by Tia Siren
“It makes them feel invincible when they have people, even their own family members, to believe them. That’s part of it.” Martha reached over to grasp my hand in her cold one. “Just keep trying to live your life as much as you can. That’s all you can really do is rebuild and keep going.”
“It’s easier said than done.” I sighed out and spotted the realtor coming down the street in her minivan. “I have to meet with the realtor, so if—”
“Realtor?”
I stopped at the sound of Martha’s sharp voice. She gave me a long, hard look that instantly reminded me of my mother’s whenever I did something she didn’t approve of.
“You can’t keep running away,” she said. Then she added knowingly, “Or are you running away for a different reason?”
I looked away to hide the turmoil of emotions in me.
“I know that you and Derek are”—Martha paused for a moment to search for the right word— “more than friends. There is something there that is real. I’ve seen it in the way Derek has looked after you even before you realized it.”
“It doesn’t matter though,” I said, tears stinging my eyes. “I have to go. Leon will keep coming by here now that he knows I’m here. I can’t risk putting Owen in the line of danger either.”
“That is Derek’s job to protect his son, and he will if he feels Owen is threatened.”
The realtor pulled up the driveway. She stepped out from behind the wheel to give me a cheerful wave.
“Just think about what you're doing,” Martha said sagely. “I know Derek has a hard exterior, but no one is blind to the fact that he feels something for you. I wouldn’t run away from that.”
She gave my hand one last squeeze before heading down the sidewalk. I wiped at the tears in my eyes out of aggravation, because Martha was right. I didn’t know what to think of Derek, or the terms of our relationship, and I hated the feeling of depending on him for protection, but I couldn’t pick my life up and run wherever the wind blew.
Owen would be devastated. My heart clenched just thinking of that sweet, blond-hair boy who loved to talk about his rock collections and shoot Nerf guns with Derek when he was done with homework.
I walked up the driveway to where the realtor was busy fumbling with a camera. She looked up at me through the thick curls of her hair.
“The house looks wonderful, Jenna,” she said excitedly. “The maintained yard, flowers, and you fixed things that needed to be fixed.”
“My neighbor fixed them,” I said, twisting my hands in front of me nervously. “Look, Pam, I know my mom sent you out here to put the house on the market, but I’m going to stay here.”
Pam stiffened visibly. “You are?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding. “I thought leaving would be the best thing, but one of my neighbors pointed out that I had to stay and rebuild my life. I realized that she’s right. I can’t keep running whenever things go wrong.”
“Your mother is going to be upset,” Pam said, lowering her camera to the ground. “She was very firm on this house being sold within a week.”
“I know, but she’ll get used to the idea.” I held out a hand for Pam to shake. “Thank you for everything you have done. I appreciate the help.”
Pam took ahold of my hand slowly and gave it a brief squeeze. She hesitated in the driveway, waiting for me to change my mind, but when I didn’t call her back, she climbed into her van. I caught a glimpse of her on the phone before the van disappeared down the street.
I set my phone inside on the hallway table, because I knew my mother would be calling to demand an explanation. Closing the front door, I crossed over my yard to Derek’s front door to clean up the kitchen from the chaos of the morning. I washed a few cereal bowls before making my way up the stairs as quietly as possible check on Derek’s sleeping figure sprawled out on the unmade bed.
He slept on, oblivious to me standing alongside him. The morning light fluttered through the tree leaves outside, leaving patterns on Derek’s face. A sign of complete trust. My heart leapt at the thought. He didn’t even wake when I came in and out of the house. For an ex-Navy SEAL, that said a lot.
I pressed a kiss against his temple, savoring the feeling of his warm skin before leaving him to sleep on.
My phone was vibrating madly on the hallway table, as I’d expected it would be. I debated on letting it go to voice mail again, but I didn’t want to waste the rest of my afternoon on avoiding a confrontation with my mother.
