Chapter 8
They’d let him make one phone call, so naturally Joe called Mac, knowing his friend would approve of the so-called “crime” that had landed him in the island’s only jail cell.
A woman at the marina reported that Mac was out on the Salt Pond.
She promised to give him the message as soon as he returned.
In the meantime, Joe was left to cool his heels on a stiff cot with an icepack wrapped around his swelling knuckles.
Images of David’s bloody face and girlish shrieks ran through his mind.
Joe grunted out a laugh. It’d been worth it.
So totally worth it. Getting arrested for assault was a small price to pay for seeing that pompous ass taken down a few notches.
Joe’s satisfaction in exacting a tiny bit of revenge on Janey’s behalf was tempered by the pounding in his head and the lingering nausea.
Right at that moment, it occurred to him—for the first time—that Janey might not appreciate what he’d done. An odd twinge of anxiety danced up his spine as the rustling of footsteps outside the cell had him sitting up straighter on the cot.
Along with Joe’s high school classmate, Gansett Island Police Chief Blaine Taylor, Big Mac McCarthy came around the corner and stood outside the cell, hands on hips, his usually amiable face set into an expression of supreme displeasure.
Oh, shit.
Joe stared at the man he’d loved like a father since he’d been a newly fatherless seven-year-old transported from the frenetic energy of New York City to his grandparents’ home on a tiny island with fewer than a thousand year-round residents.
One of the more important residents, at least to Joe, was currently giving him the once-over and apparently not liking what he saw.
Disappointing Big Mac had never been high on Joe’s to-do list.
“What’s the meaning of this, my friend?”
“Call it an act of impulse.”
“You broke his nose.”
“He broke her heart!”
Big Mac’s lips tightened. “So I hear.”
Joe crossed his arms and winced when his abused knuckles made contact with his shirt. “He had it coming.”
“Perhaps, but to my thinking, it was her punch to throw, not yours.” Big Mac ran a huge hand through wiry gray hair. “Do you know I haven’t been in here since you and Mac decided to flatten half the mailboxes on the island with my truck?”
Blaine snickered, and Joe sent him a dirty look.
Joe swallowed hard as memories of a long-ago night came flooding back. That had been the first time he’d disappointed Big Mac, and Joe had gone to great lengths to make it the only time—until today.
“Remember what I did then?” Big Mac asked.
He and Mac had never forgotten the endless night in jail when they were just sixteen.
And that, of course, had been Big Mac’s goal.
While they’d still gotten into their share of mischief, they’d never gone near another mailbox.
Joe stared at the older man, incredulous.
“You’re not planning to leave me in here overnight. ”
“That’s up to you,” Big Mac said.
“What do you mean?”
“You need to apologize and kiss some serious ass so he’ll drop the charges.”
Joe released a humorless laugh. As if! “Not in this or any other lifetime.”
“Then you’d better get comfortable. I hear the judge isn’t due back until next Friday. Isn’t that right, Blaine?”
“Sure is. He’ll arraign you then on felony assault charges.”
“That ought to be real good for business,” Big Mac added.
Joe swore under his breath. Stuck in here for six days?
That hadn’t been part of the plan—not that he’d had much of a plan before the sight of David’s smarmy face sent him over a cliff he hadn’t realized he’d been teetering on.
No, he didn’t regret flattening the bastard, and he’d be damned if he would apologize.
“Does Janey know about this?” Joe forced himself to ask.
His gut clenched with guilt and his mouth went dry as sand when it dawned on him that since he last saw Big Mac McCarthy, he’d made mad, crazy love to the man’s beloved only daughter.
The same daughter he’d called Princess until she turned nineteen and begged him not to.
“I reckon most of the island knows by now. The good doctor put on quite a show.”
“Fucking baby,” Joe muttered. “It’s the least of what he deserves.”
“Lucky for you, I happen to agree, even if I don’t approve of you taking it upon yourself to even the score.”
Oh, if only he knew. . .
“You’re a respected businessman, a pillar of this community,” Big Mac continued. “You’ve got no place resorting to violence in front of your employees and customers.”
No one had ever been better at building Joe up or cutting him down to size when necessary. Apparently, not much had changed in the nearly twenty years since he and Mac had become adults.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
“I have a feeling I’m going to be the least of your worries.” Big Mac nodded to Blaine who opened the cell.
Before Big Mac could change his mind, Joe made for the open door. “I thought you said I’d have to apologize first.”
