Chapter 9 #3
Policemen were everywhere. Jenna spotted Mrs. Faulkner and Becky straight back with two officers. Leading her to believe that they had been in the back storeroom. It would explain why Mrs. Faulkner had not heard the commotion.
Movement drew her attention to her left where she saw Jack—oh God, his face!—being led down the staircase in handcuffs.
“No!” Jenna shouted and ran forward.
One police officer tried to stop her, but Jenna pushed off his outstretched arm. She weaved her way up the steps until she came directly below Jack.
His left eye was swollen shut and a mirage of colors.
But his nose. She’d never seen a broken nose before, but she didn’t doubt his was.
It was swollen and crooked with blood pouring out of his nostrils like a faucet.
Blood also coated his lips in a way that made her think he was bleeding inside his mouth, too.
When he opened his mouth to speak, she saw his teeth were outlined in red. “Jenna, I didn’t—”
“Stop.” She pooled her sleeve into her hand and carefully tried to wipe the blood off of his face.
A hand shot out and gripped her wrist. “Stop, what are you doing?” She looked to the police officer who was holding her wrist back from cleaning Jack’s face. “Who are you?”
“Jenna Scanlon,” she answered. “Jack’s my boyfriend.”
“Ma’am,” was called up the stairs by another officer. “Is this your daughter this boy assaulted?”
“Assaulted?” Jenna shrieked in shock as she heard her mother answer from the top landing. “Yes, that’s my Jenna. Baby, come here. Are you all right?”
What was her mom playing at? Jack hadn’t assaulted her!
Jenna turned to the police officer who still had a grip on her wrist. “He didn’t assault me! He would never!”
“That’s not what your mother is saying.” The expression on the man’s face said he clearly did not believe her. Moreover, he was looking at her with such pity that Jenna had to wonder if he thought she had Stockholm Syndrome for defending her attacker.
Jenna ripped her arm out of the man’s grip and pushed her sweater sleeves up to her arms. “Look at me! I wasn’t assaulted!
” She showed the cop her forearms and then lifted her sweater to show him her belly, even though it wasn’t entirely appropriate.
“Jack would never hurt me! I love him and he loves me!”
Jack’s good eye flew up to meet hers. They’d never said the words, but that didn’t mean they didn’t feel them. Jenna knew as well as Jack that they’d both felt so strongly for the other that it couldn’t be anything but love.
“Jenna!” came her mother’s shrill voice, but Jenna ignored it. She stared imploringly at the officer who had his hand over Jack’s handcuffed ones behind his back.
“We received a report that this man kidnapped you and assaulted you this morning. Your mother says that she and her bodyguards came upon the assault in progress in one of the upstairs private rooms.”
“No!” Jenna denied. “No, never! We were just talking. We weren’t doing anything…” Her cheeks heated as she recalled how intimately she’d been sitting on Jack’s lap.
“Maybe we should take her to the hospital to be certain,” one of the other officers on the stairs suggested.
“No!” Jenna shouted. She reached for Jack’s face. The expense of her sweater and their audience, be damned. He could barely see and it must be so painful to breathe out of his nose. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered to him. “This is all my fault.”
“It’s the bastard who hit me’s fault,” Jack corrected. He tipped his chin towards her face. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, realizing then that she had tears coming down her cheeks. She was also shivering from being outside without a jacket on. “I’m fine, I’m fine. God, look at you. Who did this?”
“Your mom’s bodyguards. One held me while the other beat the shit out of me.”
Jenna’s nose flared in rage. Her mom had a lot of bodyguards, too many to keep track of their names. She recognized both of the ones who were currently with her mom, though, which meant they were regulars. “I am so sorry.”
“You say that again and I’m taking you over my knee.”
Jenna gasped and her eyes looked around frantically, but he’d said it so low that no one else had heard it. She resumed wiping his face. “What can I do? How can I help?”
“Just tell them I’m innocent. I didn’t hurt you.”
“Of course, you didn’t!” He flinched when she reached his nose, even though she’d barely touched it. “Sorry,” she winced on his behalf. His good eye tried to glare at her, but it didn’t have the same effect as it did when he wasn’t battered and bruised. “I called the Zarins.”
Jack nodded. “Good, they can look after Lilly.”
Jenna dropped her hand, her anger flaring again.
