I really need to talk to my dad, is he there?"
"Well, first you gotta fill me in. Did they catch that
bastard yet?"
She plucked at the bedspread. J.D. hated talking on the
phone and rarely did more than greet and grunt. Was he stalling? Maybe he just missed her too. "Yes, they caught Grady. And my mom came out of her coma. I got to meet her
today."
"That's great, kid." J.D. sounded distracted now. "What
did she say–you know about all the stuff that happened?" "Not much." She stood, and rubbed the knots in her neck
and shoulders. "Listen, J.D., are you gonna get my dad or
not?"
In his silence she could hear laughter and a few loud and
deep guffaws that could only come from Tiny. Relief swept
through her. If there had been something really the matter, no
one would be hanging out in the parlor and joking around.
"J.D.?"
"Yeah, I'm here." J.D. cursed. "Look, he was expecting
your call earlier, he almost didn't go tonight, afraid this would
happen."
"Go?" She gripped the phone tighter. "Where did he go?
Why was he afraid I'd call?"
"I told him he shoulda told you weeks ago." J.D. swore
again. "Dan's a good guy, but he's too damned tight-lipped.
Look at the mess he's got me into now. I gotta be the one to
tell ya."
"Tell me what for cryin' out loud?" Jess kept from yelling
at him, but just barely.
"You remember Diane, from Sturgis '05?"
"The one with the leather shop?"
"Yeah, that's her. That's who he's with."
"Is that all?" Her dad was out on a date? She uttered a
giddy laugh. "Don't scare me like that. I thought you were
gonna tell me he was back to fencing again, or worse. Why
would you be afraid to tell me that?"
"Well," J.D. chuffed like a horse. "I don't know. Dirty
Dan didn't know what you'd think of him maybe bringing in a
step-ma or something, I guess."
Jess remembered how she'd cringed at the idea of another
woman in charge of the house and shop. How much had
changed in such a short time. "I'm happy for him, J.D. Maybe
I might have gotten upset before, but not anymore." "Things changing all around, ain't they?" He sounded
nostalgic, as if she were already gone.
"Maybe, but I'm coming home soon. I miss everyone."
Jess sat again on the edge of the bed, overwhelmed. "Give
everyone my love. Tell Dad the good news about Grady and
my mom. I'll call again tomorrow."
"Okay, Jess. You take care of yourself." J.D. paused.
"We…we're not quite the same without you, y'know." "I know. I love you too, J.D." She hung up.
Jess glanced at the clock. How could it only be 6:30 in the
evening? The long hours of the night stretched before her.
Hours full of waiting and worrying, despite Mitch's order not
to. The ticking of the clock grew louder and louder as she
watched the second hand pass by each Roman numeral. Each tick was the cocking of a gun aimed at Mitch's head,
each tock was a coffin lid slamming shut. When the
metronome of anxiety grew too large, she jumped off the bed
and headed for the stairs. Jared could help pass the time.
Better than being stuck alone with her imagination.
* * *
Larson used his dash light and sped through traffic,
weaving in between cars with an expertise that left Mitch
feeling comfortable in the passenger seat. Not an easy feat. "The bastards didn't even tell me they'd pinpointed his
location." Larson buzzed around a rust-bucket Toyota. "I hate
that. Bad things happen that way. Lack of communication.
When will they ever learn?"
"Probably never," Mitch held onto the door grip as Larson spun the wheel to turn into the service entrance at LAX. "At least they're bringing you in to charge him with old man
Weston's murder."
"Yeah, like that'll make a difference now. Once the Fed's
are done with him, there won't be much left for the rest of us."
Larson grunted. "Might as well have stayed home, 'cept I want
the satisfaction of nailing this coward."
Coward was exactly the word. Grady had to hire someone
else to do his dirty work, couldn't afford to get his hands
bloody. Good thing the law didn't see it that way, or more
jerks like Grady would get away with murder every day. Larson flashed his badge a few dozen times as they
maneuvered through security check points. They pulled up
beside the Fed's government vehicles and surveyed the as yet
empty runway. Larson pointed. "Mordstrom and Davis." Mitch followed Larson's finger and saw the two agents
standing side by side, their ties whipping in the wind from a
helicopter a short distance away. Obviously they had flown in
to take custody of Grady when the plane landed. Mitch started
to get out and Larson opened his door when the cell phone
attached to the dash chirped.
Larson lifted the phone from its cradle. "Yeah." Mitch heard the squawk of the caller without getting any
sense of the words, then Larson sent him a look that turned his
guts to ice. Something was seriously wrong.
"When?" Larson asked, pulling shut his door and settling
back into the seat as he listened. "Who else knows?" Mitch was dying to ask what was going on. His fingers
worked the door grip. Jess. It had something to do with Jess.
