Shona Jackson- The Complete Trilogy

by Vicky Jones

  “Something I said?” he joked.

  “I’m friends with Alice from the bakery,” Edie replied, holding out her palm for the money. “She told me what you said about Shona.”

  “Well, maybe she misunderstood my sense of humor.”

  “No, she knew exactly what you were meaning. Shona’s our friend, so you leave her alone or you’ll have us to deal with, OK?” Edie, bolstered by the fact there was a counter between them, hardly flinched when Kyle took a step closer to her, his smile hardening.

  “I was really hoping this could be my local store, so you can tell Shona from me, I ain’t planning on going anywhere. OK?”

  “Get off my property before I call the sheriff. I’m not joking, Kyle.” Chloe stood behind the closed front door, having watched through the kitchen window as he drove up to the house that same afternoon.

  “Look, I just wanna talk, Chloe. I’m not here to cause trouble. If I wanted to do that, I would have gone back in that office and told Miller all about you and this little love charade you got going on here. Open the door. I’m not gonna do anything.”

  Chloe opened the door a crack. “I don’t want you here, Kyle. You don’t scare me anymore,” she said.

  Kyle took a step back down the porch steps and held out the bear. “I just wanted to leave this for the boy. I know he ain’t home from school yet, so surely that shows you that I’m not here to make trouble. I come in peace.”

  Cooper ran in from the garden covered in mud from the hole he’d been digging. Lolloping around the hallway, he distracted her just long enough for Kyle to creep inside the front door as Chloe was bending over to shoo Cooper away. Refusing to leave Chloe alone completely, Cooper sat at the end of the hallway watching Kyle with keen brown eyes.

  “Kyle, I didn’t say you could come in,” Chloe gasped as she stood up and came face-to-face with him. He took a step backwards.

  “Look, I just wanted to see if you were OK after what happened at the school.” Kyle paused, his forehead creasing. “And I thought you should know something about Shona.” He knew he’d got her attention judging by the stare she gave him and was savoring every second of it.

  “Know what?”

  “That girl in town. The one in the bakery? Alice, I think her name is.”

  “What about her?” Chloe interjected.

  “Well, actually it’s not just her. That girl in the grocery store too. They all seem to know Shona pretty well.”

  “What are you saying, Kyle?”

  “Do you really know what she gets up to when she’s out at work, while you’re stuck here, day in, day out? Seems to me that she’s got all the freedom, not you.” His voice softened as he took a tiny step closer.

  “I trust her,” Chloe replied, folding her arms.

  “You know, I remember how you used to boss us all around at Ellis and Bruce. God, that was such a turn on. And you coming in every day looking and smelling amazing. All the guys wanted you, but none more so than me, Chloe. I can’t believe how stupid I’ve been. I’ve messed everything up.”

  His face crumbled and, to Chloe’s amazement, tears began to form in his dark black eyes. “I ruined everything that night. We could have been married by now, raising a family together. But I messed it all up because I was so in love with you. But what I did was wrong. Maybe not in the eyes of the law, but wrong all the same.” He wiped his nose on his sleeve and pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “Kyle, what are you saying?” Chloe whispered.

  “I’m saying I wanna try again with you, Chloe. For the boy’s sake. Seeing the way Shona is flaunting herself and her new confidence around town has really woken me up to the way you’re being treated. It’s not right. I said to myself, ‘why ain’t she being treated better?’ I would do it all so different this time if there was just a chance for us to be a family. I don’t want my boy growing up being illegitimate. I want him to inherit my family’s fortune one day. Surely you’d want that too?” He looked at her, reaching out to graze her face with the back of his fingers.

  Chloe’s head was spinning. After the Lucy business, she and Shona had been getting closer again, but now, with what Kyle had seen in town, it seemed all of that was being raked up once again.

  “Just another chance to make it right is all I’m asking, Chloe.” Kyle backed off again. “But you don’t have to tell me now. Think about it. But please, will you give the boy this?” He held out the bear once again. This time Chloe, in a state of bewilderment, took it. “I’ll leave you alone now. But you really do look beautiful. Motherhood suits you. Maybe marriage will too?”