Big Mac’s eyes twinkled with mirth. “I just wanted to see what you’d have to say to that.”
Blaine laughed at the expression on Joe’s face. “Well played, Mr. McCarthy.”
“Glad I’m available to amuse you both,” Joe said.
Laughing, Big Mac put an arm around Joe’s shoulders. “While you know damned well I don’t condone violence, after hearing about what he did, I probably would’ve been tempted to punch him myself. You saved me the trouble.”
Even though he was usually taller than most men, Joe had to look up at Big Mac. “Did I really break his nose?”
Big Mac squeezed his shoulder. “Sure did.”
“Good.”
Joe had punched David. Joe had punched David in the face, breaking his nose.
Thirty minutes after hearing about the incident at the ferry landing, Janey was still trying to get her head around it—and trying to decide where she wanted to go first, to the jail to bail out Joe or to the clinic to confront her wayward fiancé.
“I’ll take you anywhere you want to go,” Maddie said after Janey vocalized her dilemma. “Mac left us the truck.”
“Don’t you have to work?”
“I took a few weeks off to get ready for the wedding.” Her cheeks flushed with color. “Your brother insisted I enjoy every minute of it.”
“That’s awesome. He’s right. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event, and you should enjoy it.” Janey ached, thinking about the plans for her once-in-a-lifetime day that wasn’t going to happen now.
“What do you want to do, Janey?”
“What do you think I should do?”
Before Maddie could state her opinion, Janey’s cell phone rang, and she took the call from her father.
“I’ve bailed out Joe,” he said without preamble. “He’s coming to the marina to have lunch with me.”
Her insides churned with indecision. She needed to see Joe, to find out what had driven him to punch David, and mostly to see if he was all right. The Joe she knew and loved wouldn’t do such a thing. So what had happened? Did David say something he shouldn’t have? Janey wouldn’t put it past him.
“Did he say anything about what happened?” she asked her father.
“Not much.”
“I’ll come by the marina after a while.”
“Is there anything I can do, Princess?” he asked in a soft voice that brought tears to her eyes.
“I could use a big hug from my daddy.”
“You got it,” he said gruffly. “I’ll see you soon.”
Ending the call, she turned back to Maddie. “I need to see David. Can you take me to the clinic?”
“Of course.”
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the entrance to the Emergency Room.
Janey reached for the handle to open the car door but was hit with a sudden bout of paralysis.
Waiting inside was the man she’d loved all her life, the same man who had betrayed her and didn’t have a clue that she knew what he’d been up to while continuing to profess his undying love for her.
“Janey? Are you all right?”
“I don’t know if I can do this. How do I go in there and play the role of the concerned fiancée when I know what he’s done?”
“Just take it a step at a time. Deal with the injury and what happened with Joe this morning. Later, when you’re alone, you can talk to him about the rest.”
Janey rested a hand on her aching belly. “I don’t want to be alone with him. The thought of it makes me sick.”
“Then you don’t have to be. Mac and I meant it when we told you we’ll do anything we can to get you through this in one piece.”
Janey continued to stare at the entrance to the ER. “It’s funny, you know? A week ago, if I’d heard he was hurt, I would’ve dropped everything and gone running.”
Maddie rested a hand on Janey’s, infusing it with much-needed warmth. “That was before you discovered he’d been unfaithful to you. You don’t owe him anything. If you’d rather not go in there, you certainly don’t have to.”
“If I don’t, then the whole island will be talking about why I didn’t show. Joe has already given them enough cause for speculation.”
“Are you angry with him? With Joe?”
“I’m shocked, to be honest. It’s so unlike him. I just keep wondering what David could’ve said to set him off.”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“Yeah, well. . . First things first.”
“Want me to come in with you?”
“Oh! Would you? That’d be great.”
“Let’s go.”
Inside, they asked for David and were shown to a curtained cubicle at the end of a long hallway. Glancing at Maddie for courage, Janey stuck her head inside and gasped at the sight of David bruised and bloody and swollen. Damn! Joe had done quite a number on him!
“Well, look who it is,” David said with a bitter edge to his voice. “My missing fiancée.” His face was so distorted he didn’t even sound like himself. “Where the heck have you been, Janey? I’ve been trying to call you for days!”
As if she was meeting him for the first time, she studied the thick dark hair she’d so loved running her fingers through, the piercing blue eyes, the strong jaw and sensuous lips.
David Lawrence had always made her heart race, but looking at him now, she felt dead inside.
“I had. . . um. . . some stuff to take care of.”