“We,” Jaci said.
He looked at her.
“We’ll be visiting them. We’ll be helping them out. For as long as we’re together, it’s we.”
Ian’s heart swelled with love. “You’re not going to tell me I’m crazy? That they’re not my responsibility? That I’m acting out of guilt?”
“You’re doing what you feel you have to do. And it’s the right thing to do. When can I meet them?”
The kicker. He ran his hand behind his neck. “Well...You can meet Mandy, The Kid’s wife, as soon as you want.” Wait for it. “She and her baby are upstairs in my condo.”
After the fit Justin had thrown, Ian could just imagine how Jaci’d react. He didn’t dare look at her. “I didn’t know what else to do,” he explained. “She looks terrible, so pale and thin. I mean she was thin before but now she’s sickly thin. The house was a mess. There was hardly any food in the refrigerator. The baby has a terrible diaper rash.” At least it looked terrible to him. “She has no family. I couldn’t leave her there and I didn’t want to stay. So I packed up her condo, hitched a rental trailer to the back of my S.U.V., and brought her home with me.” And he had no plan past that.
Jaci slid off his lap.
That’s it. He’d lost her.
“How old is the baby?” she asked.
Not exactly the first thing he’d expected to come out of her mouth.
“A little over a year old.”
“Are you insane?” she asked.
Here it came. He resisted the urge to squint and turn away when she laid into him for bringing a woman and baby into their lives.
“Leaving a distraught woman and a toddler alone in a strange condo? There’s nothing to eat up there. And that coffee table is made of glass with sharp edges. And Justin’s bottle cap collection.” She paced the length of the kitchen and swiveled back around. “That place is a death trap for a young child. They’ll have to stay here.”
Ian watched in awe and with helpless appreciation as Jaci picked up the plan where he’d dead-ended.
“She can sleep on the pullout couch. I think Jena will enjoy having another mother around to keep her company. Heck, this place is already baby central. I hope Mandy can stand it.” Jaci looked at him. “Why are you just sitting there? Go get her.”
“You’re not mad?”
Jaci looked down at him like he wasn’t making sense. “Why would I be mad? Your friend’s wife needs help and we’re going to see that she gets it.”
Ian walked over to Jaci and pulled her into his arms. “You are one of a kind special.” He kissed her cheek.
“Remember that the next time I do something that pisses you off.” She rested her head against his chest and squeezed him back. “Oh. And for the record? You’re pretty special yourself.”
CHAPTER TEN
JACI ended the phone call and looked at her watch. Again. Eight-thirteen. She’d been waiting almost half an hour. Now she’d have to double time it to complete her patient visits and get to the crisis center in time for her baby care class.
Eight-thirteen.
Too early for the criminal element to be up and about. She scanned the front grounds of Nap Tower, mostly cement and packed dirt. An old woman pushed a cart toward Jaci’s car. Two young children, one in a pink windbreaker, one in blue, chased pigeons while a heavy set black woman sat on a bench nearby talking into a cell phone.
Jaci got out of the car.
What would Ian want me to do in this situation? She smiled. So I can return home to him safe and sound and he can reward me by doing wonderfully erotic things to my body. She opened the rear door and grabbed her nursing bag.
Then she dialed Ian.
“Are you okay?” he asked in greeting.
“Fine.” She started toward the entrance. “My police escort got called to a shooting and there is no one in the area to accompany me on a quick visit to change an IV at Nap Tower.”
“I can be there in twenty minutes.”
“In twenty minutes, I’ll be done.”
“Do not go in there alone,” he warned.
“I’m not.” She opened the heavy glass door trying not to think about the bullet that caused the hole and spider webbed cracks. “You’re accompanying me.” She opened the metal door to the stairwell and listened. Hearing voices, she opted for the elevator. “It’s early. There aren’t many people around.”
“I don’t like this.”
“Elevator’s here.” She looked inside. “It’s empty so I’m going in. If I lose you don’t panic. I’ll call you when I get to the second floor.” She exited. “You still there?”