“I know I sent the realtor away,” I said with futile hope that my mother would let me explain. “Just let me—”
“We agreed that it’d be a good idea if you found a new house,” she said, her voice tight with frustration. “I told the relator to bring a list of potential houses for you to look at, not email them. You can’t stay there, Jenna. You know that.”
“I want to stay here though,” I said, closing the front door when a chilly breeze fluttered through. “I can’t keep running away from everything. He’s only going to find me again. That’s who Leon is. It’s a game.”
“You want to stay because of Derek. I may be old, but I’m not blind. I can see what is going on between you two.”
“I don’t even know what is going on between us,” I said, exasperated. “And if there was anything, what’s wrong with that? He’s not a bad man.”
“The situation isn’t right, Jenna. He’s paying you to babysit his son, and yet the two of you are sleeping together.”
“He’s helping me,” I replied defensively. The buzzer in the laundry room went off. “Does that count for something?”
I started down the hallway in the direction of the laundry room.
“Yes, it does. I’m thankful he has been so helpful to you, but—”
Something yanked hard on the back of my head, pain erupting in my skull. My phone slipped from hand to thump against the hardwood floor.
A hard body pressed up against my backside, effectively pinning me to the wall. An icy wave of fear came down on me when I felt a nose nuzzle the back of my neck. That familiar smell of rich cologne filled my nose. My heart slammed itself repeatedly in the caverns of my chest.
No. No. No!
“Do you honestly think a piece of paper scares me?” Leon said into my ear, rubbing against me with a relieved groan. “God, I have missed you. You feel wonderful.”
Tears filled my eyes. I choked back a cry when his fingers slid around my body before he pulled back to grab ahold of my wrist. I couldn’t even struggle. Just seeing him standing there dressed like he had been dressed in my dream, a fancy shirt and nice jeans with his hair slicked back, rendered my legs useless.
I heard my mother’s voice still chattering through the phone, unaware that I had dropped it. Leon crouched down with one hand on my wrist before he hit the end button. He tossed the phone onto the hallway table carelessly.
“You’re pale,” he said, raking his eyes up and down me. “You need the sunshine again. You look ugly without tanned skin.”
The insult stung, as he’d intended it to. I tried to remove his fingers from my wrist, but he tightened them painfully.
“Leon,” I said thickly through tears, “please. Just leave me alone. I just want to—”
“I can’t leave you alone,” he said matter-of-factly. “You know that, Jenna. I’m yours, and you are mine. Remember? We made that vow a long time ago.”
My phone buzzed on the hallway table. I stared at it helplessly. Call the police, Mom. Tell them to come back. Derek still had a cop driving by every hour, but it had just passed by ten minutes ago. That told me Leon had been around for over a week, watching them and memorizing the patterns. He was just that damn smart. The one time he knew I would lower my guard a bit… I just could never fully escape. The realization felt sharp in my chest.
Just thinking of Derek sleeping upstairs alone brought on a wave of hysterics. I wanted to crawl back up there into the safety of his strong arms. I should’ve just lain there with him.
> Leon reached out to touch my cheek. I flinched away from the touch, but he continued to trail his thumb across my cheekbone. His eyes flashed angrily when I tried to push his hand away.
“What’s wrong?” he hissed. He leaned forward to push me up against the wall again. “Don’t want me to touch you, hm? Just want that guy who lives next to you?”
I bit down on my lip to keep from crying.
Fingers circled my throat. My eyes widened in horror when I felt Leon’s fingertips slowly press down to cut off my air supply. He leaned in to press his lips against mine briefly. My stomach convulsed violently at the taste of him— cinnamon and rich.
“Too bad he’ll never see you again,” Leon said. “I’m sure he’ll find some other woman to occupy his time. You can be replaced easily, believe it or not. Have a good sleep, Jenna. When you wake up, we’ll be back in California. Everyone is really excited to see you again.” He smirked darkly at me. “You did abandon all your friends, you know.”
