“I will be right back,” he said and got to his shaky legs. He walked out of the cell carrying his IV bag. My fear came back and even worse. What was he doing? What if they thought he was trying to escape?
“Jack!” I yelled and stood up. My chest throbbed again with the pain but I tried to ignore it as I went to the door. I had to get him to come back before he got into trouble but before I could make it to the door, my equilibrium gave out and I fell. Everything went very black.
Chapter 19
A deep ache kept Jack from nodding off. The fever was back, though not as high, and although he wanted to follow Vivienne’s order to sleep, he was unable to. As always, he was worried about Penny. She lay on the mat closest to the wall asleep. He had left the room to find William and Vivienne and tell them maybe Penny was coming down with another urinary tract infection. William was not happy to see Jack out of the cell when he found the two in the spacious workshop but Jack quickly told him he wasn’t trying anything. All he wanted to do was explain what Penny was unable to. William manhandled him back to the cell and that’s where they found Penny lying unconscious.
William put her on the mat and ordered Vivienne to figure her out. The verdict was just another episode with her heart, probably exasperated by having not eaten anything for four days. Crystal was called, a conversation ensued outside of the cell, but William didn’t share what was said. Vivienne made sure Penny was stable, did nothing about the low-grade fever, and the duo left after Vivienne repeated her earlier order about him needing sleep.
The room was warm even though it was late at night but the fever made him cold and he pulled the blanket up further. It was a clear night and pale light from the full moon lit the room just enough so Jack could just make out Penny. He adjusted the blanket so it covered them both. He thought he could feel her trembling. Jack wondered if it was a UTI causing the fever and if so, he hoped it wasn’t as bad as the others. He then hoped Crystal would not wait until it was almost too late for medical intervention. Jack lightly chuckled. Waiting was Crystal’s way for torturing both of them. For probably the millionth time, he cursed his wife.
Closing his eyes, he tried to empty his mind in the hopes sleep would come. The more he tried, however, the more his mind cluttered up. His thoughts swirled but all he could see when they focused was an image of Shane, of all people. Jack was surprised both he and Penny’s friendship survived that relationship, at least the relationship before the kidnapping. Sadly, their survival was still somewhat murky in the current situation.
Just like with the strashnyi golos, Jack didn’t understand Shane’s hold on Penny. No, that wasn’t right. He understood the last part of their relationship as she was blackmailed into sleeping with him. What about the early part? Why did she stay with him? Jack had suspicions while in college Shane was beating her. The blackmail hadn’t started then. It wasn’t until Shane finally beat her one last time after breaking up with her did Penny admit she felt so helpless when it came to the relationship.
“But I have wanted you to leave him for so long,” Jack told her as she lay broken in the hospital bed. The beating had been bad. In addition to a collapsed lung, she had four broken ribs, a concussion, and bruised kidneys along with multiple cuts and bruises. Shane had also raped her but Penny refused to talk about that and Jack didn’t push her. “Why did you not leave him?” Penny would not answer that question and again, he didn’t push her. She promised it was over and would not go back to him.
“It’s over,” she said without looking at him. “That’s all that matters.”
Jack first suspected abuse during the summer between their freshman and sophomore years. A club on the Jersey shore had hired the band for a month-long gig. It was the first extended time Jack was away from his family even though he was just a couple hours away. The separation was difficult for him even though it meant a month or two of financial security and finally paying off the hospital bill from the twins’ delivery. It was Penny who managed to come up with enough money for Crystal and the kids to stay two nights at a local hotel. Jack didn’t want to accept the money but he missed the kids too much. Shane and Penny also stayed those two nights and it was great to have everyone back together.
Shane had smuggled in a couple cases of beer. Despite being under twenty-one, Jack partook in his first beer but limited himself to one so he could take care of Crystal who quickly became soused after three beers. Penny did not drink but Shane went through half a dozen quickly and became loud and stupid. Penny steered him towards the beach since he was causing a ruckus. They were gone for at least an hour and when Jack stood on the hotel balcony out of worry, he could hear an angry voice on the sea wind. Someone was not happy with their partner and he thought he heard the sound of flesh being hit but then Ellie woke up and Jack went back into the hotel room to see what she was fussing about.
The next morning at breakfast, Shane and Crystal were not feeling well, no surprise, and it was just Jack and Penny at breakfast with the twins. Penny fed a ten-month-old Sasha some smashed banana and pancake while Jack fed Ellie. Penny was sullen which he explained away from the late night. She wore a long sleeve t-shirt but when she reached for a napkin, the sleeve rode up and revealed a nasty bruise and gash on her arm.
“What happened?” Jack asked and tried to touch her arm. She pulled it away from him.
“I tripped on the boardwalk,” she said with haste. The memory of the argument he overheard hit him and he wondered if it had been Penny and Shane arguing. But then he remembered tripping on the boardwalk also and he dismissed his suspicions.
