Stand By You (Lone Wolf #6)

Chapter 1

“It’s you again,” Detective Curt Simons walked into the ER bay where Jillian Grant lay on the gurney with a large bandage over her right eye.

“Afraid so.”

“How many times are we going to meet up like this, Miss Grant?”

“I hope this is the last time, detective.”

“It isn’t unusual for an attractive woman to be mugged in in a city like Miami, but to be mugged twice in a matter of weeks, now that is something to be alarmed about. Did the mugger get away with anything this time?” he inquired.

“No. I had my crossbody bag on and he didn’t even try to take it. I know the police officer on the scene called it in as a mugging, but I don’t think that is what the man who attacked me was there for,” she explained. “Not like last time.”

“And you were able to fend the last mugger off with your self-defense techniques,” Simons said. “What about this time?”

“I didn’t have a chance. He came for me out of the blue and I was knocked down, hitting my head on the sidewalk, which is why I was brought by ambulance to the ER,” she explained.

“The EMTs that were called insisted on it because they believed I could have a concussion, but thankfully the doctor I saw said I wasn’t showing signs of one.

” She paused, taking a deep breath and rubbed her brow.

“Sorry, my head still hurts from the fall, but the man who attacked me didn’t take anything, that is why I don’t believe it was a mugging.

If he’d wanted my purse, he’d have taken it once I was knocked out. ”

Simons nodded in agreement. “I know I asked you before, but in lieu of this happening again within a matter of weeks of the other incident, do you have any idea why anyone would go after you like this?”

“I don’t, detective. I really don’t,” she said feeling irritated with this happening to her. “I’m a Nanny to an eight-year-old boy.”

“What about his mother?” the detective asked.

“She’s out of the picture and been since he was four and they divorced. I started looking after Travis when he was two.”

“I sense there is a story there,” Simons said.

“There is, but I don’t think it’s worth getting into. I can’t tell you the last time I had any contact with her,” Jillian explained.

“What can you tell me about Mr. McGinty?”

“He’s an efficiency expert and he’s exceptionally good at his job– former military officer. He’s very meticulous and runs a tight ship even in his personal life after his retirement.”

“Did you tell him about the last mugging?” he asked.

“No. Because it was too close to his wedding and things were already hectic at home with the preparations,” Jillian said, feeling a bit guilty for not sharing what had happened to her.

“He just remarried?” the detective said.

She nodded. “They’re on their honeymoon and Travis is in day camp during the summers and afterward he is with me.”

“Mr. McGinty must trust you if he feels comfortable enough to leave his son in your care while he goes off on a honeymoon.”

“He should,” she said. “I’ve been in his employee for six years.”

“But would he have done so if he knew about the attempted muggings?” Simons asked.

Jillian sucked in a breath. “Do you think I should be worried?”

“I do, Miss Grant. I do. I don’t believe these are random acts.

” Simons closed his notepad and sat down in the vacant chair near her bed.

“I would like you to come down to the station to make a formal complaint once you are released. It doesn’t have to be today, but in the next day or two if you can. Do you think that would be possible?”

“Of course,” she reluctantly agreed twisting the sheet in her fists as she worried how she would explain the bruise on her face to Travis.

“Is there anyone else that lives at the McGinty household besides you, Mr. McGinty and Travis?”

“The housekeeper,” Jillian said, watching the detective open his notepad again. “Mrs. Hudson. That’s Evelyn Hudson. She wasn’t with us when Travis was a baby, so she doesn’t know his mother. She came when he was five.”

“Thank you for this information,” he said. “I know you mentioned that you live in a gated community the first time we spoke.”

“We do,” she said watching him closely. He had to be about five foot nine or ten.

Slender in build and broad in the shoulder.

She suspected he had to be around forty by the way his hair was beginning to thin on top.

“Mr. McGinty said it was something that his in-laws wanted when he married his first wife.”

The curtain to the bay was pulled back and a nurse handed Jillian a clipboard. “If you’ll sign by the x at the bottom of the page we’ll get you out of here,” she said.

“I’ll see you at the police station to sign your statement,” Simons said, standing.

“I’ll be there,” Jillian said, and she signed where the nurse showed.

“Is there anyone you can call to come get you?” the nurse asked. “Dr. Payne would prefer you not drive for twenty-four hours even if you don’t have a concussion as a precaution.”

“I’ll take a ride-share,” Jillian said. “My car is across town where I was attacked. I’ll pick it up tomorrow.”

