Jasmine (21 page)

“He is. That’s what has us all so
confused. We don’t… You’re the man from the book signing, aren’t you?” she
asked him suddenly. “The one that my brother-in-law thought was going to kill
me.”

He nearly told her yes, but he
waited. He was more and more impressed with this one all the time. He changed
the subject, but thought he might come back to her question later. If he got
the chance. “Then what does this have to do with him? You have any idea why
you’ve been targeted?” He really wasn’t sure of that one, but he thought maybe
she didn’t either. “I’m thinking it’s sort of hard for a dead man to have you
kidnapped and then killed.”

She didn’t say anything for
several minutes. He knew what she was thinking. He’d seen her body stiffen when
he’d mentioned killing her. But he was too wrapped up in the why and not the
end result. She was going to die, there was no doubt about that, but whether
from his hand or the woman who’d left remained to be seen.

“I’m in love, you know. I never
thought that I’d ever want anyone to love me. I’ve loved Nathan for so long
that I... After my father raped me, I assumed I’d…I never dreamed that someone
would want me after that. I dated some, but they left me terrified by the end
of the evening and I simply quit trying.”

He wasn’t going to be moved by her
confession and shifted on the hard floor. He was going to get his answers, kill
her, and probably the bitch who’d double-crossed him. Any one of them had done
it and he wasn’t going to be put off because they had this thing going on.

“And this man, this doper, you
think he loves you? More than likely not. Men like him, they don’t love, they
use. And in a few years, less probably if you’d managed to get hitched to him,
he’d start using again and before you know it, he’s knocking the shit out of
you and any kids you might have spawned and then where would you be? Nowhere. You
should be thanking me. I’m saving you a world of hurt.” He heard her sniffle
and shifted again. “Crying is only going to piss me off so cut that shit out
right fucking now.”

She quieted down and he didn’t ask
her anything else. He wondered if she slept, but didn’t think so and when she
spoke again, he didn’t know what to do.

“I think I’m pregnant. I know you
have no reason to believe me, but…I’m late. I’m never late.” He heard her
sniffle again. “And I know that it makes no difference to you one way or the
other, but…well, there you have it.”

Yeah, he thought, there he had it.

Chapter 20

Every time the phone rang Nathan
nearly went through the ceiling. He wanted her home and since no one was
calling to say they had her he was thinking the worst. And the longer he had to
think, the worse the scenario got. He was pacing in the kitchen when the phone
rang again. He didn’t even bother trying to see who it was. The cook was
ignoring him anyway.

Not that he blamed him. He’d done
nothing but annoy the guy since he’d been brought here. He loved Alyssa’s home,
but he wanted his Jasmine here with him, not all these people. And Shamus and
Payton were not here either.

They’d been out looking for clues.
He hated that term, but he knew what they’d meant. Shamus told him that Cait
had called them in to look over a van they’d found. It had blood in the back
end of it and a dead man. The dead man had been shot in the head. And she was
reasonably sure that this was the same man that the kid has seen get shot and
the woman they’d found some yards away had been a part of it. But they’d not
been able to connect the dots yet.

“Nathan, they’ve just confirmed
the blood in the van was the man’s and some of it was Jazzie’s. There isn’t
much of hers so they think it was from the cuts she would have gotten from the
window breaking.” Alyssa sat at the kitchen table and he joined her. “Are you
all right? I know that’s a stupid question, but I want you to know that we’re
doing everything we can to get her back.”

“I know that. Christ, Alyssa, I’m
in love with her. Not just in love, but hurt all over, heart-pounding, sick to
my stomach in love with her.” He got up and started to put together a cup of
tea for her. He let her test the bottle of water before he poured it into the kettle.
“You know I’ve not once thought of getting high. Not since I heard from you
guys. It’s always been right there all the time, the need to have a hit, a
small drink, but I don’t want that. I want her.”

“She’s made you a better person. And
you’ve made her one too. Jazzie had this huge secret all this time and you made
her show it to us.” She took a sip of the tea before she looked up at him.
“Tell me something, does she…you know…practice on you?”

