Authors: Tamara Larson
Jessie shifted in his arms enough to slide her arms around him. She held tightly, like she was afraid of drowning. “I’m okay,” she whispered against his neck. “I just need a minute.”
Duncan
lifted her until she was sitting on the desk with her arms still around his neck. He looked at Theresa, standing in the doorway. She was staring at the destruction in awe, her mouth open wide in shock.
Duncan
called to her, “Watch out for the glass, okay?”
“Diego did this?” She asked instead of answering. She walked into the store wearing the same jeans and sweatshirt from the club the night before.
“Yeah, he did.”
Duncan
answered, steel in his tone and vengeance in his bright blue eyes.
“Over me?” Theresa asked, incredulous.
“No, not over you. He did this because he’s clearly an unhinged psycho. You have very little to do with it,”
Duncan
said, rubbing his hands down Jessie’s trembling back to calm her.
“I can’t believe this,” Theresa said, using her Nikes to kick some of the debris together.
Duncan
felt oddly touched that she was attempting to clean up, but he couldn’t have her messing with the evidence. He wanted the police to take pictures of the wreckage when they arrived and it was important to preserve the scene. “Resa, can you hold off on that until the cops come?” He called gently.
Theresa stopped immediately and quickly began spreading the books and glass around to their original positions. “Jesus, I’m so stupid,” she said, hitting her forehead with the palm of her hand. “I’ve seen enough
Law & Order
to know not to disturb a crime scene. You’re right. I didn’t even think of that.” Her voice became strained with emotion. “It’s so terrible. I just want it back like it was before.”
Oh God,
Duncan
thought, they’re both going to be crying in a second and then my head will explode trying to comfort them both. “It will be. Don’t worry. She has insurance and we’ll help her with the rest.”
Duncan
pulled back from Jessie enough to look at her tear-streaked face. She smiled weakly at him. “I mean it, Jess. It’s going to be okay,” he said, softly brushing the hair away from her forehead.
“I know it will.” Jessie whispered like she was telling him a secret. “I’m just a bit freaked out right now.” She shifted away from him enough to call to Theresa. “Theresa. Hi.” She gave a little wave. “I’m so glad to see you. Please, don’t blame yourself. I don’t.” Theresa looked like she was going to burst into tears for a second, but she gathered her composure enough to give Jessie a half-hearted smile.
Duncan
was overwhelmed with gratitude. It would have been so easy for Jessie to blame Theresa for Diego’s actions. Especially when his vengeance was so fresh in her mind, but she didn’t. Instead, she was strong enough to rise above her own grief and anguish to try and comfort his sister.
Jessie looked up at
Duncan
with a puzzled expression and spoke softly, so Theresa couldn’t hear. “I told him you put Theresa on a plane to
Toronto
, but he still said he’d be back. Why would he say that?” Jessie asked, her voice groggy and her eyes a bit unfocused. Clearly her experience had effected her more than she was admitting.
Duncan
flipped open his cell phone. After checking on the status of the squad car, he requested an ambulance for Jessie. He was told that two cars were on the way.
“I have no idea why that bastard would say that,”
Duncan
said angrily after hanging up the phone. He was searching for scratches from the glass on her body when he noticed the angry red welts on Jessie’s neck. He held her chin up gently as he inspected the marks. They were in the shape of a large hand with gouge marks where the fingernails would have dug in to gain purchase on Jessie’s white neck. “Jessie, I thought you said he didn’t hurt you,” he said, touching her neck softly with one fingertip. She flinched away from his touch. “Oh my God. What did that animal do to you?” He rasped, hugging her to him.
“He choked me just a little bit,” she said into his neck.
The police arrived then, pushing through the crowd that had gathered on
West Hastings
. The alarm combined with the broken window had drawn a large audience and Jessie,
Duncan
, and Theresa heard the sirens and the voices of the cops attempting to disperse them. Theresa ran to the door and flung it open for the cops.
Two VPD patrolmen entered the store with guns drawn. After ensuring that Jessie was okay to sit on her own,
Duncan
approached them with his badge out and spoke to them in a quiet, intense voice out of Jessie’s hearing range. Jessie just sat quietly watching him. All thoughts of giving up on their relationship were completely gone from her mind. After a few moments of intense discussion with
Duncan
, the officers approached Jessie and gently began questioning her about what had happened.
Duncan
stood close by, watching her intently and squeezing her shoulders to encourage her when she told them about Diego threatening to return.
When she was done telling her story,
Duncan
and the officers moved a discreet distance away to discuss how to proceed with the APB on Diego. Theresa approached and stood close to her. “I’m so sorry, Jessie,” she said, her eyes shiny with unshed tears. “I never imagined Diego could do something like this.” She gestured toward the wreckage. “Especially your beautiful window.” Theresa looked up at where the dragonfly used to be. “Is there anything I can do?”
Jessie just smiled weakly and patted Theresa’s hand where it was clenched tightly on the desk. “It’s okay, Theresa. Nothing was broken that can’t be fixed. I’m just glad you’re safe.
Duncan
was so worried about you. He’s been looking for you non-stop for the past two weeks.”
“He has? I thought he just happened across me at the club.”
“No, he’s been flashing your picture all over town day and night. That’s how we met. He came in here and I recognized you. Then, Jamie saw the picture and the rest is history.”
“Then, this is my fault. He came after you because of me.”
“No, he didn’t come after me because of you. Like
Duncan
said, Diego came after me because he’s crazy. You aren’t responsible for how someone like him reacts. Only a nut would do something like this.” Jessie looked around wearily. It was difficult to believe that one person could wreak so much havoc in just a few minutes, but he had. The place looked like the set of a cowboy movie after the big saloon fight. It would take days to put back into order.
