Jenna's Cowboys

by Laura Jo Phillips

  ***

  After leaving the feed store Cole and Dillon went to take care of some business at the bank, then started out of town. “Damn, I was really hoping we’d spot Jenna,” Dillon said.

  “Yeah, me too,” Cole agreed. “But we can’t hang around town waiting for her to show up. It’d get back to Hank and Jack for sure and we don’t need to piss them off again.”

  “I know,” Dillon agreed with a sigh just as his cell rang. He slipped it from the holster at his waist, frowned when he saw who it was, then answered it. “Hey Luke.”

  “Dillon, you and Cole need to get down here to Jenna’s right now,” Luke barked into his ear.

  “What’s wrong Luke?” he demanded even as he spun the steering wheel, turning around with a squeal of tires on pavement, nearly tipping them over.

  “She’s hurt, but she won’t let anyone touch her,” Luke replied. “She’s asking for you and Cole so I don’t give a shit whether you want to see her or not, you suck it up and get your asses over here now.”

  “We’ll be there in a couple of minutes,” Dillon said, pushing the gas pedal to the floor. “How bad is she? Where is she?”

  “In the alley behind her shop,” Luke replied, his voice calmer now.

  “Okay Luke, tell her we’re coming,” Dillon said, his voice shaking with fear and tension.

  “Hurry,” Luke said once more before hanging up.

  Dillon tossed the cell phone on the seat.

  “What the hell is going on Dillon?” Cole demanded.

  “Jenna needs us,” Dillon said. “She’s hurt, in the alley behind her shop, and won’t let anyone help her until we get there.”

  “Fuck, drive faster,” Cole said, reaching out to brace himself against the dashboard just as Dillon pulled out and around a slower vehicle without warning. A couple of minutes later he turned onto Main Street with another squeal of rubber, then swerved out and around a big truck backing out of a parking spot. As soon as he got around it they could see Luke’s SUV parked in front of Senses along with an ambulance.

  Dillon slammed on the brakes, screeching to a stop beside the ambulance. He shoved the truck into park and cut the engine, his door already open, leaping out half a second after Cole. They ran around the side of the James Building, bursting into the alley before coming to a sudden stop, shocked by the scene before them.

  There was a fire engine, a small crowd of men, and what appeared to be Jenna’s Bronco. Or what remained of it. “Dillon, Cole, over here,” Luke called. They ran toward Luke who stood at the far corner of the building next to a Dumpster.

  “Where is she, Luke?” Cole demanded.

  Luke leaned in close to them. “She’s back there,” he said in a low voice. Cole immediately moved to go around him but Luke grabbed his arm. “Wait,” he said sharply. “Listen to me now, both of you.” When he was sure he had their attention he continued. “You listen to what she says. I’ll answer questions later, but you listen to her and believe her.”

  “What does that mean?” Dillon asked.

  “Just remember it,” Luke said, stepping aside to let them by. They squeezed through the narrow gap between the back wall of the building and the Dumpster to find Jenna sitting on the pavement, her back against the wall, her legs drawn up under a big gray blanket wrapped around her so that it hid everything but her bowed head. She looked so tiny and forlorn, her face bruised and scraped raw in a couple of places, her eyes closed.

  “Jenna,” Dillon said, his voice breaking as he knelt in front of her.

  Cole went to his knees beside his brother, fighting tears at the sight of her. “We’re here, baby,” he said. “Me and Dillon are here.”

  Her eyes opened slowly, looking bigger than ever now that her face was so thin. “Cole,” she whispered, then shifted her eyes slowly. “Dillon.”

  “You’re hurt, Jenna,” Dillon said. “You need to go to the hospital.

  “Tell me,” she whispered.

  “Tell you what, angel?”

  “Is it you?”

  “Is what us?” Cole asked.

  “Trying to kill me. Is it you?”

  “Kill you?” Dillon asked, shocked.

  “Is it?”

  “No Jenna, we’d never harm a hair on your head,” Dillon replied. “I swear it.”

