by Becca Van
Dach cursed under his breath when Jenna’s legs gave way and scooped her up into his arms. She didn’t weigh much at all and she felt so damn right, but he pushed those thoughts away as his concern for her deepened.
Jeff hurried over and looked into Jenna’s pale face and stroked a finger over her cheek. “Jenna, are you okay?”
Jenna roused slightly and her eyelids fluttered open. When she saw Dach looking down at her, she glanced away as color suffused her cheeks, and then she stiffened as if she had only just realized she was in his arms.
“You can put me down now. I’m fine.”
Her soft voice curled into his chest and wrapped around his heart. She was trying to be so brave but he’d heard the waver in her voice and he could feel her shaking. Whether the shaking had to do with fatigue or her grief he wasn’t sure, but he suspected it was because of both. There was no way in hell he was releasing her only to have to catch her again.
“No, you’re not.” Dach sighed but when she pushed against his shoulder, he knew she was going to be stubborn. So instead of putting her down he carried her over to the edge of the training field and gently lowered her onto the bench seat and moved back a couple of paces when Jeff sat down next to her. Her brother took her hands in his, took a deep, shuddering breath, gritted his teeth for a moment, and then met his sister’s eyes.
“Tell me.”
“I don’t know much yet but the police showed up and told me that Joan had been involved in a car accident.” Jenna inhaled deeply and then looked skyward before blinking a few times and then met Jeff’s gaze again. “A ute ran a stop sign and ploughed into the driver’s side of her car. She d–died…instantly.”
“Oh God.” Jeff pulled Jenna into his arms and hugged her tight.
“How am I going to live without my sister, Jeff? Tell me how? She was the other half of me.” Jenna sobbed.
“I know, sweetie. I know. I’d take her place if I could, Jenna.”
“No!” Jenna pulled back from Jeff and then cupped his face in her hands. “Don’t you dare even think that! I would never even consider it, Jeff, but I want my twin sister back.”
“Ah, Jenna,” Jeff hugged her again and they clung together in their grief. Finally, brother and sister pulled apart, wiped their tears away, and rose to their feet. Jeff walked over to Dach and brought Jenna with him. “I’d like to arrange time off, Sir. I know there are only two weeks left until training ends but my sister needs me more. In fact I think I should just quit.”
“Don’t!” Jenna grabbed hold of Jeff’s shirt. “Joan would kick your arse if she heard you talking that way. You need this,” she spread her arms to encompass the army base. “This is your life, damn it, and you are not going to throw away something you’ve worked so hard for. There is nothing we can do for Joan now. Please, don’t make any important decisions right now, Jeff. If you do, you will end up regretting it in the long run.”
“She’s right.” Dach nodded at Jenna. “Listen to your sister. I think quitting is the wrong decision. You are going to finish your training and make both of your sisters proud. Do you hear me, corporal?”
“Sir. Yes, sir.” Jeff came to attention and then saluted him.
“Stand down, Jeff.” Dach turned to Jenna and held out his hand. “Give me your keys, honey.”
Jenna frowned and then crossed her arms over her chest. “You don’t have any authority over me. I’m not one of your damn soldiers.”
Dach took another step forward and was glad to see Jenna held her ground. He was a lot bigger than she was in height as well as physique and he usually intimidated his men easily enough, but Jenna Reason was another story. “No, you’re not one of my soldiers, but you’re grieving and exhausted. There is no way in hell I’m letting either of you drive. I’ll drive your car, Des can drive Jeff’s and Dallas will follow in our ute. We will take both your vehicles home and then my brothers and I will drive you to the police station and then the morgue. I am not about to let either one of you get behind a steering wheel in your condition. Is that understood?”
Jenna glared at him but Dach met her glare and raised an eyebrow. She looked away first. Her arms fell to her sides and her shoulders slumped. When she met his eyes again she was clenching her teeth but she didn’t argue and gave him a nod.
