Chapter 9
Claudette Scanlan was the epitome of beauty.
Lean with hips, hourglass frame, and ample breasts.
Her long hair, redder than Jenna’s orange, was up in a high bun on her head with a thick white band holding it in place.
Makeup was professionally applied with precision, accentuating her sea green eyes, high cheekbones, and thin lips.
A coating of foundation hid the freckles that dotted her skin.
Her black dress was fitted for her exact measurements.
The wide white collar fell over her shoulders and led down to just below her chest, hinting without revealing the curvature of her breasts.
Though her dress had pointed sleeves with shoulder pads, she also wore tall, white gloves that stopped above her elbows.
Shiny, black pointed-toe stilettos encased her feet, giving her an exaggerated height.
Her long legs were protected against the cold by pinstriped stockings.
Behind her were two men, both dressed in black suits, white shirts, and black neckties. One was carrying a woman’s wide brimmed black hat with a rhinestone band. The other had a white fur coat draped over his bent arm.
Claudette was the picture of perfection, but the sneer on her face gave her the aura of someone with a foul soul.
Jack leapt to his feet seconds after Jenna got to hers.
He had never met either of Jenna’s parents before.
Shortly after he’d told her about his family, she’d told him about hers.
Jack was no coward, but he also had no desire to create trouble.
Jenna warned him from the get-go that her family would cause trouble for him if they knew about him.
While they weren’t hiding their relationship—hell, their entire high school knew by now—they also hadn’t gone knocking on her father’s office door to introduce Jack to them.
He was fine with that. He didn’t need anyone’s approval to date Jenna except her own. Did he hope for her family’s blessing one day? It was a pipedream, but sure. Did he require it to claim Jenna? No. Never had, never would.
He did not, however, approve of Jenna stepping in front of him like she was protecting him.
That he would not allow. She’d done the same thing on their first day of school with Principal Foote.
He’d warned her then never to do so again—and yet here she was.
Standing between him and her mother. While Jack did not believe she was in any physical danger from her mother, he still did not like it.
“What do you think you are doing, Jenna?” While their voices sounded similar, there was a nastiness to Mrs. Scanlon’s that Jenna’s had never possessed. Mrs. Scanlon’s nostrils flared like she was smelling something rotten. “Debasing yourself with such riffraff! It’s beneath you!”
Jack had been called worse. ‘Riffraff’ was better than ‘white trash’ in his opinion, though neither was a term he aspired to claim. However, he wasn’t sure if Mrs. Scanlon had just called him an ‘it’ or was referring to the situation as a whole.
“Mom—” Jenna started, but Mrs. Scanlon wasn’t done.
“Do you have any idea the damage you will do to your reputation, to your family’s reputation, by fornicating with someone like,” her eyes roamed over Jack and clearly found him lacking, “him?”
“Don’t talk about him like that!” Jenna snapped. “He’s a human being, Mom! A person! A really, truly good person.”
The laugh that came out of Mrs. Scanlon’s mouth was so cynical, Jack expected horns to appear on the top of her head.
“You naive, little girl. Have I taught you nothing? His kind,” she pointed a perfectly manicured finger at Jack, “are only good for one thing and that’s scrubbing the floors you walk on.
And you,” she moved her finger to Jenna, “are falling for the oldest trick in the book. All you have to do is spread your legs for him and he gets access to our family’s money. ”
Jenna’s head ducked. As much as Jack loved making Jenna blush, he absolutely would not allow anyone to make Jenna feel ashamed or bad for her actions. Fuck this!
“How dare you—” He started forward, but then his foot hit something on the ground. Jack stumbled as something white skidded across the linoleum floor and landed at Mrs. Scanlon’s high heeled feet.
Jack’s eyes went wide as his heart fell into his stomach. His money! His entire life savings currently secured in a white sock now lay at Jenna’s mom’s feet. Jack was frozen where he stood, fear icing his joints into place.
Mrs. Scanlon took a disgusted step back as if she’d never seen anything so hideous in her life as an old, white sock. “What is that?” She toed it with her shoe.
Jenna moved, rushing forward for the money, but Mrs. Scanlon must have recognized the distinctive shape of what was inside the sock. She quickly shoved it behind herself with her shoe just as Jenna was reaching for it.
“Mom, no!” she shouted.
