“But you wouldn’t quit for her?”
I frowned, wondering what she was getting at, and a part of me a little uncomfortable with where this conversation was going. I hated when people assumed that I didn’t care about my daughter, that I was being selfish, but I didn’t want to jump the gun and think Jenni was just going to attack me for this. She looked like she was genuinely concerned.
“If she asks me to, I probably will,” I replied. “So far she’s dealing with it as best as she can. She was my wall when I was bedridden after the accident. She’s a lot stronger than people give her credit for.”
“What exactly happened in this accident?” Jenni asked, leaning in and resting her chin on her hands.
I sighed and sat back, playing with the table spoon. “Long story.”
“I’m actually interested.”
“Actually?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
She smiled and nodded.
“We had a lead on a major drug deal, and my partner and I were assigned with staking the place out,” I started. “We didn’t think it would be anything. You have so many moles in the business, bad information is quite common. And if the information is right, the dealers usually get a warning before we can do anything. It’s rare that we actually catch a deal of that magnitude when it’s actually happening.”
“But this was different?”
I nodded. “The dealers showed up. My partner, Raul, wanted to wait for backup, but I was sure that by the time the cavalry arrived, the dealers would have been warned. So, we went in.”
“How bad was it?”
“Bad enough that I spent three weeks in the hospital, and another month at home with my twelve-year-old babysitting me and my father trying to keep our lives together. Two bullets almost ripped my guts apart, one missed my heart by a couple of inches, and two shattered my femur. I’ve recovered for the most part, but my leg’s still killing me. Some nights the pain is so bad I can’t even get out of bed.”
Jenni’s eyes were wide, and she looked at me with a mix of sympathy and concern. I wondered what was going through her head at that moment. Her eyes were fixated on me, staring at me for what seemed like forever, as if trying to read me, before she looked away and sipped at her coffee.
“Not a great story to tell at parties,” I tried to joke.
She looked up at me, her face clearly portraying that she wasn’t amused, and looked away again. “How did Kelly handle all that?”
I hesitated. I had always seen my daughter as a rock, and although I knew she had definitely been affected by the whole thing, she was quick to show that she was okay. We had never really discussed the shooting, or how she was doing. She never gave me a reason to believe that she was suffering from it.
“She took care of her old man, and did a pretty good job at keeping her head together, I guess,” I said. “We haven’t talked about it, really.”
“She’s a strong girl.”
“Takes after her mother,” I said.
Jenni looked up again. “How did she die?”
I choked a bit. I rarely talked about Janice with anyone other than my father, and even then, it was to remember something she said or did that had us both laughing out loud. The death part had always been something we avoided.
Come to think of it, you’re a family that loves to avoid touchy subjects.
True.
“Cancer,” I replied.
“Must have been hard.”
I nodded. “When it was bad,” I said. “She was strong, though, joked about it when she could. She loved life too much to let the sickness ruin her last days.” I hesitated. “I only realized that the thing was deadly when she was gone. She never made me feel like she was going to die. I think at some point I thought she’d fight it away.”
“I’m sorry,” Jenni said. She reached out and held my hand, and although I could see her do it, I couldn’t feel the touch. I had been brought back to a time I usually avoided reminiscing about, and the rush of emotions racing through me was overwhelming.
“It’s okay,” I said, trying to smile. “I have the memories of when it was beautiful, and that’s what I hold onto when I remember her.”
“Does Kelly remember her?”
I shook my head. “She was too young when it happened. When she asks about Janice, I share what I can, and make sure she knows that she was loved. It’s what Janice would have wanted. I never talk about the cancer.”
She squeezed my hand, and I smiled at her. I didn’t understand it, but for the first time ever, I didn’t mind talking about Janice with someone else. I was comfortable, too, as if this was right. Like Jenni had a right to know, for some reason.
“How about you drive me home, and go kiss your daughter good night?” Jenni smiled. “Besides, if I stay here any longer, you might have to carry me home.”
I chuckled, a little grateful at her attempt to lighten the mood. I nodded to the waitress and gestured for the check, noticing that Jenni was still holding my hand. And I was completely fine with it.
Chapter 12: Jenni
I wanted to hug him. I wanted to hold him in my arms, feel him wrapped around me, and just hold him. It was the most overwhelming of feelings, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t shake it off.
I didn’t know what it was. The way he talked about his wife and daughter, the sadness in his eyes, the sheer vulnerability that he had shown. It all mixed together in a mesh of emotions that had me wishing I could have him all to myself, behind closed doors, where I could hold him and make him feel that everything was alright.
I had never really expected to see that side of him. The confidence he radiated, the strength in his demeanor, it had made me a little cautious. A part of me had believed that my attraction to Alex was solely physical, and the fact that he was a cop had only added to the appeal. The ‘danger’ that I was always drawn to.