“Let me drive you,” Simons said.

“You don’t have to,” she said.

“I would rather take the time to drop you off at home than risk you getting attacked again taking a ride-share,” he said. “We don’t know who is doing this to you.”

She hesitated not wanting to be a burden to the detective, then agreed. “Alright. If you insist.”

The McGinty house was quiet when Jillian walked in.

They must not be home yet. She went out back through the kitchen and down the stone walk to the guest house to her private quarters to change into clean clothes.

She didn’t want Travis to see her mussed up from the attack and worry.

The bandage over her eye was bad enough.

She was returning to the main house when the boy came running toward her all excited.

“We’re going on a field trip tomorrow,” he called.

“You are?” she said as if she didn’t know in advance what the day camp had planned for the children.

“Zoo Miami,” Travis said. “We’re gonna see the dinosaurs.”

“That should be fun.”

“Mrs. Hudson and I stopped at the store to pick up snacks for me to take in my lunch. I can’t wait,” he babbled, practically skipping along beside her he was so excited.

“You know to stay with your group and not to stray off,” she said as they walked together to the house.

“I know.”

“But it’s important when you’re out in a group like this,” she reminded him. “The counselors are not taking extra chaperones on this trip, so I won’t be going along to keep an eye on you.”

“They told us today,” Travis said. “We have a buddy system on this trip.”

“You do?”

“Yep. I’m paired with Carlos. He’s nice. We play together even if he is a year younger than me in school.”

“It doesn’t matter what year you are in school,” Jillian told him remembering meeting Carlos’ nanny Monica at Playland Day Camp, they’d talked and even exchanged numbers.

“What counts is that the two of you get along and you do what the counselors tell you so you both come home safe and have a good time.”

“We will,” Travis said. “If we don’t, we won’t get to go on another field trip. Camp Playground policy.”

He sounded so grown up she couldn’t help smiling at him. “Sounds like you are ready to go on this outing then. And Mrs. Hudson is packing your lunch? Let’s go pick out what you’re going to wear, and we won’t be late getting you to camp on time. I’m sure the bus is leaving at a certain time.”

“We’re having a picnic in a special area set aside for groups at the zoo,” Travis said. “Then we’ll get to have a special showing of exotic birds afterwards.”

“This all sounds so nice I really wish I was able to go with you,” she said as they entered the house and climbed the back stairs to the living quarters.

“Maybe we could go together sometime?” he said.

“Maybe.”

He ran ahead and had his closet door open by the time she reached his room. He was pulling out his khaki shorts and a camp T-shirt to hang on the hook by the door.

“We were told to dress like this tomorrow so everyone looks alike so if we get separated the zoo employees would know who we belong to,” he said.

Then he went over to his drawer and pulled out a matching pair of socks and then he found his school backpack.

“For my lunch to go in. We must keep our lunches in our backpacks because the zoo doesn’t allow outside food to be brought in, but if we have them in our lunch boxes inside our backpacks we are allowed to bring them as a group the camp said. Special arrangements.”

Jillian nodded. “It sounds like you are all set for tomorrow then. Let’s go help Mrs. Hudson with dinner. We can set the table for her.”

“Sure.” Travis laid his socks over his T-shirt shoulder on the hanger and followed her to the door. “You never have told me why you couldn’t come pick me up today. Why is that bandage over your eye? And why is your car not in the drive?”

He was too observant. She thought with his excitement over the zoo he wouldn’t have noticed. “Just a little accident that caused me not to be able to drive. I fell and bumped my head,” she said as they headed back downstairs. “Clumsy me.”

“Does it hurt?” he asked.

“A little, but I’m fine. Nothing for you to worry about,” she assured him.

“Kinda like last month?”

She stopped walking. “Kinda.”

“You’ve never been clumsy before, Jillian,” Travis said, turning to stare at her. “Are you okay?”

“Sure. Everyone has bad days,” she said.

“Is that all it is?” he asked. “You’d tell me if it wasn’t?”

“Of course.”

“Are you gonna tell dad this time?” he wanted to know. “I didn’t tell him last, just want to know if I need to keep a secret for you again.”

“I didn’t ask you …” she started to say, but realized the boy was loyal to her and smarter than she gave him credit. “There isn’t anything to tell him. But you shouldn’t keep secrets from your father. For me or anyone else.”

“But I do,” he said.