  She looked into his eyes for a long moment, then did the same to Cole. Dillon started to ask why she thought someone wanted to kill her, then remembered Luke telling them to believe her. He looked up and saw Luke watching. He nodded his head grimly and Dillon’s heart leapt in his chest. It was true.

  “They say you won’t hurt me,” she whispered. “True?”

  “Yes that’s true,” Dillon said. “We’d never hurt you, I swear to God we’d never hurt you.”

  “Even though you hate me?”

  “Hate you?” Cole asked in surprise. “We love you, Jenna.” She frowned. “We have lots to explain honey, I know, but for right now, I promise we don’t hate you.”

  “Scared,” she whispered. They watched as she made an effort to swallow. “Keep us safe?” Tears rolled slowly down her cheeks, her cinnamon eyes full of fear and pleading, her lips trembling as she spoke. “Please?”

  “Of course we’ll keep you safe, angel,” Dillon said, her fear and her tears breaking his heart. “I promise. We won’t let anyone hurt you.”

  “Keep us safe?” she repeated. Dillon and Cole glanced at each other in confusion.

  “Keep who safe?” Cole asked.

  “Me, babies,” she whispered. “Please?”

  “We’ll do anything you want, Jenna,” Cole promised. “But what babies are you talking about?”

  “Our babies.”

  “Jenna, we don’t ha…,” Dillon’s words stuck in his throat when it suddenly hit him that the condoms they’d used with Jenna had been tampered with. With a shaky hand he reached out and parted the blanket tented over her. Then he and Cole reached into the gap, each of them placing one palm lightly on her swollen stomach.

  “Babies,” Cole said softly. “Twins?”

  Jenna didn’t move, but she was watching them carefully now, a wary look in her eyes. “Don’t know?”

  “No honey,” Cole rasped. “We would have been here the minute we found out.”

  “Mad?” she whispered, still watching.

  “Mad?” Dillon repeated, frowning in confusion as he struggled to wrap his mind around the fact that Jenna was pregnant. With twins. Their twins. A hundred questions raced through his mind but he set them aside for later. “I don’t understand, angel. Who’s mad?”

  “You?”

  “God no,” he said, feeling like he'd just been kicked in the stomach. Why would she ever think such a thing? “We’d never be mad about a baby, Jenna.”

  She stared at him for a long time, searching again. He just didn’t know for what. “Keep them?” she whispered finally, more softly than before, her strength waning.

  “Keep them?” Dillon asked, even more confused.

  Jenna took a deep breath, gathering her strength. “I die, keep them?”

  “You’re not gonna die Jenna,” Cole said roughly. “We’ll keep you safe from now on.”

  “Keep them?” she repeated insistently.

  “Yes, angel, we’ll keep them and love them forever, I swear it,” Dillon said, giving her what she needed. “But you’re not dying Jenna. We’re not letting that happen.”

  “Keep babies safe?”

  “Yes, we’ll keep them safe,” Cole said. “We’ll keep you safe, and the babies, too.”

  Once again Jenna stared into Cole’s eyes for a long moment, then moved to Dillon. They couldn’t tell if she found whatever she was looking for or not. “Okay,” she said on a soft, slow sigh. Her eyes slipped shut and she started to slump sideways. Cole reached out to catch her, then pulled her gently and carefully into his arms, causing the blanket to slip away.

  “Son of a bitch,” Dillon said hoarsely as they both a look at Jenna’s injuries. Her left
arm was covered with bloody scrapes and already black and blue from her shoulder down. Blood seeped heavily from a nasty gash on the outside of her left knee, coating the lower half of her leg before soaking into her sock. There was blood trickling down her neck from a cut over her ear, soaking a good portion of the t-shirt she wore. But what scared them most was the blue color around her mouth that they hadn’t noticed in the deep shade of the building with the way she’d kept her head down.

  Dillon looked up as Luke joined them, looking at Jenna’s injuries grimly. “This is true? Someone’s trying to kill her?”

  “Yes, this is the second attempt,” Luke said. “Car bomb. She started the engine then remembered she’d left her water on the stairs and got out to retrieve it. It saved her life. That, and the Dumpster getting blown in front of where she landed.”

