Jackie could no longer control her temper, and the ‘boys acting like boys’ mentality was wearing thin. “Maybe if you boys stopped comparing gun calibers, you’d be able to do your jobs!”
Her outburst was enough to silence all three. Phil and Carter exchanged looks, as if wondering what they’d gotten themselves into with the seemingly innocent young woman.
“She’s a little tenacious,” Holden casually informed them while holding back his laugh. He placed his card on the table before Jackie. “If you need anything--call.” He then looked at Phil and Carter and hid his smile. “She’s all yours. Enjoy, Gentlemen.”
As Holden turned to leave, Carter reached across the table for the card. Jackie slammed her hand on the card and glared at Carter. Holden glanced back. Jackie took the card and stuck it down her shirt. Holden chuckled and left the room.
Chapter Nine
It was three weeks later, which translated into three weeks of Jackie’s two to twelve month prison sentence. The charming, two-story log cabin style lake house had multilevel decks overlooking the massive, picturesque lake surrounded by woodlands. For a prison, it wasn’t without its charm. The impressive dock had a small speedboat attached alongside it. It was mostly used for trips to the general store on the opposing side of the lake. There was also a local’s bar somewhere near the store, not that Jackie was allowed to go to the bar; or the store; or in the boat; or on the lake. The sun was setting, giving the lake a romantic glow; not that Jackie was allowed outside on the deck. With the thick woods all around, most of the homes along the lake maintained privacy, so it didn’t appear as if there was another living soul around for miles. Seclusion was why the U.S. Marshals chose that particular house. Although it didn’t look it, there were multiple security sensors surrounding the house. Unfortunately, the silent alarm was set off several times a day by woodland wildlife.
The first floor of the lake house contained an open floor plan with a large living room and modern kitchen, accented by a massive stone fireplace. An open staircase spiraled alongside the fireplace leading to the second floor’s interior balcony. There were several rooms on the open, second floor and a second, spiral iron staircase that led to the kitchen. The second floor was specifically designed with multiple escape routes. Jackie, Carter, and Phil sat at the sturdy, rustic kitchen table playing a relatively friendly game of poker. Each had a card stuck to their forehead with the face value exposed. Jackie placed her cards down and grinned. She’d won yet another hand. Both men groaned, tossed their cards down with disgust, and removed the extra card from their foreheads. Jackie scooped her winnings toward her.
“You’re going to owe me your pensions at this rate,” she announced and hid her mocking smile. “At least make it a little sporting.”
“Maybe if you’d stop cheating,” Carter mumbled under his breath.
Jackie eyed him sharply. She didn’t cheat! Although, she could if she wanted too. The two marshals weren’t the best poker players and probably wouldn’t even notice if she had stacked the deck. But being they were bad players, there really wasn’t a need to cheat. The third U.S. Marshal, Pam, sat by the kitchen door while flipping through a magazine. She was obviously bored and possibly read the same magazine several times. Pam wasn’t unattractive, but she had that certain prudish appeal about her, which made her seem older than a woman in her early forties. Jackie suspected the woman felt superior to her fellow colleagues. She acted more like their overly strict mother and didn’t seem to appreciate either man making the best of their situation.
“You’ve been playing poker for three weeks straight,” Pam scoffed in response to Jackie’s comment without looking up from her magazine.
“What else is there to do?” Jackie asked, growing tired of the woman’s constant nagging.
Jackie suspected the female marshal was secretly jealous of her bonding with the men. Truth be known, Jackie had always been more comfortable around men. She rarely spent time with women growing up. Despite the number of female soldiers on the various bases where she lived, there never seemed to be that many in her immediate circle. She barely remembered her own mother and her father never brought any women around, so women were almost foreign to her.
“You won’t let me on the lake,” Jackie informed her while attempting not to sound as if she were whining but it was difficult to achieve. She felt like whining. “Beating the boys at poker is all I have.”
