19. Jamison
To say I was uncomfortable was an understatement. My entire career as a police officer I’d faced shoot-outs, horrific car accidents involving children, hostage situations and more death than I cared to remember.
Sitting in Josh’s man cave with his mates Ryan and Troy and the very big and imposing father of the woman that was constantly on my mind, I suddenly felt like a rookie on my first day of training. The only friendly smile coming from Gisele’s daughter Miracle.
She was a cute little thing, and the spit out of her mum’s mouth. Hearing about her early entry into the world explained her small stature for her age but it still amazed me just how small she was.
“Um, does Miracle always come to guys night?” I asked and instantly regretted opening my mouth. Four sets of pissed off eyes all centred on me and sweat started on my forehead under my hairline.
Shit a brick.
“Yes, she does,” Jock informed in a deadly tone, “you always bring a fucking crazy ugly lookin Pug when you go out with your mates?” he counted, giving Optimus a glare, I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of. To be fair, Jock wasn’t wrong. The dog was fucking ugly. I found him about ten years ago tied to a tree in the middle of a backyard covered only in dirt. The chain he was tethered to was less than a metre long, the poor bugger had barely any water or teeth. We’d been called to a domestic dispute where the male was high on meth and the woman, who turned out to be his wife, beaten to a bloody pulp, also smashed out on meth.
I took the dog, not able to leave him chained that way with all intention of dropping the poor bastard to the pound but seeing him sitting on the passenger seat of my cop car, his tongue hanging out between the lost teeth and his noisy grunting sounds I ended up cruising straight past the pound and ended up at a vet clinic. I had him checked over, vaccinated, wormed and took the ugliest dog in the world home and made him mine and named him Optimus after my favourite movie character.
Best decision I ever made.
“My cousin was looking after him for me, but she doesn’t like him all that much and frankly he doesn’t like people, even me sometimes.” I explained hoping that would appease Jock enough to stop glaring at me.
It was not.
“So, you brought him here?”
“No other option Jock. I have very little family left other than my cousin Emily. Since I’m going to be in Blessings for longer than my boss thought, I had to bring him back with me.”
Waiting for Jock to either answer me or punch me, Optimus chose that moment to get up from where he had been sitting and grunting at my feet and walked over to Miracle who was, sitting on the ground playing with some kind of dolls with heads bigger than their bodies, sat down next to her, dropping his head on her lap.
Stunned speechless, I watched in shock and surprise as Miracle put her hand on the Pug’s head and patted him without even blinking that a Pug with a tongue permanently hanging out of his mouth cosied up to her. But it was the smile on the little angel’s face that affected me more than anything. She didn’t waver, didn’t startle, she just smiled her face lighting up with what I could only describe as a glow. Optimus snuggled in and closed his eyes and continued to grunt.
“Holy shit,” I whispered, not wanting to break the amazing moment I was witnessing. Optimus wasn’t one for cuddles or petting, in fact he was usually a mean son of a bitch due to the way his previous arsehole owner treated him. Yet here he was letting Miracle not only touch him, but he was enjoying it.
“The dog can stay,” Jock announced in deep gruff tone, but the smile he had for his granddaughter was anything but gruff. It was pure and raw adoration. In fact, all the men in the room had the same look, there was something about the little girl that was … magical.
Taking a chug of my beer, trying to get over the weirdness of my dog, I looked at the men in front of me. “What is it about Tuesday nights that has the women in one house and the men in another?”
Ryan, who I knew was the husband of Gisele’s best friend whom I already met when Gisele took me for a tour of the town the week before I left to go back to Gracefield, was the first to answer.
“Two words for you mate, Kelly Severide.”
“Who is she?” I asked what I thought was a perfectly acceptable question but judging by the humourless laughter I guessed that I was wrong.
“Not she mate,” Josh grunted, “he. Ever heard of Chicago Fire?”
“I don’t watch much tv but, yeah I’ve heard of it never watched it though.”
“Well Jury you better get used to hearing about the show and that name, because our women are obsessed with not only the show, but they think the dude who plays their favourite character is the bees knees.” Jock explained dryly, his head shaking.
“Yep,” Josh added, “I have no doubt my wife would leave me in a heartbeat if that bloke turned up on our doorstep and asked her to marry him.”
