Holly’s mouth tightened. “I’m not fragile, Jake. I won’t break.”
He sighed, afraid he’d explained himself badly, but wanting her to understand. “I don’t think you’re fragile, honey, but you do have a lot on your plate.”
Her brows drew together. “Nothing I can’t handle…” She would have said more, but a quiet knock sounded on the door.
Jenny stood on the threshold with Sam next to her. Jake didn’t like how pale she appeared, her golden eyes wide and shocked.
“She’s a little hoarse,” Sam said in his deep bass. “Saunders choked her. I can’t stay. I still have him in the car. Just wanted to drop Doc first.”
Holly stepped around Jake and pulled Jenny inside. “Come on. We’ll get you fixed and find you a place to rest. You can stay and keep me company when Jake has to leave.”
Holly kicked back into high gear, her arm firmly around Jenny’s shoulders as she led her down the hallway toward the kitchen. He worried about Holly trying to do too much, but it was who she was. Jake could no more stop her nurturing instinct than he could stop…himself.
“Don’t worry about Doc, Sam. We’ll take good care of her until Evan can get here. When it comes to mothering, no one beats Holly. Sure looks like Jenny could use some TLC right now.”
Sam arched a brow. “Holly’s a might young to mother y’all, isn’t she?”
Jake grinned. “You’ll understand once you know her better.”
* * * *
Evan slept very little. He stood at the window of his room as the sun came up. His shirt collar was open and his tie stuffed into his tuxedo jacket. These last few days had shown him he no longer belonged in the house in which he’d spent his childhood. Sam’s car turned into the drive with a crime scene unit behind it and an additional marked patrol car following. Evan hoped that would be where his father would ride, so he would be able to catch a ride to Jenny’s house with Sam.
He wanted this over with. All he really wanted was to concentrate on Jenny and their future, but they first had to shut the door on the past. As the cars halted out front, he ran his fingers through his hair and absently rubbed a hand over beard stubble before he walked downstairs.
“What’s the meaning of this, Sheriff?” Stoner Richardson’s tone was arrogant and affronted. He’d known Sam and Sam’s father. They were neighbors, if not friends, so addressing him only as sheriff was a deliberate slap in the face.
“We have warrants for your arrest in connection with the felony sexual assault on Jennifer Owens twelve years ago.” Sam Barnes’s farm might sit right next door to Richardson Homestead, but right now, he was all business.
Evan stepped forward and removed the papers from his coat pocket. “I also have a search warrant, allowing us to look for additional copies of the DVD which you gave to me last night, and any record of payments made to Jennifer Owens’s father.”
As the deputy cuffed the former Senator, Sam Barnes stepped close to him and said, “Before you say another word, Stoner, I think you should know Mike Saunders was arrested last night for attempted murder at Jenny’s house. He’s spent the rest of the night singing like a canary. Deputies and members of Mountain Meadow’s police department are in the process of arresting six other people in connection with the original crime.”
Sam spoke to his deputy, “Read him his rights and get him out of here before anymore people awaken.” His gaze swiveled to Evan. “You want someone to attend to your mother?”
Catherine Richardson stood at the base of the stairs, her face pale and shocked. “Evan?” she choked. “What’s going on?”
He took her hands as his father was led from the house. “I’m sorry, Mother. I’ll explain everything in a few minutes and help you deal with the guests.” He looked impatiently to where Sam directed his detectives toward Stoner Richardson’s inner sanctum. “I need to speak to the sheriff quickly, and then I’ll be right back.”
Sam stood at the threshold of Stoner’s study when Evan put a hand on his arm. “What’s this about Jenny’s house? Is she all right?”
“Sorry to spring it on you, Evan,” Sam said. “Jenny’s okay. She’s at Jake and Holly’s. I dropped her off as I took Saunders in. Look, once you get stuff squared with your mother, I’ll run you by Jake’s. It’s probably better if she explains it all.”
Evan nodded, concern for Jenny and his mother warring within him. His face was probably as pale and strained as his mother’s but for very different reasons. After he took her into her sitting room he shut the door behind him. This wasn’t going to be easy.
“Did you know about this, Evan?” his mother asked tightly. Always so in control, but this time cracks were obvious in the quiver of her chin that she couldn’t quite hide. Each tremor was like a knife to his heart. He would have spared her this if he could.
“Yes.” He met her gaze calmly.
“You came into our home last night knowing this was going to happen this morning?” She shook her head as if she couldn’t understand it. “Surely you can’t be implicating your father in a rape from twelve years ago? Or any rape. We’re talking about a former United States senator.”
Evan fisted his hands in his pockets. “I am aware of that, but I have to tell you, if I didn’t have very strong evidence, I would never take the step of having my own father arrested.”
“You’re destroying our family!” she snapped. Her normally composed face was even more tightly drawn with the strain of controlling her emotions. He wanted to deny her words, but he had known going in what the results would be.
Evan sighed. “I don’t have a choice. A crime was committed. I’ve seen evidence of it. It’s my duty to see justice is done.”
“You would prosecute your own father?” His mother was incredulous.
“No, Mother. I will recuse myself from the case and request a special prosecutor. But I think it fair to warn you I may be called as a witness.”
