by Lori Mack
***
Mike held Jenna close to his heart as she slept after their lovemaking. He didn’t want to sleep and miss a moment of his time with her. He could only hope she loved him enough to forgive him for the truth she was about to discover. He’d been twenty-two and Alice had convinced him it was in Jenna’s best interest to never learn the truth of her parents’ death. She didn’t want Jenna to spend her life angry at the justice system that had failed her and vengeful towards the person responsible for the death of her parents. He’d owed Alice a debt of gratitude, so rather than live a life of lies, he walked away from the only woman he knew he would love.
“Mike, are you awake?” A sleepy-eyed Jenna stared up at him with eyes bursting with love and trust. He was an ass and he was going to hurt her all over again.
He leaned down and kissed her, “Morning, baby. How do you feel?”
She stretched and rolled on top of him, bringing all her good parts in alignment with his good parts. “Mmm, you tell me, how do I feel? You feel really good.”
He was just thinking up an appropriate response when his cell phone buzzed. He groaned, but turned the screen to see who was calling. It was his boss. Not a good sign when his boss knew he was on a leave of absence.
“This is Special Agent Thomas,” he answered. Jenna, still on top of him, started nibbling his neck, then licking her way down his chest to his nipples.
“Morning, Mike. It’s Doug. Hell, son, I don’t know what to say other than congratulations! I knew you were on the fast-track for DC, but I didn’t think it would come through this soon. Now, I know you’re on leave for a few more weeks, but your orders came through for an immediate transfer.”
Mike rolled Jenna off as he sat up and swung his legs off the side of the bed. He shot Jenna an apologetic look, before saying, “I never put in for a transfer, sir. I don’t know what’s-”
“I know you didn’t. But, someone in DC has been paying attention and you’ve been promoted. They want you there within the week. Hell, they wanted you there this week, but I reminded them you will need a few days to pack up your place in Los Angeles and drive across country. They’ll get you an apartment in DC until you have time to find your own place. How soon can you be back in LA to pack things up?”
Mike looked at Jenna, who had wrapped herself up in his shirt and sat perfectly still in the middle of the big bed. She must have heard every word Doug bellowed into the phone. Doug was originally from Texas and, despite 25 years in Los Angeles, had never lost his accent. He also talked loud enough to be heard clearly across a Texas football stadium.
“I don’t know what to say, Doug,” Mike stopped at the sadness he saw cloud Jenna’s eyes. “Can I get back to you on this?”
“Mike, I’m not sure you understand. This isn’t an offer, son, this is an order. I just need to know when to tell them to expect you in DC.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll call you later today to finalize the plan.” Mike ended the call and put the phone down. “Son of a bitch!” He exploded out of bed and yanked on his jeans.
“Mike,” Jenna started, then stopped as he paced the floor.
“I don’t know what’s going on. When I applied for the promotion last year, I was told I needed about three or four more years of experience. So, why am I now qualified for this promotion?”
“But, you want it,” she stated. It wasn’t a question; she could see how much this meant to him.
“I - well, yes. Or, I did. I don’t know any more.” He walked back to the bed, sat down next to her, and took her hand in his. “Things have changed in the last couple of days.”
“Mike, you can’t be serious. Isn’t this what you’ve worked for your whole career? You finished college and law school in six years, rather than the normal seven, you’ve been promoted several times already, and now, you’ve reached the position you’ve aimed for since we were still in college. What is there to think about?”
He was pleased to know she had followed his career even though they hadn’t been together. Alice must have kept her up-to-date on his promotions. He allowed himself a small smile at learning she had never stopped caring. Jenna could have told Alice she didn’t want to know about him, and Alice would have respected her wishes, but she didn’t. She knew about his career and she knew what this promotion would mean to him. That was all the more reason for him to take a step back and think about this. He also needed to think about why he was suddenly receiving the promotion. Could this have anything to do with the investigation into Alice’s murder?
Mike stood helped Jenna to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a long, lingering kiss. “Come on, let’s get dressed and grab some breakfast. We need to read that file.”
“Mike, what aren’t you telling me? You don’t think your promotion is related to Alice’s murder do you?” When he didn’t answer her right away, she tried again. “Hey, talk to me. What’s going on?”
Mike paused as he was pulling on his boots and looked up at her, “I don’t know. I think the timing of my promotion is very suspicious. Especially since Mole has tracked the hackers back to Sacramento.” He paused and blew out a frustrated breath before continuing, “I need to tell you some things about your parents. This could all be related.”
Jenna’s mouth dropped open in shock. Before she could ask him any questions, there was a knock on their bedroom door and Mole said, “Jenna, Mike, the Senator is here to see you.”
Mike dropped his head in his hands. He knew why the Senator was here and now it was too late to tell Jenna the truth.
Chapter 10
Jenna and Mike sat on the sofa across from the Senator and his wife. Both wore somber expressions and she feared whatever it was they had come to tell her. Mike’s support gave her strength, but would it be enough? She couldn’t imagine what was about to happen, but she knew she would forever mark this as the day everything changed.