“I didn’t abandon them,” I gasped out, clawing at his fingers. “You forced me to run away. I didn’t want to leave. Please, don’t. Let me go, Leon. I’ll come with you if you let me go.”
“You’re a horrible liar,” Leon remarked, shaking his head at me in disgust. “You always were a horrible liar. Just relax and this will go a lot faster.”
His fingers tightened even more. My lungs burned for air. I tried to scream, but nothing came out. My fists thumped uselessly against his chest. A blackness crept along the back of mind before a warm sensation overcame me. I slipped into the darkness as a crash echoed in the hallway, right before my body hit the cold, hardwood floor.
I didn’t even feel Leon’s fingers lift from my neck. I was gone, gladly slipping into that unconscious blanket of nothingness.
Chapter Twenty
Derek
There were blood stains on my knuckles. I stared down at them with a hint of smugness despite the holding bars around me. It’d been too easy to overcome that prick. He couldn’t even throw a decent punch that landed right. It had been sheer will power to pull back in time for the patrol units to arrive at Jenna’s house. By the time they arrived, Leon was a bloody mess, crying on the floor, and I had Jenna cradled in my arms.
“Summers.”
I looked up to see Marcus waving me to him on the other side. The buzz of the holding doors echoed, and I gladly stood from the metal bench. They’d had no other choice but to arrest me in the process. I didn’t have a scratch on me. Leon had a crushed nose and sinus cavity. I could still hear him howling in the ambulance about pressing charges.
“Thanks for bailing me out,” I said. “I owe you.”
“I didn’t bail you out,” Marcus said, opening the doors. “A woman named Anna Collins is waiting for you outside the police station.”
I arched my eyebrows in surprise. “You’re shitting me. She bailed me out?”
“What did you expect?” Marcus asked wryly. “You arrived in time to save her daughter after she called you. I think any parent would bail someone out if they rescued their child.”
“I saved Jenna because—” I love her.
Marcus looked at me knowingly. “You don’t have to say it to me,” he said, and he chuckled when I gave him a pained look. “You aren’t in love with me. I don’t want to hear you say that to me. Say it to her.”
“How is she doing?” I asked as we walked down the hallway. “The last update I got, she was coming out of being unconscious.”
“She’s coherent and awake,” Marcus said. “She gave one of our officers a full statement about what happened, clearing you of any wrongdoing.”
I didn’t even care about the assault charges Leon had filed. That was the only reason I had ended up in a holding cell until Jenna came to give her statement. All I’d done for the past two hours was pace and bother the booking officers for information.
We stopped briefly for me to gather my things from the booking station. I shoved my wallet, keys, and phone back into my pocket.
“What are they charging Leon with?” I asked coldly. “Tell me it’s something he’ll be behind bars for a long time for.”
“Attempted murder,” Marcus replied, following me out into the lobby. I let out a relieved sigh at that.
An orange glow filled the sky, the evening quickly approaching. I had to call Martha’s house to check on Owen. She had promised through all the chaos earlier that morning to take care of him, but I knew he was upset. He knew something was wrong.
“That’ll keep him away for a while,” I said.
“Unfortunately it had to get to this point for something to be done,” Marcus said sadly. “There is only so much we can do to protect women like Jenna.” He clapped my shoulder. “I’m glad you were there to help her. She’s got a good man watching her back.”
“Thanks, boss.”
I spotted Anna’s trim figure on the bottom steps of the police station. She paced impatiently while she waited for me.
“I have to call Owen before I go the hospital,” I said.
Marcus gave me a warning glance. “Leon is at the hospital with a few officers watching his every move. Don’t think about going up to his room, Summers. I can’t help you if you do.”
“I won’t.” Even if is tempting to finish the prick off.
Anna looked up at me when I started down the stone steps in her direction. Her face was drawn tightly into a pinched expression.
“I owe you,” I said. “I’m sure the bail money was costly.”
“A small price compared to my daughter’s life,” Anna replied, waving her hand airily. “To be exact, though, it was five thousand dollars for crushing Leon’s face in.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “A small price for Jenna’s life.”
