Girl Jacked (4 page)

Gina thought his old army-green blanket was too scraggly so she went shopping one weekend and picked this out for him as a present. It was a super girly, purple and white with pink flowers comforter. He shook his head. It looked utterly ridiculous but it was
incredibly
warm.

He held his breath while he laid it over the sleeping girl, but her eyes fluttered open, and the corners of her mouth curled up.

“Thank you,” she whispered as he watched her snuggle into its warmth.

Jack started to walk away but turned and asked, “Seriously kid, why are you so angry at me for not coming for a visit?” He regretted the question as soon as it left his mouth.

Don’t go there. What does it matter?

She slowly opened her eyes. “Do you want to know?”

He nodded.

“When you and Chandler went to Iraq, everything changed at Aunt Haddie’s. Chandler was gone. I was ten. Michelle was sixteen. Before, if there was a problem, Chandler always fixed it. He was like Superman. If stuff broke or something went wrong, he was there. But if he couldn’t fix it he’d call you.” Her eyes searched his face. “Get it?”

Jack shrugged. “He’s Superman. I get that. But …”

“If something happened that Chandler couldn’t handle, you’d show up and take care of it. Chandler would just pick up the phone and you would come, and everything would be okay. To me you were like Batman. When Chandler died, we didn’t know what to do. I kept thinking you’d come back. You’d come back and fix it.”

What the hell did she want me to say? She doesn’t get it. Chandler really was Superman, but I’m no Batman. I was like stupid Jimmy Olson following him around.

Jack’s shoulders slumped. He waited there silently, unable to defend his actions.

As she lay there, her eyes told the story. “You didn’t come back. You didn’t even try.” She rolled over.

Jack walked back into the bedroom, shut the door, and closed his eyes.

Just what I needed. She thought I was a superhero. She doesn’t understand. I’m no hero. I’m the guy that killed Superman.

Jack adjusted his assault rifle and looked back across the dimly lit room to Chandler. Two other soldiers were standing next to him.

Chandler lifted the huge machine gun he carried and nodded. One of the other soldiers moved to stand behind Jack and to the left.

Jack pushed the door open, and his gun snapped up. His eyes swept the room. The square interior had open cabinets against one wall and a table and chairs against the other. Rubbish littered the floor.

Empty.

In the middle of the back wall was another door. Jack held up his hand and made two quick gestures forward. He slipped silently into the room and carefully picked his way over the trash-strewn floor toward the other door.

One more room.

Jack reached the door and stood off to the side. He held up his hand and closed it into a fist. He looked back to Chandler. Chandler nodded. He pushed the door open.

Jack’s eyes went wide.

Canisters and gray sacks filled the room. They had all received a briefing on the possibility…

Phosphorus bombs.

“MOVE!”

The four soldiers sprinted back through the rooms they had just cleared. Jack saw Chandler shifting the massive gun in his arms.

Chandler’s slow and he has that stupid huge gun!

“RUN!” Jack lost sight of the other two soldiers when he dropped instantly behind his friend. “CHANDLER, RUN!”

“I AM!”

“LOSE THE DAMN GUN!”

Chandler tossed it aside.

In under a minute, they made it to the front room where the other soldiers were frantically shoving against the now closed door.

“It’s jammed!” They pounded against the thick wood.

“MOVE!” Jack commanded, and even Chandler got out of the way.

Jack lowered his shoulder and hit the door as hard as he could. The door cracked but he just bounced off.

Everyone started yelling.

Do something, Jack, or we’re all gonna die.

Chandler called out, “MOVE!”

He came charging across the room and burst forward, ramming the door. The whole wall moved from the force of the impact. The door held… but the frame didn’t. The frame and chunks of concrete with the door still attached fell forward and landed in the dirt.

The four of them scrambled out. They kept running as the building behind them exploded.

Jack looked back in terrified fascination as flames shot out where the door had once been. The flames looked like the breath of a dragon. The fire was so hot it flicked blue and white before it wrapped together into red and yellow streams and floated skyward.

He looked over at Chandler who was sitting on the ground watching where they had just been.

Jack walked over and sat down next to him.

“Thanks.” Jack’s voice was barely audible.

