Jaxson's Song (4 page)

But she was a woman, his
conscience whispered. It was a thready, tenuous sound that he
hadn’t heard in a very long time. He didn’t want to be hearing it
now. Jaxson sighed. The woman said she’d had a break-in. Who was
she? Where did she live? Was her intruder still out there, was that
someone watching her, maybe even now coming after her? He rested
his forehead on the linen-covered glass, cooling down for a second
before he grasped the doorknob, twisted, and faced the woman, grim
acceptance lacing his tone.

“
Okay, get in the house,” he told her, feeling magnanimous all
of a sudden.

“
Um…” She wrung her hands and shifted her insubstantial weight
from one foot to the other, alternating wide, fearful eyes between
the house to the left, and him.

“
Is that your house?” he asked, forcing some softness into his
tone.

She nodded. “There’s
someone over there.” She shivered and her terrified gaze settled on
Jaxson.

“
Come on, get in here and we’ll call the police,” he sighed,
leaning forward to clasp his hand lightly over her arm, wincing a
little at the sight of his glittering bangle bracelets next to her
gold-dust skin. He drew her into the house, glanced around one
final time, but there wasn’t much to see. The street was quiet; the
rest of the neighborhood was in bed for the night. “The phone’s
this way.”

He let go of her and
passed through a set of French doors to the living room, without
waiting for her to follow. She did, though, and he met her halfway,
a white plastic cordless phone held in his outstretched hand. “Are
you…okay?” he asked, noticing the way her hand shook when she
accepted the phone and sank to the sofa.

He watched her squeeze her
eyes shut, nod and dial 911, and he felt like an ass for not asking
her sooner. Standing there watching her fingers turn white around
the handset of the phone, light gold-and-brown hair falling forward
to obscure part of her face, he felt most of his anger begin to
cool and fade. She looked so small, almost fragile, sitting there
on the couch, curling around herself, one arm wrapped tight around
her middle as she spoke into the phone.

“
I’d like to report, I mean, I need to report,” she took a
deep breath, “a break-in. My house was broken into tonight.” Her
voice became stronger as she listened to the dispatcher on the
other end of the line and then recited her address.

A second later, she was
looking up at Jax again with those wide eyes. Gray, he noticed. Her
eyes were gray, maybe blue. The only light in the room came from a
single china-blue lamp that sat perched on an antique-looking end
table. Briefly he thought about flipping the switch for the
overhead lighting but immediately decided against doing so. The
woman in front of him looked freaked out enough as it was. Flooding
the room in a sudden brightness probably wouldn’t do a whole hell
of a lot for her nerves, and the last thing Jaxson needed was a
hysterical female… Clearly, she was already on the edge.

“
They’re on their way,” she told him. “They said to stay on
the line…”

“
Okay.” He nodded and dropped to the seat on the opposite end
of the couch. She glanced at him and her hands began to shake.
Jaxson carefully unwrapped her fingers from around the telephone
receiver and easily plucked the object from her grasp.

“
We’re going to stay on the line, but I’m setting the phone
down until the cops get here,” he told the dispatcher.

“
Thank you,” Kate murmured when he’d place the phone facedown
between them on the white-and-purple flowered sofa.

“
Ah, I’m…sorry, about earlier.” His lips twisted. “It’s been a
long day, ya know?”

“
Yeah.” She exhaled, then crammed her hands between her knees
and trembled, her gaze a thousand miles away.

“
I’m sorry I snapped at you, on the porch, okay?” he blurted,
forcing the words out through lips that suddenly felt awkward. “I’m
having a shit day and it was wrong to take it out on
you.”

“
Oh.” Her eyes darted to his. It was clear he’d managed to
surprise her again. Considering the circumstances, he thought with
a grimace, staring down at his cocktail dress, he’d have figured
the woman would be beyond surprise, at this point.

“
I’m Jaxson, by the way,” he said without holding out his
hand.

“
Kate,” she murmured, giving him another small, tense,
not-quite smile. “I’m sorry I’m bothering you tonight.” She paused
and sucked in a deep breath. “I can’t believe this is happening. We
just moved in.”

“
We?” Jaxson shifted uncomfortably on the couch and
entertained dark fantasies of ripping off his pantyhose and putting
the damn things through a shredder.

“
My sister Lilly lives with me,” she answered before her spine
stiffened. “Oh, my God, I need to call her.”

There was panic in her
voice, and Jaxson reached into the beaded evening bag on the end
table at his elbow. “Here.” He shoved his cell phone at her. “Use
this.”

He watched as she punched
in a number, her fingers appearing marginally steadier.

“
Lilly?” She cleared her throat. “Are you still at
Alexandra’s? I need you to stay there, okay? I know you’re spending
the night, don’t come home until I call you again. Yeah, no,
everything is…fine, but…someone broke into the house, tonight.” She
held the phone away from her ear, and Jax heard the screech from
the other end of the phone, clear on the other side of the couch.
“No, I was at work. I came home and the door was open. And then I
thought someone was chasing me. I think whoever broke in was on the
porch with me, yeah, around the side of the house. I heard a noise.
Yeah. The police are on their way. I’m fine, Lilly, I promise. This
is the neighbor’s phone, I’m next door. Listen, I’ve got to go, but
I’ll see you in the morning, okay? I’ll just meet you at
Alexandra’s. Love you, too.”

The deep tones of a
doorbell reverberated through the house as she handed the cell
phone back to Jaxson.

“
The police are here.”

Chapter Four

Inside Out

“
I
’ll
get
the door.” Jaxson sighed and rose from the couch.

Kate watched him disappear
from the room. This time, she valiantly tried not to stare—tried
and failed. He was wearing a dress. The thought was enough to wring
a smothered giggle from her and briefly, she wondered if she was
becoming hysterical. She didn’t know what to make of her neighbor.
Jaxson.