The Senator cleared his throat and looked to his wife. She nodded her support and squeezed his hand. “Ms. Sheridan, Special Agent Thomas, thank you for seeing Carol and I on short notice. It has come to my attention that you have been having some,” he paused as if searching for the right words. “Some difficulties lately.”
Mike sat forward, but Jenna rested her hand on his shoulder, stopping him from saying anything. “Senator, if you’re referring to my being attacked at my aunt’s memorial service, my house being blown up, and us being run off the road as ‘difficulties,’ then you and I have very different definitions of the word.”
The Senator had the good manners to look embarrassed at his attempt to trivialize their troubles. “I assure you, Ms. Sheridan, I do not mean to understate the situation.”
“With all due respect, Senator, what the hell do you know about it?” It was Mike’s turn to keep Jenna in check, but she shrugged off his attempts to placate her. “I want to know what’s going on. What haven’t you told me?” she turned to Mike. “It seems pretty obvious that everyone is privy to some information about my parent’s accident, except me. So,” Jenna looked at each person and said, “Who’s responsible for the death of my parents?”
“My son killed your parents,” Carol said flatly.
“Carol,” the Senator bellowed at his wife, “You know it’s not like that.”
“She has a right to know, Sam.” Carol wiped away her tears with a tissue and turned to Jenna. “Ms. Sheridan, I am saddened to tell you that our son was driving the car that hit your parents head-on sixteen years ago. Samuel Junior was a few months’ shy of his eighteenth birthday, so my husband,” she sneered a little as this, “managed to keep this accident and Samuel’s part in it a complete secret - even from me. He managed to also keep any mention of this out of the papers. He arranged to have Samuel charged as a juvenile and then had his records sealed when Samuel came of age.”
Jenna sat still, her hands gripping the edge of the sofa as she absorbed the information. Mike covered her hand with his and gave her a small squeeze.
The Se
nator was trying to correct what his wife had just said, but Jenna wasn’t listening. After all this time, she finally knew the truth. And, apparently, Mike had somehow known this all along as well. She turned to him, the question in her eyes. “Why?”
Mike tried to take her hand, but she stood up and walked away from him and looked out the window. She was vaguely aware that it had grown quiet behind her. She remembered standing at this window sixteen years ago and seeing the flashing lights of the police car coming up the drive. Her parents had gone to San Francisco for the weekend and were due back this afternoon. The day before, Valentine’s Day, had been their 18th wedding anniversary. She often stayed with her Aunt Alice when her parents traveled and she spoiled Jenna as if she were her own. Alice had come to her with tears in her eyes and told her there had been an accident. Jenna was fifteen when her world was turned upside down. And now it was happening all over again.
She turned around and found them all standing and staring at her. “Why are you telling me this now? What do you gain from it?”
The Senator appeared to have aged in the last few minutes, and Jenna noticed his wife was no longer seated next to him. He lifted his hands, but then dropped them in defeat. “I believe my son is behind the recent attacks on you and Special Agent Thomas. And, God help me, I think he arranged to have your aunt killed.”
“Why? Why would he come after me after all this time? I didn’t even know he was responsible.” Jenna started going back over everything that had happened in the last few days. That’s when she remembered the Senator had tried to use her aunt’s memorial service as a launching pad for Junior’s political career. She glared at the Senator and spat out, “This is all because of politics? My aunt died because your son wanted to be a Congressman? Get out of my house!”
The Senator went pale, but his wife picked up her purse and walked out without waiting for him. The Senator looked like he might try to say something, but Mike grabbed his upper arm and forced him out of the house. She heard the click of the deadbolt and when Mike came back to the living room, she held up the packet from the Vault and said, “What else is in here that I need to know?”
***
Mike took the packet and tossed it on the coffee table in between the two sofas. He motioned for Jenna to sit, and tried not to wince when she moved away from him and stood behind the far sofa. He walked to the fireplace and stared into the remnants of the last fire. He had a sinking feeling that his heart would soon resemble the cold, dark ashes piled in the hearth.
“I was sixteen and working at my father’s auto repair shop in San Rafael when a tow truck arrived with a fire-engine red, jacked up pickup truck. The front end was completely smashed in, but the rest of the truck appeared to be in good condition. We were told to repair the truck as soon as possible. Apparently, the driver wasn’t going to file an insurance claim and he would pay for all the repairs in cash. Part of my job was to document the work we did, so I took pictures before, during, and after the repairs were made.”
He could hear her sniffling and it broke his heart. He wanted to go to her and hold her, but when he started to move towards her, she shook her head and turned away. He needed to tell her everything before she threw him out of the house as well.
