by Stella Moore
“Yes. Can I call you back in a little while?”
“Yeah. See if she’ll talk to us. I’ll call back in thirty minutes.”
“Love you, too.” Setting the phone down, she turned back to Claire.
Chapter 34
“What’ve we got?” Jack demanded as soon as Daniels ended the call.
“We know it’s a woman. You said you have her schedule?”
“I do, but I don’t have names. Her receptionist would.”
Daniels nodded. “Make the call.”
As if on cue, Jack’s phone rang and Nancy’s number appeared on the display. “Meyers,” he answered.
“Jack? It’s Nancy, Melissa’s receptionist? I think she might be in trouble.”
He looked over and locked eyes with Daniels, who raised an eyebrow in a silent question. “Why do you think that?”
“Someone called me to come pick up my daughter, but I’m at the school now and they swear they have no idea what I’m talking about.”
“Who is her two o’clock?”
“Claire Dawson,” Nancy answered immediately. “Tall blonde, very pretty. Somewhat regular but this is her first appointment in about two months. Why? Do you think she hurt Dr. French?”
“We don’t know. I need you to get back here ASAP in case we need anything else from you.”
“On my way.”
Ending the call, he stalked back over to Daniels. “Her appointment was with a Claire Dawson. Blonde and pretty, so I’m told. Do we have eyes yet?”
“Almost. Thanks for the info, but I need you to take several steps back. You're making my men nervous, detective,” Daniels said before turning back to the laptop he was working on.
Jack stalked back to where Eric was leaning against the passenger door of the car. “Any luck?” Eric asked.
“No. They're trying to get a visual. They talked to her. She's safe, for now. And we know who the woman is that has her.”
“That's something. She's smart, man. Probably smarter than all of us put together. If anyone can talk down a crazy person, it's her.”
Jack closed his eyes and rolled his neck to relieve some of the tension that was just sitting there like a rock. “I'll kill the bitch if she hurts Melissa.”
“I know. Want some help?”
Jack simply stared at him. Before he could answer, a commotion broke out among the hostage team and Daniels waved him over.
“We've got a visual.” He locked eyes with Jack. “She has a knife.” Jack let out a string of profanity as terror sliced through him. “Right now, they're about two feet away from each other, which is way too close for comfort. We're going to try and take the building, but we'll need to get her away from the knife. Detective,” he waited for Jack to refocus on him, “I need you to trust the team going in. You can't interfere or you'll fuck it all up and we'll lose her. Can you hold?”
It was a bitter pill to swallow, but Jack nodded. He left the team to their preparations and returned to the car to fill Eric in.
“They’ll get her, man. This is what they do. Just have faith,” Eric said, giving Jack’s shoulder a comforting squeeze.
Before Jack could answer, Daniels waved him over again. “The team is just about ready. From what we can tell, your woman’s doing an excellent job holding her off. She still has the knife, but she doesn't appear to be acting aggressively towards the doc at the moment. I'm going to call once the team is in place, and hopefully get her to the window, with the desk between them. You good?”
“Yeah. Just get my woman out of there.”
The wait for the team to get in place outside her office was agonizing. He knew they had to be quiet, which meant moving more slowly than he would have liked. Finally, they got the signal that the team was stationed outside her door and Daniels dialed her cell again.
“Dr. French? I need you to listen very carefully and do exactly as I say.”
Chapter 35
Melissa's cell rang again, and this time they both jumped a little at the sudden intrusion.
“May I?” she asked, gesturing towards her desk.
“Geez, he’s a little possessive, huh? Does he call you like this all the time?”
Melissa smiled as though she were about to share a juicy secret. “Sometimes. He likes to know he can reach me whenever he wants to. It’s a little sexy, don’t you think?”
Claire giggled. “It is. Go ahead,” she said, waving the knife carelessly.
“Hello,” she answered, turning her back on Claire.
“Dr. French? I need you to listen carefully and do exactly as I say.”
Fear settled like dead weight in her gut. Something was different about this call.
“Yes, sir?” she asked.
“Can you move to the window? I need you to put the desk between you and Dawson. We're coming in.”
“Just a second, let me get a pen.” She walked around the side of the desk and had almost reached the window before Claire called her name.
“What are you doing?”
She turned back to Claire and sent her what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “Jack needs me to pick up some things on my way home. I just need to make a quick list and then I’m all yours.”
“Oh. Okay. Go ahead.”
When Melissa reached the other side of her desk, she breathed a silent sigh of relief. She opened a drawer and plucked out a pen and a pad of paper, then turned to the window.
As soon as she did, the door to her office burst inward and what seemed like dozens of armed men swarmed the room. Within seconds, Claire was in handcuffs.
“You bitch!” she screamed as they hauled her out the door. “You tricked me! I'll kill you!”
Shaken, Melissa allowed herself to be escorted down the stairs to a waiting ambulance. While she was being examined, Jack seemed to appear out of nowhere.
“Can you give us a minute?” she asked the medic.
