by Tia Siren
“I have to go back to my house,” I said. “I need to shower, get clothes, and take care of things over there.”
Derek’s face tightened into an uneasy frown. “I don’t know if that—”
“I know Leon’s patterns better than anyone,” I said, sitting up to rub at the chill on my skin. “He won’t be back today. I promise. He doesn’t want me to figure things out.”
“I’ll have a car drive by every hour,” Derek said a bit warily. “Keep the doors locked, though, until I get back.”
I waited on the front porch until Derek had cleared every room. He kissed me on the forehead briefly before I stepped inside to lock the front door. I sank against it the second I heard Derek’s truck roar down the street.
I was falling for him in middle of a shitty situation. I rubbed at my eyes tiredly. Derek didn’t need all this drama. He had made it clear from the start that he didn’t want a committed relationship, but things had shifted. I’d felt that shift when Derek had reached out wordlessly to hold me in the middle of the night.
The warmth of the sunlight filtered through the small glass window above the door. It warmed a patch of my cold skin.
My phone buzzed from inside my purse. I reached forward to fish it out, glancing down at the caller ID before I answered.
“You okay, Mom?”
“Of course I am,” Anna said impatiently. “Why wouldn’t I be okay? It’s you that I worry about being in that house all alone.”
“I’m fine,” I replied, sinking against the front door again. “Derek is having a cop drive by every hour until he figures something out.”
“I’m relieved to hear that, but, honey, I think I figured out how Leon found you.”
I straightened up at that. The warm patch of sunlight lifted when I drew my knees up to my chest to hug them tightly.
“How?” I asked thickly. “You’re all the way in Lone Tree. He couldn’t have put the pieces together that easily.”
“My passwords for my banking information have changed, Jenna. All of it has been changed, including my emails.”
I went cold again, colder than before. If Leon had managed to hack into my mother’s information, it wouldn’t surprise me. He worked for a software coding company back in California. He could easily hack into someone’s accounts, and knowing my mother, most of her passwords contained names Leon knew.
My fingers tightened around the phone. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” she said solemnly. “I hadn’t checked in a while, but I tried a few times this morning to check on a few things. You don’t sound surprised.”
“If that’s what he did, I’m not at all.” I chewed on my bottom lip anxiously. “We need to tell the police if that’s the case. I don’t know if it’s a crime to hack into someone’s personal accounts, but there has to be something there that they can do.”
“Derek would be able to tell us, right?”
I hesitated in answering. I didn’t want to get into the details of how I felt about Derek, because my mother had a knack for inserting herself into things. My love life happened to be a place she liked to frequent given what had happened with Leon.
“Maybe,” I said. “I’ll see when he gets back.”
“You sound hesitant,” Anna said. “What is going on?”
“Nothing is going on,” I replied quickly. “I’m just tired is all, Mom. I don’t want to talk about it. I’ll call you when Derek gets back.”
I hung up before she could reply. My head thudded back against the front door. How much more complicated could things get?
Chapter Eighteen
Derek
“All the passwords have been changed. Every single one of them is changed.” Anna handed the computer over to me. “Is there a way we can see if he changed it?”
“It’s possible,” I said, but I had my doubts that Leon had left trails. He built computer software for a living from what Jenna had told me on the drive up to Lone Tree. He was computer savvy, and that made him that much harder to track. It would be hard to prove it had been him, but I kept that information to myself.
The stone patio area was warm from the high sun. I gazed up at the mountains, where the faintest color of yellow could be seen. That was always a sign of a change in weather— the mountains. The smell of French fries filled the afternoon air.
Jenna sat quietly next to me with her gaze fixated on something in the distance that I couldn’t see. There were dark circles under her eyes. She had barely slept last night. I had felt her tossing and turning all night while mumbling under her breath. The nightmare this morning had been so vivid that I had firmly believed Leon had gotten into my house somehow without alerting me.
“There’s an email from my relator on there,” Anna said, tapping the computer with a manicured finger. “It has the address and everything on there. If he hacked into my email account, that’s how he found out where Jenna was. Can I charge him with something?”
I smiled grimly.
“It’s not that easy,” I said. “It’s virtually impossible to prove Leon’s hand in this. He could’ve guessed your passwords if he knows your family well enough.”
“He does,” Anna said. Determination filled her eyes. “He knows our family, but he got into my banking information. Isn’t that some sort of crime?”
“It is, but a hard one to prove. If he took money without your permission, that’s a different story.” I fixed Anna with a hard stare. “From what Jenna told me, all your passwords are the same except for a few numbers. Anyone can figure that out. No money is missing, correct?”
“Correct,” Anna said reluctantly. “I guess you’re right. There is no way to prove his involvement, is there?”
“Not unless he took money out of your account,” I said.
“He wouldn’t take my mother’s money,” Jenna said quietly. “He’s too smart to know that would tip the police off. He changed the passwords just to aggravate my mother.”
“He succeeded,” Anna said. She fanned herself moodily with her large sun hat while a waitress stopped by to refill our water. “Perhaps the restraining order will scare him off again? He didn’t like jail the first time around.”