“A few days later, I read an article about the crash and they mentioned your aunt’s name. I had found empty bottles of beer in the truck and wanted to go to the police, but my dad said it wouldn’t prove the driver had been drinking at the time of the crash. I documented everything about the truck and what I found inside, along with copies of the articles about the accident. I kept trying to find out what had happened to the driver, but there was no information. My dad kept trying to tell me to drop it, but it seemed wrong somehow. So, I skipped school one day and tracked down your aunt. I gave her copies of everything - the pictures of the truck, the beer bottles, information on the cash payments, everything. I had even taken pictures of the registration form, so I knew who was the owner and who was the owner’s father. Alice was grateful, but she echoed what my dad had said. There was nothing else we could do. That day I sat with Alice in this very room and cried with her over the injustice of the system. That’s the day I decided to become an FBI agent. I was angry the local police couldn’t do anything and in my young mind I thought if only I was the FBI I could make that son of a bitch pay.”
She stood at the window, staring at who knew what. He ached to touch her. Would she ever forgive him? She turned around and he saw the silent tears roll down her face. She looked just like she had the first time he saw her. It was a grainy picture in the newspaper where she was standing next to Alice and crying silently as they lowered her parents into the ground. He’d fallen in love with her at that moment. He’d spend every day of his life making it up to her if she’d only let him.
“Why did you even care?” She whispered.
How did he tell her he’d fallen in love with her before he even knew her?
“The truth, Mike. Stop holding back on me and tell me all of it.” Her voice was stronger and the tears had stopped falling. She was the strongest woman he knew. She would understand, she would forgive him. She had to. If she didn’t, he would be lost without her.
He took a deep breath and poured his heart into his story. “I cared about you. I saw your picture in the paper after your parents were killed. I couldn’t imagine someone my age growing up without their parents and I needed to see you how you could do it. My mom had just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. We knew she didn’t have much time and I was angry at the world. I felt sorry for myself because I was going to lose my mom. Then I saw your picture in the paper. A fifteen-year-old St. Helena girl was orphaned when her parents were killed in a head-on crash. You were standing at their grave and you weren’t angry. I couldn’t understand why you weren’t angry.”
He could still feel the frustration and helplessness when his mom was diagnosed. He heard the anguish in his own voice as the pain came rushing back. “How could you lose everything and not be angry? I needed to know. I still need to know.”
Chapter 11
In the end, Jenna hadn’t thrown him out. Mike had left on his own. She couldn’t tell him what he needed to know, because she didn’t know herself. She had been angry when her parents were killed, but she had been numb more than angry. Alice had been there for her and maybe Alice had kept Jenna from lashing out at the world. She just didn’t know.
After Mike had poured his heart into his confession, she just stood at the window watching and waiting. She didn’t hear him leave the room or say goodbye to Mole. She didn’t even see him get in the cab and drive away. She just stood at the window, watching and waiting. Mole eventually led her upstairs and put her to bed. Samantha came back from her parents and moved into Alice’s house, where she and Mole took care of Jenna. The first few days were a blur. She ate soup from Stan’s Soup and Service Station, slept, and avoided the news.
She didn’t care about the sudden retirement of the senior Senator of California or his wife leaving him. She didn’t even react when Jonah came to tell her Junior had confessed to hiring a hit man to kill Alice and her. Apparently, Junior thought she knew he had killed her parents and that she would ruin his chances for political office.
Eventually, Jenna started working again. She and Mole and Samantha decided to live in Alice’s house while they rebuilt the Victorian house. They kept the facade the same, but the inside was being completely modernized and designed for office space, not living space. Jenna thought she would keep living in Alice’s house and commute the few miles to her new office once it was finished.
She never asked about Mike, but she knew Mole talked to him every couple of days. She sometimes wondered if she were a coward for being happy she didn’t have to decide between breaking things off or forgiving him. She really didn’t know what she would have chosen.
The St. Helena community once again flooded her kitchen with casseroles. Mole had developed an app that allowed her to track which casser
ole dish belonged to which owner, so she never again returned a casserole dish to the wrong owner. Well, except for the tofu casserole dish. Mole supposedly “lost” the dish that contained the tofu casserole. She said it was her civic duty to stop the spread of tofu casseroles.
Her life was slowly returning to her old routine, with a few new twists. She started hosting wine tastings at Vinny’s once a week. Her aunt had left her quite the legacy of wine and she wanted to share it with her community. She had also asked Emerson to park her Pita Peddler Streatery food truck at Vinny’s so she could pair her the wine with Emi’s cuisine. The wine tasting nights were a big hit with the locals. She and Jacques had been working on some plans for an outdoor venue to host weddings and concerts behind Vinny’s. So far, the community seemed to support their ideas.
It was Monday night in fall and the crowd was gathering to watch football on the giant blow up screen and enjoy some local food and wine. This week’s theme was based on a suggestion from Mole: “Come as your favorite team mascot.” The winner of each week’s theme night received free wine & food for the night. She was milling through the crowd trying to decide between the 4-foot shark and the 6-foot penguin. The crowd decided to make the decision for her and started chanting, “Penguin! Penguin! Penguin!”