“Actually, I think we're done here. No injuries and you're not shocky. I'd recommend having someone stay with you tonight, though,” the young EMT chirped cheerfully.
“Got it covered,” Jack said, his eyes never leaving her face. When they were alone, he reached out and cupped her cheek with his hand. “Scared me.”
She gave a shaky laugh. “It wasn't a picnic for me, either, detective. What happens now?”
“Now there's paperwork and interviews and briefings and then more paperwork. Then, the bitch goes away for a long time if I have my say.”
He wasn't wrong, at least about the interviews and the paperwork. By the time they stumbled into bed in the wee hours of the morning, they were both too exhausted to even be bothered to change. They simply fell into bed together and dropped into sleep.
The next morning, Melissa woke before him, which was a rare occurrence. She watched him sleep for a few minutes, and contemplated waking him. Deciding against it, she instead showered and dressed in a pair of leggings and an oversized t-shirt. She didn't bother with underwear, as she figured it wouldn't be necessary after Jack awoke. In the kitchen, she started a pot of coffee, and she had just taken the first sip when Jack walked in.
At home, he poured himself a cup and turned to study her as he drank.
“Morning,” she said. She wondered if the elephant in the room with them was red, like her bottom was going to be later.
“How're you feeling?” he asked, still watching her.
Definitely red. Maybe with darker red polka dots. “Better than last night. Did you sleep well?” The red, polka dotted elephant was sucking up all the oxygen in the room. She wished Jack would just come out with it.
“I did. So, doc,” he sat his mug on the counter and folded his arms across his chest, “care to explain how you ended up locked in your office, completely alone with a woman who wanted to hurt or possibly kill you?”
The elephant exploded, leaving her alone and face to face with her stern-faced lover. “Nancy had an emergency. I couldn't make her stay.” She shifted on the stool and stared into her
coffee cup to avoid making eye contact.
“And you couldn't be bothered to call me or at least send a text?”
She winced. “I meant to. Honest. But then the phone was ringing and I had a patient coming in and I just forgot about it.”
“You just forgot that you were possibly being stalked by some unknown person who was sending you threatening messages?”
The quiet voice set her nerves on edge. “Look, I'm sorry. I screwed up. But it's over so can we please just move past it?”
“Is that what you want?”
The question caught her by surprise. “I, I actually don’t know,” she replied honestly. “I tried to do the right thing, I swear. Look,” she grabbed her phone off the counter and pulled up their text conversation before handing it over. “I started to type out a message to you, but my phone rang in the middle of it. I answered it, thinking I’d send the text after, but then the phone just kept ringing.”
Jack studied her phone quietly for several long, torturous moments before looked up at her. “Okay. I get it, shit happens. I’m not going to punish you.”
Relief flooded her, but it was tinged with an unexpected disappointment. “You’re not?” she asked.
He laughed and shook his head. “No, sweetheart. Not unless you want me to.” He stopped laughing when he caught the look on her face. “Do you want me to, doc?”
“I just, it’s been a really stressful couple of weeks,” Melissa replied softly.
“Then meet me in the living room when you’re done with your coffee.” Jack walked around the island and pressed a kiss to her hair before leaving the kitchen.
Melissa sipped her coffee, contemplating what was about to happen and wondering if she’d lost her mind. He’d given her an out, was going to let her walk away from any kind of punishment. And what did she do? Practically begged him to spank her anyway. When she finished her coffee, she rinsed out the cup and joined him in the living room.
The sight of him sitting on the couch, waiting to spank her had her core clenching with desire. She walked over and stood between his knees.
“Why are you getting this spanking, sweetheart?” he asked softly, taking both of her hands in his.
“Because I need it,” she answered simply.
The corners of his lips lifted up in a small smile. “I will always give you what you need, even if it’s not necessarily what you want. Leggings down and then get over my knee.”
The relief that came now wasn’t marred by any other emotion. She needed to let go of all the stress and worry of the past few days, and this was the only way she knew how. Pushing her leggings to her knees, she lowered herself over his knee.
“Just so we’re clear, you’re not being punished for anything. This is just to help you let go of everything you’re keeping bottled up inside of you. Understand?”
“Yes, I understand.”
With that, Jack lifted his hand and brought it down against her bare skin. Melissa yelped at the sting, though it wasn’t as hard as when he was punishing her. He repeated the action on the opposite cheek and she squirmed a bit over his knee.
He spanked in a steady rhythm, and she began to relax even as the burn in her bottom increased. With each swat, the stress and the pressure of the past few weeks began to melt away. She whimpered when he tilted her forward a bit to concentrate his efforts on the area usually hidden by the curve of her bottom cheeks.
“Ow! Jack, that hurts,” she whined, attempting to wiggle away.
“I know, sweetheart. I need you to let go and then we’ll be done.”
“I am—ouch—letting go! I’m done now, please stop!”
But her pleas only had him tightening his hold on her waist and spanking harder until she felt a familiar pressure building in her chest. She longed for it to break free, to feel that release and just empty herself over his knee. And yet, she fought him, struggling against his hold as he spanked her.