Nathan couldn’t help it, the
question was so unexpected that he threw back his head and laughed. He kissed
her cheek and hugged her. But he flushed when he thought of all the things
they’d been doing and the things he was going to do to her. Alyssa smiled at
him.

“I think I don’t want to know what
that smile means. You should know that Drew asked me to find you two some
property. I have a few hundred acres that…well, I want to give to you.” She
held up her hand when he started to protest. “Listen to me first. I think Dad
would have wanted you to have it. You’re not the same boy that you were when he
died. He’d be very proud of you. I know that I am. The place I’m talking about
is the farm called Blue Skies. Do you remember it?”

He did. His father…Nathan senior
had taken him and Robert out there a couple of years before his death. Nathan
had been high, of course, and Robert had bitched the whole time. They’d been
mushroom hunting and it was early spring. Nathan couldn’t figure out what the
fuck they’d been hunting mushrooms for when the store had them in abundance. Robert
refused to leave the truck. Nathan had been about to give up and was kicking
the leaves around with his foot when he’d seen one. He’d stopped kicking and
looked at the large spongy thing in wonder when his dad came up behind him.

“That’s a beauty, Nathan. Very big
too. Let me show you how to pluck it without hurting it.” They’d both gotten
down on their knees and his dad had pulled out this beautiful pocket knife. He
explained how to cut it off without disturbing the root system so that over the
next few years, another one would grow to replace it. Then when they’d gotten
home he and Nathan senior had cleaned it and cooked all the ones they’d found. It
was by far the best meal he’d ever had up until then and probably since.

He didn’t get to go the next year
and sadly, the man had died the next. Nathan had been in another rehab place
and hadn’t even been there when his family needed him. His mom had brought him
home for the funeral and to have him find the drugs needed to dope up his
sister.

“I’ll be honored to have it. And
if you ever need it for a project or anything, I’ll gladly give it back. Thanks,
sis. You don’t know what this will mean to us.” He wiped away a tear that he
felt threatening to fall. “And I want to thank you again for the faith you’ve
had in me since…well, since I’ve been out.”

Nathan went to the living room
with her when she’d finished her tea. She told him she wanted to make a few
calls and asked if he would mind keeping an eye on Connor. He was glad for the
distraction. Connor was almost two, going on ten. He was the most energetic kid
he’d ever seen. They were playing on the floor with his cars when Payton came
in the room.

