by J. M. Witt
“Alright, I think that’s everything.” Dad was bagging up some of the stray wrapping paper as everyone was looking over their gifts and chatting.
Cal stood up then and asked for everyone’s attention. “I wanted to wait until Christmas, but with everyone we love here, together, I couldn’t wait.” What was he doing?
I looked to Cassidy and she seemed to be in shock. Aunt Bev was beside herself and Mom and Dad seemed surprised as well.
“Jane, I know it’s only been a short time, but when you know you know.” Cal offered his hand to Jane and she reluctantly took it as he pulled her to her feet, in front of everyone. “I love you. No regrets.” He pulled a box out of his pocket and opened it up before taking her left hand in his right. “Jane Evalynn Whitford, will you make me the happiest man and marry me?”
Calvin just put me in the doghouse without even knowing it. These Charles’ sure liked to move fast, with the exception of their Dad. I saw the fear and trepidation written all over Jane’s face. It wasn’t going to go well.
“Calvin, what are you doing?” Jane tried to be discreet, but we were all so close together that it was inevitable to not hear her words. “Cal, please, not here. We have to talk.”
I knew immediately, one hundred percent that something else was going on or had happened with Derek. Jane was hiding something important from Calvin, and from all of us. I momentarily thought about what it could be, but found myself being pulled out of the room by Cassidy.
Nobody spoke once we left the room. I’m sure everyone, like me, was speechless and unsure of what to say. A few moments later I heard a door close and I peered into the room to see Jane alone as she dropped down to sit on the couch.
“Are you okay?” I sat down next to her unsure of where things stood with her and Calvin.
“I just tore out his heart. He doesn’t understand. There are things I haven’t told anyone, not even him, which he needs to know.”
“What things?” And why the fuck hadn’t she told me?
“Things that happened with Derek and the real reasons I came home. Stop looking at me like that. I can’t believe he proposed.”
“You didn’t have any idea?” I knew something was up with Derek. Was she considering going back to him? She shook her head in response to my question.
“I have to get out of here.”
“Jane?” She was in no condition to leave.
“Please, James. Please make sure he’s ok. I just need to be alone. I need to figure out some things. Please.”
“Ok. I’ll go talk to him. Please drive safe.”
“I will.”
We all sat or stood around in an uncomfortable silence for far too long. Calvin was distraught as everyone tried to assure him everything would be alright. With every minute that passed I grew more nervous and I could tell Cal was getting edgy too. He jumped off the couch and I made my way over to him.
“Just save it. I screwed up, I know. It was too much, too fast.”
I put my hands up in defeat, “Chill out. Jane just doesn’t like being the focus of everyone’s attention. She also told me there are things that happened with Derek that she wants to discuss with you. She loves you. She said she’d be back. Have you tried calling her?”
“Yeah. She’s not answering.”
I watched as he seemed to be processing some things before he decided to go after her. I was becoming worried myself that no one had heard from her. Cassidy tried to talk to him before he left, but it was futile. A while later, after Aunt Bev and Uncle John said their goodbyes, I wandered to the kitchen in search of something when I spotted Jane’s cell on the kitchen counter. No wonder she wasn’t answering her phone. She didn’t have it with her.
No longer worried for her privacy, I checked her phone and found several missed calls and voicemails waiting for Jane. She also had several text messages. Pulling up her call log, I became infuriated when I saw over a dozen calls from a number I didn’t recognize. The area code wasn’t a local one.
“What are you doing?” Cassidy came over and tried taking Jane’s phone from me. “Stop going through her phone.”
“Something’s wrong. Give me a minute.”
Cassidy just stood and watched as I scrolled through text after text from Derek. He was hounding her and I didn’t need to listen to her voicemails to guess who they were all from. It was then that my father walked into the room. Cassidy told him what I was up to and he didn’t seem impressed. I scrolled through her text messages again as Dad and Cassidy looked at me like I was a complete jerk.
“Son, Jane will have your head if she finds out you’re invading her privacy.”
As I read the words over and over again I had a pretty damn good idea what was going on. I put Jane’s phone in my pocket and rushed out of the kitchen and toward the front door.
“James, where are you going?”
As I made my way outside and to my truck, Cassidy was yelling at me to tell her what was going on. She stood in front of my door, preventing me from closing it, as I started the truck and buckled in.
“James you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”
“Keep your phone on you. If you don’t hear from me in ten minutes I want you to call the police and send them to Bev’s house.”
“What? Why?”
“Cassidy, please. Ten minutes. Not a second longer. Do you understand?”
“Y,yes, I understand.” She walked away and closed the door as I pulled out of their as fast as I could. I was grateful that Aunt Bev lived as close as she did, but even still it would take me at least five minutes to get there.
Chapter 7 ~Fragile
~ JAMES ~
When I pulled up the drive, the gate open, I spotted Jane’s car, Cal’s truck and another vehicle with California plates. My suspicions were correct. It had to be Derek. It was then evident to me that he was stalking Jane and she was too naïve to say anything about it. I parked the truck and pulled my gun out of the glove box, thankful I had put it in there the day before.