“I’m here.” But he didn’t sound at all happy. “From now on whenever you have to do visits there I’ll plan to meet you.”
“We can talk about it later.” She walked down the dingy hallway, the air heavy with the scent of frying oil, and knocked on the door with a two, an eight, and a backwards three. “I’m here.” Her patient’s husband opened the door. She gave him a smile and a wave. “Safe and sound.” She walked inside. “I’ll call you when I’m ready to leave.”
And she’d planned to, except twenty minutes later she had an emergency call from her office and was on the phone with her supervisor as she prepared to leave. She pressed the downward arrow next to the elevator.
The doors opened. This time the elevator was not empty. And Oh. My. God. There stood Merlene’s boyfriend. Still in his uniform. Coming home from his job on the night shift. And he looked straight at her.
Jaci diverted her eyes. “I’ll be down in a minute. I’m getting on the elevator now,” she said to make it seem like someone was waiting for her in the lobby.
But her voice shook.
“What’s wrong?” her supervisor asked.
Merlene’s boyfriend exited the elevator and she entered. “Breakfast sounds great,” she said to make conversation.
Then she felt a hulking presence behind her.
“Been waiting for the day you and me would meet up,” Merlene’s boyfriend said deeply, quietly. Threateningly.
Jaci whipped around. He had her cornered, his large body blocking her escape. He pressed a button on the control panel and the doors started to close. “Call the police,” she yelled into her phone. He slapped it out of her hand. “Help,” she screamed as loud as she could, hoping someone would come to her aid.
No one did.
The doors closed.
She was trapped.
He triggered the emergency stop and the elevator jerked to a halt. The alarm blared.
He took a step forward.
Jaci backed into the rear wall of the tiny elevator, regretting that she’d never told Ian she loved him, knowing in her heart if she didn’t make it out alive, he’d look after Jena and the babies. Because he was a good man. The very best kind of man.
* * *
Ian glanced at the clock in his office. Eight forty-five. And he hadn’t heard from Jaci. He texted her. So what if she got mad. She was the one who’d said she’d call him when she was done.
When she didn’t respond in five minutes, unease crept up his spine, making him restless. He curbed the urge to jump in the car and drive down to Nap Tower. Jaci was a grown woman, he told himself. She could take care of herself. He had to learn to trust her judgment.
He grabbed his tool belt and headed to the kitchen to replace the drippy faucet. There must be a perfectly reasonable explanation for why she hadn’t taken the time for a quick reply.
Ian would not obsess over it.
He got to work, thankful for a busy schedule of repairs ahead of him, already looking forward to three o’clock when Jaci would arrive with a smile, ready for her baby care class.
A while later Andrea found him at the back door, in the middle of installing a heavy duty deadbolt lock. So what if the parking lot had an aging fence around it, anyone with working arms and legs could climb over in under a minute.
“Mr. Eddelton? Are you busy?”
Had it bee
n anyone else he may have shot back, “Do I look busy?” On his knees, tools and lock parts spread out on the floor around him, the not-as-easy-as-they’d-promised instruction sheet in hand. But it was timid, conscientious Andrea, who Ian had learned was one of the first clients of the center. He stopped what he was doing. “What do you need?”
“I stepped away from the phone for a very quick break.” She pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. “I had to use the restroom, but I went right back to my desk when I was done.” She rubbed her hands together nervously. “I’m afraid in that very short time Ms. Piermont called and left a message for Carla.”
“Ms. Piermont doesn’t expect you to be chained to your desk for the entire time you’re here. I’m sure—”
“You don’t understand. Carla’s son is sick. She had to take him to the doctor this morning. And even though Ms. Piermont left specific instructions not to worry you, I think something’s very wrong.”
Ian set down his screwdriver and stood, his unease multiplying exponentially.
