teenage girls and boys with raging hormones.”

  A few seconds passed before the security monitor on Scott’s side of the bed made two faint dings, alerting them the front door had opened and closed.

  Elaine smiled. “See, I knew she’d be home on time.”

  Scott muted the TV.

  They listened as their daughter, and her friend thundered up the staircase.

  “Go check on them,” he said.

  “What do you expect me to find? A boy?” She giggled and snuggled up to her husband.

  Scott leaned away to set the security alarm for sleep mode. He glanced back at Elaine. “Just check on them, please.”

  “Okay. Okay.” She swung her bathrobe over her shoulders and slid her feet into fluffy slippers before padding down the hall to their daughter’s bedroom.

  Elaine leaned against the door to listen. She shook her head. Men don’t understand teenage girls. You have to give them some freedom, or they’ll rebel. She heard water running in the bathroom. Confident they were brushing their teeth, she opened the door.

  She froze.

  Brandi, sprawled out on her pink comforter, appeared to be naked from the waist down with a towel over her lower torso.

  Elaine stormed the bathroom.

  Simone jumped when she burst through the door. Dark streaks of mascara washed away by her tears ran down the girl’s cheeks.

  “What’s wrong with....” Elaine stopped. She stared at the sink filled with red sudsy water. The water flowed while Simone hand-washed the pajama bottoms Brandi wore over her swimsuit to the party.

  Elaine pushed Simone away from the sink and turned off the water. “What happened? What’s wrong with Brandi? Why are her clothes bloody?”
>
  Simone looked at the floor, her shoulders slumped. She didn’t respond. She wept.

  Elaine hurried to her daughter. She grasped her shoulders and gently shook. “Brandi. Wake up!”

  “Huh?” she mumbled without opening her eyes. “Mom?” Her eyes fluttered and then relaxed as she appeared to fall back asleep.

  Elaine shook her a little more. She looked up to see Simone sitting on the window seat, gnawing on her fingernails.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Elaine said in a stern voice.

  “I don’t know. We were having fun playing Marco-Polo in the pool and listening to music. Brandi told me she didn’t feel well. She got out of the pool and sat in a lounge chair watching us.”

  It took tremendous restraint for Elaine not to yell, “hurry-up, spit it out.” to Brandi’s friend.

  “After everyone got tired of playing the game, most of us got out of the pool. I sat with Brandi. She said she felt dizzy. Wanted to change back into her clothes and lie down on the back seat of my car.”

  “And you let her? All by herself? When it’s cold outside?”

  Simone said between gulps of air, “I... have... a... blanket... on... my... back... seat.” She inhaled air a few times before continuing. “She was only out there a half hour before... before....” She sniffled. “When I got in my car, she was covered up and looked like she was asleep. I swear.”

  “Take a minute to get your act together while I clean and dress her. Then finish telling me what happened to her at the party,” Elaine hissed...she tried to stop thinking of the rumors about the Collins’s parties she’d heard over the years.

  The end of year pool party was an annual event at the Collins’s home after the holidays. Always on the Saturday before school resumed. The tradition started before they’d all had kids. A New Year’s Eve party back then. Back in the day, they were rumored to have been quite provocative. For a week after, the talk of the town was about their get-together.

  After the boys came along and the Collins’s friends started having children, it turned into an end of the year party. They’d invite their friends and offspring. As the boys got older, they were allowed to ask some of their friends. Only ‘hello at the market’ type friends with Fred and Vanessa, Scott and Elaine never made it onto the guest list. But Brandi, who had known Stu, their oldest son, since elementary school, was always invited.

  A few years ago, when Brandi started showing signs of womanhood, Scott voiced concern to Elaine about their daughter not being mature enough to handle boys coming on to her. He wanted to forbid her from attending the parties. He’d also heard the gossip. Brandi always pleaded to let her go. He found it difficult to say no to his little girl.

  Elaine used a warm, wet washcloth to wipe dried blood from her daughter’s inner thigh area. Dressing Brandi in pajamas was like trying to put clothes on a sack of sand. Her daughter helped a little. She tried to say a few words, but they came out slurred and unintelligible. No longer concerned about her daughter needing medical treatment, Elaine tucked her into bed as she had done not so many years ago.

  She then turned her attention to Simone who continued to chew on her fingernails. “Were you kids drinking alcohol at the party?”

  “No. Nobody even offered me anything. We drank soda pop.”

  “Were adults in the pool area?”

  “Mmm-Hmmm. Parents were around all the time. Never just kids.” Simone stopped talking to blow her nose. “I think I should go home now.”

  “I agree. But before you go, I have more questions. What specifically, did Brandi say about feeling dizzy?”

  “She said her stomach felt upset and her head spun a little.”

  “Did she say ‘spinning’ or did she say ‘dizzy?’” Elaine felt there was a considerable difference between the two statements.

  “Ummm. I’m not sure. She looked normal, so I didn’t think anything was wrong.”

  Simone and Elaine jumped when Scott opened the door. “Is everything okay in here?”

  “I’ll be right there, hon,” Elaine shooed him away.

  Scott retreated and closed the door.