There was another hit after all and although Pullman and his
team were in charge, Mitch needed to be there. Right now. "We're on our way." Larson hung up the phone and
turned to him. "That was my captain. Mrs. Kramer
remembered what happened."
"What?" Mitch didn't recognize his own voice. "It was Jared." Larson spat his name like a bad taste.
"Jared shot her. It was him all along."
A lion of fear reached into Mitch's chest and shredded his
heart. Here was the pain he'd uncovered, here was the punch
he hadn't felt since his mother died. "Jess is alone with him." "I'll take you back right now. The captain's already
informing the FBI." Larson turned over the ignition and slung
the car into reverse.
Mitch couldn't wait forty minutes in a car, and opened his
door. Adrenalin rushed into his mind, chilling his thoughts,
turning them cold and ready to react. Like in the ring when the
guy in the other corner might defeat him. He went into the
zone for Jess.
"Where are you going?" Larson called across the seats. "The fastest way back." Mitch pulled his pistols, one at a
time, flicking off the safeties as he strode toward the helicopter. * * *
Jess found Jared in his office, his hand on the phone, a
strange look on his face. It crossed her mind he could have
listened in on her call home. Even if he had, it wouldn't
account for his expression. "Anything wrong?"
He jerked his hand off the phone and looked up. "Jess,
you startled me."
She crossed to his desk and stood uncertainly behind the
adjacent chair, thoughts of her mother falling back into a coma
tightening the already knotted and sore muscles across her
shoulders. "You look upset, did something happen?" "Sort of." He said it in a way that implied a lot more than
sort of.<
br />
"Is it about my mother?" She didn't want to pry, but
considering the history of secrets revolving around anything to
do with her mother, she couldn't trust to be told the truth. "About your mother?" His gaze slowly focused on her
face. "Your mother."
The last was uttered with such venom and anger that she
forced herself not to step back. "What's going on?"
"Your mother," he repeated and stood. "She hasn't been
your mother for a decade." Face turning red, the cords
standing out on his neck, he shouted, "She's MY wife!" Appalled, she did step back. What is going on? What did
I say? Why is he so angry with me? "I'm sorry, Jared, I didn't
mean–"
"You didn't mean, you didn't mean," he mimicked with
high-toned sarcasm. "You come into my home and turn her
against me. You come here, uninvited and think you can take
her away from me."
He rounded the desk, his hands balled in fists.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Astonished,
Jess tried to understand what happened. What was he saying? "You know exactly what I mean." Jared kept advancing,
poking an accusing finger at her. "Just like everyone else. Just
like the Ladies League and her AA buddies. Just like
everyone, you come in here and think you can fill her head
with crap, turn her against me."
Jess back-stepped again, her pulse thrumming with sudden
fear. Anger blackened his features, revealed the whites of his
eyes. Her mind raced, grasping images, fitting them together in
a collage of horrible realizations.
The empty hospital room. No flowers, no gifts, no
visitors. Her mother had no friends. Mitch's uncertainty that
Grady was guilty. Jared's eagerness to bring Beth home. His
strange behavior when Beth told him to leave the room. All
those odd moments she now saw as jealousy.
Oh how wrong she'd been. She'd thought they were a sign of his love, now she understood better. It was a sign of his obsession. She reached the wall, her back pressed painfully
against the corner of a framed painting. "What did you do?" "I did what I had to." He stopped, going still, lips in a
hard firm line, eyes cast downward. "I didn't care about the
money. I never did. Beth doesn't understand I can't live
without her, and she can't live without me."
He raised his eyes, the hot glare returning. "She was
determined to see you after her father died. I kept some of her
letters from getting to you. I tapped the phones and found out
she was calling her ex, that bum you call father. She was
gonna leave me for him. For you!"
He grabbed her arms in a punishing grip and shook her so
hard, her head hit the wall.
"No…" Jess cried, pushing at his chest. He'd tried to kill
her, had almost killed her mother. The world was ripped out
from beneath her feet again, that sense of sliding darkened her
thoughts. "You tried to kill her!"
"Yes," he said, face collapsing with grief, his grip
loosening. "I would have joined her, if Mitch hadn't
interfered."
Grasping the opportunity, Jess leapt to the left, breaking
out of his grip, and dashed for the door. Hand on the knob, she
yanked hard.
His hand twisted in her hair. "Not so fast."
Her scalped screamed and she cried out.
"There's no where for you to go." Jared pulled her further
back into the room.
Back arched, one hand trying to ease his grip on her hair,
the other waving for balance, she tried to keep up with his
pace. Eyes stinging with tears, she searched for a weapon, any
kind of weapon. Her hand found the arm of the chair in front
of his desk and pulled. Too heavy to lift. "Don't do this." He dragged her over the desk, her back sliding over the
stapler, the pen holder, her body sending the small lamp
crashing to the floor. The searing burn of her hair overtook all
the small digs and scrapes in her back. Her fingers curled
around a dislodged pen.
