Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jackson
Ever since the other guys and I had decided to take matters into our own hands, we’d been doing our best to amass as much information as we could on the break-ins and assaults, and started surveilling Lupine on our own.
We started by talking to Edna Boyle and Mikey Flynn, the latter of whom was still in the hospital recovering from a nasty stab wound.
Neither Edna nor Mikey had gotten a very good look at the two men who accosted them.
But both said they were thin and wiry, and that their faces had been covered. Mikey said they seemed strung out.
I knew the six of us couldn’t cover the whole town on our own, but we had been paying close attention to a handful of businesses that seemed to hit a similar profile as the convenience store or the bar.
Small places, with few employees, and valuable merchandise inside.
Places that could be hit late at night, or at closing time, with a minimum of risk.
As we started to watch the area for potential trouble, and prepared to act when the time came, I could never imagine how close to home that trouble would hit.
* * *
The surveillance and recon that we’d been doing had been taking up most of my time when I wasn’t working at the garage, and one consequence of that was that I had barely seen Roxy since the night we spent together at my place.
I could feel the tug of her inside me, though — an ache that only got stronger as the days passed.
It was an ache way down deep. An ache that was always there, no matter where I was or what I was doing.
I kept meaning to call her, or to try to stop by her house or the pharmacy to see her.
But it just seemed like the timing was never right.
Before I knew it, a couple weeks had passed since I’d talked to her.
I told myself that was probably good. Maybe it was better for me to stay away from her, as much as I wanted to see her.
As much as I wanted to hold her in my arms again, and feel her soft, warm skin melt against mine.
Finally, I ran into her one afternoon as I was on my way to see Mikey in the hospital.
As I was going up the walk to the front entrance, Roxy was coming out, looking so beautiful it almost broke my heart in two.
She was dressed for work, wearing simple black pants and a white button-down shirt that showed just a hint of the curves underneath.
It had been way too long since I’d touched her, and it was hard to keep my hands off her now, even though we were in public.
It was pretty fucking awkward between us.
I felt bad that I hadn’t tried to call her, and I could see it on her face that she was hurt.
We made small talk for a couple minutes, and then I couldn’t take it anymore.
I told her I missed her. The look in her eyes as they met mine told me she didn’t quite believe me.
I asked her if I could see her that night, and she looked away and put me off.
Fuck, I thought as my stomach flipped. I’m losing her.
And then, for the first time, I realized that I didn’t want to lose her.
Which meant that I wanted to keep her.
And that? Kind of blew my mind.
As I stood there looking at gorgeous, sexy Roxanne glance toward the parking lot like she was waiting to get away from me, my mind was reeling.
I knew I had to do something.
“If you’re around later, maybe we could see each other,” I said, lifting a hand to her face. My heart constricted.
“Um, I don’t know,” she answered, still not meeting my eyes. “Maybe.”
“Rox,” I began, and then stopped. I couldn’t do this here. I needed some time to figure out what the fuck I wanted to say to her. “I’ll call you when I can,” I managed finally. I leaned down and kissed her softly. I couldn’t tell whether she kissed me back.
I entered the hospital, forcing myself not to look back at her. But once I was through the doors, I turned and watched her retreating form as she walked down the sidewalk and disappeared into the parking lot. I knew she was slipping away from me. And that it was my own damn fault.
When I got up to Mikey’s room, a pretty nurse was just walking out his door.
She was a hot little redhead, and I’d seen her here before on more than one occasion.
I could see by the saucy look in her eyes — and the way they held my gaze just a little too long — that she would be down for finding an empty room and engaging in a little recreational activity if I gave her the nod.
Normally, that was exactly the kind of invitation I took women up on: quick, easy, no strings attached. But my head was all full of Roxy. I nodded at the redhead briefly, ignoring the look of disappointment on her face as I ducked into the room.
Inside, Mikey was sitting up in bed, looking a little better than he had last time I’d been here to visit.
His face had more color, and he seemed less tired.
Mikey’s wife Linda was close by his side, as she had been every time I’d come to see him.
Her pretty face was pale and drawn, but even so, she radiated happiness.
“The doctors say that Mike will be released tomorrow,” she said, relief evident in her voice. “He’s just going to have to take it easy for a few days afterwards.”
“Yeah, no standing behind the bar for a week or so,” Mikey grinned. “So the customers will be deprived of my sparkling presence for just a little longer.”
“It’s gonna be rough, but I’m sure they’ll manage,” I joked. “Seriously, though, it’s good to hear you’re gonna be sprung soon, Mikey.”
“The kids are going to be thrilled,” Linda smiled. “The hardest part will be keeping them off of him when we get him back home. They’ll be jumping all over him like monkeys if we’re not careful.”
As she talked, she beamed at Mikey, her face full of love and devotion.
She kept reaching out to touch his arm or squeeze his shoulder, like she wanted to reassure herself that he was still there.
It made my gut feel hollow to see it, and instantly, I thought of Roxy.
Mentally, I chided myself: here I was, actually envying a guy who had a damn hole in his gut.
But I couldn’t help but think he was one lucky guy, in spite of it all.
Linda clearly loved him with all her heart.
And judging from the way he looked back at her, the feeling was mutual.
I stayed talking to the two of them for longer than I expected to.
By the time I got up to go, it was late afternoon.
Linda walked out of the hospital with me, and headed off go pick up their kids from school and daycare.
I hopped on my bike and drove to the garage to see how things were going, and to check on Harry and Freddy.
The two of them had everything under control, so I spent the next couple of hours catching up on some bookwork that my dad had let get himself get behind on in the weeks before he died.
By the time I was finished with the books, it was nearly seven-thirty.