Only this time, it was at Jack. “They can look after you, you stupid, selfless dummy! You need help, Jack! Look at you, you’re in handcuffs!
Lilly is safe. You are the one I’m worried about.
For once in your life, you need to think about yourself and not anyone else. ”
Jack shook his head. “Not possible. You and Lilly will always be my priorities.”
Her heart pinched at his declaration.
The officers hadn’t just been letting them talk while they waited around. The one standing next to Jack had remained but the other two had gone back up the stairs to talk with her mom and her bodyguards again.
Jenna turned to the officer. “Please. He needs a doctor. Just look at him.”
The officer looked up the stairs and then back at her. He leaned in close. “Look, I’m tempted to believe you, but it’s out of my hands. I just do as I’m told.”
Jenna’s heart sank. She stepped up closer to Jack, squeezing herself onto the stair just below his. With the rail at her back, she threaded her hand through the gap his cuffed arm and body made. Then held him tightly.
Jack seemed to sag against her. He couldn’t bury his face in her shoulder like he normally did.
Instead, he rested his forehead against the crook of her neck.
She could feel the wet sticky blood from his face coat her skin and sweater, but she didn’t care.
Her other hand cupped the back of his head, trying to bring him whatever comfort she could.
The officer’s and Jenna’s eyes met over Jack’s bent frame. His look that had once been pitying now looked sympathetic. She prayed Mr. Zarin arrived soon. She wasn’t confident this was a battle she could win otherwise.
She could hear her mother’s loud voice echoing throughout the library, but she tuned it out. Jack needed her focus now, not her mom.
That was, until she heard her mom’s heels on the staircase. “Get him away from her!”
The officer turned to face Claudette Scanlon. To his credit, he did not flinch or back down. “Your daughter claims there was no kidnapping or assault.”
Jenna had forgotten about the kidnapping accusation. “My sister dropped me off this morning. She was here when I met Jack of my own free will.”
The officer looked over his shoulder at her. “Your sister brought you here?”
Jenna nodded, though careful of where Jack’s nose was under her chin.
“Her name is Carolyn Scanlon. She can confirm that I asked to come here.” Looking up the stairs at her mom—who had blood on her?
—Jenna said loudly so the entire audience could hear, “I love Jack Duncan. You cannot and will not keep me from him, Mother. I was not kidnapped, assaulted, or raped by him. You are the one who tried to steal his money. You are the one who had your thugs beat him up. I will never forgive you for this!”
Her mom’s face turned bright red as she stood taller. “Jenna, you are unwell. You don’t know what you’re saying—”
“I am of sound mind and body!” Jenna shouted back. “Don’t you dare claim that I don’t know what I am saying or doing. Of the two of you, who is the adult here and, of the two of you, which had a fifteen year old boy beaten bloody by the thugs she employs?”
The silence that fell was interrupted by the front door slamming open and pounding footsteps as Mr. Zarin came inside. He was wearing a leather jacket with a fur lined collar. His cheeks were red from the wind, but there was a commanding air about him that immediately caught everyone’s attention.
“Jack!” He made a beeline for them on the stairs.
Jenna noticed that his eyes looked her over, too, but were mostly focused on Jack.
She didn’t know why that comforted her. Maybe because her own mother hadn’t asked her how she was or if she was safe or if she wanted to be with Jack…
All her mom cared about were appearances.
Carefully, Mr. Zarin lifted Jack’s battered face from Jenna’s shoulder. She still had a good amount of his weight, making her think that he was hurt worse than just his face. Anger burned in Mr. Zarin’s eyes as he took in Jack’s bloody face, nose, and eye.
“Who the fuck did this?” Mr. Zarin demanded of their audience. Without waiting for an answer, he asked Jack in a much gentler voice. “Who did this to you, son? Was it your father?”
Jenna couldn’t fault the man for drawing the wrong conclusion. Of the two of their parents, Jack’s father did come across as the bigger threat.
Jack shook his head.
“Why is he in handcuffs?” Mr. Zarin asked the officer beside them. “Take them off of him now!”
“There was an accusation of assault—”
“So you put the victim in handcuffs?” Mr. Zarin practically snarled.
“No, I—”
“It was my mom’s bodyguards,” Jenna told Mr. Zarin. She didn’t know what the officer was going to stay, but she needed to get Mr. Zarin to understand Jack’s innocence so they could get him medical care. “She’s accusing him of kidnapping and sexually assaulting me.”
