Chapter 19 Prep Time #2
Lynnette turned her gaze to him and cocked a brow. “I highly doubt that.” Her gaze dropped and she tilted her head, frowning. “I’m sorry, but can you keep holding this for a minute?”
“Of course.” When Lynnette carefully released the cart and took a step around, clearly eyeing the path of the disappearing wheel, Lance said, “You want me to get it for—”
Lynnette’s head snapped up. “Do I want my bedridden patient to get down on the floor and crawl around looking for a damn cart wheel? No. No, I do not. Keep your ass in that bed or I’ll have you sedated.”
Jenna bit down on her lip to hold back her laugh. She didn’t exactly ever visit Lynnette at work, for obvious reasons, but she was pretty sure her friend didn’t usually talk to patients like that.
“Well, I’ll admit that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun,” Lance said. He glanced over at Jenna and shrugged, as if to say ‘what am I supposed to do?’
Jenna watched Lynnette crouch down, her friend’s head disappearing from her point of view.
Then she pushed to her feet and quietly crossed the room, bending to scoop up the clipboard.
She wasn’t a patient, after all, and she hadn’t had to get on her knees, either.
She was setting it on the bed by Lance’s feet when Lynnette stood upright again and she plastered on a bright smile.
“It was the only thing I could think to do.”
Lynnette sighed. “Thanks, babe.” She shoved the wheel into the pocket of her scrubs and crossed to the in-room sink. “I’ll be right there, Lance.”
“I’m fine,” he replied. “Just curious why Jenna here is ‘babe’ and I’m not.”
Jenna balked at him.
“Because Jenna”—Lynnette tore a set of paper towels free to roughly dry her hands—“is my best friend, and you are my patient.” She dropped the paper towels into the garbage canister and moved closer, immediately reaching for the tray on top of the cart.
“As I have reminded you already like three times today.”
Lynnette had bandages on her other hand, too, Jenna realized. She shouldn’t have been surprised. But those wrappings had just gotten wet because Lynnette had been forced to wash her hands, so they would need to be re-done.
Lynnette placed the tray over Lance’s lap and gently set it down.
“As you may have noticed, the food cart just broke, so you’ll have to eat like this for now.
I’ll get the broken hunk of junk hauled out of here and make sure to pick up your tray in half an hour or so, but just shove it aside if it’s in your way before then. ”
Jenna frowned. She actually sounded more exhausted than usual. More haggard.
Lance curled a hand around one of Lynnette’s wrists in a loose grip. “Hey, seriously, Lynn. Fuck the cart. You okay? You don’t seem okay.”
Jenna walked around to the opposite side of his bed so she could see her friend’s face. “Did I get you in trouble?”
Lynnette sighed. “Of course not. It’s just a Murphy’s Law day. That’s all.” She stepped out of Lance’s hold and gripped the unsteady edge of the cart, but met Jenna’s stare. “What about you? Why are you hanging out here, without your new guy?”
Not believing Lynnette’s answer for a second, Jenna offered a shrug and said, “Jon didn’t want to leave me alone in my apartment with my kitchen window shattered. And of course there was the ‘strange repairmen’ factor.”
“What?” Lynnette closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. “You’re going to tell me all about that later. Do you need your car back?”
“Nope. Jon will be back soon. I’m just hanging out here until then.”
“See?” Lance added, spoon stuck in his Jello, “What’d I tell you?”
Lynnette sighed, leaned across for her clipboard, and wedged it under the arm not reaching for the door. “We’ll talk later.” She turned her gaze to her patient. “I’ll check on you in a bit.” And then she was gone, awkwardly hauling a broken cart with her.
Lance lowered his Jello cup. “You don’t think she’s okay, either, right?”
Jenna frowned. “I do not.” But she had no idea what she could do about it.
The meeting ran about twenty minutes longer than anticipated, which put Jon on edge, but Jenna had assured him she was fine.
She wasn’t beet-red, there were no new scorch marks in the vicinity of Lance’s room, and Lance himself didn’t have that guilty gleam to his eyes.
So, Jon was forced to accept the answer.
With several hours still before the guys he’d called on were due to land, Jon and Jenna piled back into his truck. Her window probably wasn’t fixed yet and he didn’t know exactly what to do about that.
They spent most of the drive talking about what they were up against, and the more he explained, the more upset Jenna became.
