A Jar of Hearts (20 page)

She stared at him coldly. “Thanks, but I do have a car.”

He ambled up closer to her until he was a hand-span away from her. “Have you even looked at me? How am I supposed to fit into your cute little Honda?” He turned around and began marching out the door. “My car or nothing.”

She grabbed her bag angrily and stomped out of the house, pushing past him as she did.

He glanced over at her leaning against her window, staring into space. Her dark hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail, enhancing her sharp features. His eyes drifted down to her hands, tightly clasping the handles of her bag. She wasn’t comfortable. She didn’t want to be here with him and he didn’t blame her. He had barged into her life, demanding she trust him. The truth was she didn’t know how to do that. She had been an independent woman for so long and after that asshole boyfriend of hers left her during a time when she needed him most, she probably didn’t know how to depend on any man at all.

“I know we started on the wrong foot,” he began. “But I
am
here to protect you and Ashley. I won’t let anything happen to you both if I can help it.”

She looked steely over at him. “We are a job. I understand that. I only want to get through this without having to communicate with you so much.”

He tightened his grip on his wheel, a muscle pulsing in his jaw. She was right. They were just a job. But he didn’t like hearing it. Especially when she said it aloud like that.

The vendor packed in a heap of apples into a plastic bag and handed it over to her. She thanked him with a smile and reached out to pay him. She felt his hand on hers as he silently removed the bag from her hand and carried it.

A knot pitted in her stomach, her lips growing dry from the sudden racing of her heart. He was still a bastard, she thought. But for some reason he was growing into a rather charming one. She couldn’t deny she was attracted to him, after all he was handsome. Those light blue eyes and lush of sleek silvery hair set him apart from a lot of men she had known. He was different.

She walked on from vendor to vendor, watching him from the corner of her eyes as he dutifully followed her. A young female seller smiled at them, clearly envying them as a couple. She caught him smiling back and she frowned. She was annoyed that anyone would think they were a pair. But she couldn’t ignore the pang of jealousy biting into her heart. Why was he smiling at the woman like that?

He suddenly grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her into him. A cyclist wheezed past them and she stared after him in a state of startle, her heart thumping in her chest, her breasts crushing against his.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yes.” She licked her lips as she tried to straighten up again. What was wrong with her? She certainly was losing her sensibilities around him.

Mark pulled into a car space just as children began pouring out of the private school.

“Does she know we’re here to pick her up?” he asked, his eyes scouting the crowd for Ashley.

“Yes, I told her I would in the morning,” Julia replied. “I just had an uneasy feeling all had not been quite sorted out from yesterday’s scuffle.”

“You probably are being protective, that’s all. I’m sure the principal would have warned the girls of any more trouble.”

“I hope so, Mark. I’m hoping that I am wrong, because I can’t help shaking the feeling we don’t belong here. I want this for Ashley, but I don’t want her to feel like an outcast in a school filled with rich kids as well.”

His muscle twitched in his jaw again. He had already gauged she had been living it tough all these years, and to see her worry about her social class simply unnerved him more. She deserved more than she was getting.

“There she is.” Julia pointed with slight relief. She moved to unbuckle her seat belt, but he held her buckle firmly down.

“Stay,” he said. “I’ll go and get her.”

He didn’t wait for her to answer, stepping out of his vehicle and walking at once towards Ashley. He had already spotted the discomfort in Ashley’s body and the three older girls taunting her from behind her.

“Ashley,” he said aloud, catching their attention. He gave out his hand which the eight year old eagerly reached out to clasp. “Who are your friends?”

“Um… they’re not really friends,” she muttered close to him.

The girls stared at him in awe, clearly admiring his physique. His shirt hug snugly to his torso and his fitting sleeves defined the muscles in his arms. And with his dark glasses, his chiseled features would have passed him off as a model. He always knew the effect he had on women. He just didn’t care much for it. At least not until he met the woman waiting for him in his SUV.

He put an arm around Ashley, his protective fatherly instincts coming alive. Who knew he even had them?

“Oh, I’m sure they are.” He smiled at the girls and added. “Good seeing you.”

He turned around, his arm still on Ashley’s shoulder, and led her back to his car. He glanced over at her, her face a stark difference to the grimness she had carried only a moment ago. She was bright and excited as she hopped into the vehicle.

“That was so cool!” she exclaimed to her mother. “Did you see, Mom? They were just staring at Mark when he walked up to us!”

Julia looked over at Mark for an explanation but he simply shrugged his shoulders and grinned at Ashley.

“I didn’t do anything except say hi,” he said.