“He won’t stop,” Jenna said. She traced the rim of her water glass before scooting her chair back suddenly. “Excuse me. I have to go to the bathroom.”
I reached out to touch her hot forearm, but Jenna tugged her arm back. The gesture stung more than I wanted to think about. She never pulled back from me. It was me always pulling away from her. I watched her petite frame in her simple white dress navigate through the tables on the patio to the restaurant doors.
“Forgive my daughter,” Anna said, also watching her with a sad smile. “She has a tendency to get into these moods that take her down. It’s better to give her some space to think.”
“She has a lot to deal with,” I said a bit coolly. I had no problem with Anna. She was involved in Jenna’s life in all the right ways, but I got the impression she wanted to treat the situation with a magic wand. “Mrs. Collins, I have to be honest with you. This isn’t a situation you can fix by using every legal weapon you know. Things like that don’t stop men like Leon.”
“I’m aware of that.” Her face squinted up into a pained expression. “What can you do when your child is in danger? You’re a parent.” She looked at me intently. “What would you do if your child called you in the middle of the night from the hospital with a concussion and two broken ribs?”
I closed Anna’s laptop with a resigned sigh. “I’d do everything I could to protect my son,” I said, and scooted the computer toward her. “I understand where you are coming from as a parent, but I am coming from a law-enforcement prospective. I’ve dealt with cases like this. Jenna is doing everything she can do to get away. That’s all you can do.”
“And what exactly is your relationship with my daughter, Mr. Summers?”
“Excuse me?”
The question threw me off. I knew Anna was well aware
that Jenna and I had a more-than-friendly relationship, but I didn’t expect the question to be asked.
Anna smiled at me knowingly.
“I can see that there is something going on,” she said, folding her hands in front of her. “I didn’t approve at first because Jenna has a habit of picking men who are not the greatest for her. She’s always had these fantasies in her head. I tried to discourage her from being around you, but here we are.”
I eyed her warily. “I mean this respectfully, but what is your point behind all of that?”
“I can see that you care more than what you’re probably aware of, and it’s messing with my daughter’s already troubled head. That is my point.”
“I respect Jenna,” I said, torn between defending myself and accepting that observation. “I have tried telling her to go to school, to get a different job, but she—”
“Won’t do it,” Anna finished for me in a resolute tone. “I imagine she won’t do anything without a fight, but you have to agree with me: She’s too young to be settling down to just watch your son at night.”
I had a feeling where this conversation was going to lead. I sipped at my water while Anna watched me from underneath the rim of her sun hat.
“I don’t mean to be overbearing,” she said. “I just worry that my daughter will find herself stuck in another situation she can’t get out of. She’s a smart girl. She is capable of whatever she decides to do with her life.”
“She is very smart,” I agreed. “However, Jenna’s an adult. She’ll do what she wants to do despite what I say, or what you say. Obviously.”
To my surprise, Anna burst into amused laughter.
“You’re right about that,” she said. “She’s proven me wrong at every turn of her life since day one.” She patted me on the back of the hand with damp fingers. “Just promise me that you will convince her to think about her options.”
Even if it means leaving me. I read that last unspoken sentiment in Anna’s gaze. I nodded wordlessly before getting up from the table to go search for Jenna.
“Excuse me,” I said. “I have to use the restroom as well.”
I stepped past several tables of older couples who were lunching together. Their warm laughter sounded harsh compared to the conversation still replaying in the back of my head. I spotted Jenna’s slender figure at the bar, nursing a glass of red wine.
“I’m sorry I left you with her,” she said, a pained look crossing her face. “My mother… God, I love her, but she’s overbearing sometimes.”
“That’s an understatement,” I said. I ordered a whiskey when the bartender breezed by us.
Jenna arched a knowing eyebrow. “Did she corner you about being a man and letting me go?”
The first sip of whiskey burned my throat, but I let out a relieved sigh. I sat down on the barstool next to Jenna with a grimace.
“Somewhat,” I said. “I do agree with her on a few things though.”
“Like what?” Jenna sipped her wine.
“About you going to college,” I said, leveling a stern look at her when she glanced away from me. “What is holding you back from that?”
Tracing the rim of her wine glass, Jenna stared down at the contents of her glass for a long time. A soft breeze fluttered the long strands of her hair whenever someone opened the patio doors. I waited patiently for her to answer.
“I just never felt smart enough to go to college,” she said, refusing to look up at me. “I like to paint and draw. Does that really require a college degree?”
I didn’t buy it. There was something else that turned her away from the idea of going back, and I had no intention of being the reason why she didn’t go back.
“Did Leon ruin that for you?” I asked quietly.
Jenna didn’t answer, and nor did she get the chance too. The patio door opened, followed by the sound of Anna calling out our names.
“Don’t drink so much wine,” she scolded Jenna, eyeing the glass in her hand. “Alcohol makes you do irrational things.”
As soon as Anna turned her back to head back outside, Jenna downed the rest of her wine in one gulp. I couldn’t help it. Laughter escaped my lips at the sight of Jenna shooting her mother a dirty look.
