Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Marcus
Jessa doesn’t say a word the whole drive to her building.
She goes up alone, comes back down in under ten minutes with a duffel slung over one shoulder, and slides into the back beside Mia without a word to me.
In the mirror, I watch her arrange the girl’s head against her own arm, smooth a thumb over her forehead, and check the rise of her chest. She doesn’t look at the road once.
“When will she wake up?” she asks, somewhere past the second light.
“A day, maybe less.” I keep my eyes forward, aware of Bella dozing in the front seat beside me. “She will wake up, Jessa. I promise you that.”
She rests her head against the window and crosses her arms tightly over her chest. “We should never have come here.” It’s barely loud enough to reach me. “Everything keeps going wrong.”
“We’ll get to the bottom of it.” My hands tighten on the wheel. “There’s no reason for you to regret coming here. Mia is so happy. How can you not see that?”
“Someone tried to kill her, Marcus,” she snaps. “How can you not see that?”
I look at her through the rearview window, and she looks back down at Mia before turning her attention to the passing scenery outside.
“I want to go to the police.” She says it to the glass. “A real report. Detectives, the whole thing.”
“The police won’t find him.” I turn off toward the outskirts. “My people are wider than any precinct and faster.”
“Your people?” she asks sharply.
“Jessa,” I murmur, “I know you’re upset and angry. So am I. But the police are useless. Wolfsbane is an herb that is close to extinct. You don’t have proof. You have nothing, just an unconscious child. They’ll blame you. If you file a report, they will need somebody to blame, and that will be you.”
Her face pales, and I hate scaring her like this.
“Just trust me. I’ll dig up the bastard responsible for this, and he’s going to regret even looking at our children.”
Her breath hitches, and I catch her stroking Mia’s hair.
We drive in silence, and then she asks, “Those people, back at that place.” She frowns at the trees. “What are they? They weren’t nurses.”
“Herbalists.” I keep my voice even. “Doctors keep vaccines, antidotes, the things that come in a vial. Not everything has a vial. Some poisons only answer to people who know the green side of it, the roots and the rest. They’re closer to that than any hospital.”
She gives me a look that says she’s not sure she buys my story but she’s too worn down to pick at it, and she drops the question. Good.
The house comes up dark except for the porch lamp.
Inside, I carry Mia up while Bella trails me on the stairs, her hand fisted in the back of my shirt, her eyes sleepy but aware. I lay the girl down in the small spare room, and Bella crowds close to the edge of the bed.
“Is Mia gonna be okay?” Her voice has gone tiny.
“She’s going to be fine.” I pull the blanket up over Mia’s shoulder. “We’ll look after her tonight, and the healer will come again tomorrow. You’ll see.”
Bella nods, then crosses to where Jessa stands in the doorway and wraps both arms around her waist. “I’ll watch Mia all night so you don’t have to worry.”
Jessa’s hand comes down on the fair head. “I want you to sleep, sweetheart.” She crouches to Bella’s level. “I’ll be the one checking on her. That’s my job. Are you hungry? You should eat something.”
Bella shakes her head against Jessa’s shoulder. “I just want to be near Mia.”
“Okay.” Jessa rises. “Then let’s get you into your pajamas, and you can get in bed with her.”
She helps Bella get ready for bed, and I understand it’s half about staying in the room herself. When it’s done, she sits on the edge of Mia’s bed, bends, and presses her mouth to the girl’s hair. “Sleep.”
I lean on the door frame and wish I could also kiss my daughter on the forehead.
When her shoulders start to droop, I cross and touch her elbow. “Come on. You’re dead on your feet.” I take her down the hall. “You can shower and change,” I tell her at my door. “I’ll be outside. Take your time.”
I grab a beer from the kitchen and carry it out to the porch. The night’s cool, the woods ticking with rain that stopped an hour ago, and I sit with the bottle sweating in my hand, too tired to go inside.
The screen door clicks. Jessa comes out in an oversized T-shirt and pajamas, her hair damp at the ends.
“Is there another one of those?”
I hold mine up. “Take this. I’ll get a fresh one.”
She takes it and drops into the chair beside me, knees drawn up. I come back with a second bottle and sit. For a while, neither of us says anything, the two of us drinking in the dark.
“Why would a man do that?” She turns the bottle in her hands. “To two little girls. What does he want with them?”
I weigh how much of the truth I can hand her. “I don’t know.” At least that part’s true. “Bella’s parents were murdered when she was a year old. She doesn’t know that. There’s a chance that tonight ties back to that and a chance it doesn’t. I just don’t know at this point.”