Julia rolled her eyes and turned to glance at the three giggly teenage girls in the distance. “You put your charm to good use.”

“Will they stop bothering me now?” Ashley asked hopefully.

Julia sighed.  “I hope so, darling. I don’t know why such older and beautiful girls would want to bully someone almost half their age. Girls can be so cruel sometimes.”

“Well, if they ever rough you again, Ashley,” Mark said firmly. “Just let me know and
I
will talk it out with them and the principal.”

“Yes!” Ashley pumped into the air and Mark grinned again.

Julia shifted uncomfortably in her chair. The man was growing dangerously close to them. And if she wasn’t careful, there would be every possibility that he would break their hearts when he slammed the door behind him on his way out of their lives.

Dry twigs crackled in the fire as the two men sat beside it warming their hands in its heat. Somewhere in the dark trees around them, an owl hooted. But other than the occasional chirping of crickets, the forest was devoid of any noise.

It was peaceful, Eric thought. He had always cherished the silence of the forests, and if it weren’t for the sea, he would have opted to live in the middle of the woods somewhere.

“Have you ever gone hunting?” Mark asked him. Eric raised his brow and Mark grinned. “I meant normal hunting- deer, quail, duck.”

“I’ve never had the chance.”

“So how did you learn to shoot so well?” Mark tilted his head up to him with curiosity.

“Shooting ranges,” Eric replied in short. He tossed another twig into the foot high flames.

“How did you get there?”

Eric smiled. “You’re asking a lot of questions, tonight.”

Mark leaned back casually, staring up at the trees. “We’ve got an entire night to pull through and we basically have nothing to do but wait. Besides, it’s tradition for a little storytelling by the fire.”

“I’ve got only horror stories to tell you.”

“I don’t mind those either.”

Eric sighed. “I was good at shooting baskets and I discovered I wasn’t too bad with a carnival gun also. It didn’t take long for Joe Cavallo to find that out either and we kind of hooked together as a result of that. I used to get straight easy targets, but like any job, you start vying for more money, better status, more respect.”  A colony of bats flew above them, settling into trees close by. Their squeaking crepitated through the quietness, drowning the forests in a barrel of annoying noise.

“They smell,” Mark said, screwing up his nose.

“The perks of camping.”

“I don’t think so.” Mark grinned. “Anyway, what did you do then- to get all that?”

“I asked around about for someone who knew how to handle sniper rifles and soon after, I was pointed in the direction of a military sniper veteran. He was homeless and wandering about the streets. I paid him enough and he taught me all he knew about the M24.”

“Where did you get the gun?”

“Joe Cavallo arranged for one. He knew people who knew someone who could sell me one.”

“A cop?”

Eric nodded. “Yeah, well it didn’t take me long to master it.”

“I’ve seen you shoot and I have to agree you handle it better than most men I know. Why didn’t you have any interest in the police or the military? They could have really used you there.”

Eric shrugged. “I just didn’t have anyone to point me in the right direction.”

“You were lucky than most kids who lost their parents.”

“I know.” He stretched out his legs, breathing in the night air. “But I missed my own parents too much to appreciate what I had. I suppose it was my way of rebelling against norms, society and people’s expectations. Needless to say, it didn’t serve me well.”

“And you think Anne has helped?” Mark asked cautiously.

“She’s been my pivot. She gives me hope that I could be human again.”

They grew quiet for a while, listening to the squeaks of the bats piercing the silence.

“Why Anne?” Mark asked slowly. “You could have had many other women, so why her?”

Eric pressed his lips together, contemplating why. He had never really put any thought to his rationales for loving Anne. He just knew he did. His heart raced whenever he was with her, and when she would touch him, to see him with her hands, he would feel he could achieve the impossible.

“At first, it was because she was beautiful,” he said. “I saw her standing across the basketball courts when I was seventeen and I thought she was the most exquisite woman I’d ever laid eyes on. And then when I found out she couldn’t see, I felt sorry for her. That didn’t take long to change into protectiveness. And as I grew to know her, I began to see my mother in her. She had those little niggling habits that my mom had. But more than that, she needed me and it felt nice to be needed for a change. I swore to myself that as long as I could help it, I would be there for her.”

“And then you fell in love with her,” Mark said.

Eric dusted his pants. “Yeah. What about you?”

“What about me?”

“You and Julia.”

Mark coughed. “There is nothing between me and Julia.”

Eric grinned. “Oh come on. Even Anne knows there is something between the two of you.”

“Well, it’s been a month and I’m still sleeping on a darned mattress on the floor.”