“Good.” Dach wiggled his fingers and had to bite his tongue to keep from chuckling when she slammed her keys down into his palm. He didn’t want her thinking he was laughing at her or the situation because he wasn’t. If he had allowed himself to chuckle it would have been over her stubborn feistiness. “Where do you live?”
“On the outskirts of Passion,” Jenna replied.
“Okay. You can direct me to your house and then my brothers and I will drive you to wherever you need to go. Did you park in the visitor’s parking lot?”
“Yes.”
“Which police station are we going to, Jenna?”
“Castlemaine.”
“Okay, let’s go, honey.” Dach took Jenna’s elbow and guided her toward the visitor’s parking lot two hundred meters away. He shortened his stride and pace in deference to her shorter legs and also in case she stumbled. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt her when she already had enough pain to deal with, and because he had never hurt a woman in his life and had no intention of doing so now. He didn’t want her twisting an ankle if she stepped on a stone or tripping.
Dash nearly cursed out loud when he saw her small old four-door sedan. It had to be at least twenty years old and on its last legs. If she were ever involved in an accident, she wouldn’t have the luxury of side or front airbags deploying and could end up seriously hurt. If she had been his woman the first thing he would do was go out and buy her a brand new car with all the latest safety equipment. Dach unlocked her door and then held it open for her.
She glanced at him as if surprised that he had manners and then got into her car. Dach closed the door and hurried around to the driver’s side. After pushing the seat back as far as it would go he got in and buckled up. As he turned the key in the ignition he made sure Jenna had her safety belt on, too, then he put the stick in first gear and headed out.
Jenna kept her head turned away from him the whole half-hour drive to Passion. When they were on the northern outskirts of the town, he slowed the car and reached over and covered her hand with his.
“You need to tell me where you live, honey.”
Jenna looked up and an expression of surprise crossed her face, but she told him where to take her and he pulled into the drive and then shut off the car. Des pulled in beside him in Jeff’s car and then he got out and walked around to help Jenna out.
Dach knew it was going to be a tight squeeze for five adults in Dallas’s dual-cab ute, but there was no way in hell he was letting either Jenna or Jeff drive in their current condition. He and his brothers were all big men and Jeff wasn’t much smaller. It might be best if Jenna sat up front, in the middle of him and Dallas. At least then her brother would have a little breathing room. That’s what he told himself anyway. It had nothing to do with the fact that he wanted Jenna close to him and his brothers where they could make sure she was all right.
But Jenna wasn’t a woman to be pushed around. When Dach held the passenger front door open and waved her in, she shook her head and followed Jeff into the back. Des was already sitting behind Dallas. Jeff climbed into the middle with Jenna following behind.
Dallas was about to back out of the driveway but when he turned, he glanced at Jeff and then looked at Jenna. “Do you two mind swapping seats? I can’t see over or through Jeff’s head.”
Jenna sighed but didn’t say anything. She got out of the truck and then got back in after Jeff had also exited. Once everyone was buckled in again, Dallas started backing out.
“Thank you.” Dallas glanced at Jenna and then looked toward the front again.
“Sure,” Jenna replied.
The drive to the Castlemaine police station was silent and even though Dach wanted to break the
silence, he didn’t. Dach knew Jenna and Jeff were in a world of pain right now and were probably trying to prepare themselves for what they knew was coming. But he knew that there was no way in hell anyone could prepare themselves for what they were about to face.
He’d been to war and it was heart wrenching to identify deceased friends time and again. He knew that the grief could be all consuming, and after that was the anger. It never got any easier and he just hoped that by being with Jenna and Jeff, he and his brothers could offer them at least a little support in their time of need.
Chapter Two
Jenna felt like she was living a nightmare. Everything seemed so surreal except for the excruciating pain lodged in her chest. She’d known as soon as she’d seen the police officer approaching the door to her pathology clinic that they were there to see her, and that something was seriously wrong.