The name seemed to fit the
man; the dress did not. He was tall and looked on the strong side
of average, build wise. She hadn’t seen a hint of his real hair
beneath the frizzy blonde wig, but his brows were dark brown and
well-shaped without crossing into feminine territory.

The rest of him, though…
Kate swallowed and peered at the doorway he’d recently exited. She
heard voices in the other room and took a deep breath, wiping damp,
clammy hands on her pink hospital scrubs. Jaxson stalked into the
room then, glowering at her before his expression softened
infinitesimally. Two men followed close behind him. They were
garbed in dark blue uniforms, with chunky black radios clipped to
their belts; both wore shoulder holsters.

Kate nodded at the police,
feeling a rush of relief at their larger-than-life presence in the
sitting room. Everything would be all right now. Tension uncoiled
within her, and she rose to her feet to greet the officers. The
younger of the two returned her smile and stood just inside the
doorway while the older cop took a seat next to Kate on the
couch.

“
Your…neighbor, here,” the man’s eyes flickered to Jaxson, an
unreadable expression on his face, “tells us you’ve had some
trouble tonight.”

He doesn’t know what to
make of Jaxson’s appearance, either
.
“A man broke into my house.”

“
You saw the intruder?” This from the cop at the head of the
room.

“
Well…no.” Kate wet her lips with the tip of her tongue, her
eyes seeking out a silent Jaxson for a split second before she
returned her attention to the officer’s question. “I guess I just
assumed it was a man.”

“
We’ve got a couple of our guys over at your place right now.
If anyone’s still in the house, we’ll find ’em.” He patted the
couch cushion between them before flipping out a small, rectangular
notepad and pulling a pen from somewhere inside his vest.
Brusquely, he clicked the back of the pen and began to ask
questions, pen scratching across paper with each response she
gave.

Slowly, Kate began to
relax even further. She told the men about her new job at the
hospital, about her sister’s recent graduation from high school,
and explained how, a month ago, she and Lilly had inherited the
house from an aunt, ending with how they’d moved in only
today.

Against her will, Kate’s
gaze frequently sought out her neighbor. Each time, she found his
own gaze already resting on her. But while Kate was becoming
increasingly at ease, Jaxson looked anything but. His eyes were
glacial pools, and she couldn’t help but wonder at his sudden
change of mood from the few moments they spent sitting together on
the sofa while they’d waited for the police to show up.

True, even then he hadn’t
exactly been Mr. Congeniality, but had at least apologized for his
terse, rude statement when he’d first opened the door to find her
standing on his porch, gasping and in the full grip of
panic.

Kate still didn’t know
what to make of that, despite his apology. She’d had her own share
of bad days, but she couldn’t imagine opening her door at eleven
o’clock at night, finding a distraught woman begging for help on
the porch, then slamming the door on said woman, after telling her
to call a cop. Her attention shifted to Jaxson’s floral-print dress
and dark beige pantyhose. The Florence Henderson look was at direct
odds with his gruff demeanor and downright surly expression. There
was a great deal she didn’t understand about her neighbor. Well, at
least he’d stopped scowling. Intuition prompted her to add “for
now” to the assessment.

Once the police had her
statement, it was time to walk through her house, accompanied by
the officers, of course. The last thing she wanted to do now was go
home, but they needed to shadow her from room to room in order to
determine if any of her and Lilly’s personal property had been
taken. The cop who’d sat beside her put a hand to the side of his
radio when it chirped loudly in the otherwise silent
room.

“
Go ahead, Gabe.”

“
All clear over here, Benson.”

“
Ten, four. We’re bringing the home owner now.”

“
They didn’t find him?” Kate’s lips turned down at the
corners.

The officer shook his
head. “Are you ready to go?”

“
Yes.” She wasn’t, but didn’t see the point in admitting so to
the three men in the room, or in delaying the inevitable. That was
her house next door, hers and Lilly’s, and she’d have to go back
sooner or later. Might as well be now, she reasoned, climbing to
her feet and following behind the two officers. Jaxson took up the
rear, but paused at the front door.

“
Aren’t you—” she broke off abruptly, biting back what she’d
been about to ask. Of course he wasn’t coming. He was her neighbor,
not her friend. Her problems had nothing to do with him, and he’d
been the first to make that abundantly clear.

“
Do you want me to come with you?” he asked with a
sigh.

Kate forced her mouth to
close. “Uh, no, that’s okay.” she finally said, her hands reaching
up to twist and re-tuck a lock of hair that had fallen over her
right shoulder. “I mean, not unless you want to. If you’ve got
something else to do…” She knew the hopeful expression on her face
was obvious, clear for him to see. Beyond the front porch, the
night was dark, ominous, and suddenly she didn’t care if she
sounded desperate or not.

Jaxson stared down at her
for several long beats before he nodded. “Let’s go.”

* * *

The house was empty and
looked marginally less creepy than it had a half an hour ago when
she’d first returned home from work. Absently, she noted the street
light was back on; it illuminated their block in a hazy neon glow.
Storm clouds continued to roll in from the west, and the night
still had a slightly unreal, creepy quality.

Kate forced herself to put
one foot in front of the other, trudging up the walkway off of the
porch. Jaxson walked silently beside her, lending his comforting,
if strange, presence to her wavering sense of calm assurance.
Everything was okay. Logically, she knew that. Jaxson was beside
her, and four cops waited up ahead on the enormous wrap around
porch.

They’d already told her
nobody lurked within the confines of her house. But maybe that was
the problem. They hadn’t caught the man—the
person
—who had invaded her
space, and that was seriously unsettling. Kate tamped down visions
of knife-wielding strangers returning in the middle of the night to
ravage and maim her.