  She continued her interrogation. “Exactly how long was Brandi in your car before you decided to leave the party?”

  “Maybe...thirty minutes,” she said hesitantly as if she were afraid she’d be yelled at again.

  “You left her out in your cold car feeling sick for thirty minutes?” Elaine couldn’t contain her irritation.

  Simone grabbed her jacket and purse and scurried out of the bedroom.

  Elaine hustled to tell Scott to disarm the alarm but was too late.

  Simone fled down the stairs and out the front door triggering it at the same time Elaine appeared in the doorway to the master bedroom.

  Scott jumped. “What the—?” He entered the code to turn off the alarm.

  “I’ll lock the front door.” Elaine turned and darted from the room.

  When she reentered the quiet bedroom, Scott stopped pacing along his side of the bed.

  “What the hell’s going on?”

  “Something happened to Brandi at the party.” She sat on the bedside with him and shared all the information she knew.

  Elaine took Scott to Brandi’s bathroom and showed him the sink where her bloody pajama pants soaked.

  Scott went to his daughter’s bedside. He stood there looking down at her for a long minute before he bolted from the room.

  Elaine rushed after him.

  He began changing into his jeans.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going to speak to Fred.”

  “How will that help Brandi? Fred won’t know what happened. He probably doesn’t even know anything about it. And he’ll assume you’re going to call the police. Next, he’ll kick into attorney mode. No, please don’t go there.”

  He zipped his jeans and looked at his wife. Tears formed in his eyes. “I have to do something. Someone hurt our little girl. I can’t just go to sleep,” he said before he slumped onto the side of the bed.

  “I want to do something too, but what? We don’t know what happened,” Elaine said.

  “Could it be her period? Maybe we’re jumping to conclusions.” Scott dropped his head in defeat.

  Neither said the ‘R’ word out loud.

  “She had her cycle last week, so it shouldn’t be from that. I’ll take her to my gynecologist on Monday. She doesn’t have school until Tuesday. The doctor should be able to tell me if the blood was natural or from sex.”

  Scott blurted out, “I had a bad feeling about that party. Damn it! We shouldn’t have let her go.”

  Chapter 2

  “Hey, mom, how was your day?” RaeAnn grabbed a soda pop from the refrigerator.

  Sloan Bowen leaned against the kitchen island while she tossed dressing on a salad. It had been a busy day at the bank, and her feet throbbed from hours of standing at the teller window.

  “A typical Monday. Busy. How was yours?”

  “Just another boring day of doing nothing but hanging out.” RaeAnn sighed. “I’m looking forward to going back to school tomorrow.”

  The bar stool made a nails-on-chalkboard scraping sound across the tile floor when she pulled it away from the kitchen island.

  Sloan glared at her daughter. “Jesus, Rae, how many times have I asked you to lift the chair a bit before you pull it out?”

  RaeAnn sniffed the air. “What’s for dinner?”

  “Pizza and salad.” She lifted the salad tongs to show her daughter what she thought seemed obvious.

  “Ummm. Ciera and Haylee want me to go with them to a movie Friday night. Can I?”

  “What movie? Who else is going?” Sloan opened the oven to peek in on the pizza.

  “An age-appropriate movie. Some guys they know are also going.”

  Sloan turned around to face her daughter. “Boys? You don’t know them? Do they go to Brookfield High?” She waited for answers, wanting to get a read on her daughter’s expression to det
ermine if her gut detected honesty or lies.

  “Geez, Mom, what’s with the interrogation? It’s just a frickin movie.” RaeAnn rolled her eyes.

  “It doesn’t matter because Uncle Steven will be here for dinner.”

  RaeAnn scraped the stool across the tile floor when she scooted it back to stand up.

  “Rae!” Sloan assumed her daughter did it on purpose to annoy her.

  “Why do I need to be here? He’s your brother. I hardly know him.” Her hands planted on hips.

  “Really?” Sloan frowned. “He’s getting out of rehab on Friday, and he’s spending one night with us before he checks into the independent living facility.”

  “What does that have to do with me?” RaeAnn folded her arms across her chest and straightened her stance.

  “I’m too tired to argue. The answer is no, you cannot go to the movie.”

  RaeAnn started to leave the kitchen but turned to face her mother. “Sometimes, I hate you. You never let me do anything.”

  “Listen here, young lady.” Sloan shook the tongs at her. “Say anything you want about me in your head. But, don’t let it pass your lips again or you’ll be grounded for life.”

  Her daughter spun on her heel and stomped down the hallway to her bedroom.

  Sloan heard her husband say, “Hey princess. What’s wrong?”

  RaeAnn screeched, “Mom,” before she slammed her bedroom door.

  Drey shook his head as he entered the kitchen. “Wow, what’d you say to get her in such a huff?”

  “She wants to go to some movie Friday night. Ciera and Haylee want her to go with them and some boys she doesn’t know. I shouldn’t have bothered asking for details because she can’t go. Steven will be here. Our little princess got huffy, told me she hated me and stomped off.” She shrugged, her body ached with fatigue. “Some days she hates me, some days she loves me.”

  “Does she really need to be here and hang out with Steven? It’s not like they’re close.”