Half Blood (3 page)

‘Sit down,’ Jerry repeated, giving him his back to look for the first aid kit that was supposed to be under the sink. When Jerry turned around again, the bastard had sat down, but didn’t look at all happy about it.

The guy had his head tipped back now, trying to stem the faster flowing tide of blood from his nose. ‘You should fire that girl,’ he growled; the sound coming out with a nasal cadence.

‘Thanks for the suggestion,’ Jerry replied indignantly, pulling on a pair of surgical gloves and cutting the top of the saline tube off with a pair of scissors from the kit. With a clean square of gauze, he squirted the solution onto it and held it out for the man to take. ‘Dab this against the cut on the bridge of your nose.’

After an unfriendly look, the man took it and held it to his face.

‘Has your nose stopped bleeding yet?’ Jerry asked after a long minute of absolutely stifling silence. The man released his index finger and thumb from his nose carefully and breathed in deeply; his eyes starting to water with the effort.

‘I’ll sue that bitch for the medical bills,’ he mumbled under his breath. Jerry felt a small peak of anger welling inside him. He was normally a pacifist, but he wouldn’t stand for any man threatening Indi in any way. Abruptly he crouched down in front of the man and held his eyes.

‘What happened between you two?’ he demanded in a hard voice.

His dark eyes settled on Jerry, and he fought the shiver that seemed to be crawling up his skin under his gaze. ‘That’s none of your business,’ he snarled, baring his teeth.

Jerry shrugged his broad shoulders at him. ‘Fine,’ he bristled. ‘But if you sue her or press charges against her—if you threaten her in any way—I’ll deny any wrong doing on her behalf. My other waiter will do the same.’ After all, Rhett owed him after he lied to his face like that.

The man gave him a hard look. ‘You fucking her? Is that it?’

In that moment all Jerry wanted to do was add to the bastard’s list of injuries. He stood up from his crouch. ‘I think it’s time for you to go.’

The man narrowed his eyes at Jerry then got up. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a business card and handed it to Jerry. ‘You might be hearing from my lawyer soon. This is my card.’

Jerry stared down at it, then back at him. He knew that he was bluffing. He wouldn’t press charges or sue Indi. His ego was bent out of shape––that was all. But he took the card and read the embossed lettering carefully. Mr Wright was in development. Jerry knew that he was big too. Wright Constructions had actually built his new apartment block at Waterside.

‘Let me walk you out,’ Jerry said stiffly. He opened up the door, gesturing to Mr Wright to leave first. After he closed the door, he glanced over in Indi’s direction, finding her cleaning up the mess she’d made with Rhett. Jerry followed Mr Wright to the front of the café, stepping outside for a little more privacy in case he had some more opinions on Indi.

Mr Wright wheeled around and looked Jerry squarely in the eyes. ‘Some advice between businessmen: don’t shit where you eat. If you’re banging that girl, she’ll fuck you over in more ways than one. I’ve seen it done.’ And with that, he turned on his heel and stalked off.

Jerry turned back to the café determined to find out what had happened between the two of them. Indi was wiping down the coffee machine when he came in. He stalked over to her, took her by the upper arm and dragged her out to the storeroom.

Rhett was suddenly there, standing in front of him, blocking the way. ‘Jerry. It wasn’t her fault. It was mine,’ he said. The words he said were benign, but the way he said them carried an unspoken threat.

‘This is between my sister and I, Rhett. I’ll be speaking to you afterwards.’ Jerry tightened his grip on Indi’s arm and pushed through the storeroom door. Slamming it shut behind him, he crossed his arms across his broad chest, feeling the seams strain across the fabric on the sleeves.

Indi began swallowing convulsively just as Jerry realised what he was doing. He was scaring her. She was the victim of rape. She was so messed up about it that just being confined in a room with a man set her on edge. If they didn’t have the relationship that they did, Indi would have drawn her blade as soon as the door had been slammed shut. She would have fought her way out of the room before anything else could happen to her.

He took in a giant breath, released it, uncrossed his arms and moved away from the door. Indi noticeably relaxed, sagging against the set of metal shelves the coffee beans were stacked on. She wrapped one arm around herself after a moment, leaving her right hand free to go for her blade. He didn’t think that she’d ever shake that habit.

‘Indigo,’ he started. He knew that she hated her name. He shook his head. ‘Indi,’ he tried again, searching her face, wondering whether she would answer the questions he was about to ask her.

‘Save your breath, Jer. I––’

Jerry stuck his hand up to stop her from talking. He didn’t want it to be this way. He didn’t want to push her away from him. She glared at him, grinding her molars together like she sometimes did when she was really upset with herself.

‘Nothing happened. Rhett accidently elbowed him when I tried to jerk out of his hand. You know I don’t like strange men touching me.’

He did know that. But he also knew that Rhett seemed to be the exception to that rule, so he knew she was lying. As soon as she’d met Rhett, she looked comfortable around him, like some part of her subconscious knew that he could be trusted. He blew out a frustrated breath. ‘I know that’s a lie,’ he said softly, looking into her eyes. ‘I know it’s a lie because you said you tried to elbow Rhett, not just get out of his grip before. I also know that it was a lie because your face gave you away when Rhett told me his version of events.’

‘Fuck,’ she muttered under her breath, looking down at her feet.

‘So are you going to tell me what
really
happened?’