Those injuries that weekend we’re the first of many oddly explained injuries on Penny. During their junior year he once again wondered if Shane was beating her but his theory was rebuked by everyone. The relationship continued and Jack threw a fancy engagement party for Shane and Penny during a break in the band’s first tour when they were an opening act. That’s as far as it went in regards to solidifying the relationship. No date was ever set or wedding dress picked out. Eventually, Penny stopped wearing her engagement ring but she and Shane remained a couple. When asked about the engagement, Penny would offhandedly answer Oh, we’re working on it.
Even though Penny was still his best friend, Jack felt uncomfortable talking relationships with her and would rely on Crystal, who Penny confided in early in everyone’s friendship, for information. That didn’t always work as Crystal took seriously the girl bond and eventually the two women were on the outs and he doubted Penny was confiding in his wife anymore. That’s when the incidences of bruises and injuries started to increase. Jack was at a disadvantage due to his touring schedule and he worried about Penny just as much as his children.
And then, on the eve of the band’s first full blown, round-the-world tour as headliners in January 2006, and last tour before the horrible car accident, Jack witnessed Shane hit Penny across the face.
Jack had been riding her about his suspicions for a couple years but she always denied Shane was hitting her. They fought as she mixed up her stories as to how she broke her wrist or got the black eye. Penny refused to talk to Jack about her relationship but then he saw Shane hit her and she could not deny it anymore.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Jack raged at Shane in his garage where the hit had taken place. Penny was on the ground, struggling to get to her feet.
“This is none of your business, Jack,” Shane replied and reached down to grab Penny. She cowered as he screamed at her. “Look what you’ve done!” He jerked her up hard by her arm. Jack couldn’t handle this and he rushed at Shane. Shane may have been taller than Jack but Jack was strong and compact and he had Shane easily on the ground. Jack went to punch him but he stopped himself.
Instead, he got up and with a shaking finger, pointed towards the open door of the garage.
“Get the hell out of here,” he said in a low voice. “You are not welcome on my property anymore.”
Despite what Jack had witnessed, Penny would not leave Shane. They yelled at each other in person and yelled at each other over the phone when he had to leave for tour. She wasn’t leaving Shane and there was nothing he could do about it. When Jack threatened to call the police, Penny threatened to quit. Jack didn’t think she would follow through on the threat but he was afraid she just might and that just couldn’t happen with the tour starting. She had him over a barrel.
“Just don’t worry about me in regards to Shane,” she begged of Jack over the phone one night. But Jack did have to worry about her in regards to Shane in late December 2009.
Jack knew Shane and Penny’s relationship was on shaky grounds. He did not see the tell-tale bruises or weird injuries but whenever she returned from a date with Shane, she was very sullen and her movements slow. Penny had no joy to her and Jack rarely saw her smile anymore. Shane wasn’t allowed anywhere near the house so Penny would wait for him on the front porch for him to pick her up. She looked like a prisoner about to head to the electric chair.
On the terrible night of finality between Shane and Penny, they were spending the evening at his condo but Penny admitted she would have rather stayed at home and spend time with Jack and the kids. She did not want to go to Shane’s but after he called the third time, she reluctantly left.
Jack had a bad feeling about the date. The day was weird weather-wise. It was a Saturday, Penny’s day off she rarely took advantage of, and Little Sofie had Jack up before the crack of dawn. When he went for the paper, it was balmy warm out, nearly sixty degrees. It began raining shortly after and continued until a mighty gust of wind late that afternoon signaled the arrival of the cold front and quick drop in temperature and change over to a heavy, wet snow. Carlos, Matty, and Danny were coming over for a poker game as soon as the last child was in bed. Penny left about an hour before the guys arrived. Jack soon lost money in the game; despite the Big Brain everyone said he had, poker was just not something he was good at.
Millie came home from dinner and a movie with her sober mates and in the span of three games, won twice the amount of money Jack lost. Her Big Brain had no problem with poker.
“Finally, something I’m better than you at!” Millie chided him. He didn’t even attempt another round and moped, popping M&Ms and watching the others play. His phone rang. It was Penny. The bad feeling that had been lurking within him all day suddenly intensified.
“Hey,” he said cautiously. He heard nothing on the other line. “Penny?” Again, there was nothing.
“What’s Pretty Penny up to tonight?” Millie asked over the top of her cards.
“She is with Shane but I think she must have butt dialed,” he said as the call disconnected. “I do not hear her.” A couple minutes passed and again, Jack’s phone rang and again, the screen showed Penny’s smiling face. “Hello?” Again, Jack heard nothing. The volume in the room dropped and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. “Penny? Are you there?” Still more silence. Then he heard a strangled whimper. “Penny, what is wrong?”
“Jack… Jack, I need help.” Penny’s voice was quiet and pained.
“Where are you?” he asked and stood up quickly. Millie and the guys looked up at him. Jack tucked his phone against his shoulder and signed to Millie. Something is wrong with Penny. “Tell me where you are and I will help you.” Penny moaned and Jack’s heart raced. “Where are you?!”
“The duck pond,” she replied. She sounded very weak. There was a wheeze to her voice also. She went quiet for several moments.
“Penny!”
“It’s hard to breathe,” she said. Then the line went dead.
“What’s going on?” Danny asked and slowly stood. The other gentlemen followed suit.