I decided to go in the back door and quickly made my way through to the front of the house. I heard some loud voices, a bang, and dread filled me as I hurried toward the foyer. The next few minutes were a blur. I vaguely remember seeing Derek pulling a screaming and bloodied Jane toward the top of the staircase when I confronted him. He was armed and on higher ground, but I had the training he didn’t. Before I could stop it from happening, he shoved Jane down the stairs and pointed his gun at her. Without any reservations I shot him. He fell back to the floor before he even managed to get a shot off.
My vision became skewed as the bright light of the desert filled my eyes. I was in my fatigues and sweating my ass off. Someone was yelling at me for help and after a moment I followed the voice of my comrade. We performed CPR on a fallen soldier as we waited for help to arrive.
My vision blurred again and I was walking in the foyer of my Aunt’s house trying to console Jane. I watched them wheel Cal into an ambulance while they diligently worked on him. I don’t quite remember making it to the hospital, but once I was there I was back in reality. I demanded Jane get herself checked out.
The horror of the things that came from her mouth, while I was in the examining room with her, had me completely nauseated. If I had any idea what had been going on with her and Derek he never would’ve seen the light of day.
At Jane’s insistence, I left to go check on Cal. I stepped outside briefly and when the cold winter air hit me I knew I was going to lose it. Rushing toward some shrubbery, I hurled the contents of my stomach to the ground. How was it possible that Jane lived with such horrible things happening to her? If anyone ever hurt Cassidy the way Jane had been hurt, he wouldn’t survive the beating I would dish out. When the heaving stopped I made my way inside and found Cassidy and everyone else as we waited on news of Calvin.
~ CASSIDY ~
We waited in the waiting room for hours, all sitting silently, desperate for any news on Cal. Over and over we were told som
eone should be out soon. Cal’s prognosis wasn’t good. We knew it was bad, but I refused to let him leave me. The police gave us enough details for us to know that Cal and James had saved Jane’s life, but not before Derek had put a bullet in my brother. We were told that Derek was also in surgery, but that he too wasn’t expected to survive.
I was sitting with my father, watching James console Jane, when the doctors came out and asked for my brother’s family. My father, Lisa and I walked into the room they guided us to and I assumed Jane would be right behind me. I couldn’t take my eyes off the two doctors who looked to us and began talking in words I didn’t understand.
“So he made it through surgery?” I was numb and unable to vocalize anything, but I recognized my father’s voice and the question he asked.
“He did. He’s very fragile and the next twenty four hours will be touch and go. He’s on a ventilator, but we’re hoping to take him off of it soon.”
I burst into tears as my father and Lisa wrapped me in their arms. Calvin was alive. He made it through surgery. As I wiped my tears away and looked to Jane, I realized she wasn’t in the room with us. My father shook hands with the doctors and they told us a nurse would be with us soon to take us up to see Cal. My father and Lisa followed the doctors out of the room and back into the waiting room.
“He made it.” My father’s voice echoed through the room as my eyes searched for James.
I found him standing in the corner and realized that it was the same corner he left me in the night of Holly’s shooting. I threw my arms around his neck as I buried my face in his shoulder. Unable to contain my tears, he held me tight as I mourned for Holly once more and rejoiced that my brother was alive.
“Where’s Jane?”
“I thought she was with you.”
We let go of each other and scanned the room looking for Jane. “Oh no, James. She wasn’t in there with us. She doesn’t know he’s alive. We have to find her.”
“I’ll find her.” He kissed my forehead before leaving the room in search of Jane.
It wasn’t very long before a nurse took my father, Lisa and I up to ICU. We stood outside his room and watched as the nurses and doctors got Cal set up in his room. Except for the breathing tube invading his mouth, the IVs sticking out of his arms, and the bandages covering his chest he looked like he was asleep, not a care in the world. Once we were allowed in his room, I laid my hand on his forehead as a tear fell on to his cheek. Gently, I wiped it away before I kissed his cheek.
Leaning into his ear I whispered, “Don’t you dare leave me Cal. You’re strong and you can survive this, you already have.” I took a seat as my father hovered over him and professed his love to his only son.
I needed to stretch my legs and decided to go for a walk to call James. I was worried that he hadn’t found Jane yet and was becoming concerned for both of them. When I made it to the nurse’s station I spotted both James and Jane arguing with the nurse on duty. The nurse was bitching about the number of guests allowed as I pulled them to an adjoining lobby.
I explained everything to them as best I could. The relief that washed over Jane was visible. I was relieved that she was okay, but angry too. I wanted answers on how this all happened, but knew that it wasn’t the time or place.
“Can I see him?” She asked hesitantly.
“Yes, I’ll put you on the list. They’re constantly checking his vitals, but it shouldn’t be a problem.” I walked back over to the desk and spoke with the nurse. “They’re both family. Please add them to the list.” The nurse looked to me and conceded to my request.