Even though she and Joan didn’t have a special connection like some twins had, she’d just known. She’d been about to call one of the people in the waiting room to the back room and take their blood but the words had frozen on her lips. She’d tried to get her feet to move and back away but her brain and body had felt disconnected.
She’d seen Sergeant Zach Beech’s lips moving and heard the words he’d spoken disjointedly but she hadn’t needed to hear all he had to say to know. When her legs had buckled, Zach had caught her and then he’d carried her away from prying eyes toward one of the empty back rooms. When she managed to get her shock under control a little bit, she’d found herself sitting in the big armchair she had her patients sit in while she took their blood. Zach had been squatting down in front of her and holding onto both her hands, looking sad, concerned, and pale.
Jenna had finally been able to hear what he was saying. “Jenna, are you okay, honey? Do you want me to call someone for you?”
“No,” she replied and wondered over the fact that her voice had sounded so far away.
“Do you want me to drive you to the army base?”
“Jeff?” Jenna nearly doubled over with the agony shooting through her chest but then actually got her brain into gear. If she arrived at the military training base in a police car, her brother would know that something was seriously wrong right away. She glanced at her watch and tried to get her fractured mind to calculate the time it would take her to get to her brother. Hopefully after making the drive, he wouldn’t be far off from finishing up his day. She couldn’t tell him while the other of his army buddies were nearby to see him fall apart and she knew he would, just like she felt like she was doing right now.
“I don’t think you should be driving, Jenna.” Zach rose to his feet when Jenna stood.
She wiped the tears from her face, shoved her shoulders back and gritted her teeth while she tried to contain her grief. “I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure? I don’t feel right about leaving this all on you, honey. I can come with you and help…”
“Zach, I appreciate it, but I have to do this. Jeff won’t want…” Jenna swallowed around the huge lump in her throat. “I have to go. Can you let Sharon know I’m leaving and ask her to take over or reschedule my patients?”
“Sure, but…”
Jenna walked toward the door and held up her hand to stop him from speaking. If he gave her any more kindness, she was scared she would fall apart completely. She had to stay strong for her brother’s sake. She’d learned to push her own emotions back so she could take care of Joan and now she was going to be just as strong for her brother. He’d been their pillar and now it was time to give him some of that strength back.
Jenna knew she would never be the same again and even though she had been close to Joan, Jeff and their sister had had a connection even she didn’t totally understand. Joan had been an independent woman but she had also had really low self-esteem and had relied on their brother more, though she’d relied on Jenna a lot, too. Joan hadn’t been strong and at times, life seemed to scare her. Maybe it was because they’d lost their parents when they were young and their brother had become their sole parent. Jeff was five years older than her and Joan and had been the strength they had both leaned on when their parents had died in an airplane crash. Jenna and her sister had just turned sixteen years old.
Poor Jeff had found himself the sole caretaker of two teenage girls and since their parents hadn’t had any life insurance and the house still had a mortgage, their brother had had to figure out a way to get money fast. Jeff had put his dreams of becoming an architect aside, dropped out of university, and signed up to join the Army. It was the only way he could see that he would be able to make money. Their parents hadn’t wanted any of them to get jobs while in school so they could concentrate on their studies. As much as Jenna had appreciated that at the time, looking back she realized it had been a wrong decision.
None of them had had any skills or experience to get a job, hence Jeff’s decision to serve their country. Joan had literally fallen apart each time Jeff had been sent away with the Army, and it had been up to Jenna to keep her sister from curling into a ball and hiding away. Each day Jenna had forced Joan to go through the motions of living. It had been tiring, hard work but she loved Joan so much she would have done anything for her.
She and Joan had been fraternal twins, conceived from different eggs and completely different in the looks department. Where Jenna had black hair and blue eyes Joan had been blonde with green eyes. It had always stunned the family how different they truly were. Jenna always burned and never browned in the sun but Joan had turned a deep golden brown hue and looked so damn healthy. How could twins be so different? Their personalities had been like chalk and cheese, too.