Her composure crumbled. “I don’t understand this. You are no son of mine.”
Evan’s gut twisted. He focused on the one good thing that had come out of this whole mess: the restoration of his relationship with Jenny. “I’m sorry you feel that way. I had hoped you and I would be able to salvage something out of this.”
“I notice you don’t mention your father.”
Evan regarded his mother with a cool, even stare. “Stoner Richardson quit being my father the day his actions killed my unborn daughter.” His mother gasped, but Evan refused to acknowledge the shock she’d just received. “Would you like me to help you with your guests?”
She looked at him blankly. “No. You do what you need to, Evan, then leave. I can’t talk about this with you.”
Evan accepted her condemnation with a nod and left the home he’d grown up in. He waited on the front steps, with the collar of his black wool overcoat raised against the December chill. He was cold, but the cold went far deeper than the freezing air; it went to his heart. He was leaving a chaotic mess behind him, but his focus was already shifting. He was impatient to get to Jenny, worried about what had happened after she left last night. Sam said his father was now also implicated in attempted murder. God! Would it never end? All he wanted was to marry Jenny, settle down, and raise the family they should have started years ago.
Another half hour passed before Sam and the other officers reappeared. They carried with them several file boxes, a handful of DVDs, and his father’s computer.
“Hop in, Evan,” Sam said quietly, “you look half-frozen.”
* * * *
Jake processed three of the six suspects through his office, all of them protesting their innocence. They would go over to the courthouse where the county jail was. Mountain Meadow’s police department had only one holding cell, not designed to house anyone for more than an hour or two.
He was empty. He had forced himself to bury his own emotions as he processed the arrests of men with whom he’d grown up. They weren’t just suspects.
They were former classmates, businessmen, and members of a community harboring a lot more secrets than he’d ever suspected.
The situation with Jenny and Evan, begun so many years earlier, was affecting him in a way he’d never expected. Coming home had seemed like returning to a sanctuary, a place where he could hide from the horrors of his last years in the Middle East. Now he understood, Mountain Meadow had problems as serious as any area. He’d just been lucky so far.
All he wanted was Holly. He wanted to touch her and be warmed by her love and her optimism. At a time when it was almost impossible to believe in the goodness of man, he needed her faith in her adopted town. She made him clean. She made everything clean. And she believed when doubts consumed him.
After making sure they were read their rights, Jake swept his gaze over them. “Gentlemen, I advise you to say nothing else until you’ve talked to your attorneys.”
He spoke to Officer Brandt. “Call over to the jail, see if we can bring them over.”
“Jake,” Bob Summers called. “Surely you’re not going to walk us through the square…”
Jake spun on him but then forced himself to relax. Innocent until proven guilty, that was the law.
“We’ll walk you around back.”
All three heaved a sigh of relief, but Jake wondered how long that would last once court proceedings actually began.
Once the call was made and the jail said they were ready, Jake helped Brandt walk the suspects over to their new temporary homes. He was silent as they returned to the station. He glanced at the clock. His weekend off, and it had turned into a series of arrests he’d never forget. He needed Holly, needed to feel her innate goodness.
“I’m headed home, Brandt. Call me if there’s any problem and you can’t reach Ernie.”
He had just turned into the driveway when his cell phone rang.
“Jake! It’s Evan. How’s Jenny?”
“I’m just getting back. When I left this morning, she was more pissed than scared, but that could be a front. She needs you. Are you about wrapped?”
“Sam’s giving me a lift there now.”
“See you in a few minutes then. Jenny will be relieved. I’m not sure she slept all night.”
Jake saw the relief on her face when he walked inside and told her he’d just gotten off the phone with Evan. He said gently, “Jen, he’s going to be livid when he sees what Saunders did to your face and throat.”
“I know,” she rasped. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to wait on the front porch for him.”
“Go. I need a cup of decent coffee. When y’all are ready, come in, we’ll eat a big breakfast.”
* * * *
Jenny watched him go inside. She leaned against the porch railing waiting. She was exhausted and at the end of her rope. She had managed to hold it together all night, but she ached for Evan and the warm comfort of his arms. When Sam’s car stopped in front of the house, she was already halfway down the walk before he could get out. Evan shook Sam’s hand before getting out of the car. As soon as he did, he opened his arms to Jenny.
They held each other silently for a heartbeat, and then he eased her away. His eyes darkened as he took in the bruise high on her cheekbone and the bruising along the slender column of her throat. “Ah, Jenny!” His voice was hoarse. “What happened? Why didn’t you call me?”
So much aching regret lay in his voice that tears started to her eyes, but now wasn’t the time. She made her voice as normal as she could.
“He must have followed me. I started to call you, but I was afraid you’d be so angry it would mess up this morning’s arrests.”
He gathered her close and simply held her. She leaned into him, feeling the tension recede. With their bodies touching, they drew strength from each other, as they always had. They stayed that way until Holly called to them.
“Come inside before you freeze! I’ve got coffee, homemade cinnamon rolls, eggs, and bacon.”
Evan tucked Jenny’s hair behind her ears. “That sounds so good. You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten some of those rolls.”
