by Lena North
Oh, my, I thought. Why had I never done this before? It was soothing and at the same time exhilarating, and I’d be embarrassed if someone came around, but it wouldn’t be such a big deal. I could easily call out, and they’d stay away until I got dressed. When darkness started to settle for real, I decided that I had to get back and was at the edge of the pool, thinking that we’d have to get a pool ladder, when I heard a soft scraping sound. I sank back into the water and listened.
There was another scraping sound, a clink, and then the alarm box blinked in the corner. I raised my brows in surprise, because I hadn’t activated it. We never did when someone was in the house. The only ones who knew the codes were Kit and me so he must have decided to come down for some reason, I thought, and was about to call out when I heard another quiet scraping sound, and then the alarm stopped blinking. I sank deeper into the water because it hadn’t stopped blinking as if it was deactivated. All the tiny lights on the panel had shut off, and that meant that someone had taken it off the power grid immediately.
It also meant that someone who wasn’t supposed to had entered the house.
I heard steps moving around in the corridor leading to the smaller rooms and started lifting myself out of the water. We’d put panic buttons on the alarm panels in all rooms, and they bypassed the main power source. There would also be a signal to both Kit’s and my phones if the power were shut off. We’d tested everything thoroughly so I knew that I’d get help eventually. Kit would call Dante or Danny, and it would take them fifteen minutes tops to get to the house.
Then I heard the steps coming closer and since I didn’t want to confront whoever had broken into the house in my nakedness, I slipped back into the water. When a soft creaking sound told me that the door was opened, I took a deep breath and then I dove.
I followed the side of the pool until I was in the bottom corner, searching with my hands until I found the tube providing air to the metal box where we kept the crystal, and grabbed it to hold myself down. The water would be dark, and if they didn’t use flashlights, I hoped that they wouldn’t see me.
Pressed tightly into the bottom corner of the pool, I tried to determine where the steps were going. I peered upward, and I could see a shadow moving around the room on the other side from where I was hiding. Then the shadow stilled, and I pressed closer to the side. I was also running out of oxygen, so with slow hands, I loosened the hose from the metal pipe leading the air inward. Since the pressure wasn’t terribly high, holding my hand over it held back the air and only a few bubbles slipped out. My lungs started to burn, and slowly I exhaled tiny bubbles, all the time watching the shadow above. It looked like a man, but I wasn’t sure because the shape was distorted by the water and my eyes were stinging from the chlorine.
When I’d let out enough air from my lungs, I turned my head down and put my mouth to the metal pipe, and inhaled deeply. I started to slowly let the air out immediately, wondering why the damned burglar didn’t move when I had expected him to take a quick look and then go back to pack up the computers or whatever else he might want. Then I took another breath and started counting the seconds it took me from I began inhaling until I was ready to inhale again. I needed to know roughly how long I’d stayed under, I thought. There was no way I could stay where I was until someone came to check the alarm, but if I could last for a while, help wouldn’t be far away.
When I estimated that I’d been in the water for four minutes, the shadow moved around to the far side, and it looked like the man was about to get into the pool. I braced and started planning for the fastest way to get out, hoping that I’d be up and running before the man could get to me. I’d have to let him get fully into the pool, and preferably closer to the box if that was what he’d be going for. I wasn’t a fast swimmer, though, so I couldn’t let him get too close to me.
Then I heard another noise. It was muffled, but I still recognized it through the water. It was the sound of a big dog barking frantically. Then there was a loud bang, and the barking stopped, only to start again. The man straightened and moved away, seemingly startled by something slamming into the big doors to the patio.
Joe.
I couldn’t hear clearly, and I couldn’t see the doors from the corner I huddled in, but I knew. My dog had come for me, and I almost started laughing from relief. Then I heard steps moving away quickly, followed by a soft, bouncy sound that I hoped was the door. I counted to ten, slowly got to the surface and looked around.
No one was in the room, but there was barking from the other side of the house, and I suddenly realized that my stupid, brave dog was pursuing the intruder. Someone willing to break into a house wouldn’t have any qualms hurting a dog, so I heaved myself out of the pool quicker than I’d ever done before. I was dizzy, and my knees wobbled, but I grabbed my dress and threw it over my head. Then I ran across the room, slammed the panic button as I passed the alarm, and threw the patio doors open.
“Joe!” I called, and continued to shout at the top of my lungs, “Joe! Come here, Joe!”
I kept calling his name even when I saw him skidding around the corner. He raced up to me, and I sank to my knees and threw my arms around him, sobbing with relief into his thick fur.
“Good, boy, you’re such a good boy,” I sniffled and let my hands roam over him, making sure he was unharmed.
He licked the side of my face and when I straightened he looked at me with a wide grin. “That was a fun game, let’s do it again,” he seemed to think. His tail started thumping against the deck, and I started laughing.
Chapter Fourteen
Stupid as a donkey
“What the hell?”
Dante barged through the bushes surrounding the house, followed by a group of men. They carried flashlights and a few of them were tucking away something that I seriously hoped wasn’t guns. Danny was the last to step up on the patio, and his limp was more pronounced than it had been in a while.
