Montana Wild (23 page)

“I’m not great, but I’m okay, Ben. Maybe a couple of pounds lighter without Consuelo’s cooking, but not much.” They continued small talk. Jamie asked about the ranch and Ben filled her in, avoiding any subjects that might be touchy.

“Jack. How’s Jack?” Her eyes welled slightly. God, she missed that horse. The waitress returned with their drinks and they ordered dinner.

Jamie finally had to ask. “How’s Kevin?” She looked at Ben seriously.

“It’s been rough on him, Jamie, I won’t lie to you. He’s lost some of his spark.” Jamie looked down at the table and fiddled with her silverware, not knowing what to say next.

“It’s not my business, but I thought you and Kevin were good together. I saw the two of you. You seemed to fit. He wants to see you or talk to you, at least once.” He looked at her expectantly.

Jamie felt her face drop. Her feelings for Kevin had not changed but she wouldn’t get into this with Ben.

“I can’t, Ben. I can’t.” She paused to compose herself. “Just know that I did not mean to hurt anyone. You have to trust me that I did what I thought best for everyone.”

“Everyone except you.”

Jamie was surprised by Ben’s pick up on this but did not answer. To change the subject, she asked about Tommy and he filled her in on the boy’s latest escapades and Rick’s attempts to keep up with him. Ben had Jamie laughing again and they enjoyed the rest of the evening. Two hours had flown by before Jamie made excuses to leave.

“Can I take you home?”

Jamie would have loved to invite Ben over, not wanting his visit to end, but she decided against it in case Derrick was watching. She wanted to protect him.

“No, Ben, that’s okay. It was great seeing you.”

“Can we get together tomorrow? I’ll still be in town and I don’t know anyone else.” His brown doe eyes were hard to refuse.

“Oh, I don’t know. Call me and I’ll see if I can get free.” Though available, she needed to make sure there would not be any consequences from tonight before she agreed to tomorrow. As she rose to get up from her chair, Ben stood up, too.

“You sure you’re all right?” Ben asked again and looked her in the eye for a prolonged moment.

“Sure, yeah, I’m fine.” But she broke eye contact when she answered. He hugged her and Jamie hung on like she didn’t want to ever let go. Ben kissed her on the cheek.

“Good bye, Jamie. Take care of yourself, you hear? You call me if you ever need anything. You know you can talk to me. I mean it. Hopefully I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good bye, Ben, you don’t know how good it was seeing you.” She kissed his cheek hard, turned, and left, not looking back. She did not want Ben to see the tears beginning to well and could not trust herself not to run back and blurt out everything. He was her link back to Kevin and her missing heart.

Jamie made her way home on autopilot because her mind and heart were racing with so many thoughts and memories. Such a mixed bag of emotions flooded her, many wonderful memories but so much pain accompanied their resurrection. Before she knew it she was climbing the stairs to her apartment. As she let herself in, she reached instinctively for Kevin’s jacket. With the onslaught of memories she needed to feel him, to inhale him, know for a fact that they did have their moment in time, albeit short lived. Putting it on, she wrapped her arms around herself and fell onto her bed, savoring what little scent of him was left.

“Hey, Kev. I had dinner with Jamie. She says everything’s okay, but I don’t buy it. She looks thin and drawn. I’m going to follow her home.” Kevin clutched the phone tightly, it was his link to Jamie.

“Didn’t you take her home?”

“I tried, but she wouldn’t let me. I’m going to follow her now but if I lose her I have her address. I think you’re right. Something’s not kosher. She was looking over her shoulder the whole time. I wonder if she’s worried about being watched.” Kevin heard people talking in the background as Ben spoke.

“I feel like I’m in a bad detective movie.” Now he could hear the sounds of the city in the background. “Jesus!” Ben screamed into the phone.

“What! What’s happening?” Kevin was second guessing this plan.
I should have gone!

“Shit! I almost got hit by a car. I’m not used to all this traffic.” Ben was out of breath. “I’m a country boy, too many cars!” Kevin could hear Ben’s footsteps on the pavement then on the stairs as he descended into the subway station. “Good thing there’s so many people around, there’s no way she knows I’m following her.” The chime of the subway doors could be heard in the background as Ben continued “I see her, she’s . . .” The call went dead.

“Ben? Ben!” Kevin held the phone in his hand, not letting it go. He paced around his place, memories of Jamie surfacing. Fifteen minutes later Ben called back.