“Let go, doc. Just let go. I’ve got you, sweetheart.”
The pressure in her chest cracked and then shattered, and the tears came freely. She finally stopped struggling, sobbing out all of the fear and the anger and the stress. When he helped her sit up on his lap, she wrapped her arms around him and wept into his neck as he rocked and soothed her.
“Feel better?” he asked when her sobs became sighs and sniffles.
“Yes.” She took a deep breath, relieved to not feel the pressure in her chest any longer. She shifted to ease some of the pressure on her backside and rested her head on his shoulder. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
“Anytime, doc. Why don't you go wash your face and we'll get something to eat.”
“Okay.” She pulled her leggings up and made her way to the bathroom. Once there, she examined her face in the mirror. Her eyes were red and swollen from her crying jag, but other than that, she looked as she always had. It was a wonder to her that she didn’t look any different when she felt like a completely new person.
After washing her face and fixing her ponytail, she left the bathroom. Jack wasn't in the kitchen, so she detoured to the living room, where she stopped dead in her tracks. There, on the couch where Jack had just so thoroughly roasted her bottom, sat her parents.
Chapter 36
“What are you doing here?” Manners had flown out the window. A thousand different emotions battled for supremacy inside her.
“We heard about what happened yesterday, so we came to make sure you were all right.” Her mother seemed to struggle for a moment, then fell silent.
Anger was apparently winning the battle inside Melissa's heart. “I repeat, what are you doing here? You made it clear, both of you, that I am no longer a member of your family. Please leave.”
Color crept up her father’s neck, inching its way to his cheeks. “Don't talk to your mother like that, young lady.”
She let out a short, humorless laugh. “I don't have a mother. Or a father. I'm an orphan.”
“Melissa, please.” The tears glimmering in her mother's eyes shocked her. She'd never in thirty-five years seen her mother cry. Even at funerals, Kathleen French was the picture of sophistication and grace. “We just want to talk.”
Melissa glanced over at Jack, who was silently watching the exchange. It dawned on her that he'd been the one to let them in, and suddenly her fury had a new target.
“I think you should hear them out,” he said before she had a chance to unload on him. “Give them ten minutes.”
To anyone else, it might have sounded like a suggestion, but Melissa knew an order when she heard one. And oh, how it grated. But she'd asked him to take on that role in her life, and that meant obeying even when, or especially when, she'd rather do literally anything else.
“Fine.” She crossed her arms over her chest and returned her attention to her parents. “You have five minutes.” She ignored the warning look Jack gave her.
“We came to apologize,” her father said stiffly. “In our attempt to protect the family name, we may have overreacted a bit.”
The apology was even more shocking than her mother's tears. “May have?”
“Yes, well. We still don't approve of what you did.”
She sighed. “They why the hell did you come here?”
“Because you almost died!” Her mother pushed herself up off the couch and took a step towards her, then back again. “We almost lost you forever and we realized you're more important than our pride.”
The two women stared at each other for several heartbeats. “That's something you should have considered before cutting me out of your life,” Melissa eventually said, swallowing against the tears that threatened. “That was your decision.”
“Doc, can I talk to you for a minute?” Jack stood and grabbed her arm as he walked by, pulling her down the hall to the bedroom. He pushed her in ahead of him and closed the door behind them.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Melissa asked, fury and betrayal churning in her stomach.
“I thi
nk you should give them a chance,” he answered quietly.
“No. Absolutely not.”
Jack studied her, and she got the impression he was weighing his next words carefully. “I could make you.” Indignation rose up, crowding out all the other emotions, but he continued before she could voice her protest. “I could bend you over right now and spank you until you agree. Wouldn't take much, I imagine, on top of the spanking I just gave you. I won't do it, I'm just pointing out that I could.”
“Oh, well, let's all admire your restraint.”
Judging by the look on his face, the sarcastic retort was making him reconsider spanking her into compliance. “Look, I know they did a fucked-up thing. But they're apologizing. Losing someone in a violent manner changes how you see the world. And they came damn close to losing you yesterday. Give them a chance.”
She softened. “Sometimes I forget you lost someone,” she reached up and stroked his cheek, “but I don't know how to forgive them.”
He ran a fingertip down her cheek and tilted her chin up for a kiss. “You don't have to, just yet. Let's go out like we planned and invite them along. If they fuck it all up again, you can cut them out of your life for good. But doc, you only get one set of parents. Don't let them go so quickly.”
“I never wanted to in the first place. That was their decision.” But guilt was starting to eat through the anger.
“I know, sweetheart. And I wanted to kill them for hurting you that way. But they're here now, trying to make it right.”
She sighed. “I'll get dressed. I don't care where we eat, so just pick something.”
He pulled her in for a kiss and his arms around her were a balm to her wounded heart. She dressed and met everyone in the living room a few minutes later.
They ended up at The Bloody Mary, a little out of the way place Eric had introduced them to. The perky little hostess, who she knew to be the owner’s niece, took their drink orders and bounced away. Awkward silence surrounded the table as they studied their menus.