Chandler nodded.

Jack looked around and all of the other guys were staring into the flames, mesmerized. They knew how close they had just come to a horrifying death.

Jack tilted his head and looked up at Chandler. “You have to get faster.”

“You have to get bigger,” his friend laughed and pushed Jack’s shoulder.

Jack looked down puzzled. Chandler’s hand had shrunk and it kept poking at his shoulder.

Replacement pushed his shoulder again. “Are you getting up?”

Still half-dazed, Jack jumped back which caused him almost to fall off the bed. He sat upright not seeing clearly. He blinked and rubbed his eyes. “What is the matter with you?” he demanded.

“Me? You’re the bum!” She hopped onto the bed, landing on her knees. She began to talk rapidly, “It’s 7 am. How late are you going to sleep? I thought you said that you would–”

“Shut up.”

“–help me! When are we going–”

“Shut up.”

“–and do something about Michelle and not sleep all day. Do you always–”

“SHUT UP!” he barked right in her face.

The full blast roar would have made any soldier stand at attention. She just smiled. Jack shook his head.

One thing’s for sure, she’s Chandler’s sister all right.

“Let me clean up, and then we can go.”

“We?” Her face lit up.

He held up his hand. “Don’t say another word. Not a peep or we don’t go. Do you need a shower?”

She shrugged and made a twisting motion in front of her lips like she locked them.

“Don’t be a punk. I’m taking a shower, then.” He headed for the bathroom.

“You took such a long ‘
finger pruning’
shower last night and now you need another? Do you sweat a lot in your sleep?” She made a face and wrinkled her nose.

Jack stood there blinking. This girl unquestionably could tick him off. “No!” he shouted back, swearing under his breath as he headed for a quick shower.

The warm water gave him the opportunity to clear his head, but he would have loved a cup of coffee too. He doubted there was any in the house. It didn’t matter anyway because he hated it black and there was zero chance of there being any milk.

Jack started planning what he wanted to do first.

He knew his first step normally would be to go to the investigator here in Darrington. He would have been the one to check up on her last known address at the college. Nevertheless, if he went to see Davenport, Sheriff Collins would have to be informed. That would lead to the inevitable disclosure that Michelle had been his foster sister. He knew the department policy. Anything involving a family member was treated as a conflict of interest and he would not be allowed anywhere near this end of the investigation.

The longer I stay off the radar screen the better.

He had a 'get out of jail free card' he intended to play if Collins did catch him. Michelle was his ‘foster sister’, but technically, she was not a relative even if Jack viewed her that way.

He also didn’t want Sheriff Collins to think he was grandstanding either and go off the charts batty again.

The reason Jack transferred to Darrington County's Sheriff’s Department was partly due to Sheriff Collins. He thought he would work well with the former Air Force captain. Instead, Collins had written Jack up before his first month on the job and then placed him on late night traffic detail for ninety days. That was after Jack solved a John Doe case.

A hiker found a body but animals had eaten most of it. The John Doe’s head was missing, leaving no dental records. It was assigned to Detective Flynn, but he didn’t pay attention to the only real clue they had which was the tattoo on the guy’s arm – crossed swords over a four-leaf clover. There was nothing on it in the police database. Jack on his own started hunting one local tattoo parlor after another until he came up with the name of the guy, Tommy O’Neil, a local with a drug problem.

Instead of promoting him, Collins blasted him up and down about grandstanding instead of acting as a ‘member of the team’. He insisted that Jack would have gotten all the credit if he had gone to Flynn instead of going out on his own.

The thing Collins didn’t understand was, Jack didn’t care about who got the credit. Jack just wanted to help.

This time he hoped there would be nothing to make to Sheriff Collins’ ears anyway.

Michelle is safe and sound lying on some beach in California…

Jack decided to start and check with Michelle’s last address. She might have a roommate or a neighbor whom she told more details of where she was going.

Because they were going to the college, he decided to dress the part. He shaved close and styled his hair. There were a few civilian shirts hanging in the closet, so he selected a casual collared one that was a little loose. Jack was muscular and intimidating. He had stayed in excellent shape since the army. Still, he would be dealing with college girls and wanted to appear approachable. A nice pair of slacks and shoes completed the ensemble.