Jenna pushed her thoughts aside and tried to embrace the numbness invading her heart and soul. She didn’t want to feel the all-consuming pain and grief anymore. She had a job to do and the only way she would be able to do it was without feeling anything at all.
Jenna glanced toward the front windscreen when the truck slowed and she realized she been lost in grief and her thoughts as Jeff’s training officers drove them to the Castlemaine police station. The truck came to a halt and Jenna hurriedly got out of the vehicle. She gulped in great breaths of air and then glanced toward the police station steps. She pushed her fear and grief down deep, straightened her shoulders, and began walking.
“Jenna.” Jeff caught up with her and gripped her hand in his. “Are you okay, honey?”
Jenna couldn’t have spoken around the lump in her throat if someone had paid her so she nodded and glanced up to meet her brother’s gaze. She squeezed his hand trying to portray comfort and a strength she was far from feeling but took a deep shuddering breath and exhaled slowly. She heard the footsteps of Jeff’s training officers behind her but tried to ignore them. As much as she appreciated their help, she didn’t think they should be here. Grieving was a private matter as far as she was concerned and after she and her brother had met the police sergeant, they were going to have to identify Joan’s body.
Jenna felt like she was in a nightmare she couldn’t wake from, a horrendous never-ending dream, but she pushed her thoughts away, blanked her mind, forced her emotions deep and embraced the numbness.
After entering the police station and asking to see the officer in charge, they were led through the building and ushered into an empty room. Jeff and Jenna took a seat in front of the empty desk and even though she was aware of Dach, Desmond, and Dallas King standing against the wall in the back of the room, she ignored their presence.
A tall elderly man entered the room and when Jenna went to get up, he held his hand up palm out. “Please, stay where you are. I’m Sergeant Ronald Banal. I’m sorry to be meeting you under such sad circumstances.”
Jeff nodded and Jenna saw his fist clench.
“Thank you Sergeant Banal. I’m Jenna Reason and this is my brother Jeff,” Jenna said.
The sergeant glanced toward the back of the room and Jenna was glad she didn’t have to go through the motions of introducing t
he other men because Dach stepped forward to shake the sergeant’s hand and explained who they were and why they were there.
“Just call me Ron.” Jenna nodded and waited for him to continue speaking. “We don’t think your sister’s death was an accident.”
Jenna heard a loud ringing in her ears and gasped in a deep breath. She waited for the initial shock to pass before she could speak. “Why?”
“You must be mistaken.” Jeff rose to his feet and began pacing.
Jenna could see that Jeff was barely keeping it together. His knuckles were white from clenching his fists so hard and she was worried he would break a tooth from the way he was grinding his teeth.
“She ran through a stop sign and there were no tire marks on the road to indicate she tried to stop her car. She drove right into the path of an oncoming vehicle. There was no way the driver could stop his rig in time.”
“I thought it was the other driver who’d run the stop sign?” Jenna heard the panic in her voice and took a deep breath as she tried to calm her emotions. She must have mixed up what Zach had told her about the accident. It was no wonder when she was in shock and not thinking or hearing straight.
Jenna saw the sympathy in the man’s eyes and knew what he was thinking. Even though Joan hadn’t been strong and had low self-esteem, she wasn’t the type of person to commit suicide, which is exactly what the police sergeant was thinking.
“There is no way my sister took her own life,” Jenna said through gritted teeth. “I want her car thoroughly checked. Maybe the brakes failed or something else caused her to not be able to stop in time, but there is no way in hell she would have driven into the path of that ute on purpose.”
Jeff slammed his fist into the wall and roared with pain. When he turned around to face Jenna she saw acceptance on his face. “Jenna, you know she wasn’t…”
Jenna rose to her feet and glared at Jeff angrily. “Don’t you dare say it! Don’t even think it. There is no way…”
“Jenna…”