Jane went to his room and I went and sat next to James in the lobby. His head was resting in his hands and I looked to the window to see the sun was up and had been for a while. It had been one of the longest nights of my life. I wrapped an arm around his back and placed my head on his shoulder. He jumped at my touch, but when he made eye contact with me he pulled me into his lap. We didn’t speak only held on to one another. The exhaustion flooded me and soon we were both asleep in the waiting room.
~<>~<>~<>~
The next couple of days were extremely stressful. Dad and I spent most of the days with Calvin and Jane took the nights. Cecily gave me a few days off work; Lena was covering for me, and tomorrow was Christmas. Calvin was still in a coma, but they’d removed the ventilator that morning. The doctors couldn’t say when or if Calvin would wake up, but I knew he would. I just prayed it was soon. I hadn’t seen much of James given the circumstances and didn’t really have the time to think about it.
Dad, Lisa, Jane and I spent Christmas morning with Calvin. We hoped that he would wake but there was no such luck. It became increasingly frustrating and I had to return to work and so did Jane. The longer Cal remained in a coma the worse we presumed his prognosis would be.
The morning after Christmas I went to work and stopped in at the hospital to check on Cal after I was done for the day. Jane walked in as I was heading out. We exchanged hugs. She had to get back to work tonight as well, and was stopping in a couple of hours before her shift began. We stood at the end of his bed, both of us just staring at him. The prayers were running rampant through my mind and I’m sure it was the same with Jane. She squeezed my hand and we didn’t need to acknowledge the tears that fell down both of our faces.
When I got outside, Smith was waiting for me. Ever since the night of the incident at my office, I was never alone, except when I slept and even then there was a bodyguard parked out front. I was back to staying at my place, with Smith, Ryan, or some other guy James had employed, standing guard. I had yet to get my car back with all the madness that had filled our days. I texted James on the drive home, aching for his presence. I wasn’t sure if he was keeping his distance or what. Of course things with his mother were always at the forefront.
“Smith, how’s Eva? Has there been any change?”
He eyed me out of the corner of his eye and shook his head. “No, nothing new. Not any better, but doesn’t seem to be any worse.”
I simply nodded before asking, “Does he seem okay? Something seems off.”
“You’ve all been through quite a lot the past week.”
It was then that it dawned on me that I hadn’t heard or inquired about Derek. I didn’t know whether he was alive or dead. “Derek?” His name was a whisper as it left my lips. My phone buzzed then and I found a response from James. He was at the office still and had no intention of leaving any time soon. The exaggerated sigh that left my mouth had Smith eyeing me again.
“Please tell me I’m not a fool, Smith. Who’s the friend he has all these meetings with?”
He chuckled and said, “No need to worry. Just an old Army buddy, a male buddy.”
“Army? What are you talking about?”
He looked to me, alarm written all over his face. “He served in the Army. You didn’t know?”
“What?” I was completely baffled. I knew he went to West Point, but he said he dropped out. I just assumed that was the end of it. Why would he keep that from me?
“You should talk to him about it. It’s not my story to tell.”
“Well he certainly doesn’t think it’s a story worth telling me.” I looked to him again and knew immediately there was quite the story to tell. “You served with him didn’t you?”
“Yup. He saved my life, more than once.” I balked at him. “I’m not telling you anymore.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes longer. “Take me to the office.”
He didn’t object and took the exit to downtown. We rode up in the elevator together and I heard the voices coming from his office. I recognized the skank’s voice the minute I heard it. I was briefly aware of Smith cursing as I stormed into James’ office.
James and Melissa were sitting at the small table, carryout containers scattered across the table. The smile that spread across her face had me ready to spit nails. James jumped to his feet and made his way toward me.
“Don’t you dare!” I stepped back
from him and around the chair Melissa sat in, the table now separating us.
“We were just catching up on old times like I told you we would.”
“Melissa, knock it off.” He seemed irritated, but how was I to know what or who about. Irritated that I interrupted or irritated that he got caught?
“Get out!” She looked at me and scoffed. If she was surprised at my not so polite request, I couldn’t give a shit.
“Melissa, I need you to leave.” She gaped at him before she snatched up her purse.
“Call me and we can discuss that matter further.” She chirped as she walked out of his office. James shut the door after she left, leaving the two of us alone in his office.
“Cassidy…”
“What matter? What could you possibly have to discuss with her?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Well make it uncomplicated and fucking tell me.” He began circling the table to get closer to me and I followed suit in order to leave distance between us. “Is this who and what you’ve been spending all your time with? I’ve been going through hell this last week and you’ve been nowhere in sight.” I had backed myself into a corner, unknowingly, as his frame began to tower over me. “All I needed this week was you. And you’ve been here with her.”
“It’s not like that, Blackbird. I promise.” He tried to stroke my face, but I turned away from him. “She’s helping me with Dan.”
That got my attention. “What? What do you mean?”
“Melissa and Dan have always been close. I’m hoping I can convince her to help me figure out what the hell he’s up to. He came after you, may have been involved with your mother’s death and with his uncles.”
“Dan didn’t come after me. What are you talking about?”
“At your office last week.”