CHAPTER ELEVEN

When Duke Sinatra stood up at school the next day, the other students sat down. Mainly because they knew, just as surely as they knew his name, that he wasn't about to let some loudmouth cafeteria bully like Cody Butler ridicule him.

He flew across that table so fast that Cody didn't see him coming until it was too late. Duke's fist connected with his face before their bodies connected, causing Cody's long, red hair to jerk wildly as he fell backwards in his chair. Duke jumped on top of him and began punching him so hard and so fast that blood was spilling before the first teacher could get to them.

"Say it again!" Duke was yelling as he kept punching his classmate. "Say it again motherfucker! Say it again!"

When Jackie realized her brother was the one involved in the brawl, she was at his side before any of the other teachers could get there. And as she yelled for her brother to stop, it took three teachers and the school's resource officer to pull Duke off of the now demoralized student. And even then Duke was stomping on Cody as he was pulled away.

Once Cody realized he was no longer being plummeted, he scooted away from Duke and tried to stand up so fast that he fell back down. The resource officer caught him, and then called on his police radio for an ambulance.

Principal Jaworski, who had been talking with a teacher on the other side of the cafeteria when the fight broke out, ran over to the two students just as they were being pulled apart. As his teachers held Duke back, the Principal rushed to the aid of the downed student. "Get the nurse!" he ordered one of the students, and the student took off running. Then he looked at Duke with nothing but disgust on his face. "To my office, Sinatra!" And then he began walking away. Duke, his fist hurting, snatched away from the teachers and followed behind the principal. Jackie followed behind her twin.

"Why did you do that?" she asked Duke as they hurried behind the long-legged principal. "What did he say?"

Duke handed her his cellphone. She opened the phone and put in his password that she had figured out months before, and that was when she saw where a video was still open. As she pressed the play button and began watching, her walk slowed. And then her beautiful dark face turned anguished. Duke glanced back at her, and she glanced at Duke, as he and the principal walked into the main office.

The school secretary stood from behind the counter when her boss walked in. "What happened?" she asked.

"Call his parents," the principal ordered without breaking his stride.

But the secretary looked mortified. "Me, sir?"

The principal looked at her. "No, the phone itself. I want the phone to call them. Of course you!"

"But sir." She looked at Duke as if by looking at him she could remind the principal of whom his parents were. "Couldn't you do it, sir?"

The principal realized, in that moment, whose kid he was dealing with. "Oh for crying out loud!" He was annoyed, but he understood her reticence. He didn't force her. He kept on walking to his office. Duke, still nursing his painful fist, followed him.

But the resource officer had no such qualms about who they had on their hands. He hurried into the main office, seemingly gleefully, and made his way to the principal's suite with the unmistakable purpose of arresting Mick Sinatra's son.