With a shout of outrage and fear, she stabbed it deep into
the hand holding her hair. Instantly he cried out and released
her. Without a backward glance, she hopped to her feet and
ran for the door. In the hall she dashed for her room, and the
Glock in her bedside drawer.
Heart pounding blood into her ears, a high-pitched cry
locked in her throat, she kept going, despite the tears in her
eyes. Why hadn't she seen it sooner? Why didn't she notice
Jared's strangely selfish reasons for wanting Beth to be all
right?
"Stop!" Jared shouted behind her, startlingly close. She screamed and burst into her room, slamming the door
behind her and locking it. She launched herself across her bed
and opened the drawer as Jared slammed into the door with a
bellow of a rage. The door and lock held, but she didn't know
how long it would. Fumbling inside the drawer, she found the
butt of the Glock and pulled it out.
Holding the weapon in front of her, she backed into the
corner and lifted the phone. Jared hit the door again, the sound
of splintering wood loud beside her heavy breathing. She
dialed Mitch's cell quickly, but it went straight to voice
message. No one else she could call, knew to call. She dialed
911 and dropped the phone as the door cracked. The police
wouldn't get to her before he got through the door.
Oh God, I'm gonna have to shoot him.
The door flew open with Jared's next kick. He stepped
into the room, his eyes wild, his face a mask of hatred. He
stopped when he saw the gun.
"Don't come any closer." She raised the muzzle, aiming at
the center of his chest. "I'll shoot you. I mean it."
He studied her, hands on his hips, for a long moment.
"You don't want to shoot me, Jess."
She nodded. "You're right. I don't want to shoot you. So
don't come any closer."
He took a step forward. She started pressing the trigger.
"I mean it. Stop where you are."
Hands up in the air, showing her they were empty, he said,
"I'm not armed, Jess. You can't shoot down a man in cold
blood. I know you too well for that."
"You don't know me at all." She stepped closer to him
now, the adrenalin rushing through her at a dizzying pace. Her
stomach ached. "Or you wouldn't test me."
"What are you going to do, then, Jess?" he asked, lowering
his hands and leaning against the high post of her bed. He put
his hands in his pockets and regarded her with a sly look. "Do
you plan on tying me up? That's going to be difficult one
handed."
"We can stand here like this until Mitch gets back." She
stepped forward again, just out of arms' reach. "If you try
anything, anything at all, I won't hesitate."
A hint of his rage returning curled his lip into a sneer. "A
lot can happen between then and now, Jess. Why don't you just
put the gun away and we can work this out."
"Like you wanted to work it out in your office." Her voice
rose on a great mushroom cloud of rage. "Like you worked it
out by shooting my mother?" She st
epped forward, pointing
with the muzzle of the gun, her throat straining on every
shouted word. "Like you worked it out when you hired men to
kill me and my family?"
"No, Jess, just you, not your family." He smiled.
"Without you, your father's nothing to me, and he's nothing to Beth. Although it helped keep the FBI looking for Grady. Kept them thinking about the money instead of what's
important. Like the loyalty of a wife."
Jess started to understand, to see better now. "She was
going to leave you because she found out you killed her
father?"
He straightened. "That's none of your business." "I think it is." Jess followed him with the weapon. "Stand
still."
"Or what?" His eyes glittered. "You'll call for help?" "Yes, and Pullman and the security guards will come
running and then you'll be sorry." She doubled her grip on the
gun. "If you don't stop moving, I swear to God, I will shoot
you."
"Pullman can't help you, no one can. I told them to go
home, take a break, that Grady had been caught and they
deserved the rest of the night off. They should be leaving right
now, if they haven't already."
"You're lying." The security couldn't all be gone. No
way. Even if the threat was over, these types of estates kept a
few on duty, didn't they? "You'd never dismiss them all in one
night."
He shrugged. "That's true enough. I kept one man on the
gate, but he'll never hear you scream."
She shivered, her hands jerking wildly. The worst part
was that she believed him, that Pullman and his crew really
would have taken a break tonight. A night to celebrate. Only
she didn't feel much like celebrating herself right now. Footsteps landed in the hall and she glanced in that
direction, keeping her aim on Jared. Before she knew he'd
moved, Jared grabbed her hand and twisted to the side. The
gun fired and he forced her back.
"What the hell's going on?" Pullman asked from the door
as they fell, Jared on top of her, onto the bed.
"It's Jared!" Jess screamed, fighting him for control of the
Glock.
"Mr. Kramer?" Pullman queried, as he came in the room. Jared's fist landed across her cheekbone and ear and the
world went very quiet. Dimly, she heard Pullman shout and
then the report of the gun. As she drifted in a dazed quagmire
of confusion, she knew Jared had won. She braced herself for
the bullet he'd surely put in her brain.
My Biker Bodyguard Page 20