Pam finally glanced up from her magazine and gave her a scolding look. “I wish you wouldn’t encourage them, Jackie,” she remarked firmly.
Jackie didn’t think she was a bad influence, and she felt almost offended that the prudish woman tried to make her feel she was. Despite knowing it was wrong purposely to push the woman’s buttons, Jackie looked around the table and smiled enthusiastically at both men.
“Who’s up for strip poker?”
Phil and Carter chuckled in response and hid their matching grins. Pam scolded them with a look. They immediately fidgeted and attempted to behave. Mother wasn’t amused.
“Where did you learn to play poker?” Phil asked as he passed the cards to Jackie, being her turn to shuffle.
“My father’s Navy buddies were always over playing poker between missions,” she casually announced while skillfully shuffling the cards. “Men who specialize in killing people with their bare hands don’t like losing at poker to little girls.”
Both men laughed. Pam frowned and continued to flip through her magazine with added irritation. Jackie dealt the cards and allowed her boredom to surface.
“Can we do something tomorrow?” Jackie asked in a slightly whiny voice. She was already bored out of her mind. “I can’t look at these walls for another two to twelve months.” She mentally rolled her eyes and snorted a soft laugh. “Ironic, I’m the one who got the prison sentence.”
“You know the rules, Jackie,” Carter informed her with some sympathy. “Early morning run around the lake then you’re inside the rest of the day.”
It wasn’t as if they weren’t equally bored, but at least their tour of duty would be ending soon, and they would get to go home to their loved ones. Jackie would continue to rot in her lakeside paradise.
“I already have cabin fever,” she announced firmly and picked up her cards with disgust. “If you don’t want me going crazy and taking you guys with me, we’ll need to find something more physical to do inside.”
Phil and Carter eyed her from above their cards and grinned. Their snickers drew her attention to the devious looks they wore. Jackie groaned and rolled her eyes.
“Not sex, you perverts,” she scoffed.
Jackie was getting tired of sitting around all day with nothing better to do than listen to Pam degrade the male marshals; Phil complaining about his teenage son; and Carter sharing intimate details of his marital problems with his sexually lethargic wife.
Pam was almost heard cringing with annoyance. “I hope our relief shows up before sexual harassment charges are filed,” she muttered.
Jackie didn’t bother looking at her. She couldn’t bear to see her prudish, pinched lips again. “If I’m here long enough, the guys might file them against me,” Jackie remarked then tossed her cards down and groaned. “Come on; one swim,” she begged. “I’ll even agree to skinny-dipping. Just let me go in the lake.”
Carter looked up and was about to speak when Pam tossed down her magazine and glared at them.
“No lake! No nudity!”
Jackie turned to Phil with a serious look on her face. “Your girlfriend is a real buzz kill.”
Carter chuckled in his throat. Pam’s cell phone suddenly chirped like a chipmunk sending out Morse code. It was an awful sound, but at least it was moderately faint. Pam looked at the caller ID and immediately rolled her eyes. She reluctantly answered the phone with no warmth.
“Yeah--?” There was a slight pause as the caller spoke. “We’re fine. She’s an absolute angel,” Pam scoffed under her breath. There was another pause. Pam’s e
yes shifted to Jackie as the caller spoke. She didn’t appear pleased. “No, I don’t think so.”
Jackie looked at Pam and immediately became excited at the prospect that someone actually wanted to talk to her. “Is it for me? Who is it?” she asked while jumping from her seat. “I’ll talk to anyone.”
“It’s Agent Falcone,” Pam muttered.
“The other kill joy,” Jackie announced to ‘her boys’ and lunged for the phone. She took the phone and grinned while speaking into it. “Hi, babe, how’s it hanging?”
“Hey, Jackie, it’s Agent Falcone. I’m coming up with the replacement marshals,” Holden replied from the other end. “Do you need anything?”
“Good poker players,” she casually replied. “The competition is getting a little stale.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” he responded and didn’t even seem fazed by the request.
“Will you be hanging with us?” she asked and cast a look at Phil and Carter while grinning.
