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When he finished, he dressed in a T-shirt and jeans and headed back to his bedroom Just before he reached the door, the scent of peanut butter sandwiches drew hih with the

You killed their teacher, reain, Aden confiscated two of the sandwiches, eating each in two bites, and searched the rest of the bunkhouse All the chores were done, so the boys had been here The wood floors were polished, the oak table and scuffed chairs dusted The walls were scrubbed clean and so, those walls had been filled with horseshoes and pictures of the ranch as it used to be a hundred or so years ago when it had first been built But then two of the boys had gotten in a fight, and one of them had used a metal horseshoe to bash up the other Or so Aden had heard Dan, the owner of the ranch and the guy in charge of their care, had taken everything down

There was no sign of the boys anywhere Were they okay? Where had--

Laughter suddenly rang out

At the farin the entryway, he brushed the curtains aside and looked out An overcast sky fashioned a gray canopy over the D and M as the boys played football in the field between the main house and the bunkhouse

Aden experienced aof jealousy Once, that’s all he’d craved Friends, games Acceptance Now he finally had it, for the most part, but he also had a little too et into trouble," he told theh they couldn’t hear hi, his wife, rarely left the one on

But no tutor, no studies, Aden supposed, and his guilt increased Dan was going to have to find a new tutor, having no idea why Mr Thomas had "left" as suddenly as he’d appeared

Aden liked Dan Respected hiive the boys here a better life Yet tiain, Aden made his life more difficult Don’t think about that now

Back in his bedrooh she was propped against the headboard and reading one of Shannon’s books The door clicked shut behind hih, since Dan had removed them--and she looked up

"Much better," she said with a nod

"Thanks for staying"

"My pleasure" She set the book aside and straightened "How are you feeling?"

"As good as I sh "That good, huh?"

"Sorry you had to stick around"

"I didn’t , anyway"

He sat at the desk,out of place After Riley and Tho in that other din of what had happened Yet there was nothing Not even a speck of blood

"Are you listening to ht the souls were quiet when I ith you"

He grinned sheepishly "Sorry I’et lost in there"

"Well, I was saying that you kno to fight"

"Yeah" He should He’d been fighting his entire life Other mental patients, doctors, other foster kids Zombies that Julian, the corpse whisperer, raised fro her shoulders "I want you to teach me"

He arched a brow, not sure he understood "You want ht?"

"How to defenddifference in what people needed to do to defend themselves and what they needed to do to attack soerous difference "Riley won’t like it"

She shrugged, swirling a finger along the cotton coet over it I need to do this I don’t want to be a liability anymore"

That, Aden understood Perfectly "I’ll teach you"

She clapped as if he’d just told her she’d won the lottery "Thank you"

"My pleasure," he said,her earlier words "So when do you want to start?"

She whipped her cell phone from her back pocket and checked the time "We have a few hours until I have to be ho this, rather than rushing back to class, but…why not now?"