“She’s on her way to the hospital.
They found her…they’re taking her into surgery as soon as she gets there. And I
swear to you, that’s all I know.” Nathan scooped up Connor and held him close. “Cait
didn’t make it to the crime scene before they flew her out. She was talking,
but not making any sense. I’m to take you there.”

~~~

Jazzie woke once and threw up. The
person standing next to her…was it a man? She couldn’t tell, but she tried to
ask them where Nathan was and they kept telling her to hush, they had her. She
bit her tongue once when she felt something bump her, but she was drifting
again before she could get an answer.

Lights flashed on and off for a
few seconds then nothing again. She couldn’t seem to hold on. She knew that she
was hurting, everything about her hurt, but she was suddenly glad for that.
Pain meant that she was alive and not dead. She was so glad for the not dead
part.

Her mind drifted and things sort
of became hazy, but she tried to focus on what Tank had told her. She had to
remember what he’d told her. She promised him she would. He was bleeding she
suddenly remembered and tried to reason why.

The next time she opened her eyes
there was a nurse standing in front of her. She tried to ask for Nathan again,
but she didn’t think she’d made any kind of sound or the nurse was ignoring
her. She thought it was the former because what kind of nurse ignored a patient?
She closed her eyes thinking things were too bright not too.

Jazzie didn’t open her eyes this
time. She wasn’t sure where she was, but she had an idea that she was in the
hospital. The noises were muffled, but she could still hear the
ping-ping
of some machine. She tried to think, but her head hurt a great deal. She
remembered Tank and her promise to him. She opened her eyes one at a time and
was glad for the darkness.

“Hello,” the woman said softly. “I’m
Isabel. I’m your nurse. How are you feeling?” She might have made a reply to
the nurse, but she wasn’t sure. “I can get you something for pain, but the
doctor wants to talk to you first. Can you wait?”

“Nathan.” She knew this time she’d
said it. Her voice sounded harsh and low, but she had heard it.

The nurse smiled again. “He’s
asleep over there on the couch. Would you like for me to wake him? He’s been
fighting it for several days now and I think he couldn’t stay awake any
longer.” The nurse stood and wiped Jazzie’s face. “I think I’ll just get him
for you both. Hold on, dear.”

Jazzie had a thought that she
didn’t know where she was supposed to go, but she didn’t want to waste the
energy talking to her. She knew she’d feel much better when she saw Nathan.

“Hello, love. God, I’ve missed
you.” His voice soothed over her like his touch did. She tried to not cry, but
it was suddenly too much. “Shush, I have you now and I’m not ever letting you
go. I love you, baby, and I’m right here. Rest now, the nurse went to get the
doctor and he’ll want to talk to you.”

She nodded and closed her eyes
again. She didn’t know what happened, but the next time she opened them, her
room was much brighter and noisier. Jazzie could hear the voices, but nothing
more. She didn’t care. She was alive.

She faded in and out for a few
more days. She marked the day with the changing of the guard and the whiteboard
on the wall across from her. Every time she woke up, she’d look at it and would
remember the date. Today marked the ninth day she’d been able to make out the
numbers enough to tell what they were. She frowned at the name at the top. Damon
Grant was her doctor? When had that happened?

She’d been told a few times that
the police wanted to talk to her. She knew they would and she had to tell them
what had happened. She also wanted to ask them about Tank. She was sure he was
dead, but wanted to be sure. He’d saved her life and she knew it. Cait Grant
was called at her request on the tenth day. Nathan was sitting beside her when
the captain came in with Drew.

“I’m here as your attorney. If
you’d like someone else that’s not related to you, I can respect that. I won’t
like it, but I can respect it. I’m going to tell you now that I’m going to
report back to the family what happened. Most of it anyway. If you don’t want
them to know anything, tell me before I leave and I swear to you they won’t
hear it from me. But they need to know as much as you’ll give them.” Drew sat
down on one of the chairs and took out a pad of paper. “I’m going to take notes
in the event you’re charged with anything. You more than likely won’t be, but
just to be sure.”

Cait sat in the other chair. “Can
you remember what happened? And for the record, I’m going to be taping this.”

Jazzie nodded. “I killed Tank. He
was the man that was…he saved my life, but I killed him all the same. I was—”

“Jaz, honey,” Drew said quickly. “Please
don’t confess to the nice cop that you killed someone. It makes my job much
more difficult if you do that. Just tell her what happened.”

Nathan squeezed her hand as she continued.
“I was in the parking lot at the restaurant when this woman approached my
window. She asked me what my name was.”

“Did she ask you for your name or
did she know it?” Cait asked. “It’s important to know which. We can establish
if she was a part of it or not.”

“Oh. She said…she asked me if I
was Jasmine Zinnia. I told her I was. Before I could say anything else, another
person…a man broke my window on my side and grabbed me. He kept saying ‘breathe,
breathe.’” Jazzie looked up. “He was drugging me, wasn’t he?”

“Yes. Chloroform. He left the
cloth behind when he took you. What happened next? Where was the woman?” Jazzie
frowned at Cait’s question.

“I don’t…maybe she left. I was too
busy trying to get away from the man then nothing. I can describe her. Older,
about mid-sixties, silver and black hair. It was a poor dye job because her
roots were showing. She had on a floral dress that was bright green and orange.
I couldn’t see her shoes, but she did have a bag. It was dark blue and it hung
from her shoulder as she leaned into my car. I never got a look at the man.” Jazzie
looked over at Drew when he stopped writing. “Did you find them?”

“Yes. They’re both dead. The
woman, Betsy Paxton, was dead at the scene. And Maxwell Strouse, her sometimes
boyfriend, sometimes abuser, was found in a van several miles from there.” Cait
looked down at her notes before she continued. “What do you know of the man you
called Tank? And for the record, you didn’t kill him. One of my men did. Tank
raised his gun to, what he’d assumed, wasfire at my officer.”