“I’m not exactly welcome,” Holden replied with little emotion. “Something about not playing well with others. They’ll probably let me stay a day or two.”
“Hmm, forty-eight hours,” she cooed into the phone. “We can get into some serious trouble in that time. Don’t forget your handcuffs.”
There was an awkward pause. Jackie knew she blindsided him with that comment. She could almost hear him blushing through the phone.
He was heard gently clearing his throat and spoke with a slightly crackling voice. “Anything else?”
“No, I suppose not,” she replied with a depressed sigh. “I need to go. They’re about to start the orgy without me. Love you, babe.”
Jackie made a kissing sound into the phone and disconnected the call. She handed the cell phone back to Pam, who glared her disapproval. Jackie smiled and winked at her. She returned to the table and collapsed into her chair while frowning. Carter and Phil watched her and appeared equally humored.
“I love the way you handle him,” Carter said with a throaty laugh. “Those feds can be real pricks.”
“Especially Agent Falcone,” Phil interjected. “There’s a man who needs to get laid.”
“Well, I’ll do what I can,” Jackie informed them with a bored sigh, “but I doubt he’ll give it up willingly. He’s a bit of a Boy Scout, you know.”
Pam’s chair scraped the floor as she abruptly stood. No one had to look at her to know she was annoyed.
“I’ve had enough,” Pam scoffed. “I’m making rounds early. I’ll keep my transmitter turned on.”
Pam touched her left ear containing a small, barely seen ear transmitter so she could maintain radio contact with the other marshals. She left through the nearby kitchen door, shutting it securely behind her with added aggression. Jackie was always glad when Pam made rounds. She didn’t like her hanging around and ruining their bad behavior.
Jackie gave both men serious looks. “Next time we have a sleep over, don’t invite her.”
Both men laughed softly.
“I hear you,” Carter muttered.
Both men glanced over their cards, appeared disgusted, and folded simultaneously. Jackie tossed her cards down as well, groaned softly, and stood.
“I hate to take your money and run, but it’s nearly seven and way past my bedtime,” she informed them. “Night, boys. Give Pam a kiss for me.”
“Good night, Jackie.”
Jackie headed across the massive living room for the elegant stairs to the second floor and listlessly climbed them. She entered the second room, shut the door behind her, and approached the window on the opposite end. She opened the curtains to reveal the stained glass window with bars built directly into the glass. There was a small clear glass opening, which was approximately two inches, for her to gaze out onto the lake.
“Nothing like a cage with a view,” she muttered and closed the curtains with disgust.
She approached the queen-sized bed and tossed herself onto the multi-colored bedspread with a loud sigh. She stared at the ceiling and watched the ceiling fan gently spin above her. For nearly twenty-one evenings, she watched a cobweb dangle from the spinning fan blade. One day, she intended to climb up there and remove it. Evenings were mind numbing, well, more so than during the day. She’d spent hours each night thinking about the new life she’d accepted. It wasn’t easy convincing herself it would all be worth it after the trial, but she continued to repeat it silently in her head every night before bed. One hundred times, if necessary. ‘It’ll be worth it putting the governor behind bars.’ Truth be told, if she had a gun and the governor before her, she’d probably shoot him just to end her suffering.
“Oh, Dad,” she whispered softly. “I wish you were here to tell me what to do.”
As she stared at the ceiling, all she could think about was her father. If he were alive, she’d be safe. He’d whisk her away to a place where the governor and his goon would never find her. He always felt he had to be her protector, even when she didn’t need or want him to be. Her subconscious mind overtook her, and she drifted back into a happier time. At least it seemed that way on the surface.
†
Three years earlier. Jackson had just finished his inspection of the four-passenger, prop plane. The elegant name painted on the side read, ‘Old Marge’. Jackie silently crept up behind her father. He tossed the clipboard onto the co-pilot’s seat, seemingly unaware of her stealthy approach. She jumped on his back while clinging to his neck from behind. Jackson grunted from the sudden impact and additional weight but made no effort to defend himself against his would-be attacker.