“Mine too,” Ryan agreed, tipping his bottle in salute to what Josh said.
“Georgina and Elle would gladly walk away hand in hand with the bastard,” Jock declared with a gleam of humour in his eyes.
Taking another chug of beer, I willed myself not to ask what was going through my mind, but my brain and mouth weren’t working in unison tonight.
“What about Gisele?”
Damn stupid mouth.
“Gisele would be the only one to run the other way,” Jock said quietly.
All four men suddenly quietened, the mood in the room changing from good humour to something different.
Sadness?
“Did I say something wrong?”
“No Jury, you didn’t,” Jock assured me, but somehow, I wasn’t assured in the least.
“You’ve spent a bit of time with my girl lately, yes?” Jock asked me, and I nodded my response.
“We have, she has been a wealth of information about Blessings and its residents, the outlay of the town. Who lives where, who I should talk to about Jake.”
“She tell you about when Miracle was born?”
Again, I nodded, I knew all about the birth and the time she spent in hospital. A little about the father but not enough to appease the detective in me, or that part of me that was more than interested in her.
“But not much more than that right?”
“What are you trying to tell me Jock?” the lawman in me on alert.
Putting his beer on the coffee table, Jock leaned forward on the couch his face serious as I’d seen it since meeting him… since arresting him.
“There are some very closed minded, superstition, fanatical religious arseholes in Blessings that have it in their head that there is a curse on any female born a Blessing.”
I sat silent, my years of interrogation telling me now was not the time to speak.
Josh, Troy and Ryan all nodded their own disapproval, all of them turning briefly to look at Miracle who was happily dancing a doll up and down Optimus’s fury back, the ugly mutt lapping up every second of Miracle’s attention.
Jock dropped his head, his hands fisted on his lap. Something told me this story was going to piss me off. Lifting his head, Jock gave Josh a slight nod, silently telling him to take over.
“Most people believe that Elle, my Claudia and Gisele are cursed,” Josh said in a low deadly voice, it didn’t escape me how it deadly it changed when he referred to his wife.
“What the fuck!” I shouted, then immediately regretted it when Miracle suddenly stopped playing and looked up at me. She didn’t look scared by my outburst more worried and interested.
Feeling lower than a bag of shit, I plastered a smile on my mouth and looked at the angel before me. “Sorry about that lamb.” The pet name just coming out without even thinking about it, but the smile she gave me in return made me feel less pissed off, “Gisele mentioned a family curse, but she didn’t exactly allude that it was anything other than an old family superstition.” This time I kept my voice lower, giving Josh a nod to go ahead.
“It’s much more than that,” Jock growled making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
“Unfortunately, it’s Gisele who has coped most of the town’s people bullshit. Small things that happened in primary school that were easily explained as school yard accidents, but when she fell pregnant at sixteen and told the father, not even an hour later he got hit by a car and both his legs got broke. That’s what Jock meant when he said Gisele would run the other way. She hasn’t had a date or been asked out on one since she was sixteen. Claudia and Elle didn’t escape the curse in their own ways.” Something about the way Josh’s eyes changed from pissed off to downright sad told me there was more but he didn’t elaborate.
“But it was Miracle’s birth that everyone blamed on Gisele being cursed more than her sisters. Locals think that is the reason why Miracle doesn’t speak, they call her mute and blame her mother for it.” I was hearing the words, but I couldn’t believe what the fuck I was hearing. The people of Blessings were truly fucked in the head to even think such hateful things. “There is absolutely nothing wrong, bad or cursed about that little girl,” Josh spat out keeping his voice calm for Miracle’s sake. “She’ll talk when she is ready, the town gossips can go fuck themselves.”
“I see that this is something Gisele hasn’t mentioned to you as yet?” Jock spoke, having gotten himself under control.
“Not as much as she should’ve,” I growled annoyed that Gisele felt like she had to keep it from me, “Elle mentioned something about a story but that it was Gisele’s to tell not hers.” Shaking my head, I looked directly at Jock, determination etched on my face.
“What else do I need to know?”
My initial intention to discuss Elle’s missing douche bag husband. Right now, Gisele was the only person I wanted to discuss.