Chapter Thirty-eight
Early the next morning, Jack arrived at the house, driven there by an inflexible Brian.
No one had paid any attention to Jack’s arguments, especially Angie.
She’d had Brian help Mark pack up and move a lot of his stuff over to the main house, and before breakfast was served in the hospital, he was ensconced in Mia’s old room.
It worked well since Mia and Maisie had switched to their new place in the casita. Complaints ignored, he found himself at the breakfast table having coffee and eating cinnamon rolls with Angie.
“You eat that sucker,” she pointed to the largest of the icing-covered cinnamon rolls he loved. “Maybe it’ll sweeten your sour disposition.”
Finally letting go of his moodiness, Jack nabbed the one she pointed at and took a large greedy bite.
Just the two of them alone, Angie questioned him further. “What did Chief Driver have to say about your brakes?”
“They couldn’t prove they’d been tampered with. He questioned the repair shop who did the work on the truck from the last accident. They assured him that all was fine before it left their garage.”
“What? There’s something you’re not telling me.” Angie saw the shifting of his eyes away from her.
“Jesus, Angie, let it go.”
“Not gonna happen. Tell me.”
“It could be nothing.”
“I’ll be the one to decide if it is or it ain’t. What?”
Jack couldn’t stop the chuckle. But he did share. “They had a strange situation the night before I came to pick the truck up. They thought they might have been broken into but didn’t lodge a complaint because nothing was vandalized or stolen.”
“Does the chief figure someone got to the vehicle then? It makes sense.”
“Yep. But there’s no tape of the incident. The alarm had been turned off and the video put out of commission.”
“Well wasn’t that a clue in itself?”
“Maybe, but the garage had been having a lot of trouble with their security system previously cutting in and out, and so they don’t know for certain.” Jack held his hands out, using them to deflect her question. “It might have been a fault left over from the last incident.”
“Oh, give your head a shake, dude. That truck is almost new. It’s built like a brick poop-house and can withstand a lot of punishment. It’s not feasible to think a few minor bashes to the side and back would affect the brake line.”
Grinning at her colorful vocabulary and her indignant attitude, Jack nodded. “Between you, me, and the fencepost, I agree.”
“So, what are you going to do about it?”
“You’ll see. Right now, I need to concentrate on the election. Can Mark drive me to the news conference this morning? I don’t want you, Mia or Maisie in the same car. And that’s not negotiable.”
“Brian said he’d be back to pick you up – him and some of the boys who hung out here last night. Your assistant is a good guy, Jack. He’s taken our safety seriously, and your crew has too. Don’t you worry, Pard. We’re as safe as we can be on the Ponderosa.”
Laughing, just the way she planned, he felt a weight lifted. Staying away from the people he loved most hadn’t been what he’d wanted to do. But, their safety had to be his first concern.
Now that the choice had been taken away from him, his heart began thumping when the side door to the kitchen opened and a little lady’s voice rang with glee.
“Jack. You’we hewe! Mia come see. Jack’s hewe!”