My Biker Bodyguard

by Turner, J. R.

  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.