While he appraised his appearance in the mirror, his smile faded.

Was this what normal was?

The man in the mirror was normal and normal seemed so strange to him.

Jack turned back to his mental checklist. It had many holes.

Replacement
. He still struggled to remember her real name. For some reason, he thought she didn’t like it. Every time he tried to think of it, he could picture her as a little ten-year-old kid, looking perturbed. She was already upset enough so he wasn’t about to ask her what it was, especially if she disliked it.

Gina. If I’m around when she comes back, there will be an epic fight no matter what I do. She could show or not show. If she stays away for a couple of days, then there’s the possibility she’ll try to work things out and come back. If she shows up today, it will be to get her stuff, and then she’ll be gone, permanently.

Jack hoped it would be the latter. He thought about hiding anything valuable, but anything of value he had hidden long before Gina. He locked the important papers in the safe, but he kept copies in the back of the sofa. He didn’t trust anyone anymore.

Great life.

He thought about the gun in the safe.

I don’t need it. I won’t take it.

He carried himself differently when he had his gun. It was like ‘a tell’ in poker. People seemed to sense he was a cop when he carried it, and he didn’t want that today.

The truth was that he was more than prepared without it. When Jack was twelve, he had confided in a friend about his birth mother. The story that his mother was a prostitute burned through the school like wildfire. Jack got into three fights in one day and lost each one. The principal called his parents in for a conference. The school counselor simply chalked it up to ‘kids can be cruel’ and Jack would have to learn to deal with it.

Jack’s adoptive father was far more supportive. He signed Jack up for karate. Jack took to it like breathing. Martial arts were a natural fit for him. After a few months, no one dared mentioned his mother.

Now what else is there?

His checklists were becoming as scattered as the pieces of his life. The soldier he was six years ago would have beaten the crap out of him for being so sloppy.

“Ready?” he called as he opened the door. He had not needed to ask; Replacement was there waiting at the open front door.

As she saw him, a flood of questions burst out, “Where are we going? Where do we start? Are we…”

“Kid, listen. This is what you do today, SHUT UP.”

Her face fell. He felt bad in a weird way.

“I have a job to do, and I can’t have you screw it up, okay?”

“I won’t screw it up!” Her face scrunched up, her hands went out, and she raised herself up on her toes and leaned in on him.

“If you get in someone’s face like you just got in mine, you will.” Jack took a deep breath and decided to try a different tack. “Can you do me a favor?” His voice, posture and mannerisms all softened. “It looks like we have a truce going, right?”

She nodded her head and set her jaw. “Just because you said you would help.”

“Can you try to follow my lead?”

“Like we’re in it together?” Before he could stop that train of thought, it had already left the station. “Hell, yeah! Let’s go!”

He rolled his eyes. That was his first mistake of the morning.

Jack’s second mistake was in taking the front stairs. His landlady, Mrs. Stevens sprang out of her door like a lion. Her mane of red hair stood on end, and her flabby face was blotchy. She looked like she had waited all night at that door to spring her trap and he fell right into it.

She was so crazy looking that Replacement dashed behind him and stopped talking.

“Mrs. Stevens…. I wanted to stop by and offer my sincere apologies…” He held his hands open and out as if he were handling a hostage situation.

“You weren’t stopping!” Her eyes grew even larger.

“I was going out to get you a little
something
so I could apologize
properly
.” He stressed
something
and
properly
, hoping that her mental image of the bribe would calm her down.

Jack didn’t have much furniture, but he hated moving. There was a high probability that his landlady would throw him out.

“How could you possibly apologize for all you have done?” All that was missing was the back of her hand held theatrically to her head.

She is laying it on pretty thick but that could be a good sign.

Jack tried to look apologetic.

“Your lease is exceedingly specific about the level of noise. Last night…”

She is quoting the lease, that’s bad.

Jack decided that he would have to play on her emotions a bit. He started speaking before he fully thought it through, another one of his weaknesses. “I’m just so sorry, Mrs. Stevens. You see… this girl… she’s… she’s the sister of my friend who has passed… his younger sister…”