Her head comes up. “Murdered?”
“Years ago. It was never solved.” I take a slug of the beer.
“It doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with that.
But aside from that, I don’t see why the two of them would be targeted.
Until I know who that man was actually there for, the two of you are safest where I can see you.
I know this estate is open, but it’s very secure.
Nobody can break in here without raising alarms. Your apartment is not that safe. ”
She’s quiet, taking that in.
“You’re sure you’ve got no enemies of your own?” I ask. “Nobody from before, nobody you crossed?”
She shakes her head. “The only people who ever came after me were collectors. I cleared every cent of it. There’s no one left to come.”
“Your ex-husband’s debts.”
“Yes.” The word is small.
I don’t say anything for a moment. “I’m sorry you had to go through that on your own.”
She lifts a shoulder. “It’s fine. I still have Mia. I’m good at rebuilding myself. When—” She hesitates. “When Mia’s father turned his back on us, I was in college on a scholarship.”
My jaw tightens, and I look down at the beer in my hands. “That must’ve been rough. Your parents must have been furious.”
My voice is hoarse, the guilt eating at me.
She laughs quietly. “No. I was a foster kid my whole life. There were no parents to get angry with me. I lost my scholarship, though. I had to wait tables and do all sorts of odd jobs. I ended up dropping out. It was my last year as well.”
The bitterness in her voice is old, and I swallow the regret. I ruined her life, and I don’t even remember doing it. “Bastard.”
She chuckles now. “Maybe. You know, they threw one-dollar bills at me when I went to tell him. One of his guards or someone, I don’t know who, told me to get rid of it.” Her voice breaks. “You know, I took them. I hadn’t eaten in two days.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. Bastard. You useless fucking bastard.
“But I promised myself I’d give my child a good life, and I did.
” Jessa looks at me. “I got back on my feet. I waitressed, washed toilets, cleaned people’s homes.
At night, I would go to an Internet cafe and take courses in finance and accounting.
Free ones, some government funded programs. If I had cravings, I ignored them.
If my feet throbbed, I ignored them. I had to go to a free clinic.
But I always remembered that the man who seduced me threw one-dollar bills at me like I was some whore. ”
“Jessa!” The word is torn from my mouth, and when she looks at me, there is anger in her eyes.
“What? It’s true. He didn’t even have the guts to come out and see me. I helped him, and he seduced me, and then he ruined my life.”
I seduced her?
She helped me?
I want to rip through my memories. Why? Why can’t I fucking remember?!
“But I got Mia.” Just like that, Jessa deflates, the anger replaced by weariness.
“So next time you ask me why I don’t tell the father, I suffered, Marcus.
By myself. I lost everything, and while I did get back on my feet, that doesn’t change that it was all because of him. He doesn’t deserve to know.”
I can’t even summon an argument.
“You’re right,” I whisper hollowly. “He doesn’t deserve to know.”
She hesitates and then takes a long chug of her bottle. “You’re good with Mia. I can see it. She likes you. I can see that too.”
Her words startle me out of my own head, and I gaze at her. Her expression is troubled.
“I—” I choose my words carefully. “She is Bella’s friend, and she’s a good kid. In my eyes, she and Bella are equal, which is why I dote on them the same.”
She’s quiet for a few seconds. “You shouldn’t have kissed me. I don’t have room in my heart for anyone other than Mia.”
Something stirs in me, a flicker of hope. “Neither did I. Till now. Am I really that bad of an option? Is it because of Bella?”
Jessa’s head shoots up, and she scowls. “Of course not. Bella’s a little angel. Why would I have a problem with her?”
“Then what is it?”
She purses her lips and shakes her head. “I’m not interested in any sort of relationship with anyone. I don’t trust men. The ones I did attempt to trust screwed me over. So while I don’t mind Bella and Mia being friends, you and I are not going to be anything.”
I study her profile. I can’t accept that. Because if Mia can’t enter my life as my biological daughter, then at least I can have her as a stepdaughter. My wolf is pacing anxiously inside me. Whatever she suffered in the past I can’t change, but I can fix things now.
“So I’m not trustworthy in your eyes?” I ask quietly.
She swallows. “That’s not it.”
“Because when I look at you and Mia, I see something. When I look at you two and Bella, I want more. And if you think I’m going to give up, that’s not going to happen. You can push me away all you like, but I’m not going to give up.”
This is the first time I’ve openly and honestly declared my intentions.
She flushes and turns her face away, out at the black tree line.