  At the end of the road, out of sight of the house, Kyle stopped the car and put his hand in his pocket. As Chloe had leaned down to sort out Cooper, Kyle had swiped a pair of her panties off the hamper of dirty laundry she’d left in the hallway while she answered the door.

  “Mmmm, just like I remember,” he purred, pressing them to his nose.

  “Hey Shona, did that guy find you?” Bertie said after wandering over to the garage on her lunch break.

  “What guy?” Shona replied, emerging from underneath the car she was fixing.

  “Tall, black hair, thinks every lesbian in this town is gonna magically convert because of his cologne.”

  Shona grimaced. “No, and I ain’t wanting him to find me either. He’s an asshole.”

  “Yeah, well, Alice told him you worked here. Stupid kid. She let it slip by accident. You in trouble?”

  “Hope not. He’ll go soon when he realizes there’s nothing for him here.”

  “Well, you got your girls over there, primed and ready. And I still owe you one. Just say the word if you need anything, OK?”

  “Thank you, Bertie,” Shona replied.

  “I’m home, honey. Where’s my family at?” Shona bellowed down the hallway as she came through her front door. Something caught her attention. Lifting her nose into the air, the smell was unmistakable. “Chloe?” she called out, more seriously this time.

  “In here,” Chloe called back from the bedroom.

  “Why can I smell Kyle in this house?”

  Chloe turned around and almost took Shona’s breath away. She was wearing a tight-fitting peach blouse and black pencil skirt with a thin black belt around her waist. It was an outfit very similar to one she’d have worn all those years ago at Ellis and Bruce. Normally, Shona would have complimented her on it, but something didn’t feel right.

  “Was he here?”

  “Who?”

  “You know who,” Shona yelled. “Kyle.”

  “Shona, please don’t raise your voice. David’ll hear.” She turned back to the full-length mirror to continue brushing her hair. “Yes, he was. He brought a bear for David. He’s playing with it in his room now.”

  “Are you serious? How can you let that man anywhere near you after what he did?”

  Chloe spun around to face Shona. “I’m not. But he is David’s father, Shona. David has been asking questions these last few months.”

  “Bullshit. He’s no father. He’s a murdering bastard who killed my best friend and violated you. How could I ever accept him back in our lives?”

  “We’ll be OK, Shona. If he steps out of line, Sheriff Everett will be there to take him in. You said it yourself, the town’ll be safer when he’s back in charge.”

  “But he’ll retire one day. He won’t be around forever. We can’t rely on anyone to protect us—it’s down to us. Please, Chloe, don’t trust him.” Shona was leaning against the bedroom door now, relying on it to take her whole weight.

  “He has rights, Shona, as David’s father. We can’t get around that. If I don’t let him see David, he’ll exercise those rights, no doubt, to the authorities. He’s already threatened to tell old Miller down at the school all about us. Do you want all that to happen again? For David to be taken away from us?”

  Shona groaned. “No, of course I don’t. How could you even ask that? You know I love that kid as much as if I’d given birth to him mys
elf. But that man is evil. He’ll take everything away from us.”

  “He won’t, baby, I swear. I’m stronger now. He can’t scare me anymore. I’ve just gotta play things carefully. Otherwise we could lose everything we’ve fought so hard to have here.”

  “I’m so sorry about the letter.” Shona sobbed. “This is all my fault.”

  “It’s done now.”

  Shona looked at Chloe and then at her clothes. “Why are you wearing those?”

  “I’ve spent so long stuck indoors being a mom. I just wanted to feel strong and look independent again.”

  “You know, you look like you did when you first appeared on that balcony.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. I fell for you the second I saw you.”

  Chloe wrapped her arms around Shona’s waist. “Me too, the second I looked down and saw you in that crowd. Nothing will break us, Shona. I swear it.”