“You sound like you’re complaining.”

Mark lay back on his mat, his arm under him, pillowing his head. “I might as well.”

“She’s a good woman, Mark. She just needs time.”

“I know.” 

Eric followed suit, laying back, his eyes scouring the heavens for any stars. “You think the women are safe?”

“They had better be or I’d have Hank’s ass for breakfast.”

“Is he sleeping in Julia’s room as well?” Eric teased.

Mark grinned. “I’d have more than just his ass if he does.”

They lapsed into another silence as the fire began to die down.

“Mark?” Eric murmured.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks man.”

Mark smiled. At sometime during these past couple of years he had spent with this strange man, he had grown fond of him. It was a friendship he was hoping that would last beyond this assignment.

“Get some sleep,” he murmured back. “Tomorrow is the day we get Trent Harvey.”

“One hour to impact,” Casey said into her earpiece. She leaned against her old blue hippie camper van parked on the side of the road. Her short denim skirt and knee-high cowboy boots made her look like anything other than an FBI agent.

“Where’s Corey?” Mark’s voice came over.

“I’m here,” he replied, emerging from the back of the van in his tie-dye shirt.

“How’s the phone signals?”

“All good.”

A truck stopped by the road and the driver peered out of his window. “You alright, lassie?” he asked Casey.

Casey gave him a thumbs-up. “Just a little breakdown. My boyfriend, there, is just fiddling with the wires.”

“Hi there,” Corey said, wiping his greasy fingers on a rag as he approached the driver.

“You okay, man?” the driver asked again.

“Yeah. A little tinkering will have it moving.”

The driver grunted. “It looks old. You should roll it down the mountain while you have the chance.”

Corey laughed. “Yeah, you may be right, but I think I’ll hang on to it for a little while longer.”

“Okay then.” The driver gave them a short salute, a honk and went on his way.

“All okay, Corey?” Mark asked.

“Yep. Just a good Samaritan.”

Mark settled himself beside his sniper rifle on the rock. In the distance, he saw Eric lying on the grassy hill with his own rifle aiming at the highway.

“How about you, Eric?” he asked.

“Not so good. You realize I usually do this on my own, right?”

“Juan wants him domed and I want to be sure you get that hit.”

“And I want to be sure you get yours,” Eric whispered back.

Mark smirked. “I’m not as good as you, but I ain’t bad as well.”

“I thought you wanted a fallout guy. Why are you doing this?”

“Hmmm,” Mark mumbled, pressing his lips together in a thin line. “I’m doing it for Anne. Juan can be quite a temperamental bastard. I’m afraid he will flip for the worse if you do not give him Harvey’s skull.”

“So you’re worried about me.”

Mark could almost hear the amusement in Eric’s voice. He scowled. “I swore I would give you an out after this and that is what I am doing.”

“So you’re worried about me,” Eric repeated with a chuckle.

“Aww,” Casey’s voice came over. “You two have fallen in love.”

“Argh,” Mark growled. “Where’s Hank?”

“I’m here at the trail down the mountain,” Hank said into the earpiece.

“Wonderful,” Mark murmured. “This is going to be fucking awesome.”

“Here he comes,” Casey said through her teeth. She smiled seductively at the group of five cyclists riding up the road. She narrowed her eyes on the central cyclist. Trent Harvey.  She couldn’t mistake his tanned skin and his cleft chin. “Blue shirt and black pants with a matching blue helmet. Estimate time to crosshair- five minutes.”

“Got it, Casey,” Mark said, ending her navigation.

Eric watched the men emerge from around the bend through his binoculars.
Blue shirt, black pants
, he recited silently as he adjusted his diopter on the man he would be targeting.
Got you.

He worked quickly, bracing his gun against himself. He felt the usual initial rush grip his body but he just as fast settled it down. He focused on his breathing, adjusting his windage and the elevation knobs and then waited for his target to merge with his crosshairs.

“Five,” Mark began the countdown. But it would be the only number he’d say out aloud.

Eric steadied his finger on his trigger.
Four… three… two…one.

A shot fired into Harvey’s back and a split second later, Eric fired into the back of his head. He caught a glimpse of blood splattering out of his wound, but he didn’t wait to watch the panic sweeping over the man’s guards.

“Move!” Mark commanded, dashing into the thickness of the forest.

Eric grabbed his mat, wrapping his gun into it and then slung it over his back as he fell into a sprint.

“Eric!” Mark breathed hoarsely into his earpiece.

“Right behind you.”

“Corey, the phone signals!”