Page 61 of Devil's Damnation

"What do you want, Logan?" I ask quietly.

"I want you to admit it."

"Admit what?"

"That you feel something for me too. That all those times you smiled at me, all those times you stayed after class to help me, all those times you touched my hand when you were helping me with my work – I want you to admit that meant something."

My heart breaks a little because I can see how desperately he needs this to be true. How much he's built up these normal, professional interactions into something they never were.

"Logan, I was being a good teacher. That's what teachers do. We care about our students, we help them, we…"

"Stop lying to me." The scream tears out of him, and his hand moves inside his jacket. "I can't take any more lies."

That's when I make my move. While he's distracted by his own rage, I lunge for my purse. My fingers close around my phone just as his hand comes out of his jacket.

The gun looks enormous in the fluorescent lighting of the classroom. Black and deadly and pointed right at my chest.

"Put the phone down." His voice is calm again, which is somehow more terrifying than the screaming.

But I don't put it down. Instead, I do something that might be the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life. I hit Dime's number and put the phone on speaker, setting it down on the desk where Logan can see it.

"What are you doing?" Logan's voice is sharp with suspicion.

"I'm calling my boyfriend," I say as calmly as I can manage. "Because he should know where I am. I was supposed to meet him for lunch," I lie.

The phone rings once. Twice. On the third ring, Dime's voice fills the classroom, rough and warm and so familiar it makes my chest tight with longing.

"Hey, baby. What's up?"

"Hi, Dime." I keep my voice steady, but I know he'll hear the tension in it. He knows me too well. "I'm still at school. In my classroom. Room 237."

There's a pause. When Dime speaks again, his voice has changed. It's still casual, but there's an edge to it now. "Everything okay, sweetheart?"

"I have a student here with me. Logan Matthews. He's seventeen years old, and he's been taking some kind of drugs. He's not feeling very well."

Another pause. Longer this time. "Is that right?"

"He's also upset because he found out about us. About our relationship."

"Allison." Logan's voice is sharp with warning. "Hang up the phone."

But I don't. I can't. Because I know Dime is putting the pieces together. I know he's already moving.

"I can't hang up right now," I say, both to Logan and to Dime. "Logan has something he wants to show me."

"What kind of something?" Dime's voice is deadly quiet now.

"The kind that makes noise," I say carefully.

Silence stretches over the phone line for what feels like forever. Then Dime's voice comes through, and it's like nothing I've ever heard from him before. Cold and dangerous and absolutely lethal.

"Logan, can you hear me?"

Logan's eyes widen, and he looks at the phone like it's a snake. "I... what?"

"I said, can you hear me? Because I want you to listen very carefully to what I'm about to tell you."

"Don't talk to him," I whisper, but Logan seems frozen.

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