“I heard it in her voice, Mr. Eddelton.” She looked up almost in tears. “I need this job. If I go against Ms. Piermont’s instructions again—”
“What did she say in the message?” Panic rising, Ian fought for calm.
“She asked Carla to meet her at the Emergency Room at Sound Shore Medical Center.”
Ian slammed the door closed and engaged the old lock. “Did she say why?” he asked over his shoulder on his way to his office to get his keys.
“No.” Andrea half-ran half-walked behind him, crying.
He didn’t have time to console her. “Call Carla’s cellphone. Tell her about the message and that I’m on my way to the hospital. Find Patrice,” their social worker. “Tell her what’s going on. Make sure she knows she’s in charge. Anyone makes you nervous, don’t buzz them in.” The front door and entry intercom were the first things he’d fixed.
Ian didn’t remember the trip to the hospital, wasn’t sure how much time had passed. He slammed his SUV into park, left it at the curb and ran through the sliding glass doors into the Emergency Room. “Jaci Piermont,” he said to the first scrub-clad staff person he saw.
“You don’t look like a Carla,” a heavyset, no-nonsense nurse said from behind the nurses’ station. “I am under strict instructions to only provide information to a Carla.”
Rage and desperation pounded through his system. To hell with counting and deep breathing and exercising. “I am Jaci Piermont’s fiancé.” Though he wasn’t yet, he would be soon. And once they were married he planned to fill her with so many babies she’d be too busy to leave the house.
“Well you can go wait with the other fiancés in the waiting room.” She waved him away and turned her attention to the computer monitor in front of her. “You reporters will do anything for a story.”
Ian walked to the desk. “I am Ian Eddelton,” he said slowly so there’d be no mistake. “Jaci and I have just recently been reunited after being separated for thirteen months because of the war.” He moderated his tone so as not to sound like a man about to wreak havoc until he found her.
The nurse looked over his upper body and still-military-short haircut.
Ian’s control started to slip. He leaned over the top of the counter. “Now, either you tell me where she is or you’re going to need a hell of a lot more manpower than that scrawny security guard over there to keep me from searching every single room.” Ian turned down the hallway. “Jaci,” he called out. “Jaci,” he yelled even louder.
“Calm down. Calm down.” The nurse heaved herself out of her chair. “Wait here and keep quiet, for heaven’s sake. Give me a minute to talk to my patient.”
Ian watched her knock on a door halfway down the hall. As soon as she entered, he followed her.
At his appearance the nurse said, “He doesn’t listen very well.”
Jaci sat in a chair in the far corner of the small private exam room, wearing a hospital gown, her eyes red and swollen shut, an oxygen mask hanging around her neck.
“He said he was my fiancé?” Jaci asked, her voice hoarse. Raw.
His heart squeezed. He couldn’t expand his lungs. Had she been beaten? Choked? Worse?
“Ian Eddelton,” the nurse said.
“Please don’t yell at me, Ian,” she said, turning her head away and inhaling a shaky breath. “I really can’t handle being yelled at right now.”
“What happened?” he asked quietly as he walked to her.
She didn’t answer.
Ian pulled the guest chair beside her, sat down, and tugged on her hand to see if she’d come to him. As if the seat beneath her had an eject feature, Jaci launched herself at his chest and Ian held her while she cried. No matter what she’d been through, he’d help her deal with it. They’d help each other.
“I’ll be at the desk if you need me Ms. Piermont,” the nurse said. “Buzzer’s clipped to your gown.”
“Th-thank you,” Jaci said, sniffling.
Finally alone in the room Ian smoothed Jaci’s wild curls and said, “I know how difficult it is to talk about some things.” It’d been months since the bomb blast and he still wasn’t able to discuss certain details. “But you’re the one who said women like to talk and my imagination is a scary place so I am praying you’ll take pity on me and tell me what happened to you.” Please, Lord, grant him the strength to take it like a man and remain strong for her. “Whatever it is, we’ll get through it. Together.”
“You were right,” she said. “My luck ran out. Just like you said it would.”