  “We promised to keep her and the babies safe, Luke,” Cole said. “That means we’re not leaving her alone for a moment.”

  Luke nodded. “Hank, Jack, and I told her she could trust you to keep her safe, and not to hurt her. She finally decided to believe us. She was on her way to the post office to send this to you.” He reached into a pocket and handed Dillon an envelope with his and Cole’s names on it.

  “Thank you for telling her that, Luke,” Cole said as Dillon tore open the envelope and pulled out a sheet of paper. He felt something else in the envelope and upended it over his palm, surprised to see that it was a flash drive. He unfolded the paper, read it quickly, then refolded it and slipped it back into the envelope before putting it in Cole’s shirt pocket. “That’s Jenna’s permission for us to be informed of her medical condition. It also names me as the father of her unborn children since I’m the eldest. Don’t lose it.”

  “I won’t,” Cole said, frowning. “I don’t understand any of this, though. For starters, why didn’t she tell us she was pregnant, and why would anyone want to kill her?”

  “It’s a long story and it begins with that,” Luke said, gesturing toward the flash drive in Dillon’s hand. He looked at Jenna’s face for a long moment, then turned cool eyes on Dillon and Cole. “After you see what’s on there, you call me. I mean it. Jenna’s trusting you because we told her she could. If we’re wrong, I want to be the first to know so I can make arrangements for her safety. Don’t even fucking think about forgetting.”

  “I won’t, Luke, you have my word,” Dillon said.

  “Good enough,” Luke said. “Best get her to the ambulance now. Doc’s at the hospital over in Bizzby waiting for her.”

  “Cole, take Jenna to the ambulance and don’t leave her side,” Dillon said. “I’m gonna talk with Luke a bit, then I’ll come to the hospital.” He leaned close to Jenna, kissed her gently on the forehead, then picked up the long braid that nearly touched the ground. He pulled it over her shoulder and laid it on top of her. “Go,” he said.

  Cole waited for Luke and Dillon to move the Dumpster so that he could pass through with Jenna in his arms. The moment the paramedics saw him they rushed forward. “I’ll carry her to the ambulance and I’ll stay with her. If you object, then I’ll drive her to the hospital myself.”

  The paramedics nodded, then led the way through the crowd which parted instantly. Cole missed the expressions of sorrow and fury on the faces of the townspeople who saw Jenna, unwilling to take his eyes from her for a moment. He stepped up into the ambulance and laid Jenna gently on the stretcher. Then he moved to the foot of it, giving the paramedics room to work while he watched, one hand on her ankle. If anyone considered asking him to leave, one look into his burning eyes was enough to make them rethink it.

  ***

  “Talk to me Luke,” Dillon said once Cole was gone. “You said this was the second attempt.”

  Luke nodded and told him about the beehive rigged to fall the moment she opened her apartment door. “It pissed me off that someone would play a prank like that on anyone. Especially a single pregnant woman, living alone. The fact that it was Jenna, in particular, just made it worse.”

  “I don’t understand,” Dillon said. “It pisses me off too, but why’d you say Jenna in particular?”

  “When Jenna decided to stay in Sparx one of the first things she did was come to my office and share some information with me about her past. In strict confidence. Because of the information she gave me, I took her very seriously when she called me that night.”

  “What information, Luke?”

  “The information on that flash drive. For now, just trust me when I say that Jenna is very conscious of her personal security. I knew immediately that she didn’t forget to lock her door, and she didn’t turn off the timer on her porch light. What I didn’t know is that Jenna is allergic to bee venom. According to Doc, if she’d been stung just once it would have killed her because of her bad heart.”

  “Bad heart?” Dillon asked in surprise. “Damn, Luke, why the hell didn’t anyone tell us?”

  “Because of the few people who know about it at all, only Meg, Hank, Jack, myself and Sal know it wasn’t a prank. Besides, why would anyone tell you two anything? Everyone in town knows you ain’t been to see Jenna since the night you took her out. Well, unless you count your extremely late attempt at an apology a week ago. Up to then you and Cole have made it real clear you don’t want nothing to do with her.”

