The Alpha's Daughter (13 page)

With one hand held protectively over her
pregnant belly and the other fisted at her mouth, Miss McGruder
released a scream powered by the breath she'd been holding. The
examining room door flew open.

"What the hell…?"

Jazz heard, but didn't stop to listen to the
rest. She grabbed Cho's left wrist with her left hand and grasped
his ring finger and pinkie with her right. She wrenched the fingers
back and he screamed.

"That's going to cost you another
three-fifty," she said as she bent to pick up the scattered bills
and the knife. "We're having a sale today."

The elderly couple was still sitting over in
the corner, still holding hands, but now wide eyed and smiling.

Doc was working his way around the desk and
by the look of him there was a good chance she would end up like
Cho, so she slid into the seat next to Miss McGruder and put one
arm around her shaking shoulders and her other hand over the hand
at the woman's belly.

"It's all right now, honey. You just take a
few deep breaths and you'll be fine," Jazz assured the woman and
then followed the woman's frightened stare down to where their
hands overlapped. Jazz still held the knife, a K2 style with a
short but wicked looking serrated blade. Sheepishly, she folded the
knife against her thigh and slipped it along the seat of the chair
and under her butt. "See? All gone. You maybe saved my life, you
know. That was really brave what you did, warning me like
that."

"It was?" The woman looked doubtful.

"Oh, it was, dearie, definitely." The woman
in the corner spoke up. "He would have hurt her. Badly."

The door opened and Cho's buddy pushed
through, his back to the room and holding two coffees and a white
paper sack. He turned and his eyes went from Cho being dragged from
the desk by Doc and Mr. Halverson, to Jazz with her arm around Miss
McGruder, to Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the elderly couple. He poked his
chin at Cho.

"Do you folks mind if my brother goes first?
I really don't want to be late for work."

"Son, if this is what happens in this here
office, I don't mind if I stay all day. That was better than going
to the movies. That's some girl you got there, Doc. Tossed him like
he was a sack of flour."

"Wait a minute!" Jazz called as the two men
hoisted Cho between them. She reached across the desk to grab Cho's
wallet from his rear pocket. "He still owes us three hundred and
fifty dollars." She took the money out, thought about it, and took
another fifty. "Damages," she said.

"Like I said, Doc. That's some girl you got
there. Good head for business. Pretty thing, too, but I'd think
twice before crossin' her iffen I was you."

Mrs. Smith bobbed her head and tittered her
agreement.

Doc stared at Jazz for a moment and then
nodded his thanks to Mr. Halverson before closing the door to the
examining room behind him.

The rest of the day was quiet except for the
two cubs that screamed bloody murder at the sight of Doc
Grizzly.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

They were the first words he'd spoken to her
since the Great Cho Showdown, as she liked to call it, and he
waited until they were in the truck to speak them. He hadn't even
thanked her when she brought in the shoebox filled with sandwiches
that that nice Mr. and Mrs. Smith returned with later in the day;
big, fat, turkey sandwiches which were such a relief from the
steady diet of ham they were used to. Jazz bought the chips and
drinks next door at the market and sure, it was with money from the
cash drawer, but without her there would be no cash drawer.

"Nothing's wrong with me. What the hell's
wrong with you?" It wasn't what she wanted to say, but she really
was trying to clean up her mouth.

"Do you know who that was?" he asked.

"Ah, yeah," she said, her head bobbing side
to side with attitude. "It was the guy who stole my bike and my
money. It was the guy who had a couple thousand dollars in a hand
tooled wallet who expected to get treated for free."

"That was Cho, short for Chosen, as in Chosen
Son, as in son of the boss wolver of our local band of rogues."

"Big deal. He still shi… puts his pants on
same as you do, one leg at a time." Although she didn't really know
that, did she? She'd never seen the grizzly get dressed.

"He's trouble and you've got a gift for
attracting it." Doc glanced at her and then behind him as he backed
the truck out of its parking spot.

Jazz was tired of trying to make nice when
all he did was grump. She folded her arms over her chest and stared
out the window. "You always blame me."