Harry and Freddy had closed up the shop and gone home over an hour ago.
A rumbling in my gut reminded me it was time to grab something to eat.
I wondered if Roxy would join me if I asked her, and decided to bite the bullet and drive by her house to see if she was around.
Her car wasn’t there, so I rode into downtown and checked the pharmacy.
Sure enough, her Ford sedan was parked in the back parking lot, next to a black Duster with an amateur paint job.
As rolled into a spot at the far end of the lot and killed the bike, I noticed that the back door to the pharmacy was open.
Frowning, I swung my leg slowly over and stood, my senses suddenly on alert.
I calculated that by now, it was after eight o’clock, and the pharmacy would already be closed.
In which case, the owners of the Duster probably weren’t customers.
I thought about calling out Roxy’s name when I got to the back entrance, but something in my soldier’s instinct stopped me.
Quietly I walked toward the doorway, making sure my footsteps couldn’t be heard by anyone inside.
I stopped for a moment to listen. At first I heard nothing.
But then, once my ears had adjusted, I started to pick up the murmur of a male voice.
The words weren’t distinct at first, and were mingled with the noises of someone opening or closing drawers or doors.
I risked a look and craned my neck around just enough to get a glimpse down the hallway.
The back of a thin, wiry man was just visible.
He had dark hair and what looked to be a woman’s stocking over his head The front of him cut off by the wall in front of him.
Tensing, I pulled my head back away from the opening and strained to hear.
Then, as all my muscles froze, I head Roxy’s unmistakeable voice, responding to the man.
I still couldn’t make out the words, but the high, nervous tone in her voice left no doubt as to how frightened she was.
I barely resisted the urge to immediately burst inside and take the guy out, and waited just long enough to hear the voice of a second man approaching.
I dropped to a crouch and risked another look.
The second man’s face was blocked from my view by the first, meaning he couldn’t see me, either. In one hand he had a plastic bag that looked like it might be holding bills from the cash register. In his other was an unopened candy bar.
“Hurry it up, man,” he snapped. “Let’s go, let’s go!” He ripped the candy wrapper open with his teeth and spit the scrap on the floor.
“Come on, bitch, hurry it up,” the first one growled, turning to his right. For the first time, I noticed he was brandishing a knife in his right hand.
“I think this is everything you’d want,” Roxy’s quavering voice said. She stepped forward, a shopping basket in her hand, and lifted it toward the man.
As he looked down at the basket and reached out a hand to take it from her, I realized this might be my only chance for the men to be distracted enough for me to act.
Pushing off into a low sprint, I charged into the hallway and flew into the guy with the knife.
I grabbed his wrist and wrenched it away from him as we flew to the ground.
The basket fell first and he landed on top of it, letting out a roar of rage and pain as the plastic splintered and entered his hip.
As we fell, I twisted his wrist and he let go of the knife, which clattered away from us and just past the feet of the second man. Dropping the bag and the candy bar, he lunged for it, landing on all fours as his hand closed around the handle.
“Roxy!” I yelled. “Be careful!” My heart was hammering in my chest as adrenaline coursed through my veins. I had to protect her before she got stabbed. Looking down at the man struggling under me, I pulled back my fist and hammered him in the jaw hard enough to knock him cold.
I scrambled to my feet, turning wildly to get to Roxanne in time. I pulled myself up to lunge at the other guy, but before I could make a move, Roxy grabbed a large decorative apothecary jar from a high shelf, and brought it down hard on the second man’s head.
The jar didn’t break, but he went down like a rag doll. In an instant, blood flowing heavily from a deep cut on the top of his skull.
We stood there for a moment, staring at the inert form bleeding on the ground. “Oh, my God!” she breathed, a mixture of fear and wonder in her voice. “Did I kill him?”
“Head wounds bleed like a son of a bitch,” I told her. “Don’t worry. He’s not dead. Though it’d serve the son of a bitch right if you had killed him.”
“Jackson!” Roxy fixed me with eyes that were wild, still frantic. “They came in to steal pills. They…” Her voice cracked, as tears sprang to the surface. Her lip trembled, and one hand flew to her mouth.
“It’s okay, Rox,” I said, drawing her to me. “You’re okay.”
She collapsed against me for a moment, and I half-closed my eyes at how good it felt.
“What if they wake up?” she murmured against my chest.
I chuckled. “They will, eventually. Meantime, where’s your phone?” Roxy pointed to a wall-mounted unit hanging up in the room where the medications were stored.
“Keep an eye on them,” I told her. “Either one of them moves, you tell me.” If I had to, I’d keep K.O.’ing them until help arrived. “Or, hell, use the apothecary jar again.”
I found a phone book and called around to the Angus, asking Greg to get hold of Les if he could.
Unsurprisingly, he was already at the bar, with a couple of his buddies from work.
Then, after a moment’s hesitation, I called the cops.
It wasn’t something I was generally inclined to do, but in this case, it would save me the trouble of taking care of these fuckups myself.
And given that they’d been armed, stealing drugs, and that there were two eyewitnesses, I was hoping they’d be going away for long enough for them to turn their attentions to some other town once they got out of prison.
A couple minutes later, Les and Rich came running in the back door to the pharmacy. Les took one look at the unconscious men bleeding on the ground. “These the guys?” he asked, not needing to elaborate.
“Yeah,” I nodded.
From there, his eyes moved up to Roxy and me. One of my arms was still around her, holding her tight until her adrenaline shakes stopped.
Les eyed me with a frown.
“You and Roxy together, then?” he asked. I couldn’t quite read the tone of his voice.
“Yeah,” I said simply.
For a moment, he was silent, considering. Then he nodded, just once. “Okay.”