Chapter Fifteen
It wasn’t long after Eneko proclaimed mother and baby healthy and sent them back to their own home before more police arrived. Jasmine was shocked but the two cops that had tried to prevent Rachel from entering the Alava home–the same ones that apparently escorted Andy right in–claimed that Eneko had violated the terms of his release and had acted aggressively towards them.
Jasmine was about ready to attack those cops as Eneko was handcuffed, but he caught her eye and shook his head. “It’s going to be okay. We all know what really happened. I need you to phone Clifford.”
“Your lawyer won’t help you wriggle out of justice this time,” one of the cops growled. “We know you killed that woman, don’t think you’re going to get away with it.”
Jasmine’s vision tunneled in on that cop and her jaguar yowled. “Look, you—"
“Jasmine.” Eneko’s voice was soft, cutting her off. “Call Clifford.”
The cops bustled her out of the way. Her hands clenched and she wanted to scream and rage. She wished she could just shake them and make them see what was really going on here. But Eneko wasn’t going to be helped if she was arrested because she was acting aggressively towards the cops. Somewhere behind her Lori was already on the phone but Jasmine didn’t pay attention to who she was talking to.
“He didn’t kill anybody,” she said as Eneko was dragged out of the house. Marcus and his men were deep in an argument with the detectives. She rushed over to them. “He didn’t kill anybody. Jeremiah Wilder was stalking Jana Adler and he told me that he saw a black bear attacking her. Eneko has white fur.”
The detective gave her an annoyed look. “I don’t care. Whatever you have to say, you’re just covering for your boyfriend. So, either you bring us someone who’s willing to confess for the murder or just keep your nose out of our business before we arrest you.”
Jasmine started to lunge forward, but Marcus caught her around the waist. He hauled her back. The detectives both glared at her. It took all of her strength to bite her tongue and not scream curses at them. Then she saw Andy and Jerimiah both standing across the road with their cellphones out, filming the scene. Claws sprouted from her nails. When Marcus hauled her back inside, he saw that her eyes had turned amber-gold, the pupils becoming slits.
The bear deposited her in the sitting room and shook his head. “You need to back off.”
Jasmine opened her mouth to protest.
Marcus held up his hand. “Right now all you are is the girlfriend who will do anything for her man.”
“But I—"
“That’s not what I’m saying you are, it’s what they’re painting you as. And they’ll continue to paint you like that. So, you need to stay calm. Eneko needs your support, okay? Not you trying to get him justice.”
Jasmine didn’t respond. Marcus left the house again, and this time she stayed inside. He was right. She wasn’t going to do any good getting herself in trouble. An arm wrapped around her and she jumped, but it was Lori.
“Come on,” her sister urged. “Let me take care of you for a change.”
“They’re not going to listen unless we have someone who will confess,” Jasmine murmured as she allowed her sister to guide her away. “They won’t even consider Jeremiah Wilder, will they?”
Lori made a humming noise in her throat. “Look, I was thinking about it again… and I don’t think it was him. He had a gun. Why would he beat her to death when he had a gun? And she was left on the clinic’s doorstep. Maybe whoever did it was trying to save her… I don’t know, Jazz. There’s something we’re missing.”
Jasmine slumped onto the couch. She sat there for a long time, her head in her hands, her mind churning. She couldn’t think of what to do now. Everything was falling apart. Maybe it was best to leave this to the lawyers. Clifford had gotten Eneko out of jail once, perhaps he had more up his sleeve. This whole situation was extremely politically charged…
Politics.
Lori was talking to someone in the hallway but Jasmine ignored it. Instead she grabbed her laptop and pulled up the internet. Andy’s anti-shifter YouTube channel, the one where he had uploaded Eneko throwing him back that day, was full of videos from the protests. Perhaps there was a clue there. Something that would help her...
What they were saying made Jasmine sick to her stomach, so she muted the videos. Lori laughed her flirty laugh and Jasmine rolled her eyes as she continued on.