"Stop pouting and put your seatbelt on." He
stopped the truck at the edge of the lot and glared at her,
waiting.

Jazz grabbed the belt and slammed the latch
into the slot. "There. Happy?" She folded her arms again.

"No." Still glaring at her, he started to
pull out onto the road and at the blare of a horn, slammed on the
brakes. "Godammit!" he yelled as the offended car sped by.

"Do you eat with that mouth?" Jazz said
nastily. "I suppose that was my fault, too."

"Yes!" he bellowed so loudly Jazz jumped.
"You're distracting." He threw the truck into park and turned to
her. "I'm a peaceful man," he shouted, "I lead a peaceful and quiet
life. I like it that way. I planned it that way. You waltz into it
and suddenly I'm in the middle of brawls and knife fights. Some
innocent bystander could have been hurt today. Do you realize that?
Do you? Violence is not the only answer, you know."

"Maybe not, but with guys like Cho, it's the
only answer he'll understand," she huffed right back, "And the only
one who got hurt was Cho and he deserved it. Besides, he started
it."

"Like Ellie and Donna? Did they start it,
too?"

"That was different. I apologized. They
understand. You can just leave that one alone." She wasn't about to
explain it to him, but he wouldn't leave it alone.

"You could have ignored it." This time he
looked both ways before cautiously pulling out.

Jazz winced at the grinding as he put the
truck into gear. "Yeah, like I did at the bar. Or maybe you'd
rather I did it the peaceful way and let them take turns fucking me
up against the brick. No violence there, huh? Or maybe I should
have screamed and prayed like hell some hero would stand up and
rescue me." Like she did when her father beat her to the ground in
front of the entire pack. "I got news for you, Griz. You can scream
and you can pray, but nobody comes."

"I would have," he said, his voice suddenly
quiet.

He was watching her with a curious look in
his eyes and she turned her head away. It wasn't fair that he could
see her face so clearly when she couldn't see his.

"Yeah," she tried to say lightly, but didn't
quite make it. "But how was I to know the one-in-a-million guy
would be there."

"What if you hadn't seen that knife?" he
asked after letting out a deep breath.

Jazz could hear the concern in his voice. She
forgot she was angry and she smiled.

"Cho would have stabbed me. Miss McGruder
would have screamed. Mrs. Smith would have prayed and you would
have rescued me. Oh, and Mr. Smith would have paid damn good money
to see it."

He shook his head. "What am I going to do
with you, Hellcat?"

She could think of a few suggestions, but now
was probably not the time.

The clinic didn't close until six and it was
after seven before supper was ready. It was a beautiful evening and
Jazz could practically smell the green things popping up from the
earth. A cluster of daffodils bloomed beneath the tree across the
road. The air was still, the sky was clear, and it was warm enough
to sit outside.

"What on God's green earth are you doing
now?" Doc asked as she was dragging an end table out the front
door.

"Grab a couple of chairs from the kitchen,
would you? It's so pretty out, I thought we could eat outside." She
held the door with her foot until the wooden table cleared it.

"You want to eat on the front porch."

"No, I'd rather eat on that big, screened-in
back porch that's so close to the kitchen, but the pig stink kind
of does a number on that fresh spring smell, you know?" She placed
the low table where she wanted it and headed back indoors.

"It's not that bad," he protested.

She stopped at the door with her hands on her
hips. "Did you ever see that air freshener commercial where they
put blindfolded people in a room full of garbage?"

"No. No TV, remember."

"That's too bad, because I was thinking we
could rent out the back porch for product testing." This time it
was she who shook her head. "Pigs off the back porch was such a bad
idea."

He shrugged. "I guess I just wasn't
thinking."

"And here I thought that was my job," she
laughed.

He followed her into the house. "You know,
people driving by will…"

"What? Know you eat supper? Know you eat
supper with me? I promise to keep my clothes on if it makes you
feel any better. No sense giving them any more to gossip about."
She stirred the pot of sauce simmering with the meatballs she'd
made the day before. She waved the spoon at him. "Get a move on
there, Griz. When you're done with the chairs, you can grab a
couple of beers while I dish up the spaghetti. We could probably
use a lamp out there, too," she called after him and laughed when
she heard him grumbled something about bossy women.