‘Probably not,’ she replied, still looking down at the thick black laces threaded into her boots.

‘Look, Indi, I know that you need this job. But you do have that money sitting there still. You can have it whenever you want. You know that, don’t you? If you’re finding the job too stressful, you can live off that for a little while.’

‘I’ll never take that money,’ she snapped, her hand flexing around her upper arm in an attempt to try and control her anger.

‘I know it’s your pride that is stopping you.’ Jerry sighed and folded his six-foot frame onto the floor opposite to where she was standing. ‘Mr Wright said he wouldn’t press charges.’ She shrugged. ‘Do you want to tell me what happened?’ he asked again.

Indi met his steady gaze and lifted her chin in defiance. ‘There’s nothing to tell.’

‘You know you can tell me anything, right? Did he say something inappropriate to you?’

She shook her head and crossed her arms across her chest. Jerry’s eyes swept the floor in thought. When the idea struck him, it made him feel sick to the stomach. ‘Did he … did he
touch
you?’ his voice dropping to a hard whisper. Indi tightened her arms across my chest. ‘That was it, wasn’t it?’ Jerry couldn’t believe that he’d allowed that to happen to her in his café. He’d be the one pressing charges if she confirmed his suspicions. ‘Indi?’ he pressed.

She shrugged again, refusing to look into his eyes. He’d seen this body language before. She wasn’t going to talk, and there was not a damn thing he could say or do that was going to change her mind.

‘Well, if you decide that you do want to tell me about it, you know where I am.’ He stood up, opened the door and called Rhett over. If Indi wouldn’t talk then he’d get his information from somewhere else. ‘Indi, can you give us a minute please?’

‘Sure,’ she replied. As she went through the door, Indi and Rhett exchanged a strange look, but Jerry ignored it; more concerned with getting to the bottom of what had happened.

Rhett’s bulk took up more space in the small room than Jerry thought was possible. He took a step back from him and began pacing. Rhett’s heterochromous eyes were patient and calm, watching him and his pissed off attitude wearing a hole in the lino under his feet.

‘I want to know what the
hell
happened out there. I don’t want the edited version. I want to hear it all. I know that you lied to me before. If you don’t tell me what I need to know right now, I get to fire your ass. You got me?’ Jerry’s voice ended up in a growl.

Rhett swallowed and nodded. ‘Alright. I’d been keeping an eye on them after I noticed how she reacted to him the first time. When I saw him grab her wrist, I started making my way over to them. She had her knife on his throat when I got there.’

‘My God,’ he breathed.

‘I managed to get her to back down, but just as she was about to leave, the guy mouthed off and she cold-cocked him.’

Jerry’s thoughts were a tangled snarl. It had happened to her again and under his watch too. He felt physically sick. ‘Did you see him touch her again at all?’ he eventually asked.

Jerry asked, ‘Do you care about her that much? You hardly know her.’ He was speaking from experience. Indi hadn’t truly opened up to him until she’d lived in the same house as him for two years, and even when she did talk about herself. Jerry could tell she was holding back.

He shrugged his broad shoulders again. ‘I know her enough. Besides, I can’t stand by and let a woman get manhandled. I did what any man would have done in my situation.’

As far as Jerry was concerned, that earned Rhett some big brownie points in his book. He put his hand out to the guy. ‘Thanks,’ he said. They clapped palms and did the manly chest-to-shoulder hug. ‘I mean it Rhett. Thanks. I feel so much better knowing that someone else is looking out for her. I had no idea that was what was going on. I took my eyes off her for a second, just a second.’

He shrugged. ‘Don’t worry about it.’

Jerry and Rhett left the storeroom in time to start the final clean up. Indi was just closing up the café, flipping the sign on the door to “closed”. Jerry studied her face, finding that she had shut down her emotions. She was retreating in on herself so much that Jerry couldn’t tell what she was thinking anymore.

later.

‘I forgot that I had to meet someone over at the apartment in fifteen minutes.’ He stared at Indi’s doleful expression. ‘I’ll call him and tell him that I can’t get there for another half an hour.’

‘Wait. Don’t do that. Was this a date?’

Jerry laughed. ‘No. He’s my squash partner. We had to reschedule a match to tonight.’

‘You should go. I can get home by myself for once,’ Indi said shrugging. Jerry shook his head. He had started walking Indi home of an evening ever since a maniac rapist had started terrorising women in Buxton. And there was no way in hell that he’d let her walk home alone tonight.

Rhett had had a hard time keeping his cool that afternoon. He had felt his “human” face slipping; the face and persona he used when he was away from the pack. First it was the problem with Indi, and then Jerry getting up in his face about what had happened between them. He’d had it under control until the asshole mouthed off at her. He looked over at the girl he’d been charged with taking care of, mentally reaffirming to himself what he was meant to be doing. Jerry said that he owed him for walking her back, but the reality was he’d wanted to take her home. He’d give up a limb for Indi if it meant she’d be safe.

Rhett gave her a look that set her pulse pounding. ‘Of course you’re worth it Indi,’ he replied seriously. She held his gaze for a long, slow minute before walking again. She thought she was worthless, but to him, she was priceless and he would do whatever he had to do to make sure she knew that. He glanced over at her again, noticing she was shivering which wasn’t a surprise. The coat she was wearing was threadbare at best.