Jessie looked at her watch. “Oh my God,” she said, suddenly livelier than she’d been since Diego had darkened her door. She reached for the phone and dialed urgently. There was no answer. She looked at Theresa with panic in her eyes. “Clay wasn’t home. He’s going to walk into this mess without any warning. Damn it, how could I have forgotten about him?” Jessie covered her face with her hands.
Theresa reached over to rub Jessie’s shoulder. “Jessie, I’m sure he’ll understand. Don’t worry about him right now.”
The ambulance arrived and the two attendants examined Jessie. They looked at the bruises on her neck, and disinfected the scratches while Duncan and Theresa stood vigil. They gave her a light sedative but Jessie refused to be taken to the hospital, and insisted she was fine. She attempted to prove this by jauntily jumping off the desk, but her legs gave out completely as her toes touched ground and she crumpled against
Duncan
’s side. “See, I’m fine,” she said, pushing away from him and standing on her own.
Duncan
held out a guiding hand behind her, expecting her to fall, but she didn’t. She held out her arms to her sides and walked, one foot in front of the other like she was doing a drunk driving test. She even put one finger on her nose to demonstrate her coordination as she made a zigzagging path across the store.
Clay arrived just as the ambulance attendants were leaving. He stood in the doorway for several long seconds, trying to gain some composure before talking to Jessie. It would just upset her more to know how devastated he was by the destruction to the store. Ever since Jessie had first brought up her idea for a vintage bookstore, Forgotten Treasures had been his dream too, and it was difficult to see how easily a dream could be destroyed.
Clay closed his open mouth and put back on his sunglasses to cloud his expression, walking toward Jessie like nothing unusual had happened. “Hey, Jess,” he said casually. “You didn’t tell me we were redecorating. I like it. Kind of a retro-action movie vibe. Very
Lethal Weapon
.”
Jessie stopped ambling across the floor long enough to stare at Clay for a second. The tranquilizers were dulling her reactions, but she managed to hold out her arms to him. He walked directly into them and held her tightly. “Oh, Clay. I’m so, so sorry this happened,” she said in an anguished voice. “I tried to get hold of you so you wouldn’t walk into this, but you’d left already.”
Clay patted her back and shook his head. “Darling. Why are you apologizing to me? You’re the one that looks like you were caught in an extremely localized tornado.”
As Jessie explained to Clay what had happened,
Duncan
watched them from a few feet away, listening closely. He was very still and outwardly calm, but inside he was seething. Vengeance was on his mind—swift, cruel, terrible vengeance. He couldn’t even look at the marks on Jessie’s white neck without feeling the need to howl in anger at the injustice of it.
He saw the terrible things people did to each other everyday, but he was apart from it. That distance allowed him to think clearly and objectively even when the crimes themselves turned his stomach. This was different. He was a part of this situation and his helplessness in being unable to protect Jessie from it nearly undid him.
If Diego had shown up right then,
Duncan
strongly suspected that he would simply pull his gun out of its shoulder holster and shoot the pervert in cold blood. Or maybe he would pound him into the ground with his fists.
Duncan
wasn’t sure which one, but he did know that more violence was the last thing Jessie needed right now. What she needed was to be away from this place, and as soon as possible.
Jessie was just finishing up her story as
Duncan
approached and put one arm around her waist. She leaned gratefully against him and touched her hand to his where it rested on her hip, as if reassuring herself that he was there. He nodded to the cops, dismissing them, and they left, assuring Jessie that they would do their best to find Diego and that they would keep her posted.
Clay looked around and whistled. “I can’t believe one pissed off asshole with a stupid name did this.” He spread his arms and turned in a slow circle.
Theresa had been digging through the wreckage, looking for books and items that could be salvaged. “He has a really terrible temper. Once, he took me to dinner, and when we came back out, a car had parked too close to his bumper. He smashed the guy’s headlights and windshield with his tire jack,” Theresa said, listlessly brushing off the leather cover of a copy of Dumas’
Three Musketeers
. “The sad part is that Diego drives a really old, ugly, brown Chevy Nova. He just didn’t like anyone else touching what was his.”
“He was like the Tasmanian Devil,” Jessie said quietly. “Just a big bundle of destructive energy. I’ve never seen anything like it.” She shook her head in bewilderment.
That was enough for
Duncan
. He didn’t want to listen to Jessie relive her five minutes in hell with Diego anymore. He couldn’t stand it. He gave Clay a worried, man-to-man look and was surprised when the younger blond man returned it. “Clay,” he said, taking charge. “Can you take care of this?” He waved his hand at the floor of the store. “I think we need to get Jessie away from the store.”
“Absolutely.” Clay said, nodding agreeably for once. He spoke gently to Jessie. “Don’t worry about a thing, Jess. We’ll get everything back to how it was. I’ll call the artist who designed the stained glass window first and set up an appointment with him. He was cute, right? Yeah, I’ll definitely call him first. Then, I’ll see if I can get a crew to come in today and get rid of the worst of this mess. Piece of mocha ice cream cake.” He snapped his fingers.
Jessie smiled at Clay’s enthusiasm, but wasn’t so drugged out yet that she was willing to be treated like a sick child. She pushed away from
Duncan
and gave him a wobbly glare. “I’m not going anywhere.” She shoved a thumb in the direction of her chest. “This place is my responsibility. I’m the one that should be taking care of everything.” She couldn’t walk very well, so she surreptitiously propped herself against the counter and crossed her arms.
Duncan
smiled inwardly at her bravado. She could barely stand and yet she was determined to be in charge. If the situation weren’t so tragic, he would start laughing. Jessie was listing to one side as the tranquilizer finally grabbed hold, so he finally did what he’d wanted to do since entering the store this morning. He picked her up, completely ignoring her weak protests, and walked out to his car with Theresa behind him, carrying Jessie’s purse against her chest.