But this was different. This feeling in the pit of my stomach, the emotions coursing through me, I had never felt anything like it before. All of a sudden, I saw him in a different light. He was still the strong, confident DEA agent with all the testosterone filled appeal that I loved. But there was also another layer there, hidden beneath the surface. Gentle, loving, caring, willing to give the people he loved everything and anything. And after glimpsing it, even if for such a short period of time, I felt drawn to him even more.
You’re in a lot of trouble, Jenni Wright.
“You don’t say,” I muttered to myself.
Alex leaned against his car and folded his arms across his chest, his eyes boring into mine, and I felt that if I met them for too long, I’d end up breaking down and just admitting everything I felt to him.
“I had fun,” he said.
“Definitely an interesting cup of coffee,” I replied, returning his smile and thanking the fact that the night was hiding the blush I could feel creeping into my cheeks.
He opened the passenger door for me. “Let’s get you home before you collapse right here.”
I laughed as I got in, the day truly taking its toll on me, but that wasn’t the reason why I wanted to go home. A part of me knew that if I spent any more time with Alex, I’d be inviting him up for more coffee, and maybe a little more.
He was closing the door when he stopped. He was looking out at the other parked cars, and I turned to see what had grabbed his attention. A few cars down, I caught sight of one of Heath’s friends.
I had immediately disliked the guy when I had first seen him, and hated how he seemed to be stuck to Garth and Heath’s hips wherever they went.
He was standing between two cars talking to a couple of kids that looked like college students, and as I watched, they exchanged something quickly between them.
Oh shit!
“Hold on,” Alex said, closing the door.
This was not going to go well.
Chapter 13: Alex
“Jack, right?”
Jack swirled around just as I came up behind him, I smiled at the other two
as they quickly pushed at each other and rushed away. I saw one of them pocket something, telling the other to hurry as they made their way to a car parked a few feet away.
Jack blocked their retreat, standing in front of me with his arms crossed and eyes squinting at me, an aggressive stance that almost made me laugh.
“Just thought I’d come over and say hi,” I said. “Oh, and maybe tell you that what you’re doing is considered illegal in most states. All of them, actually.”
“And what am I doing, exactly?”
I smiled. “Come on, buddy,” I said. “It’s pretty obvious. I mean, you might as well hang a sign around your neck saying, ‘buy drugs here’.”
Jack pulled himself up straight and took what I honestly believed he thought was a menacing step towards me. “Yeah? And what is it to you?”
“Well, given that it’s my job, I feel obligated to make a citizen’s arrest and take you for a ride to the Sheriff. You know, Kent being out of my jurisdiction and all.”
Jack laughed, actually laughed, and leaned against one of the cars. “That’s cute.”
“Isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“Good, we both see eye to eye, then,” I smiled. “So, easy way or hard way?”
Jack shook his head, stepped closer and looked over my shoulder. “Hey, Jenni, can you tell your friend here to mind his own business,” he said. He looked me in the eye as he continued, “He might get himself hurt.”
I didn’t turn around, and silently cursed the fact that Jenni hadn’t stayed in the car. If things got messy, I didn’t want her close to the action where this dimwit could take advantage of her presence and use her against me.
“Kent’s really not the kind of place where you want to use a threat like that,” I said. “I mean, are you going to beat me with one of those flamingos?”
“No,” Jack said, pulling a switchblade out of his pocket and flipping the blade open. “Turn around and walk away.”
“You’re threatening a DEA agent, you know that, right?”
Jack smiled. “I said, walk away.”
I glanced down at the blade, then back at Jack. He was feeling big, confident that he was in charge of the situation. The fact that he had the audacity to even pull the blade out in the first place made my blood boil. It was one thing to not care about the local, small town authority, but it took a completely different level of ‘idiot’ to actually threaten an officer with a weapon. The smirk on his face didn’t help, either. It made me wonder just how much pull Heath and his friends had in Kent.
“I’d put that away, if I were you,” I said, the jovial tone in my voice gone now, my firsts curling.
Jack waved at me with the knife, gesturing for me to keep moving, his smug smile making matters worse. “Get moving before I decide to use this,” he said.
Without thinking twice, my hand shot out, almost as if by instinct. I grabbed his wrist, twisted hard, and pushed him against the car. He cried out in pain as the knife fell from his grip and clattered against the asphalt.
He threw a fist at me. I dodged, let go of his hand and threw one of my own, feeling a sharp pain in my knuckles as they connected with his jaw.
Jack’s head snapped to a side and he fell to one knee, the blow taking him as much by surprise as the speed of his disarming.
The bastard was quick, though. He jumped at me, wrapping his arms around my waist and slamming me into the other car, immediately kneeing me in the side as he threw one punch after the other.