One of the bodyguards behind Mrs. Scanlon bent to pick up Jack’s money. The sight of it in someone else’s hand unfroze Jack.
“Give that back!” he demanded. “That’s mine!”
Jenna was trying to reach around her mom for it as well, but the other bodyguard was suddenly there. He placed himself in front of Mrs. Scanlon as she and the bodyguard with Jack’s sock stepped fully from the room.
Jack moved Jenna aside, ensuring she was safely away. Then he rounded on the bodyguard in the doorway. The man had a good hundred pounds of muscle and several inches on Jack—but that wasn’t going to stop Jack.
A part of him registered Mrs. Scanlon’s voice out in the hallway and saying things like “no doubt drug money” and “my poor daughter”, but he ignored it.
Jack tackled the bodyguard, taking him down by sheer surprise and momentum.
Jack might not be on the football team, but he paid attention.
He needed to know that he could take down a grown man twice his size if needed.
Rather than wasting his time with the first bodyguard, who could easily overpower him once he regained his senses, Jack scrambled off the man. As the second bodyguard moved towards him, putting Mrs. Scanlon behind himself, Jack snatched the sock from his hand.
The man immediately grabbed for him. Jack spun out of his reach, but that only trapped him against the windowed wall of the room. Suddenly Jenna was there, skipping over the fallen bodyguard like a ballerina.
Jack tossed her the sock full of his money like they were playing a game of keep away—which they were. “Run!”
As Jack moved to block the bodyguard by trying, and failing, to tackle him as he had the first man, Jenna bolted.
She ran past Jack, the bodyguard, and her mother to the library’s staircase.
Her mom made no move to physically prevent her, only shouting at her to stop.
Their commotion echoed loudly around the library’s quiet halls.
Jack did not see what Jenna did or where she went after she disappeared down the stairs.
The bodyguard plucked Jack off of him like he weighed no more than a bug. He pushed Jack backward. As Jack was trying to catch his balance, hands gripped his arms, pinning them behind his back. The other bodyguard must have regained his feet.
Jack tried to kick out with his legs, but he was no match against the two full grown men. Both were extremely muscular and both were pissed off.
The punch to the side of his face took him by surprise. His legs stopped kicking as he tried to catch his breath. Pain radiated from his left eye. Another hit. Metallic blood filled his mouth as he bit his tongue.
“Stop.”
With the ringing in his ears, he thought at first the voice was Jenna’s. The strong grip pinning his arms to his sides lifted him upright with such speed that Jack’s vision blurred. He refused to lean on his captor though. He would stand on his own two feet.
Mrs. Scanlon put her hand on the arm of the bodyguard who had done the punching.
Something about the move seemed familiar, almost intimate.
The man took an obedient step back, but the look in his eyes when they fell on Mrs. Scanlon held a reverence that made Jack wonder if there was something more between the two of them.
His eyes did not linger long on the bodyguard or Mrs. Scanlon. He quickly looked around for Jenna but could not find her. Relief made his knees weak. He did not want her anywhere near these men.
In her heels, Mrs. Scanlon stood a couple of inches taller than Jack. Her posture and the way she held herself gave her the air that she was a formidable foe. Jack had never thought he’d ever want to raise a fist against a woman before this moment—and he hated her for that.
“I can’t punish you the way I want to.” She gestured around to the library.
“Not here at least. But rest assured, if I see you anywhere near my daughter again in the future, I will make your existence utterly miserable. My husband is a powerful man and not an enemy you want to make. However, he’ll go after you legally.
Likes to throw his weight around with the big boys at his country clubs and political parties.
I, on the other hand, am much more cutthroat.
I see a problem,” her manicured fingers snapped closed in front of his face, “and I do not hesitate to extinguish it.”
For several seconds, Jack’s heavy breathing was the only sound in the library. He had no idea where Jenna, Mrs. Faulkner, or Becky were.
She bent slightly to put her nose right up to his. “Stay away from my daughter. I will not tell you twice.”
Rage boiled up inside him. He would not stay away from Jenna just because her cruel mother demanded it. No one could keep him from seeing Jenna—except Jenna.
Jack gathered up the bloody saliva in his mouth and spat it right in her face. The bloody loogie landed on her right cheek, splattering crimson across her forehead, chin, neck, and the pristine white collar at her shoulder.