  Chapter 41

  Shona was finishing up with a customer when Kyle swaggered up to her the following morning. He leaned against the garage doors as the old man was handing over payment for the work she’d done.

  “Thank you so much, Shona. You’re the best mechanic this town has ever had,” the old man said. He put his brown leather wallet back in the pocket of his beige slacks and, with a little help from Shona’s outstretched arm, climbed into his Buick.

  As soon as he’d driven away, Kyle approached her slowly clapping his hands. “You’re the best mechanic this town has ever had,” he mimicked. “You really have charmed everyone around here, haven’t you? Men and women.”

  “Fuck off, Kyle,” Shona replied without even looking at him as she turned to go back inside the garage.

  “You know, you shouldn’t keep a good woman like Chloe locked inside the house all day. She gets bored and…” he paused, fishing into his pocket for Chloe’s panties while keeping his stare fixed on Shona, “tempted.”

  Shona turned around ready to fly at him but stopped dead when she saw what he was holding. “Where the hell did you get those?” Her eyes shot bolts of fire at the now-smirking Kyle.

  “Hey Shona, can you take a look at my tailpipe? It’s making a funny noise,” a young cop shouted out from the side of the road about ten feet away from her.

  “Better not make a scene in front of the law now, honey. I don’t think even your magical hands will get you off an assault charge.” Kyle’s face was beaming with triumph.

  Stepping closer to him on her way over to the cop, Shona leaned into Kyle. “It wouldn’t be assault, it’d be murder.” She ripped the panties out of his grasp and thrust them in her pocket. “Now get the fuck off my property, asshole.”

  “Go ask your girlfriend how I got those,” he snarled back.

  “Hi honey, good day at work?” Chloe asked, kissing Shona on the cheek as she walked through the door.

  “It was OK.”

  “I got steak for dinner. You hungry? David’s out tonight at his sleepover at Bobby’s, remember? We got the house to ourselves for once.” Chloe took Shona’s hand and began to lead her into the kitchen, but Shona pulled her hand away.

  “I have to ask you something and I need you to be honest with me.” Shona took a deep breath and licked her lips. “Did you sleep with Kyle when he was here yesterday?”

  Chloe recoiled in shock. “What?”

  Shona pulled out the panties. “Kyle gave them to me. I know they’re yours. What I can’t work out is why he would have them. Unless…”

  Chloe’s voice abandoned her entirely. It was a moment too long before she could speak. Shona, concluding the worst, turned around and stormed out of the house.

  “Can you tell me what room Mr. Chambers is in, please?”

  “And you are?” the desk clerk of the dingy motel Kyle was staying at asked, looking over his horn-rimmed glasses.

  “I’m the girl he ordered. I’m sure he’d appreciate a little discretion,” Chloe replied.

  After receiving an indifferent nod, a room number and a point, she began walking down the hallway, decorated with mismatched wallpaper and a tired green carpet. Reaching Kyle’s door, she knocked on it, leaving her other hand rooted in her coat pocket holding on to a wrench she’d taken from Shona’s tool belt. The door swung open, Kyle behind it wearing just a towel around his waist, clearly expecting company. “So predictable,” Chloe whispered under her breath.

  “Well now, I did not expect to see you here. What a lovely surprise.” He noted her smart blouse and pencil skirt she’d worn again today. “You look amazing. Come in.”

  “We need to talk, Kyle,” Chloe snapped, barging past him.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “This.” Chloe held out the panties.

  “What about them?” Kyle perched on the end of his armchair, his towel opening as he parted his legs. Chloe averted her eyes and maintained a safe distance.

  “Why did you take them? Then tell Shona we’d gone to bed together?”

  Kyle laughed. “It was just a joke. No sense of humor, that girl.”

  “You told a horrible lie to her, Kyle. I need you to go and tell her that.”