That was the absolute last thing Ian wanted to be right about. He wanted to shout out his anger. At her for not waiting for him to accompany her into that cursed building. At himself for not listening to the feeling of unease he’d experienced earlier, similar to the one he’d experienced on the morning of that fateful night four months ago. But what good would it do now? He rubbed her back to calm her.
“In the elevator.”
Ian’s breakfast churned in his stomach.
“After my visit, I was on the phone with my supervisor. That’s why I didn’t call you. I met up with Merlene’s boyfriend at the elevator. He got off so I thought I was okay. But he doubled back in behind me.”
That beast had a good foot on Jaci and at least one hundred pounds. Ian saw red. His vision a slo-mo enactment of all the ways he would torture that animal when he found him. And he would find him. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six.
“Breathe,” she said, tapping on his chest.
So focused on counting to counteract his rage, he’d completely forgotten that life-sustaining necessity. Ian’s imagination turned to Jaci. Lying on the elevator floor. His heart pounded. Gorge worked its way up to the back of his throat.
“It’s not what you think,” Jaci said, saving him from a complete psychotic meltdown.
“He trapped me in there but he didn’t touch me.”
Thank you, God. Tears of relief pooled in Ian’s eyes. He squeezed her tight and kissed the top of her head. “Then what happened to your eyes?”
“He hit the emergency stop button and cornered me. He threatened me and waved a knife around, wanting me to take him to Merlene.”
“Why—?”
“I know if I did, you would have been there and taken care of him.” She twisted a button on his shirt. “But I had to think of Merlene and her baby. She’s been running hypertensive. Any stress would put additional strain on her already high-risk pregnancy.”
That’s what Jaci did. She put the people she cared about before herself. As much as he’d like to scream at her to stop it, her caring and compassion were two of the many reasons he loved her. And Ian realized as hard as he tried, he couldn’t change Jaci from being...Jaci. He could and would continue to urge caution, suggest alternative action, and do his best to protect her, but she’d go right on doing what was innately part of her character. If he wanted a future with Jaci, and he did, he needed to give her freedom to live her life
, trust so she’d trust him in return, and support when she got into trouble.
He said a quick prayer on everything holy that today was the worst of it.
“So what did you do?”
“As the minutes passed he became more agitated. I tried to rationalize with him, but he wouldn’t listen. He threatened to scar me or take me to replace Merlene.” She shivered. Ian tightened his hold on her to remind her she was safe.
“I kept my hand in my pocket the entire time. When he made a lunge to grab me, I blasted him in the eyes with pepper spray.”
Jaci had more courage than some soldiers he’d served with over the years.
“He dropped to the ground, screaming and writhing, according to plan. But the noxious plume affected me, too. I barely reached the panel to get the elevator moving before my eyes swelled shut. It hurt so bad, like my eyes, nasal passages and face were on fire.”
Unfortunately, Ian was familiar with that “on fire” feeling.
“The doors opened on the second floor where my patient’s husband was waiting. He pulled the fire alarm to summon help and absolute chaos ensued. I’m told a television news van had been in the area doing a story on the local teen who’d been shot this morning. My nurse says reporters have been calling and showing up since I got here.” She shrugged. “I guess my secret life as a home health care nurse is no longer secret.”
Good. Maybe now she’d focus her attentions on the crisis center, where he could keep an eye on her.
“I’m so glad you came.” She snuggled into his chest.
“Even though you didn’t want me here.” Which stung.
“I worried about how you’d handle it. I can’t very well calm you down when I’m totally freaked out. I can’t see. Merlene’s boyfriend was brought to the hospital, too. He’s here somewhere. What’s to stop him from coming in here to follow through on his threats?” She tried to burrow deeper into his chest.
“Me.” He hugged her, hoping the son-of-a-bitch would show himself so Ian could mete out some retaliation in a fair fight between two comparable opponents. Man to man. Not vicious bully to woman.
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