I blocked most of them, one or two getting past my defenses. I felt my head rattle, and steeled myself against his flurry of punches. As soon as I found an opening, I grabbed him by the wrist, twisted his arm, and brought my elbow down against his, bending it out of place.
I heard the snap of his joints and the satisfying shrill scream of pain that followed. Not letting go, I kicked him in the back of his knee, brought him down, and slammed his face against the car door.
“Alex!”
The whole thing had probably taken a few seconds. Jenni was pulling at my arm and trying to drag me away. Jack was coughing, blood oozing out of his nose, and he looked up at me with rage.
“You’re dead, man!”
I pulled out of Jenni’s grip, grabbed Jack by the collar and heaved him onto his feet. I grabbed his arm, applying as much pressure as I could to his broken elbow, and he screamed in pain.
“Watch it,” I warned, hissing the threat between clenched teeth.
He squirmed, tried to kick out, but the effort was weak. I punched him again and let him drop to the ground in a heap, his head rolling to a side as he wheezed through his broken nose. Jenni pulled at me again.
“That’s enough, Alex,” she was saying. “I think he’s gotten the point.”
I looked around. A small crowd had gathered around us from the coffee shop, eyes wide, some holding their cellphones and filming everything. I let Jenni drag me away and back to the car.
“What the hell were you thinking?” she shot.
“You’re kidding, right?” I shot back. “We have to get this guy to the Sheriff.”
“The Sheriff isn’t going to do anything,” she said. “Just get in the car and let’s go. You’ve taught him his lesson.”
I frowned at her, looking back at where I knew Jack lay sprawled on the asphalt between the two cars. What did she mean by the Sheriff wasn’t going to do anything?
“Let’s go, Alex,” Jenni urged.
I shook my head in confusion, unsatisfied with the fact that I wasn’t putting the prick behind bars. I looked at her, and she just waved at me to hurry up.
I got into the car, shifted into reverse, and pulled out of the parking lot. I took one last look at the scene, then turned the car around and drove away.
Chapter 14: Jenni
“This is going to sting.”
We were in my living room, Alex on a chair by the window while I dabbed the cut above his eye. He winced just a little, but didn’t pull back, and I would have mocked his macho attitude if it weren’t for the fact that he had just pissed off a lot of the wrong people.
Jack was Garth’s lap dog, and if there was one thing Garth hated more than anything, it was attacking one of his own. It was like an attack on him personally, and he took this shit far too seriously.
“I’m fine, you know,” Alex said.
“Shut up,” I replied, angry and worried at the same time.
There was a lot about Kent that Alex Logan didn’t know, and I doubted Samuel had brought him up to speed on even the half of it. Ever since the college popped up and brought with it a new kind of community, Garth had quickly gotten into the distribution business. There was a reason why my father thought he was bad news, and although no one could really pin anything on Garth, it was common knowledge that he had his fingers in one too many cookie jars. The drug dealing was only the half of it, but a pretty lucrative half, especially amongst college kids.
He had a big stake in the casino and university, too. There was no telling how big his business would grow once those kicked off. And there was no doubt how much more aggressive and possessive he would become. He already had the Sheriff in his pocket, and I doubted there would be a limit to how much money he’d be willing to throw around to get what he wanted.
The only thing standing in the way of the casino was Samuel Logan, and now Alex had just beat the shit out of one of Garth’s ‘friends’. That was definitely not going to sit well with him.
I dabbed at the cut on Alex’s head. You need to let him know. He’s in the middle of all this now.
But I couldn’t. If today was any indication of how Alex’s moral compass swung, he’d probably try and put a stop to all this. As a DEA agent, I expected nothing less, and knew what that meant. He’d taken a risk and had almost been killed in the process. What would happen to him here where he didn’t have backup? And what would his involvement mean for Samuel, or Kelly for that matter?
I sighed, my mind whirling. This is o
ne fucking mess.
“There,” I finally said. “I don’t think you need stitches.”
“I know I don’t need stitches,” Alex smiled.
“Stop that,” I said. “There’s nothing funny about what happened back there. What the hell were you thinking?”
Alex frowned. “I was stopping a drug dealer from distributing.”
“You do know that he’ll probably just be doing the same thing tomorrow, right?”
“With an arm in a sling.”
“Funny.”
“Seriously, why are you surprised?” Alex asked. “You know this is my job.”
“Not in Kent,” I shot back. “We have a Sheriff for that.”
“Right,” he scoffed. “The same one you said wouldn’t do anything?”
“That’s beyond the point.”
“Then what is the point?”
I opened my mouth, hesitated, and closed it again. “You’re not on home ground, Alex,” I finally explained. “The dynamic here is different. This isn’t the Kent we grew up in.”
“Care to explain that?”
I shook my head. “Let’s just try to remember that you’re here to spend time with your father and recover. It’s not fair for your family to get in the middle of the crap that goes on here.”
The Valentines Day Proposal Page 80