  He stood up and walked over to her, his cologne lingering in the air between them. “You know…we could be a proper family. Surely you want our boy to grow up with a mommy and a daddy, don’t you? Like normal kids?” His half-naked body was now inches away from her. “I’ve learned my lesson, Chloe. I’ve missed you so much. Just allow yourself to imagine life with me for a minute. You could meet your friends for long lunches, go shopping and paint as much as you’d like. David could stay in his preschool. You wouldn’t have to move him because old sourpuss Miller doesn’t want the drama of all this. Oh Chloe, if you’d come back to me, I swear it’ll be different this time. I wouldn’t keep you locked up in that house all day, like Shona does. I’m a changed man, I swear. You’re the woman I fell in love with. The woman I’m still in love with.” He placed his fingers below her chin and raised it up, then moved his lips closer to hers.

  “Kyle, no,” she ordered, taking one even step back. Her fingers clenched around the wrench as she drew it from her pocket. “Touch me again and you’ll walk funny for a week.”

  Kyle stepped back, shocked at her newfound assertiveness. He was smiling but his eyes were fierce. “Well, well, Chloe Bruce. Thinking she’s all tough.” His tone darkened. “But you’re playing with fire, honey. You belong to me. You and the boy. Be smart now. You can’t get away from me a second time. I own you, Chloe.” He stood there smirking at her in triumph.

  Chloe was unmoved. Feeling a sense of strength, the like of which she’d never felt before towards Kyle, she stepped closer to him, the wrench gripped in her bone-dry palm. Without taking her eyes off him, she pressed her face close enough for their noses to almost touch. After a huge deep breath, Chloe placed her lips against Kyle’s ear.

  “You don’t own me,” she sang in her breathiest tones.

  Kyle looked at her, bewildered. Without another word, Chloe eyeballed him as she backed up towards the door, then let herself out.

  Twenty minutes later, after she had stormed out of the house, Shona was standing in the bar looking down at Bertie, Edie, Dee and Lula who were all seated at a booth.

  “That favor you owe me? I’m calling it in,” Shona said, her face like stone.

  “Name it,” Bertie replied, folding her arms.

  Chapter 42

  Kyle smiled at Alice as he closed the bakery door behind him. “Well, good morning.”

  Looking up from her Wednesday morning newspaper, Alice beamed. “Hello, sir, how can I help you today?”

  “Well now, that’s more like it. I’d like another one of those delicious pies, please. That one the other day was just yum.” He leaned an elbow on the counter.

  With a sympathetic smile, Alice shook her head. “Oh, sir, I’m so sorry, but we don’t have any in today.”

  “What? But I can smell them.” Kyle looked around the bakery, confused. Alice shook her hea
d again and returned to her newspaper. “I’ll have some of that bread there then,” he said, pointing at the pile on the table behind her.

  Alice cast her eyes over it for a second before shaking her head again. “Nope, sorry. That’s all taken, sir,” she added.

  “Suit yourself. I’ll take my money next door.” Kyle turned on his heels and left, leaving Alice grinning to herself as he slammed the door.

  Minutes later, Kyle entered the grocery store.

  “Packet of smokes,” he ordered, slamming down a dollar bill on the counter.

  “Sorry, sir, all out of smokes today,” Edie replied, not looking up from her magazine.

  “I can see them on the shelf behind you,” Kyle said, grinding his teeth.

  “Then I don’t know what to tell you. Sir,” Edie looked up and fixed her stare on Kyle’s blazing eyes. She pressed a finger on his dollar bill and swept it back across the counter to him.

  “I’d like to speak to your manager. I’ll have your job for this.”

  “Boss is away. I’m in charge and I’d like you to leave. Now.”

  Seeing two old ladies, who were browsing through the magazine rack, turn and glare at him, Kyle forced out a tight smile and turned to leave. When he returned to his car, though, his anger spilled over.

  “What the fuck?” He looked at his hood and windows, which were now covered in egg stains, the words ‘GET LOST, ASSHOLE’ drawn in the yellow yolk smears. Over at the bar, Bertie and Dee were sniggering and pointing at him. Just about to march over there, Kyle stopped. His tires were as flat as pancakes.