Jenna's Cowboys

by Laura Jo Phillips

  “See now, that’s where you made your mistake,” Peter said. “This ain’t about neither one of you. I don’t give a good ripe shit if you’re ashamed or not. She has a right to know about those fucking condoms, she has a right to hear it from the two of you, and she has a right to rip each of you a new one if that’s what she wants to do.”

  “We’ll tell her, Peter,” Dillon said with a sigh. “It might take a few days to work up the nerve, but we’ll do it. You’ve got my word.”

  Peter hesitated. Then he nodded. If they did as they said, and he had no reason to think either of them would break their word, they’d discover Jenna’s pregnancy on their own. At the very least they could take the financial burden off her shoulders. If they didn’t, then he’d do it himself. He had some cash stashed away and no family other than Cole and Dillon to leave it to and they sure as hell didn’t need it. “Within the week.” Dillon nodded.

  “You’re not really gonna quit on us, are you Peter?” Cole asked.

  Peter shook his head. “Just you two steer clear of me until I cool down.”

  “Sure, Peter,” Dillon said.

  Peter turned around and headed for the barn, surprised to find four of the hands standing just inside the door. They all nodded when he looked up at them. “That was well done, Peter,” Garvis said.

  “You know?”

  “Sure we do,” Garvis said. “Everyone knows. We’ve just been waiting for someone to give those buttheads a nudge in the right direction.”

  “I couldn’t tell them,” Peter admitted.

  “Course not,” Garvis said. “None of us could. This way, none of us will have to.”

  Peter nodded. “Let’s get to work boys.”

  Chapter 7

  Jenna closed and locked the back door of Senses, glad the day was finally over. Ever since meeting Peter Longy the day before over at the diner she’d been nervous and tense, half expecting Cole and Dillon to come storming furiously into the shop at any moment. According to Jack and Hank, Peter said he wouldn’t tell them about her pregnancy. They also said that he wouldn’t break his word. But trusting people didn’t come easy for her. Especially since she wouldn’t blame Peter if he did tell. After all, he’d known Dillon and Cole their whole lives, and had only spoken to her once. It didn’t take a genius to know where his loyalties would lie.

  She climbed the stairs slowly, one step at a time with frequent rests just as Doc insisted even though she felt as though she could have gone much faster. When she reached the top she put her key in the door and turned it, frowning when she realized it was already unlocked. She thought back, wondering if she could have forgotten to lock it, an unlikely occurrence but she wanted to be sure. Her frown deepened when she remembered juggling her morning tea, her keys, and her handbag to lock the door, nearly dropping all three. She also remembered checking it. Her experiences in Oregon had ingrained certain habits deeply within her. She always locked up, and she always double checked afterward.

  Glad that it was still light out even though the sun was fading fast, she reached into her purse and slipped the can of pepper spray out without having to fumble or search for it. She thumbed the safety, then placed her finger on the spray valve before grasping the doorknob, her heart pounding in her chest so hard that it hurt. Just before she turned it she remembered that this wasn’t Oregon, she was pregnant, and her heart was already feeling strained.

  She released the doorknob, stepped back, reached for her cell and speed dialed a number she’d programmed into it on her second day in Sparx.

  “Sheriff’s Office,” a deep, gravelly voice said.

  “Sheriff Luke,” she said, speaking quietly. “This is Jenna James.”

  “What’s wrong, Jenna?” he asked, instantly alert.

  “I just came up to my apartment and the door’s not locked.”

  “Where are you?”

  “On the deck.”

  “Get down the stairs, walk, don’t run, and don’t hang up. I’ll be there in just a minute.”

  “Okay, thanks, Sheriff,” she replied and turned back to the stairs. She began to make her way down them very carefully, trying not to panic even though the squeezing sensation in her chest was already making it hard to breathe.

  She heard the sound of a car door slam through the phone, the sound of an engine starting, then Sheriff Luke’s muffled voice as he told someone to meet him behind Senses. She paused to rest for a few moments, then took another step, struggling to breathe slowly.