The fear in her voice and the way her arm trembled faintly even as he held tightly to her hand made Jon feel more useless, more helpless, than he’d felt in years.
He wanted to hold her close and whisper reassurances in her ear until she calmed.
At the same time, he wanted to hunt down every person aligned with that damn cartel and fill them with holes. Maybe mangle a few.
If he had the time, he could do that. But he didn’t have the time.
Lives were at risk. And he had to assume that the cartel wouldn’t stop with the obscure middle of Oregon.
Once they’d taken their fill, or felt too unsettled, they’d move on.
Worse, maybe they thought they were claiming the area and had already sent a crew ahead to start again.
He didn’t know. What he did know was that all of those possibilities meant as soon as his backup had boots on the ground, he needed to be in motion.
He’d taken a small portion of time for the meeting with the lawyers because he couldn’t do much else while he waited for that backup to arrive. At least getting paperwork sorted and having a firmer understanding of where things stood felt like progress.
“Shit,” Jenna suddenly said. “I’m sorry. I never even asked.” She turned slightly in her seat, facing him better. “How was the property?”
Jon glanced over at her for a second, reorienting his thoughts.
Then he offered a short laugh. “A mess,” he said.
“But I called in an old favor, so it might be workable by now. Wanna swing by and take a look?” He should, at some point.
Arguably he should never have left a question mark like Stasya alone.
They had nothing else to do, really, so when Jenna bobbed her head, Jon swung them onto a side road instead of taking the turnoff for the heart of Misty Glades.
The street was narrower, wound wide around most of the populated area, and would add a few minutes to the drive.
But it would spare Jenna another look at the boarded-up, taped-off bakery.
“I never take this road,” Jenna said, turning her gaze out the side window.
Jon chuckled, all too easily remembering the last time he’d driven down it. “Bet you’ve been out here more recently than me.”
A playful edge seeped into Jenna’s voice as she faced him. “You’d lose that bet, Marine.”
“Oh?” He took his foot off the gas when he spotted the place. Time and climate change had altered the area a bit, but not so much that the forward V of trees disappeared. “Are you telling me you haven’t been out here since that night?”
Jenna laughed. “I still kind of can’t believe we— Jon, what are you doing?”
He was pulling into the natural shoulder just beyond the point of the V was what he was doing. Because he was desperate to spend a few extra moments with his woman. Out loud, he said, “We have about three hours before the guys’ plane is supposed to arrive.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “Like half of which you need just to get to the airport.”
He raised a brow at her. “Wait there.” He hopped out and rounded the front of his truck in large strides, unsurprised to see her frowning at him when he pulled her door open. Still, he offered her his hand. “Take a walk down memory lane with me?”
Her face flushed. “It was pitch black and after midnight when we were here before, if you recall.” But she let him help her out, didn’t protest when he shut and locked the truck, and kept her hand in his as he started for the slight gap between the tree line.
“Tell me you aren’t thinking what I think you’re thinking. ”
Jon grinned as he ran his eyes over the space hidden behind the trees.
He’d known the creek ran behind them, of course, but it was nice to see the other side of the creek was nothing but lush forest. The opening itself wasn’t as spacious as he remembered, but in fairness, it had been pitch black, and most of his attention had been on the pretty girl sucking his dick.
“Don’t worry, baby,” he said as he released her hand to wrap his arm around her, “I’m not asking you to kneel in the dirt for me this time. ”
“Uh-huh.”
Jon moved behind her, looped his arms fully around her, and lowered his mouth to her ear.
“I want to make love to you under the open sky, then wash each other clean in that nice creek over there, like we don’t have a goddamn care in the world.
” He pressed his lips to her neck and smiled as a shiver rolled through her.
“This was one of the last places we snuck off together. So, let’s refresh that memory, mark it with the start of our next journey.
” He trailed his tongue along the shell of her ear and she sucked in a breath.
Jenna tilted her head back and met his stare with a sultry smile. “You never did play fair.”
He smirked. “You’re not a game to me, Jen. I’m not playing anything.” He leaned down and ghosted his lips over hers. “I told you what I want, and I aim to make it happen.”
Her smile brightened, sparkling in her eyes, and she twisted in his arms in order to stretch hers over his shoulders. “Then kiss me. Make me forget all the rocks and twigs and—”