“Did he?” Mr. Zarin looked her in the eye.
Jenna expected the question to insult her on Jack’s behalf, but instead it made her feel like Mr. Zarin was more on their side by asking it. Odd. “No,” she said loudly and honestly. “I keep telling them that, but they won’t take the cuffs off of him.”
Mr. Zarin nodded to her once and then looked to the cop. “The victim of the alleged assault claims there was no crime committed, why are you still arresting him?”
“Because he assaulted me too!”
Mr. Zarin looked up the stairs to where her mother was standing. Everything about her looked just as pristine as always, except for the splatter of blood on her white collar. “And who are you?” Mr. Zarin asked like he wasn’t impressed by her attire in the slightest.
Jenna’s mom stood up taller. “I am Claudette Scanlon, wife of Barnaby Scanlon and Chief Operating Officer at Scanlon Enterprises.”
Mr. Zarin’s dry demeanor did not change. “Impressive. You name your title at your husband’s company without naming your daughter? I can tell where your priorities are, lady.” He turned to Jack without even noticing or acknowledging her mom’s outraged gasp. “Jack, did you assault Mrs. Scanlon?”
“I spat in her face when she threatened to make my life miserable if I didn’t leave Jenna alone.”
“When and how did this happen?” Mr. Zarin asked with a frown. Jenna could not tell if his frown was from Jack’s answer or admission.
“When her bodyguards were holding me.”
“How were her bodyguards holding you?”
“The one had my arms behind my back while the other one was punching me.”
The only reaction from Mr. Zarin at Jack’s words was the tightening of his jaw. It was possible Jenna was the only one who saw it because of how close they were standing.
Mr. Zarin turned to the officer. “I would like to press charges on behalf of this minor for assault, intimidation, and false imprisonment against this woman and her bodyguards.”
“That boy is a drug dealer!” her mom suddenly shrieked. “He has cash on him!” She looked to Jenna. “Show them! You took the money. Where is it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jenna said tightly. “I have no money on me.”
Her mom’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t do this, Jenna. You are going to make life very…difficult by siding with this boy.”
“If you’re referring to the boy you had beaten, I will gladly side with him, Mother,” Jenna practically spat.
Never in a million years would she have thought her mom would have someone, let alone a teenage boy, beaten as she had with Jack.
“My place has been and always will be between him and you. I will not allow you to spread your vile lies just to save face.”
“That’s enough!”
Everyone turned at the next person to enter the library.
The burly man was massive. So tall that he had to duck under the door frame.
He wore a police uniform over a large belly.
The badge on his chest was slightly different than the other officers’.
His mouth was surrounded by the same gray and brown hair that covered his head.
“Timothy,” Mr. Zarin greeted the newcomer.
“Arnold,” the man acknowledged. He came up the stairs. “Daphne just called me, terrified she hasn’t heard from any of you. What is going on?”
Jenna saw her mom open her mouth and quickly jumped in. “My mom is trying to keep my boyfriend and me apart. She had her bodyguards beat him up and is claiming I was assaulted, but I wasn’t!”
Mr. Zarin looked to the man, the Chief of Police, Jenna realized. “We keep going round and round with this. Is there any way we can do this at the hospital so Jack can get looked at?”
Chief Cunningham nodded. “Let’s go.” To the officer beside them, he ordered, “Release him. Boy barely looks like he can stand. I highly doubt he’s going to make a run for it.”
Jenna let out a long sigh of relief. The officer moved behind Jack to uncuff his wrists.
“Jenna, you come with me,” her mother demanded. Jenna ignored her.
Mr. Zarin moved to take Jack’s weight from Jenna. As much as she wanted to be able to support Jack, she was grateful for Mr. Zarin’s assistance.
Jenna followed Mr. Zarin and Chief Cunningham down the steps.
“Jenna!”
She continued walking with them, pausing only to get Jack’s and her coats from the stand by the door.
“Jenna!”
Mr. Zarin stopped when they were outside to help Jenna get Jack’s coat on him. He leaned down to say gently in her ear, “I don’t want to see you get into trouble, Jenna. Maybe it’s best if you go with your mom.”
Jenna put her coat on too. “She did this to Jack. I have no mom.”