  “Is there anything else out of the ordinary?”

  Jenna paused to looked around. “My porch light is off.”

  “It’s not dark yet.”

  “I know, but I have it on a timer. It should have come on ten minutes ago.”

  “Okay, Jenna, I’m turning into the alley now. Can you see me?”

  Jenna looked up the alley and spotted the Sherriff’s SUV moving toward her. “Yes,” she said, relieved.

  “You’re still on the stairs.”

  “It takes me a long time to get up and down.”

  The SUV stopped near her Bronco, then Luke got out, slipping his cell phone into a holster on his belt. He ran up the stairs to where she stood, then paused to look at her for a moment, his forehead creasing in a worried frown. The sound of another vehicle approaching from the other end of the alley reached them and he turned to look.

  “That’s Sal,” he said. “I’m going to pick you up and carry you the rest of the way down these stairs.” Before she had a chance to object he did exactly as he’d said. By the time he set her down at the foot of the stairs his deputy had arrived. Sal parked close to where they stood and got out of his cruiser, his expression curious.

  “I want you to get into the cruiser,” Luke said, opening the back door of Sal’s vehicle. “You’ll be safe here. Don’t get out until one of us comes to get you. All right?”

  Jenna nodded, then offered her keys to Luke. “Just in case you need them.” Luke accepted the keys, then helped her into the vehicle before closing the door. Sal locked it. Then the two of them spoke quietly before drawing their guns and approaching the stairs. Jenna tried to take long slow breaths the way Doc had shown her, trying to calm herself down and ease the pressure on her heart while she waited.

  She heard a muffled shout, then another before both men ran down the stairs, causing her heart to start racing all over again. When they reached the bottom of the stairs they both stopped and waved their arms around, then brushed at their uniforms. A moment later Luke approached her door and opened it.

  “What is it?” she asked breathlessly, puzzled by their strange actions.

  “A prank, I suppose,” Luke said, frowning. “The minute we pushed the door open a damn bee hive fell from the ceiling. We shut the door fast, but there’re still about a dozen of the buggers flying around. Sal’s on the phone to Josh Hart. He’s a beekeeper.”

  Luke had been checking himself, looking for more bees while he spoke. When he looked at Jenna’s face he nearly swore. She’d been pale before, but now she was bone white and there was a blue tinge around her mouth that worried him a great deal. “Jenna?”

  “I’m allergic to bees,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “One sting…,” she stopped, swallowing hard.

  “Who knows that?” Luke asked, suddenly tense.

  “No one,” she gasped, struggling to catch her breath as both hands clutched at the pain in her chest.

  “Call Doc,” Luke barked over his shoulder before kneeling down in the open doorway so he could look Jenna in the eye. “Jenna,” he said, but she didn’t seem to hear him. “Jenna, look at me,” he said more sharply. That got her attention. She raised her eyes to his and his own heart hurt for the fear he saw. “You need to calm down now. You’re safe, honey. No one’s gonna hurt you. Me and Sal are right here and we’re not letting anyone else come close. You have to focus on your breathing now. Slow, deep breaths, Jenna.” He kept talking to her, insisting that she focus on her breathing until she began to
calm down.

  “I’m sorry, Sheriff,” she said after a few minutes when her breathing was closer to normal.

  “Don’t be sorry,” Luke said. “This would scare anyone. All things considered you’re doing pretty good.”

  “I don’t think I need Doc.”

  “We’ll let him come and take a look at you just the same,” Luke said, and Jenna nodded. She hated being the center of attention but for the sake of her babies she’d do what she had to do.

  “You sure you can’t think of anyone who knows you’re allergic to bees?”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. Then her eyes widened. “Wait, the other day, in the diner, Meg and I were talking about allergies. I told her.”

  “At lunch?”

  “Yes,” she said. “The place was full. Anyone could have heard.”

