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They finally picked up their things and walked out. Kamryn made sure to escort them out of the administration building. She was pretty damn sure that they would sit in the parking lot for awhile and complain about how rude Kamryn was, but she didn’t care. She just needed them out.

She shivered as the cold hit her, but she locked the door behind her and went immediately back to her office. She meant to plop down in her chair, but she couldn’t even bring herself to do that. She was way too pissed off. She needed to throw and break something.

Not even a phone call to Greer was going to help her this time.

What the hell did they have against Elia?

Because nothing Kamryn had seen so far warranted this kind of behavior toward her. Elia was insanely professional with the kids, even when they were out on overnight trips. She supported them, and she was never alone with them if she could avoid it. The other times, she left the door wide open so anyone who walked by could see. There were cameras everywhere, and Elia lived on campus.

What was going on? Seriously?

It irked Kamryn to no end, and the fact that Elia refused to tell her. She’d been close to it a few times, but she’d never actually told Kamryn what was holding her back on so many fronts.

“Fuck,” Kamryn muttered under her breath. She needed to get out of her head and out of her office. Pocketing her keys and leaving her office the mess that it was, Kamryn left. She didn’t even have her jacket, which of course she didn’t realize until after she was outside in the near-freezing air.

She’d be fine.

One night without it wouldn’t kill her.

Kamryn started with walking around the gardens by the administration building, but then she just let her feet take her wherever she needed to go. When she finally looked up, herbrain pounding less but her anger still very present, she realized she was at the small row of faculty and staff houses.

Elia’s was the second one from the end of the row on the right.

Could she?

They hadn’t exactly left off in the best of places after the last competition, but in the intervening days Kamryn hadn’t sensed any grudges or anger between them. In fact, conversing with Elia had been much easier than before.

Clenching her jaw and squaring her shoulders, Kamryn knew what she had to do. She had to go directly to the source. She needed to know what she didn’t know, otherwise she couldn’t protect anyone. She couldn’t do her damn job without information.

Her feet took her swiftly to Elia’s small home. The lights on either side of the sidewalk illuminated the path, and the front porch light was on. Kamryn marched directly up to the front door and curled her hand into a fist, knocking hard. Her heart hammered, her arms were so cold that she worried briefly they might fall off, and her toes curled in her shoes in response.

“Kamryn?” Elia said as she opened the door, obvious confusion and then concern in her gaze. “What’s wrong?”

“So much is wrong,” Kamryn muttered.

“God, you must be freezing.” Elia opened the door wider and ushered Kamryn inside, shutting it instantly. She didn’t wait as she reached out and pressed her gloriously warm palms to Kamryn’s bare arms. “Where’s your jacket?”

“I forgot it in my office.”

“And instead of going back to get it, you just walked here without it?”

“I took a gander around the garden first. Look, I came here for a reason.” Kamryn’s tone was sharp, bursting with anger. She knew that. But she couldn’t pull it back in or stop it no matterhow hard she tried. Not that she was actually trying. That would be giving in to the insanity that had been that meeting. “The board…” Kamryn stopped talking.

What could she actually say?

She should be looking out for her future here at Windermere, along with Elia’s future. Elia was a faculty member, not her girlfriend or spouse. Which meant that there were vastly different lines around what they could share with each other. Fuck, Kamryn hated this.

“What happened?” Kamryn finally asked.

Elia wrinkled her brow and shook her head slowly. “I asked you that.” She walked away, heading straight for the kitchen and hitting the button on the electric tea kettle. “I’ll make us some tea, so you can warm up.”

Damn her for being so kind and thinking about something like that. Kamryn didn’t move from the doorway though. She really needed answers. She had to know what was going on in order to know what action she needed to take next.

“What happened all those years ago? What are you hiding?”

Elia froze, her entire body going tense. “What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know! That’s the entire problem. And no one will just come out and say it!”