“Sorry, Kev, I guess cells don’t work underground. Go figure! Anyways, I got on the same train and luckily I kept her in view and we’re out of the subway now. I’m trying to stay a half block or so behind her.” Ben’s breath sped up as he kept up with his subject. “Oh, we must be at her place . . . she’s unlocking the door to an apartment building, four stories, clean place.” Kevin listened intently as Ben paused. “She’s going inside. There’re a lot of windows so I can see her going up the stairs . . . looks like her place’s on the third floor. Yep, she just turned a light on and I can see her in her apartment.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m across the street, kinda hanging in the shadows of another building. This is pretty fun, I feel like a private investigator. Ha, I’m gonna charge you for . . . oh, oh. Okay, here we go. A black Ferrari just pulled up in front of her building.” Ben paused. “Yeah, it’s that Derrick asshole. He’s standing at the door, ringing the bell I guess.”

Shit, so they are together.
Kevin’s heart sank.

“She must not be letting him in, cause he’s pounding on the door now. Oh yeah, he’s pissed, calling her a cheating bitch . . . shit, Kevin, do you think he’s pissed because he saw her with me?”

“That motherfucker!” Kevin still couldn’t believe she went back to him.

“Oh no!” Ben sounded worried.

“What Ben? What!” Kevin hated not being there.

“Shit! Someone exited the entrance, and he ran in the open door . . . and he’s pissed.”

Kevin could hear Ben’s loud, fast footsteps running. “Damn! The door’s locked.” Kevin could hear Ben now pounding on the door.

“Can someone let me in? Please someone! There’s a woman in trouble! Help!” Ben yelled. “Shit! He’s running up the stairs. I’m back across the street so I can see . . . he’s pounding on her door! Oh crap! He’s pissed! Kevin, I gotta hang up and call 911. I can’t get in there and she’s gonna need help . . . he’s on a rampage.” The phone went dead.

FUCK!!
Kevin paced back and forth across his kitchen floor. He felt so goddam helpless!

Jamie was content to stay wrapped up in Kevin’s jacket but she was abruptly brought back to reality by her door buzzer. It was Derrick.

No! She could not face him now. She needed time with her memories now that Ben had brought them back to life.
No, no, Derrick! I cannot let you ruin what little I have left. Let me have my moment and my memories while they are renewed. You cannot take those away from me ever!
Putting her hands over her ears she tried to drown out the buzzer.

Suddenly there was an angry pounding on her door that jolted her to the present. It was Derrick and he was plenty angry by the sound of his voice. Past experience taught her to stay away from him when he was in that state, but he knew she was inside and he was not about to let her ignore him.

“Jamie, let me in, you cheating bitch! Open the door! Open this fucking door before I really get pissed!” The door shook with each hit.

“Leave me alone, Derrick! Please leave!”

There was a loud bang and the door gave way. Jamie screamed. With a crazed look, he charged at her.

Grabbing her by the throat with one hand, he backhanded her with his other as he released her and she fell to the floor. He came at her again but not before she picked up her souvenir Yankee bat which she kept under her bed. With both hands she swung at his head. She missed her target but only because he ducked. In doing so he lost his balance and fell backward over an end table. Jamie knew this was her opportunity to flee and she did not waste a second. Bolting out her door, she headed toward the stairs but her neighbor was heading up with a large laundry basket in hand, blocking her way. Changing her course, Jamie ran up the next flight of stairs.

She had her cell in her pants pocket but dared not stop to dial 911. Taking the stairs two at a time, she exited to the roof. Long ago her aunt had mandated her to memorize fire escapes and Jamie ran to the emergency stairway, her only route to safety. Without glancing back, she could hear Derrick not far behind. Opening the door to the roof, the rush of summer air energized her as she raced across the width of the building to the fire stairs. Her shoes clanged loudly as she made contact with the metal steps. The escape stairs ended at the second floor so she grabbed the last bar with her hands and swung herself down to the street.

Chapter 27

Adrenaline flowing, she jumped, expecting a hard fall but instead was greeted with strong arms that softened her landing. Startled by the touch of hands encircling her waist, she screamed but the familiar voice calmed her.

“Jamie! Jamie, it’s me, Ben.” Recognizing his voice, she relaxed but for only for a second. Knowing Derrick was close behind, fear reclaimed her, and she screamed frantically for the safety of both of them.

“Ben! We have to get out of here. Now!” She was hysterical. Ben took her by the shoulders and moved her beside the building, out of sight of the staircase. Warm liquid trickled down her face and Ben wiped it from her eye, blood now on his hands. His angry face looked up, waiting for Derrick.

Jamie caught on to what Ben was doing. “No, Ben. No! He’s crazy! He’ll hurt you. Let’s get out of here!” Jamie was frantic.

Derrick’s pounding footsteps were racing down the fire escape stairs. Ben motioned for Jamie to stay by the wall.

“No. We take care of this guy here and now.” Ben’s hands were already fisted in anticipation. The monster was on the last staircase. He jumped and his designer shoes landed with a solid thump on the cement. When he stood up to catch his balance, Ben was right there.