  “Do you know of anyone around here who’d want to hurt you, Jenna?”

  She shook her head, then nodded, then shrugged. “Tell me what you’re thinking. Don’t worry about how it sounds.”

  “Cole and Dillon?” she asked in a whisper.

  Luke was shocked. “Why would you think they’d do something like this?” Jenna stared into his eyes for a long moment before he sighed and nodded. “I understand your fear Jenna, and don’t worry, I’ll be checking up on their whereabouts for today. But I’ve known Cole and Dillon a long time and even though I think they’re being shit heads right now, I can’t imagine them lifting a finger toward a woman.” Jenna nodded but he could tell she wasn’t convinced and truthfully, he couldn’t really blame her. “Who else knows the things you shared with me?”

  “Doc knows it all,” she said. “So do Meg, Hank, and Jack.”

  “No one else that you’re aware of?” Jenna shook her head.

  “Luke,” Sal called from a short distance away.

  “I’ll be right back, Jenna,” Luke said, then closed the door before turning to his deputy.

  “Josh is on his way,” he said. “He’s bringing a couple of his men to help. Doc will be here in a couple of minutes. How’s she doing?”

  “She’s allergic to bees, Sal,” Luke said in a low voice that throbbed with anger. “Deathly allergic.”

  “That makes this a mite more serious than a prank,” Sal growled.

  “It does.” Luke thought a moment. “This town’s too small for this not to get out, but I don’t want anyone knowing she’s allergic to bees. Let’s keep this on the level of a prank for now. I want time to look into a few things.”

  “Of course,” Sal said. He squinted up at the apartment door for a moment. “What about the Howards?”

  “I can’t see them doing something like this, but I’ll be asking questions,” Luke said. “We have to make sure there isn’t a single damn bee in her apartment before she goes back in.”

  “Don’t worry, Luke, we’ll be sure,” Sal said.

  “Give Hank or Jack a call, would you? Tell them to keep it under their hats, then tell them what’s going on and see if they can get Meg over here. I think having her here will help Jenna calm down.”

  “You got it,” Sal said, his cell already in his hand.

  Chapter 8

  It took almost a week for the Howards to get up the nerve to talk to Jenna. During that time they nearly talked themselves out of it several times despite their promise to Peter. After all, it had been more than five months since they’d seen her. They knew because they’d been painfully aware of each and every single day that had passed since. There was clearly no good reason to tell her about the damaged condoms after all this time, but they just couldn’t bring themselves to break their word.

  They’d debated repeatedly over what time would be best for them to talk to Jenna. They ruled out the diner as too public a forum for the conversation they needed to have, and they didn’t want to have it in her shop when customers could drop in at any time. Waiting until she was home in her apartment was no good since they figured she’d just slam the door in their faces before they got a word out. In the end they opted for late in the afternoon, just before she closed. That would, they hoped, give them at least a couple of minutes to say their piece.

  That day seemed like the longest day ever until, finally, the time arrived and they left the ranch in Dillon’s truck. For the first fifteen minutes of the thirty minute drive they were both silent.

  “I don’t think we should just tell her about the condoms and leave,” Cole said suddenly.

  Dillon glanced at his brother, then back to the road. “Me neither,” he said. “We owe her an apology, too.”

  “Because of the things we said to her?”

  “Yeah, Cole, because of the things we said after we heard her mumble in her sleep and didn’t even bother to ask her what it meant,” Dillon said with more than a touch of exasperation. “Hell, what if Jacob was her pet dog, or her cousin, or her high school sweetheart? We’ve fucked so damn many women I don’t think we had anything close to the right to treat her the way we did.”

  “I know, but what if she doesn’t believe we mean it?”

  “What if she does, and kicks our sorry asses to the curb anyway?”

  “Is that what you think’ll happen?”

