His Flight Plan by Yvette Hines Read Free Book Online Page A

the first irate parent she’d had to deal with. Rotating her shoulders back and straightening her spine, she asked, “I believed you received the certified letter sent to you a few weeks back.”
    It had been a month since Jaquan’s incident, proof of how little Mr. Brown cared.
    “Don’t care about no damn paper.” He didn’t deny he’d gotten the signature-required notification. “I want to know who you think you are suspending my boy.” He shook his left hand that held his son’s arm and jerked the boy around with his gesture.
    The desire to snatch the boy from the disgruntled man burned up her spine. She exhaled. “Jaquan decided to tag the wall of the center a month ago and then refused to clean it up. So, by the rules in the handbook we gave you on the day you initially signed your son up—”
    “You think I give a fuck about your book?” He released Jaquan but took a menacing step toward her, spittle flying out in the air. “My boy is a neighborhood kid just like the rest of these snot nose punks that come here.”
    “Yes, he is.” She stepped to the side, trying to keep out of the spray and get her back from against the doors. Clutching her keys tight in her hand, she made sure the two longest keys were sticking out between her knuckles. “However, we have rules for a reason. Now, as the letter stated, you or his mother have a right to set up a meeting where we can discuss under what measures Jaquan can come back.”
    “We are meeting now and discussing it! And you’re going to agree to let my boy back in.” He shifted his stance to the direction she was now standing and folded his arms over his barreled chest. “He’ll keep his ass straight.”
    Jaquan was now standing directly under the light over the doors, his face illuminated beneath his hoodie.
    “Oh, Lord.” She stepped toward the boy seeing the dark bruising around his left eye. It was practically swollen shut. “Did you do this to your son, Mr. Brown?”
    “That ain’t none of your damn business.” He smacked her hand away from Jaquan’s face.
    The youth shuffled back into the shadows.
    “Yes, it is. Child abuse is a federal offense,” she yelled at him. Her body was shaking with rage. She was mad enough to pull a brick from the center’s structure and bash the horrible father in his eye, see how he enjoyed it.
    In her peripheral vision she saw a car turn into the center’s entrance. A concerned citizen she hoped. Maybe they would notify the cops across the street.
    “You thinkin’ of reportin’ me?” Oblivious, he closed the gap between them and grabbed her arms.
    His tight grip hurt, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her pain. Using her low heel she stomped hard on the instep of his foot. She may have been a rich kid, but she was smart enough to take self-defense classes when they offered them at her college.
    “Aww! Fuck!” Mr. Brown released one of her arms as he bounced on his left foot, then howled again when he set down his right foot. Grimacing, he balled up his free hand into a fist. “I oughta—”
    “If you hit her, the city will be mopping up your blood for weeks from the street.”
    Mr. Brown, caught in the act of raising his arm, turned and shot a venomous look over his shoulder. “Who the fuck are you to be in my business?”
    A large frame formed in the darkness as the person drew closer to them. “I’m your worst nightmare if you don’t get your hands off her.”
    Kiera didn’t know who was more shocked by her avenger, her or Mr. Brown. Drake Rhine, the man with the kiss that curled her toes for days, was standing within arm’s reach of her. It wasn’t possible. Maybe this all was a dream and she would wake up any moment. A part of her, the part that fantasized about Drake at some point most days wanted her to keep sleeping if this wasn’t real.
    “Drake, what are you doing here?” She almost forgot about the violent parent beside her.
    “Are you looking for