“Danny, you shouldn’t run on that leg,” I said.
“Jiminella, what the hell?” Dante repeated, and kept yelling, “Your phone started sounding the alarm and then Kit called me and told me the house had been breached.”
“It was,” I said calmly.
They were there, Joe and I were safe, and the intruder was gone, so I figured we’d discuss this in a rational manner. Dante clearly was of another opinion, and he stepped closer.
“Then on our way here, your phone shouts out that the panic button has been pressed. In words. Literal words in your voice, Jiminella.”
Oh, yeah. For fun, Kit and I had programmed that into our phones, and I’d recorded the message. It had taken a few attempts because we’d been laughing so hard, but finally, I’d managed to yell the words panic and button in a sufficiently panicky way. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but I could see that Dante had not appreciated it.
“Should we go inside?” I asked, thinking that the few steps might calm him down.
“No, we’re not going inside. You’re going to explain what happened.”
Was he giving me an order?
“Jinx, you’re driving him nuts. Just tell us,” Daniele said calmly.
I smiled at him, heard Dante make a small growling sound, and then I sighed.
“Okay. Well, I don’t know exactly what happened, but someone broke into the house. I was in the pool when I saw the alarm first activate and then shut off. I was on my way up to hit the panic button and leave through the patio doors, but then I heard him moving toward the main room.”
I made a pause, and then I explained how I’d stayed in the water, and breathed through the air inflow. All their faces turned to granite when I told them my plan to let the man get into the water before jumping up myself, so I skidded over that part quickly and told them how Joe had come to my rescue.
“Did he run away from Mrs. C?” I asked, and added, “You should call her, she’ll worry.”
“We met her on the way over here,” Danny explained. “He ran aroun
d in the house, frantically looking for a way out and she thought he’d hurt himself, so she opened the garden door and off he went.”
“Wow,” I breathed.
There was no way he could have known, was there? And still, he’d come straight to me when I needed him. Could he have heard the alarm all the way to the village?
“He kept barking and throwing him against the patio doors. He must have looked like a rabid dog, and the guy got scared,” I said and patted Joe’s head.
He looked up at me and gave me a doggy grin. The fur behind his ears curled a little, his tongue was hanging out on one side, and I thought that he looked goofy more than anything else.
“Not exactly scary right now, Jinx,” one of the men snorted.
I recognized him from the building crew and smiled at him.
“There’s one thing I don’t understand,” Dante said slowly.
Oh shit. I suspected I knew what he was about to say.
“Why did you go back into the water? Why didn’t you run for the panic button and the doors?”
Yes. That was exactly what I assumed he’d lock on to, and what I didn’t particularly want to explain.
“I figured it was better, all things considered.”
Dante took a step toward me and stretched his hand out, probably thinking that he’d get into my head and pick the facts for himself. I took a step away, and Joe made a weird growling sound.
“Jesus,” Dante muttered. “Explain, Nellie. Please.”
He looked more exasperated than angry, and I knew that I wouldn’t finagle my way out of the situation, so I told them, speaking quickly and jumbling it up a bit, hoping that they’d miss some of the details.
“I made another trip to Martha’s store and got new underwear. I’d forgotten my bikini but how was I supposed to know that someone would break in? Anyway, they’re super cute, made entirely out of black lace, but we have chlorine in the water so what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t just get out, could I?”
They all straightened as I spoke and I heard Danny choke, sounding like he was pushing back laughter.
“You were swimming in your underwear, made entirely out of black lace?” Dante asked in a strained voice.
“Um,” I said.
Danny had clearly deciphered my message because he started to laugh, loudly.
“What,” Dante barked and glared at him, but Danny just shook his head.
“Oh, no. You get to tell him, Jinx,” he said.
“Chlorine is a strong bleaching agent, and I wasn’t sure what it would do to the lace so I…”
It took him four seconds to understand what I was saying. I counted them.
“Oh God,” he groaned. “You didn’t?”
All the men were suddenly grinning at me, and I felt a blush creep up my neck, but the embarrassment made me lash out.
“Yes, Dante d’Augustine, I absolutely did, not that it’s any of your business. I took off my underwear, and I went into the pool.” I took a step toward him and said so succinctly it almost sounded like two words, “Naked.”
He groaned again and swiftly put a hand gently over my mouth.
“You have got to stop talking, Nellie. Now every man here has a mental picture of you frolicking around in your, er, birthday suite.”
I blinked and turned my head toward Daniele.
“Really?” I asked, but it came out muffled because Dante hadn’t moved his hand.
“Not me,” Danny said immediately and winked at me.
I turned my head to look at the other men, but they didn’t meet my gaze, though a few of them were chuckling and all of them were grinning. I didn’t move my head, but I turned my eyes back to Dante.
“I didn’t have time to put the underwear back on,” I thought.
His eyes swept down over my very short sundress, and he muttered, “Oh God,” again in that weirdly choked voice.