  “I honestly don’t know what’ll happen,” Dillon said with a heavy sigh. “I keep thinking about how mad she got when we told her what we heard her say. Before that she looked confused, then she looked hurt like nothing I’ve ever seen in my life. But when we told her why we were angry, she got flat out furious in a heartbeat. She’s always so nice and sweet that I never would have guessed she could even get that mad.”

  “I know,” Cole said with a sigh. “I been thinking about that too, and it worries me.”

  “Yeah,” Dillon agreed. “But I’m thinking that, instead of keeping our distance because we’re not good enough for her, we should tell her the truth, then let her decide.”

  “What if she decides she can do better?”

  “Well hell, Cole, since we told her we could do better, I’d say we’ve got at least that much comin’ to us. Besides, it can’t be any worse than what we’re going through now.”

  “That’s the truth,” Cole said, sitting just a bit straighter as the idea took root in his mind. “Do you really think we have a chance?”

  “I think we have no chance whatsoever as things stand now,” Dillon said. “So what the hell have we got to lose?”

  “There is that,” Cole said. “Any ideas on how we’re gonna do this? What we should say, I mean.”

  “Not really,” Dillon said. “Maybe we shouldn’t try to plan this out too much. We’ll just apologize, tell her what needs telling, and go from there.”

  “All right then, let’s do this.”

  ***

  Jenna sat on stool behind the counter, making a list of items she needed to reorder. She was tired, her feet hurt, and her back ached, so she was finding it hard to concentrate. What she really wanted more than anything was a nice long soak in the Jacuzzi. She sometimes wondered how she’d managed to live her whole life without one of those things.

  She glanced at her watch and sighed. Another twenty minutes before closing. She considered locking up early, then shook her head at herself. Business was business.

  She glanced toward the window at the bright, sunny afternoon, but it was mid-September and the days were already growing shorter. The idea of being inside the brightly lit store, unable to see who might be outside, hidden in the dark and looking in, sent a tremor of fear through her. It hadn’t bothered her last year, but then, she hadn’t been pregnant then. No one had put a beehive in her apartment then, either. She wondered what people would think if she closed before dark this winter, and suspected it would make poor Meg worry even more than she already was.

  She smiled when she thought of Meg. The night the beehive had been found, Meg had insisted Jenna come stay out at their place for a couple of days while the apartment was gone through with a fine tooth comb in search of stray bees. Jenna had really enjoyed stayin
g with them too. They had a beautiful house on a low hill surrounded by several acres of grass and trees not far from town, but it was the warm, loving atmosphere of their home that Jenna liked best. Meg tried real hard to get her to stay longer and Jenna was very tempted, but after two days she’d made herself come back home.

  Since she had no idea who’d gotten into her apartment and planted the beehive, she’d been afraid to hire anyone local to change the locks and install an alarm system. Instead she hired a company out of Billings despite the hefty service fee they’d charged her. Once that was done, she’d gotten back to business as usual.

  She knew all too well what it was like to live under a cloud of fear, and as much as she hated it, she also knew that she couldn’t give into it. She’d done what she could to keep herself safe and tried to move past it. That was really all she could do.

  She returned to her list with a sigh, absently rubbing her temple with her free hand as she wrote. A few minutes later the bell over the door rang and she put down her pen, pleased that she’d decided against closing early. Until she looked up and saw Cole and Dillon walking toward her.

  She felt the blood drain from her face as a wave of fear raced through her, followed by a ripple of residual anger that surprised her. If she could have run, she would’ve already done so. Since that wasn’t a good idea in her current condition, she remained perfectly still, watching them carefully.

  “Hello Jenna,” Dillon said. She studied him warily, trying to gauge his mood as she reached for the cell in her apron pocket and slowly slipped it out. He didn’t look angry, she noted. Neither did Cole.

  “Aren’t you going to say anything?” Cole asked.

  “I don’t want you here,” she said, hating how much her voice trembled. “Please leave.”

  “We just want to apologize,” Dillon said.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “I told you. Stay away from me.”