  “Did she tell you why?”

  “You don’t know a damn thing about that woman, do you?” Luke said, giving him a look so full of pity that Dillon winced.

  “That’s not an answer, Luke,” he said without any heat at all.

  “Sure it is,” Luke said. “Let me ask you something. How much of her life before she came here did she share with you and Cole?”

  “None,” Dillon said. “We got the feeling she came from a small town from things she said here and there, but whenever we brought up the subject, she’d change it. She talks in her sleep though. Enough for us to know she’s in love with some man named Jacob.”

  Luke stared at him in open mouthed surprise. He closed his mouth with a snap, his eyes narrowing to slits. “You accused her of two timing,” he said flatly.

  “Yeah, we did, and we weren’t nice about it,” Dillon admitted.

  “Holeee fuck,” Luke growled. “That’s what happened between you, why she thinks you hate her.”

  “She didn’t tell anyone?”

  Luke shook his head. “I think I need to apologize to Jenna. I told her she could trust you, but I was wrong. You’re too stupid to trust.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “I’m so pissed at you right now I’d kick your ass if I wasn’t on duty,” Luke said, seething with anger. He ran his fingers through his hair as he struggled to rein in his temper. “You sure as hell don’t deserve the credit I gave you, but what’s done is done. I strongly suggest you go plug that flash drive in somewhere and take a look at what’s on it before you say one more fucking word about Jenna James. Otherwise, you and your brother might just get run out of this town and if you think I’m kidding, then you go on over there and start badmouthing Jenna. You just go right on ahead.”

  Dillon stared at the Sheriff for a long moment, his own anger at Luke’s insults tempered by surprise. He’d rarely seen the man so angry, and that gave Dillon a very bad feeling. He knew they’d messed up with Jenna, that they should have asked her about Jacob before jumping to conclusions. He was getting the feeling now that their mistake was much bigger than they knew. He nodded to Luke, then turned and walked back to his truck, not even noticing the townspeople as he passed by them.

  He climbed into his truck, started it up, then sat there for a few moments. He wanted to know what the hell was on the flash drive. But he didn’t have a laptop with him and it would take nearly two hours to go home, grab one, and then get to the hospital. That was far too much time. Jenna was more important than information, no matter what it was. His mind made up, he put the truck in gear and headed for the hospital.

  Forty five minutes later he found
Cole in the hospital waiting room, pacing angrily back and forth. His head came up the moment Dillon entered and the expression of relief on his face was worrisome.

  “What’s wrong?” Dillon asked.

  “They wouldn’t let me stay with her,” Cole said tightly. Dillon nodded. He’d been expecting that. “What’d you learn from Luke?”

  Dillon told him about the bees, and Luke’s anger when he heard what they’d said to Jenna about Jacob.

  “That’s not good,” Cole said, looking as worried as Dillon felt. “So what’s on the flash drive?”

  “I don’t know,” Dillon said, pulling it from his pocket. “I don’t have anything to plug it into. I spotted a couple of places that sell laptops in Bizzby as I passed through. I’m thinking about going back and buying one.”

  As he spoke more people entered the waiting room and they looked up to see Meg, Hank, Jack, and Doc’s nurse, Nancy. “There’s no need to buy anything,” Hank said, looking at the flash drive in Dillon’s hand. “We’ll tell you what’s on there.”

  “All right,” Dillon agreed immediately. Just then a few more people entered the waiting room.

  “Come on,” Nancy said, “I’ll take you to Doc’s office where you can have some privacy.”

  “We got a call from Stephan on our way to Billings,” Meg said as they followed Nancy through the corridors. “We turned right around and came straight here, but haven’t heard anything since. Do you two know anything?”

  “No,” Cole said. “Not yet.”

  Nancy opened a door that didn’t look much different from any other door and let them into Doc’s office. “I’m going to go see if I can help Doc,” she said, then turned and left.

  Cole and Dillon sat on a small sofa against one wall while Meg, Hank, and Jack took chairs set in front of Doc’s desk and turned them so they faced the Howards. “Okay, we’re listening,” Cole said again.