“You’re getting slow in your old age,” Jackie teased with her head on his shoulder while hanging off his back.
Jackson laughed, patted her arm around his neck, and cast a slight look at her face near his.
“Lucky for you, you’re not nearly as stealth as you’d like to believe you are,” he remarked.
She kissed his cheek with added drama and jumped off his back. Jackie maintained her humored look as he turned to face her. “Don’t even pretend you saw me coming.”
“Princess, I saw you sneaking around the field the last five minutes,” he informed her.
Princess wasn’t the term of endearment most would believe it to be. When the commander called his daughter ‘princess’, it was a rub the same as calling his hard-core Navy SEAL comrades ‘ladies’. It was meant to offend her, and it usually did. Jackie was far from a princess.
“Sure you did,” she scoffed then smirked.
“If I hadn’t, you’d be scraping your hide off the tarmac,” he announced while grinning.
There was probably some truth to that, and Jackie was very aware of the consequences that came with sneaking up on the commander. Fortunately, while in a non-combat role, he rarely drew his weapon. Although none was seen on him, he undoubtedly had one tucked away somewhere. Jackie looked over the old prop plane with approval then back at her father.
“What’s with ‘old Marge’?” she asked of the plane on the tarmac before them. “I thought you retired her after you trusted me enough not to crash.”
“If you’d bothered to read my note at home on the frig, you’d know I’m giving a flying lesson this afternoon,” he replied matter-of-fact.
“I read your note,” she announced then casually shrugged. “Just not all of it. Your penmanship sucks. I stopped at, “I’ll be at the airfield--” She gave him a quizzical look. “Since when do you give flying lessons?”
“Just a favor to one of my former military buddies,” he informed her.
Jackie’s eyes lit up. “Oh?” she quickly asked with enthusiasm. “Which one?”
She always enjoyed spending time with her father’s military buddies. Obviously, some more than others, but she enjoyed their visits between missions. In six months, her father would finally retire from the military, and they’d have plenty of time to spend together. On the down side, she wasn’t sure how often she’d see the rest of the team after that. S
ome had joked that they too would retire after he did. The team had survived a long time together. To her, they were all family.
“Abbott,” he replied.
“Abbott?” she questioned, considered the name, and then realized she’d met him several times briefly, but he hadn’t been with the commander’s team very long. He was discharged almost a year ago, so she hadn’t seen him in a while. “Oh, yeah, I remember him. The party guy. Bad poker player; bluffs a lot. Can’t handle Tequila.”
Jackson chuckled. “That’s Abbott. I’m flying him out to that old, abandoned airfield for his first lesson. I probably won’t be back until dinnertime.”
“Can I come along?”
Her father considered it a moment and appeared uncertain. “Well, that depends if he minds. I don’t want him to feel nervous his first time flying.”
“I don’t make people nervous,” she pouted.
“No, but you’re distracting,” Jackson replied firmly. “He may not want to be distracted.”
A ruggedly built man in his late thirties approached them, saw Jackie, and grinned cheerfully. “Two Remus’ for the price of one! How did I get so lucky?” Abbott pulled Jackie into his arms and hugged her long and lovingly. He pulled back just far enough to take her in. “You’ve grown!”
“It hasn’t been that long,” Jackie teased then admired his unusual ring. “Is this new?” she asked and indicated the ring he wore on his right ring finger.
“Well, sort of,” he replied with a chuckle. “That’s my Purple Heart. You could say it’s my good luck charm. I had it melted down and made into a ring after my discharge.”
Her father seemed to disapprove but didn’t comment. Abbott grinned cheerfully and placed his arm around her shoulder.
“Did I ever tell you how I received that Purple Heart?” Abbott asked.
She shook her head while studying him with great interest as her father rolled his eyes. Abbott chuckled at Jackson’s reaction to the comment and released Jackie.
Witness Protection Page 5