Then he turned me around and pushed me toward the house. While I dug out the rest of my clothes and quickly pulled them on, I saw how the men spread out around the house, using their flashlights to look for signs of the intruder. They seemed to be moving away, and I wondered if they were planning on leaving Joe and me behind, when Dante walked through the patio doors, closed and locked them.
He stopped, and we stood in silence for a while. I tried to judge his mood but his face was blank and his eyes guarded.
“I need to learn how to shoot,” I blurted out.
His brow shot up, and mirth suddenly filled his eyes.
“No you don’t, baby,” he snorted.
“I was scared,” I whispered.
I’d been too focused on what to do so I hadn’t allowed myself to feel it, but I had been frightened, and my knees still shook a little.
“Of course you were,” he said calmly.
“If you’d let me have my phone I could have called for help,” I muttered, wondering why he didn’t step closer and feeling like a fool for wanting him to hold me.
“You’re right,” he surprised me by saying. Then he dug into his pocket and fished out my phone.
It rang just as I got it in my hand and the shrill signal surprised me, so I almost dropped it. When I grabbed hold of it with both hands, I accidentally pressed both the symbol to answer and the one for the loudspeaker.
“Hello?” a voice said uncertainly, and the sound echoed in the big room.
“Jamie?” I said. “Wow, sorry. I accidentally put you on the loudspeaker. We’ve had a little incident with an intruder here, so I fumbled –”
“Holy crap, is everything hunky-dory?” he interrupted, and I giggled stupidly. Of all the silly things to say, I thought.
“I'm all right, Jamie,” I assured him.
“Are you sure? Do you need me to come and –”
Dante suddenly leaned forward and growled straight into the phone, “No. She doesn’t need you to damned well come here.”
Then he closed the call and put the phone back in his pocket.
I stared at him, wondering what the hell just happened.
“What just happened?” I asked after a long silence.
He turned and glared at me but didn’t speak.
“Why are you so upset?” I asked, completely confused by his weird behavior.
“Yeah, Jiminella, why am I upset?” he asked right back at me.
It felt as if I’d stepped into an alternate reality where I couldn’t figure out what he was upset about and I didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t a situation I liked at all.
“Dante, please,” I said quietly. “I don’t know why you’re angry and I don’t know what to do.”
He immediately took the steps toward me that I’d wanted before, and then he held me.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, and I exhaled. Then he started talking, in my head and so softly I barely heard him.
“Half the world is poking at me, trying to get into the village, Nellie. They’re all worried about you, and they don’t like that I won’t let them visit. That doctor-dude trying to come too was just the last straw.”
“You’ve held everyone back,” I murmured.
“Of course I did.”
“Even my parents?” I asked although I knew the answer already.
“Absolutely. I’m sorry, Nellie, but I don’t like them at all. They left you when they should damned well have stayed.”
“Someone like me can convince anyone about anything, Dante.”
He looked down on me, and there was a steely look in his eyes. When he spoke, it was out loud as if this was too important, and needed to be heard.
“No. I would never leave my kids. Not ever. And Nellie… neither would you.”
I thought about that for a while, and he was right. If I ever had kids, then I’d never, ever, leave them.
“Why didn’t you want Wilder and Mary to come?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, and I started to worry. I wasn’t very close with my parents, but it hurt that he didn’t like my girlfriends.
“Jiminella…” he murmured, but I squeezed him a little to let him know that I wanted him to explain. I felt how he took a deep breath and then he told me.
“They’d take you away from me.”
I blinked and leaned back, not sure I’d heard what I thought I’d heard, but he moved his arm to push me back into his chest.
“What?”
“They would convince you that you should go to that ranch Wilder owns, or to the mountains. I’ve worked some in the past with that group Hawker leads, and they’d provide protection. Better protection than you’d get here. Besides, they’re your friends, you’d want to be with them, and when they pushed, you’d go with them. So, I couldn’t let them come.”
He stopped talking, and I didn’t have to try very hard to sense that he braced for what I would say. I locked on to the one thing that had burned into my soul.
“You don’t want me to leave?” I asked because I’d heard what he said, but I needed him to tell me again.
“What are you talking about? Of course I don’t want you to leave,” he replied immediately, and we pulled apart a little.
“Why?” I asked.
“Jiminella, what do you think we’ve been doing for the past weeks?”
“I don’t know,” I mumbled, for lack of anything better to say.
“You don’t know,” he echoed, and I could see that his surprise at my questions had turned into amusement.
“No, Dante. I don’t know,” I snapped. “What I do know is that you told me we should be friends.”
“I never said that,” he protested.
“You did,” I countered.
“When the hell did I say that?”
“At Mrs. C’s. You told me that we should get to know each other and spend more…”
He was suddenly smiling broadly, and I stopped talking.
“I see that I should have made things clearer. I thought I did, and since it’s obvious to everyone else, I forgot that even though you’re brilliant, sometimes you’re stupid as a donkey.”
I straightened and glared at him.
“I think the expression is stubborn as a donkey,” I stated haughtily.
“I know the expression, and I know what I said,” he declared calmly.