Anna’s lips curved into a ghost of a smile. “Thank you,” she said then sincerely. Tears filled her eyes. “I can’t thank you enough for protecting her.”
“You’re welcome,” I said. “She’s going to be fine. Leon will be behind bars for a while.”
Anna sniffed back tears. “He can’t be bailed out?”
“The judge denied it,” I said, pulling out my phone to call Martha’s house. “He’s considered a flight risk and a danger to Jenna. His family won’t be able to bail him out.”
“Thank God for that judge then.” She jingled Jenna’s car keys in front of me. “I’d drive to the hospital myself, but you’d be scared to death.”
I took ahold of Jenna’s keys. “I have to call my son first,” I said, and Anna nodded in understanding. She sat in the passenger seat of Jenna’s car while I dialed Martha’s house number.
“Thank God,” Martha said after I spent ten minutes telling her everything. “At least she can be at peace now knowing he won’t be able to get out of this one so easily.”
“Not this time.”
“It’s sad it has to get to that point for someone to feel peace.” Martha sighed into the phone. “I’ve never felt so relived and torn as the day my ex was killed by a drunk driver of all things. Here’s Owen.”
“Dad,” Owen said, his voice quivering on the other end. My heart ached hearing that. “Is everything okay? You didn’t get hurt at work, did you?”
“No. I promise I’m fine,” I said, trying to reassure him. “I will come get you tonight, okay, buddy? Make sure you do your homework too.”
“I will,” Owen said, but I had my doubts. He hated doing homework. “Is Jenna okay too? Martha said she went to the hospital.”
“She’ll be fine too. Maybe she’ll come over tonight. Would that be okay with you?”
Owen was silent for a long time on the other end. I could hear Julie chatting happily in the background with Martha.
“She isn’t Mommy,” he said quietly.
I rubbed a hand through my hair in frustration. This wasn’t the time to talk about what had happened between Sidney and me, but I had to tell him. I’d put it off for too long, and Jenna was safe in her hospital room.
&nb
sp; “No one will ever replace your mother,” I said. “Your mom and I don’t ever want you to feel that we are trying to replace each other.”
“I don’t understand what happened though.”
“You don’t need to understand it now, Owen. All you need to know is that your mother and I love you despite everything. Okay, bud? Jenna isn’t going to replace your mom. I can promise you that.”
“I like Jenna,” Owen said slowly. “Get her flowers, Dad. All girls like flowers.”
I chuckled at the advice. “I will, Son. I will be over to pick you up soon.”
“Everything all right?” Anna asked when I got behind the steering wheel of Jenna’s car. She closed the passenger door when I started the engine.
“Yes,” I said. I turned to look at Anna. “I know why you don’t want me around your daughter, but—”
Anna held up a hand, interrupting me. “My opinions of you were wrong. I apologize for judging you so harshly. You saved my daughter’s life. That’s something I don’t overlook. Just promise me one thing.”
I backed out of the parking spot. “Anything.”
“Just make sure she goes back to college,” she said, sighing. “She’s smart. She can do it even if she doesn’t think she can.”
I met Anna’s gaze briefly before pulling out onto the interstate to get to the hospital quicker.
“I promise,” I said. “I will make sure she goes.”
We pulled up to the hospital twenty minutes later. Anna led me up to the fourth floor of the hospital where Jenna’s room was located. I nodded at one of the officers seated outside her room before stepping inside. I turned to look at Anna, but she waved for me to go in without her.
To my relief, Jenna was sitting up cross-legged with her long strands of her hair pulled up in a messy bun. Her eyes were riveted up at the television mounted on the wall. She looked over at the sound of me drawing the curtains back to give us more privacy from the hospital staff.
My eyes went straight to the dark marks around her neck. My blood boiled at the sight of them, but I forced myself to look away. I’d done enough damage to him to get my point across, but not enough to get rid of all my anger.