Two hours later, we drove back to the city to pick up Owen from school. He chatted happily with Jenna about what he had learned at school, and it gave me plenty of time to admire the woman sitting in the seat next to me. The long strands of her hair were curly and flying about her face freely. She smiled whenever she turned around to talk to Owen. She truly was a beautiful woman inside and out. Something in my chest clenched at that observation.
While I got ready for work, I heard Owen start up his Xbox despite having told him to start on his homework. My bedroom door opened a minute later.
“I told him only ten minutes,” Jenna said, closing the door behind her. “I just wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done over the past couple of days.” She looked down at her feet then. “You didn’t have to help me.”
“I’m here to help,” I said. “It’s going against my nature if I don’t help people.”
The corner of her lips quirked up. “And yet people think you’re an asshole.”
I chuckled at that as she rounded the bed to wrap her arms around me. I relished the feeling of Jenna’s tight body pressing up against mine in all the right ways. Desire skittered through me when she stood on her tiptoes to kiss me. In just a few minutes, I was hard and ready to bury myself in the sweet warmth between Jenna’s legs.
I pulled away briefly. “You said that Owen just started that game downstairs?”
“Yes.” She blinked up at me. “Why?”
Hooking my fingers in the fabric of her dress, I tugged it up over her hips. Her eyes widened in surprise before desire filled them. I used one hand to tug her panties down to her knees before twisting her around to grip the edge of the bed. This position was quickly becoming my favorite because of the depth I could get to inside her and the beautiful view it gave me of her ass.
I opened my fly and pulled out my cock, reaching for her and not thinking twice about making her mine again for the moment. I was falling for her. Sex was an outflow of that emotion. I pressed deep into her tight wetness and gripped her shoulder with one hand while caressing her back and ass with the other.
We both let out stifled moans of pleasure. I set a hard and quick pace, well aware that Owen could pop up at any point. The heat, the tightness…it was hard to concentrate on reaching around to rub at the bundle of wet nerves between Jenna’s legs, but I forced myself to think about her first. She’d come with me fucking her hard and fast from behind, my cock head slamming into her G-spot, but I wanted it to be explosive. She stiffened as I tapped her clit, her back going rigid
“Derek,” she whispered roughly before giving herself over to me. Her fingers buried themselves in the sea of blankets while she dropped her head into them to keep quiet.
The sweet muscles of her pussy clenched tightly around me as she bounced backward, her ass jiggling beautifully. She pressed her face to the bed and let out a long scream as she tucked her hips and massaged me with her body. The spasm that wracked Jenna’s frame was intense, breathtaking. She let out a muffled groan into the bedsheets before I let myself find release as well. It was over just as it began, but a sated feeling washed over me. I savored the feeling of Jenna for a moment longer before pulling back. Brushing the hair from her neck tenderly, I leaned down to press a kiss against the salty and flushed skin there.
“You’re so sexy, Jenna. I love the way you open up for me. I fit perfectly inside you, baby.” I kissed her skin again and squeezed her perfect ass before standing up. Realization rolled over me in thick waves.
I couldn’t give Jenna up no matter how hard I tried. It was just damn impossible, and for that brief second, I understood exactly why Leon didn’t want to let go of her. I didn’t want to let go of her either.
Chapter Nineteen
Jenna
The heat of summer gave way too much cooler temperatures throughout the following week. “It’s the change of seasons,” Derek had told me one evening when I’d complained of the abrupt change. “It happens usually over a matter of days. You’ll see the trees change too. When you see snow on the mountains, you know fall and winter are close.”
I stared up at the yellow-and-orange-tinged trees that lined the street. A few of them had fallen already to the cracked sidewalks. The sunlight still felt warm, but a noticeable crispness clung to the air when I stepped out of Derek’s house to let him get some sleep for the day.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
I started at the sound of Martha’s voice right behind me. Her cheeks were flushed a pretty pink, and she wore a light track suit and sneakers. Her dark hair was pushed back by a hairband.
“It is,” I said.
Martha adjusted the zipper of her jacket. “The colors will get more vibrant over the next month or so. Some Halloweens we walk around in a sweater. Other times we are bundled up in our costumes. You’ll see.”
She smiled, but I couldn’t find it in me to return the smile. I hadn’t even thought of staying long enough to be around for Halloween. I dimly remembered Owen telling Derek the other day that he wanted to be a ninja for Halloween.
“How are you holding up?” Martha asked. She smiled empathetically when I looked back at her. “I know it’s been a week since anyone has seen him around. That has to be eating at you.”
I swallowed the unpleasant feeling in the back of my throat. I didn’t want to think about it. No one, not even Derek, seemed to know where Leon had gone after being served those papers. The only sense of comfort I took was that people knew who to look for if I went missing. It was a cold and horrible sense of comfort, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Leon was lurking somewhere close despite Derek’s efforts to keep me protected.
“A little,” I admitted, sighing. “It’s the not knowing where he is that is really bothering me. If I knew he was in California, I’d be okay.”