Ben hit him hard in the gut, doubling him over and Derrick released his breath in a loud gulp. Once Derrick’s head went down, Ben’s knee came up full force on his chin and the distinct sound of Derrick’s pearly whites clashing together was audible. As his chin went back from the force of Ben’s knee, Ben punched him hard in the face. Derrick’s body hit the pavement with a loud thud and he was down for the count.

Ben walked over and placed his booted foot across Derrick’s neck. Lying on the ground he looked dazed with disbelief.

“You touch her again and I will kill you. You understand, motherfucker?” Jamie had never seen this side of Ben before and she watched him in awe. Derrick lay motionless as Ben looked up at Derrick’s car right next to them.

Quickly scanning the immediate surroundings, his eyes stopped on a piece of metal pipe in the empty lot where Jamie stood. Ben walked over, picked it up and one by one shattered all the windows in Derrick’s car. Hesitating for a second, he looked at Jamie with a grin and brought the lead pipe down hard on the hood and then the trunk. When done, he stood over Derrick with the pipe. “You understand me, you son of a bitch? You touch her again and you’re a dead man.” Ben threw the pipe down and turned toward Jamie.

Jamie was standing speechless watching Ben, her normally gentle comedic friend walk away from the damaged car and broken Derrick.

“Boy that felt good.” He strode over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. As he studied her bloodied face, he fingered the open gash over her left eye. “You need stitches.” Once more he wiped blood from her face, which seemed to set him off again. “That asshole!” Ben turned toward Derrick again.

“No, Ben!” She pulled his arm. Hearing a low moan, Jamie looked at Derrick who started to stir.

“We need to get out of here quick, before he gets his wits. Please, Ben, let’s get out of here.” Ben did not seem the least bit afraid of Derrick but Jamie pleaded. He put his arm around her shoulder and turned away from the beaten man.

“We need to go before he gets up!” Jamie was crying, convinced that Derrick would be coming after them. Ben walked into the street and hailed a cab. Opening the door, she climbed in and Ben followed.

“We need a hospital, a good one,” Ben instructed the cabbie and took a bandana from his pocket to put pressure on Jamie’s bleeding face. Shaking, she rambled on and on about Derrick coming after them. He tried to calm her but could not.

“You don’t know what he’s capable of. You just don’t know. He’s crazy! He won’t let this go, he won’t let me go! He’ll hurt you like he tried to hurt Kevin! He’s crazy! You don’t know!”

“It’s okay. You’re safe. He can’t hurt us anymore.”

“No! You don’t know . . . he will!” Jamie was talking nonstop between sobs. “He will, he will.” She rambled on.

“It’s okay. It’s over.” He tried to calm her.

“No, he’s not done. He’s the one that started the fire in the barn. He cut Kevin’s brakes and said he’d kill Kevin if I didn’t leave!”

Ben looked at her wide-eyed. “Wait a minute. What did you say?”

Jamie stopped talking, closed her eyes, and covered her mouth with her hand. Ben continued, “Are you telling me that’s why you left? Because he threatened to kill Kevin?”

“He didn’t just threaten, he tried. Remember the fire in the barn and Kevin’s truck brakes that failed? He threatened to hurt or kill all of you, even Tommy and Jack! And he’ll do it, he will!” Jamie was sobbing. Ben held her shaking body close. “He will, he will, he . . .” she kept repeating as her voice diminished to a whimper.

“Jesus, this guy is a maniac!”

They reached the ER. Ben paid the cabbie and helped Jamie out. Still trembling, she was quiet now, except for voicing her worries over Ben’s safety.

“Don’t worry about me. We’re going to get this guy. We’ll file a police report.” He sat with his arm around Jamie until they called her into the exam room.

“Do you want me to go in with you?”

“No. I’m better now. Thanks,” Jamie spoke in a small voice and followed the nurse down the hall.

Kevin was going nuts. He called Ben at least half a dozen times but he didn’t pick up.
What the hell was going on?
He paced his kitchen back and forth, cell phone in one hand, a stiff scotch in the other. Finally his cell rang and he answered it on the first ring.

“Jesus, Ben! What the hell is going on?”

“Kev, you’re not going to believe this. Are you sitting down?”

“Give it to me.”

Ben filled him in on everything from when the phone cut off earlier, how Derrick had busted in to Jamie’s apartment and Ben’s confrontation with Derrick and his car.

“Where are you now?”

Ben inhaled deeply “At the hospital.”

Kevin was afraid to ask. “What are you doing there?”

“She’s okay, but he did rough her up a bit and she needed some stitches over her eye.”

“Son of a bitch! Why did she ever go back with that guy?” He was furious.

“She did it for you, Kevin.” Ben broke the news to him.

“For me? What does that mean?”

“Derrick told her he’d kill you if she didn’t go back with him. The barn fire and your truck were warnings.”

Kevin’s knees buckled and he sat down. “My truck? What?”

