Face of Fury (Zoe Prime #5) - Blake Pierce Page 0,29

“I’m off. You good?”

“All good, T,” Shacora told him, flashing him her trademark toothy smile. She enjoyed flirting with Tony a little when they did their handovers. He was older than her, maybe by ten years, and married, but it was still fun to watch him squirm a little. He didn’t know what to do with the attention.

“All right, then.” Tony gave her a final nod, hesitated as if he wanted to say something else, then set off walking toward his car in the parking lot.

Shacora watched him go with a smirk. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t at all bad-looking for a white guy. He had that hot daddy vibe going for him. If he did decide to take her up on that flirting, she wasn’t going to say no, even though she’d seen the gold ring on his finger.

Not that she had time for any kind of love life right now. What with teacher training classes during the day and working the overnight park patrol by night, she barely had time to sleep, let alone anything else. It was all going to pay off when she was qualified. She was going to get herself a job in a low-income housing area where she could really make a difference to the kids.

Like she wished someone had done for her. At twenty-six, she’d already been through school twice: once the first time, when she’d barely paid attention in class and dropped out at sixteen, and then again five years later when she’d realized that not having any education wasn’t good for your job prospects. It had been night school first, then a switch to a more intensive course load when she was able to get the job at the state park. Now she was so close to getting that certificate and getting a real job. Something that paid enough to actually cover the rent.

No point jeopardizing all that for a married man, Shacora thought to herself, turning toward the office with a self-deprecating chuckle.

She grabbed the truck keys from the shelf, signing her name on the sheet beside them, and glanced around the rest of the office. No cupcakes—that was a shame. Sometimes, if it was someone’s birthday, the rangers had a celebration during the day and there would be cupcakes left over. Never mind, Shacora thought. Good to watch her waistline, too. No sense giving the kids something to tease her over. Kids would go for any weakness.

“Why are you training to be a teacher again, Shacora?” she said out loud to herself, shaking her head with a smile. The nights got long and lonely on patrol. Hardly anything ever happened. It was boring and easy, and she’d kind of fallen into the habit of talking out loud just to fill the silence. At least it was something to do.

Shacora headed back out into the lot and jumped into the patrol van, switching on the ignition and warming her hands in front of the vent while she waited for the temperature inside to equalize a little. It was cold out tonight, the bite of real winter in the air. Wouldn’t be long now before the snow. Shacora hated when the snow came. Everything white, all your landmarks covered, so easy to get lost out there. To stray off the path and then get reprimanded for accidentally crashing the truck into a two-hundred-year-old tree trunk. Well, it wasn’t her fault. All the damn animals put on their white coats, and then she couldn’t see them until they darted right out in front of her.

Shacora rolled out onto the familiar route, which at least for now was still easy to follow. The floor was carpeted in orange and brown, but she could still make out the road. It had a nice feeling to it, she thought. The last bit of beauty before everything was dead and white for a few months. If it wasn’t so damn cold, she could actually have enjoyed it.

Shacora’s eyes caught something off to the side of the road: a flash of movement, so quick and so vague that she could have imagined it. It wasn’t a good idea to assume, though. It could easily be an animal. But more than once, she’d ignored something only to have a major trespassing problem on her next circuit around. She wasn’t about to let that happen again.

She stopped the vehicle, leaving the engine on as she peered ahead. Nothing. But she needed to be sure. With a sigh