Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Something was wrong, and June was the only person at the community center who I felt comfortable asking about it.
I wiped my hands on a tattered dish towel and went looking for her.
She was in one of the back rooms, crouched beside a crate of board games someone had donated, sorting through them with practiced care. A chipped mug that said Don’t Make Me Use My Teacher Voice sat on the table next to her, and I smiled despite myself. Some things really didn’t change.
I leaned against the doorway. “Hey, you got a second?”
“Sure do,” she replied without looking up. “Unless you’re here to tell me this Monopoly game is missing half of the hotel pieces. In which case, I already know and refuse to be held responsible. I don’t know why people think it’s a good idea to donate stuff that’s useless. It takes three copies of the same game for me to put together a version the kids can actually play.”
I huffed a laugh and stepped inside. “Some things never change. I remember you making a game of us sorting the boxes one time when someone dropped off a bunch of them.”
She dusted her hands off and straightened, flashing me a smile. “And I seem to recall that you were the best of the bunch when it came to separating the pieces.”
“What can I say?” I shrugged and laughed softly. “Counting is fun.”
“Says the math major,” she teased, wagging her brows. “But not so much for me.”
“Speaking of math…I wanted to talk to you about something.”
Her eyes widened, and she pointed at her chest. “If you’re looking for help with a summer class from me, you’re in big trouble.”
“Nah.” I shook my head as I dropped onto a chair in the corner of the room. “I knocked out all of my required summer credit hours last year. That’s why I wasn’t here to volunteer.”
“Smart girl.” She beamed a proud smile at me and asked, “What can I help you with?”
I gestured toward the hallway. “Everything’s falling apart, June. The food is beyond awful. We’re always short on supplies. The building is a mess. And the kids didn’t get their field trip last week.”
June shook her head with a sigh. “I know. It’s been a rough summer. We got hit hard after the last round of funding cuts.”
“Rough doesn’t cover how bad it is.” I scrunched my nose and tried to remember a link to an article my mom had emailed me from the local paper a few months ago. “But didn’t we get that huge donation a while back? From the Iron Rogues MC? I could’ve sworn it said they gave fifty grand to the community center to support summer programming.”
June’s expression softened, but she didn’t look surprised. “Oh, right. I remember that. Nice photo op, wasn’t it? Big guy in a leather vest, shaking hands with Paul, who acted like we just won the lottery.”
“So where did the money go?” I asked, my voice sharper than I meant it to be, especially since my questions were probably better suited to the manager. Except Paul didn’t strike me as the kind of person who cared as much as June did. “Because it sure doesn’t look as though any of that donation was spent on the kids.”
“Every dollar gets stretched across ten needs. Insurance, utilities, staff hours, repairs, admin costs. By the time the programs get their piece, there’s barely anything left,” she explained.
“That’s messed up.”
“It’s exhausting, but at least Paul is the one who has to deal with all of that stuff while I get to focus on the kids we help. He’s the one stuck in budget meetings with the board, trying to make every penny count.” Her lips curved into a frown. “I just wish I could do more.”
I got up and crossed the room to pat her hand. “Give yourself more credit. A big part of how I got a scholarship to college was the good study habits you taught me.”
“Thank you, sweetie.”
I gave her fingers a squeeze. “I wonder where the money went.”
“It’s draining to always be putting out fires. But now that you mention it, I can’t remember a time in all my years helping out here when it’s been quite this bad,” she admitted.
Something shady had to be happening around here. I hated to think about anyone stealing from this place that brought such care and happiness to so many kids who couldn’t find it elsewhere, but I also couldn’t come up with a better explanation.
“I’m going to see if I can figure out what’s going on,” I said quietly.
She gave me a tired smile. “You’ve always been a scrappy one.”
“Guess I learned from the best.”
I quizzed June a little longer, and our conversation only left me even more frustrated.
Since Paul wasn’t here, I decided to do a little digging around. What I found only further convinced me that someone wasn’t on the up-and-up. I couldn’t confront Paul or the board members with nothing but my suspicions and the small bits of evidence I’d gathered. That left me with only one place I could go to for answers—the Iron Rogues. I’d never been to their compound before, but everyone who lived in Old Bridge knew where it was located.