“According to Jamie, Derrick had your brakes cut. You might want to have that checked out so you can press charges.”

Kevin was at a loss for words. The rush of feelings that went through his veins and jump-started his heart left him speechless.
She did this for me.
Realizing what she sacrificed for him, he swallowed as his throat tightened, making it hard to inhale.

“Turns out, Derrick said he would start with you but anyone at the ranch was fair game — me, Rick, Jack, Consuelo, even Tommy. I guess the warnings were enough to scare her. She figured if she got him back to New York quickly, everyone would be safe from him.”

“Everyone except her,” Kevin murmured barely audible, still struggling to breathe. “How is she now?”

“She’s better, but she’s scared shitless. She’s afraid he’s going to come after me since I roughed him up. Hell, if I had known all this then, he wouldn’t have gotten off so easy.”

“Did you contact the police?” Kevin asked. “We’d better get all this on record, even his doings here in Montana.”

“Yeah. We’re going to file assault charges tonight.”

“Ben, don’t let her go back to her apartment tonight no matter what. Have her stay with you at your hotel.”

“Smart. I hadn’t gotten that far in my plans,” Ben admitted.

“I’ve got to get out there . . . I’m going to catch the first flight out, but don’t tell her that. I don’t know how she’ll react to seeing me and I don’t want her to take off. Stay with her, okay?”

“Of course.”

“Ben?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for being there. I owe you one, a big one.” Kevin’s voice was low.

“Hey, don’t forget who sent me here.”

“Call me if there is anything. Anything, okay?”

“You got it.”

“Take care of yourself. Be careful.” Kevin reminded his friend.

“Sure, boss. Talk to you later.”

Kevin’s world turned upside down again, but this time for the better. Jamie had left to protect him and everyone at the ranch. It all made sense now, why she’d left so suddenly and without saying good-bye to anyone. Kevin didn’t want to get his hopes up but this would lead him to think that she did still have feelings for him, and strong feelings at that. He needed to get on the first flight to NYC.

Hurriedly he packed a bag and jumped in his car. He called Rick and filled him in on why Ben and he may both be gone for a few days. Even though the news on Derrick’s deranged state was not good, Rick was happy to hear the real reason Jamie had left. Rick had always felt that Jamie loved him and he said this proved it.

He headed to the airport with a hopeful heart.

When they finished at the hospital, they took a cab to his hotel. Jamie agreed wholeheartedly with this idea, at least for tonight. He arranged for two adjoining rooms and they kept the door open. Jamie’s blouse was bloodied so he lent her a tee shirt to sleep in. Hugging Ben good night, she thanked him. “I don’t know what I would have done without you today.”

In the morning, Ben ordered room service for breakfast and went to the hotel gift shop to purchase Jamie a new shirt. They sat around the hotel room, watched old movies on the tube, and ordered more room service for lunch. Jamie enjoyed the time relaxing with Ben since he was always entertaining and kept her laughing. After a long hot shower, she cringed when she looked at herself in the mirror. The laceration over her eye looked okay and the stitches were holding, but there was now some bruising around her eye and Derrick’s handprint on her neck.

“Never again, Derrick. Never again.” She didn’t realize she spoke out loud. As she exited the bathroom, Ben hung up his cell. Wondering who he was talking to, he looked a little sheepish and answered, “More room service.” Jamie laughed, hoping he was joking. She could not eat another thing.

“How about we go for a walk? We’re right across the street from Central Park, and it would be a sin if I don’t see it.” He looked at her with a puppy dog face.
How could she say no to that face?

“Okay, but stop with the puppy face.” She laughed and put Kevin’s jean jacket over her new white tee. As she headed out she wished she had a scarf to hide her neck but instead flipped the jacket collar up.

They rode the elevator down, walked through the lobby and out into the street. The early afternoon sun was bright, lifting her spirits. Only a block from Central Park, Ben held onto her arm in the crowd as they crossed the street and entered the park. As usual, the park bustled with a diversity of people going in every direction.
This park never ceases to amaze me
.
It’s so big, so beautiful, and so alive with people. People walking, riding bikes, roller blading, all kinds of dogs, Frisbee, baseball. I did need this. I live in New York but don’t come here near often enough.

“Thank you, Ben. What a great idea . . . I needed this.” She turned to look at him and his face was lined with worry.

“I need to tell you something.” Ben started and his voice caused Jamie to be concerned.

“You know I had to call Kevin after what happened yesterday.” This did not surprise her and she shrugged her shoulders in response. But Ben wasn’t finished. “He had to see for himself that you were okay.”

She was confused; she didn’t understand what he was trying to say. “Go ahead.”

“Kevin’s here,” Ben blurted out.

“Kevin’s in New York?” she asked, not sure if this was good or bad. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to face him.

“One up on that.” Ben pointed straight ahead. “He’s here in the park.”