Jenny smiled through her tears. “Breakfast in a tux?”
Evan looked at himself wryly. “It would have been a little difficult to make people believe we’d had a fight if I brought a change of clothing.”
Jenny touched his lean cheek. “Was it bad?”
“You’re worried about me?” Incredulity flooded his expression. “Mike Saunders tried to kill you last night, and you’re worried I had a tough morning?”
He wrapped her in his arms and held her against him so he could plunder her mouth. Jenny, mindless of anything else and needing him desperately, wrapped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life.
“Hey!” Jake yelled from the front porch. “Come inside before the neighbors call to complain. Besides, Holly won’t let me eat until y’all are here.”
* * * *
Jenny and Evan decided attending church would show a united front. The situation would get worse before it got better. At the Baptist church, Jake deftly fielded several questions by letting everyone know the investigation was really in the hands of the sheriff’s department and the commonwealth’s attorney. Jake had simply assisted.
As Sam said, the shit was really going to hit the fan, and it had already started by the time they went to church. None of the men arrested had been members at either the Baptist church or the Presbyterian church, but it seemed almost the entire congregation knew several men were behind bars, including former Senator Stoner Richardson and Mountain Meadow’s current mayor, Mike Saunders.
Not until afternoon did Evan and Jenny finally have a chance to talk. He handed her a glass of wine and sat next to her on the couch. His long, sensitive fingers gently brushed her throat.
“Tell me about it, Jenny.”
“I went to my house as we discussed, but I was feeling restless, so I changed clothes and ran a couple of miles on the treadmill. It didn’t help. I just had a gut feeling something wasn’t right. I sat in the den to watch a movie when I saw his reflection on the screen. I managed to dodge the first blow, but before I could get away he grabbed me and started choking me.”
Evan put his arm around her shoulders. “Did you know it was Mike?”
Jenny shook her head. “He wore a stocking cap. I started to freeze, but then…well, I just got mad, you know? I thought no way was I going to be a victim again. I tried kicking him in the knee, but I missed and hit his shins. Well that just made him angry, and he hit me in the cheekbone.”
“How did you get loose?”
“I jammed the heel of my hand into his nose. He let go long enough I was able to grab hold of the big geode on my table and hit him alongside the head with it.”
Evan smiled at her as he stroked her cheek. “I wish I could have seen that. It helps me, helps the anger I’m feeling to know he probably looks a whole lot worse than you do.”
Jenny grinned. “Oh, he does. I bloodied his nose and his head.”
Evan leaned over and kissed her, then met her golden eyes insistently. “There’s more, though, isn’t there?”
Jenny wrapped her arms around her bent knees. “When I pulled the cap off his face, it all came back Evan.”
“What do you mean it all came back?”
Jenny swallowed. “He was there, twelve years ago. And I remembered all of it.”
Evan was nonplussed. “Mike? The night you were gang-raped? I never saw him, and he’s not in the video…” He stopped. “Son of a bitch. He was the one shooting it, wasn’t he?”
“Yes. But he participated, too, Evan. He was the first.”
God, he wanted to kill him. Evan pulled her onto his lap and cuddled her against him. His hands stroked the back of her head and rubbed her shoulders and back. “Everything feels so tarnished. Here we are at what should be one of the most joyous times of the year and we’re dealing with this.” He paused. “Did you tell Sam?”
“Yes. He’s getting additional warrants so he can go through Mike’s house. He’s hoping he might have been arrogant enough to hang onto the original videotape.” Jenny nestled her cheek against Evan’s broad chest. “What about you? Are you okay?”
His hands tightened on her for an instant. “My mother didn’t take it well. She told me to do what I had to do and get out.”
“Oh, Evan.” Jenny stroked his cheek. As much as he tried to hide it, she saw the hurt and disillusionment in his face. “How much of the legal proceedings will take place before Christmas?”
“Not much. With the holidays, it’s likely only the arraignments and referral of the case to a grand jury will happen. But the press will have a field day with it. And I don’t just mean locally, honey. Dad’s name alone will probably draw national attention. Are you ready?”
“With you next to me, I can do anything.”
He kissed her again, his mouth hard and passionate. They were both desperate for reassurance, for validation what they were doing was the right thing for everyone. Their kisses and caresses grew more heated, until Evan carried her up the stairs to the big master bedroom. Afternoon faded to evening as they touched and kissed and finally came together, arousing and then soothing each other’s emotions until they fell asleep, emotionally and physically spent, in each other’s arms.
Chapter 14
“Oh for heaven’s sake!” Jake exclaimed, smacking the palm of his hand against his forehead when he saw the two ministers walk into the station the following morning. “It’s my fault. The shepherds and their sheep are gone, right? And I promised to put on extra patrols to watch over them at night.”
“It’s okay, son,” Reverend Calloway said. “We understand you can’t be everywhere at once. And you did have a few other pressing matters to attend to.”
“I feel rotten about this. Let’s take a look. Maybe they will have left some clue.” After grabbing his cap, Jake glanced at Ernie. “I’ll be back in a little while.”
Special Delivery (Mountain Meadow Homecoming 1) Page 22