“I am not sure,” Jack replied and quickly moved to the side entry and pulled his jacket off the row of hooks. “I think Penny is hurt. Danny, come with me?”
“Of course,” his brother said.
“Matty and Carlos, could you stay here until I call you and tell you it is safe?”
“Safe? What are you talking about, Jack?” Millie asked and approached him. “What the hell is going on?” Jack looked at his sister, brother, and band brothers. None of them knew about Penny’s abuse but now wasn’t the time for confidences.
“Shane has been abusing Penny,” he said quickly. “I think he has hurt her. Matty and Carlos, I want you to stay here in case he shows up for some reason.” There was dead silence for several moments. Even Jack’s feet suddenly didn’t want to move. It was Millie who spoke up.
“Go to her, Jack,” she said. Her voice was a little shaky, even a bit incredulous. “Call us when you have news.”
The duck pond was four roundabout blocks from Jack’s house and very near the development’s condos where Shane lived. Danny also lived in one of the condos with Melanie. The snow was coming down heavily; it was wet and accumulating. Danny drove his Jeep but he couldn’t drive as fast as Jack wanted because the streets were slick. After a few minutes, they arrived at the duck pond and hopped out of the vehicle. There wasn’t a street light to provide illumination but Danny pulled a flashlight from his Jeep. The snow was too thick, however, for the flashlight to make much of a dent.
Jack and Danny slipped and slid across the ankle deep snow. Jack frantically searched for any sign of Penny but the snow was making it so hard. The wet snow quickly soaked him but he didn’t notice; he just wanted to find Penny. A shout from his left guided him towards Danny who was crouched down near a bench that was a dozen feet from the edge of the pond. Jack had sat for many an hour with all of his children on that bench tossing pieces of bread to the eager ducks.
“Holy hell,” he breathed as he slid to a stop next to Danny. Penny was lying on her side, curled up and gasping for breath. When she left for her evening with the bastard, she hadn’t changed out of her jeans and Eagles sweatshirt. Now, she wore just the sweatshirt and it was soaked. She was shivering.
“I’m sorry, Jack,” Penny said with difficulty. She’d been beaten; blood ran from her nose and mouth. Her left eye was swollen shut. Each breath she took seemed like a struggle. “I can’t breathe,” she gasped.
“We need to get her to the hospital,” Jack said. He tried to pick her up but she slapped his arms away.
“No hospital,” she gasped.
“No arguments,” he told her and carefully picked her up. Danny popped the back door open on his Jeep and Jack laid her on the back seat, then slipped his jacket off to lay over her muddy legs.
It was a long night, difficult at best. The ER called the police, Jack filled them in, and Shane was arrested. Penny would not cooperate with the authorities and prosecutors refused to file charges. Jack felt Shane’s family money had something to do with that also but mainly it was because of Penny. She said the relationship was dead and that was more important. She didn’t want to bring up the ugly past. She wanted to move on.
She stayed a week in the hospital before recuperating more at the house. The kids were told she was in a car accident which worried them all as memories of the deadly crash were still fresh in their minds. After telling Jack the relationship was over and she would not see Shane anymore, she refused to talk about the incident. It bothered Jack greatly but then the band started working on the new album and after the weekend at the cabin, he turned into a colossal ass.
Chapter 20
Despite all that had been done to me in this horrendous situation, it still hurt when Vivienne started an IV. With Jack on the mend, Crystal finally allowed me to have antibiotics and food to fight yet another urinary tract infection. I was worried, though. The medical care had started much e
arlier than usual. In the past, I would be near delirious before the antibiotics started but this time, I just had the pain when I used the bucket and a medium grade fever. I wondered if something was up.
“Roll over,” Vivienne ordered and I complied, cringing when the needle of the syringe sunk into my hip. The final thing she did was give me oral antibiotics.
“Thank you,” I said when she was finished and packing her supplies up. All she did was grunt at me and leave. William entered the small space with a tray which he sat down between Jack and me.
“Enjoy your dinner,” he said and then locked us in our prison. Jack took off the towel that covered the tray and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There were two sandwiches, two oranges, and two glasses of milk.
“I wonder what is in this,” Jack pondered and picked up the thermos that was on the tray. He opened it up and his eyebrows arched in surprise. “Soup. Actual hot soup.”
“Why are they being so nice to us?” I questioned. I doubted it was because I was sick.
“I do not know. Maybe we should not question this,” he said and poured some of the soup in the thermos’s cup. It was chicken noodle and smelled divine. He held the cup to my lips. “You first.”
“Thank you,” I replied and drank down the hot liquid and a few noodles. We alternated cups until the thermos was empty. My stomach was happy for the first time in months and I still had a sandwich, orange, and glass of milk to get down. We waited a little bit, however, to allow our stomachs to get used to the food.
“How are you feeling?”
“Still achy and cold,” I replied and Jack tucked the blanket tighter around me. I didn’t think it was fair that I was the only one using it but Jack insisted and I didn’t feel well enough to argue with him.
We finished the rest of our meal. My stomach felt so full and I was tired. I laid down on the mat but just a few minutes later, the door opened up. Vivienne and William were back.
Aftermath (The Deceptions Trilogy Book 2) Page 22