Jazz wasn't the only one who thought the
evening was worth enjoying. They weren't at the table more than
five minutes before Harvey and Donna came power walking up the
road. They stopped to say hello and Harvey's nose rose in the air.
"Smells mighty good."

"Thanks, would you like some?" Jazz was
already rising. "Beer? Tea?"

Donna frowned at her mate, but Harvey ignored
her. "Don't mind if I do," he said, "Not too much now. I already
had my supper."

"I wouldn't mind a tea," Donna called after
him.

By the time she got back, there was a blue
pick-up truck parked out front and two more men on the porch.

"I wouldn't mind a taste of that," the one in
the green ball cap said.

Jazz passed the plate and the tea to Donna.
"Sure thing. How about you?" she asked his friend.

"Wouldn't want to be no trouble, ma'am."

"It's no trouble." Jazz almost laughed aloud
when she caught the grizzly rolling his eyes.

This time, Donna followed her in, her eyes
travelling around the place on the way to the kitchen saying, "Let
me give you a hand."

Jazz saw the look on her face and raised her
hands as if under arrest. "All I can say is you should have seen it
a few days ago."

Donna almost smiled. "I didn't think you'd be
much of a cook."

"You didn't think I'd be much of anything,"
Jazz said as she ladled up more sauce. "Should I put more spaghetti
on?"

"I would. Small crowd draws a large one. Are
you going to have enough?" She looked into the deep pot and this
time she did smile. "Were you plannin' on feeding an army?"

"I got carried away. There were all these
jars of tomatoes in there and a basket of onions that looked like
they better be used. I cheated on the seasoning, though. I bought
that at that little market for a dollar. Did you know they sell
underwear?"

"Can't say that I did, but they sell most
everything else. I usually buy my sauce in a jar. You got more
pasta? Just in case?"

Jazz pulled a pot out from the cupboard, a
big one she used to boil water for her bath. "You think they'll
mind if I pile the beer in this?"

"Honey, they don't care how it comes as long
as it comes. You take those plates out and I'll watch the pot
doesn't boil over."

Donna was right. There were more people on
the porch and a bunch of pups running in the yard. Griz had
disappeared from the porch, but she spotted him standing with two
other men in the cleared field on the other side of the house. One
looked like Harvey. The other was as tall as Griz, but lean.

"Thought you might need these." Ellie came up
beside her with a toddler on her hip. She held up a plastic sack
with two two-liter bottles and a sleeve of paper cups. Ice is in
the corner and if I'm not mistaken, here comes dessert."

The twins came rolling up the road at
breakneck speed, for octogenarians anyway. One carried a large
baking pan. The one without the pan waved furiously.

"Sister was putting out the cat and saw you
had a few folks drop by. We thought you might need a little
extra."

"Why, Edna, that was right kind of you.
Wasn't that kind of the ladies, Jazz?"

Ellie was smiling at some secret joke. Jazz
figured it was because the twins showed up with dessert for
everything.

"It sure is. Thank you, ladies. Please join
us."

"Oh now, we wouldn't want to…"

"Nonsense. Like you said, just a few
neighbors dropping by."

"This is so nice," Edith told her when
someone brought chairs from who knew where for the ladies to sit
in. "Just like the old days when we'd sit out on the porch of a
summer's evening and folks would stop by to say hello. Sometimes
Dear Ernest would bring out his guitar and we would sing. Folks
don't do that anymore. It's good to see." She took her hanky from
her sleeve and dabbed her eyes.

It was ten o'clock before the last neighbor
left. Tom took the cubs home and Ellie and her sister stayed to
help clean up while Harvey and Doc cleared the porch.

"It's supposed to rain tomorrow," Donna said.
"Harvey got an outside job and he can't work in the rain. Why don't
I send him over with some of that paint he's got laying around the
shed. I'll bet he's got something leftover from somewhere that
would brighten this place up."