The video of Eneko’s ‘attack’ was third on the list. Jasmine kept her eyes on Jana and the interactions she had while the rest of the events took place. When Eneko grabbed Andy and shoved him away from Rachel, Jasmine paused the video. Jana’s hand was wrapped around Rachel’s wrist. Jasmine inched the feed forward. Jana moved in close to Rachel and whispered something in her ear that made the other woman cringe back and wrap her arms around her belly.
At some point Lori brought her tea. Jasmine ignored it as she watched the rest of the videos. There was a lot of Jana’s face in the camera, but nothing else stood out to her.
“I was so worried about him. But he’s okay. He’s okay. He wasn’t hurt.”
Jasmine’s stomach dropped as she remembered what Rachel had said. And the strange, thin line that looked like a scar she had seen on the baby’s back when she was rubbing him down. She had never seen a human child so young before and had dismissed it but…
“Jazz?”
Her head jerked up. Lori stared down at her with a concerned expression. Jasmine got to her feet. “I have to go. I think… I have to go.”
“Jasmine Rowlands, where do you think you are going?” Lori ran after her.
“I have to go talk to someone.”
Lori grabbed her wrist. “Who?”
“Rachel Higgins. The woman who gave birth here.” Jasmine swallowed hard. Was it sheer desperation leading her to this chase? Maybe, maybe not. In any case it didn’t matter. Not right now. “I’m hoping she can help. If nothing else I can at least make sure that she has another doctor to go to, right?”
Lori’s brows pinched together, but Jasmine pulled away. She ran to her car and jumped in, her heart hammering in her throat. She didn’t allow herself to think as she drove to the Higgins’ house (she had heard them give Eneko their address). She didn’t even knock when she got there. Instead she walked right in and found Rachel and her husband sitting in the living room. Rachel was in tears, her arms wrapped around her baby.
Jasmine hesitated. What right did she have to be here?
They won’t listen to the truth unless they have someone to confess to the murder.
“Eneko was arrested again,” Jasmine said, trying to keep her voice even. “Jana Adler threatened you, didn’t she? She threatened your baby.”
Rachel’s face paled. She stared at Jasmine with sheer terror. Her husband got to his feet, his expression grim.
“Yes.” His voice shook slightly. “She did. And so, I killed her.”
Jasmine’s throat was suddenly dry. She came to accuse them, yes, but hearing the confession… “Y-you did?”
“Joseph!” Rachel’s eyes widened. “You—”
“The baby needs you,” Joseph whispered back.
He turned to his wife and something passed between them. Something strong and intimate, the likes of which Jasmine had only ever read about in storybooks… and shared in some of her glances with Eneko. She sank into a chair, already knowing what was happening. Her gaze stayed on the tiny being in Rachel’s arm, resting peacefully unaware of what was happening outside of his little world.
Unaware that he was soon going to lose his father.
Joseph sank down beside his wife and hid his face in his hands. Eventually he nodded and looked up again. “I will go to the police. I don’t want an innocent man to go to jail for this, and Dr. Alava has two little children himself, doesn’t he?”
“Maite and Luken.” Jasmine’s voice was little more than a whisper.
Joseph took a moment to collect himself, then gently took his son from Rachel. He stroked the downy hair and sighed. “It started before Jana’s protests. She was very hostile towards Rachel and I, because she’s a shifter and I’m not. The night that she… that I killed her, she confronted us as we were walking home from Rachel’s work. She was drunk, and said that I was polluting my ‘pure’ lineage. I didn’t see the knife in her hand until she stabbed my wife in the stomach.”
Jasmine pressed her hands together, stomach roiling. Part of her wanted to just walk away. A man with a new baby shouldn’t have to go to jail… Especially since by the look on Rachel’s face, he was so clearly covering for his wife. Maybe it was selfish on Jasmine’s part, but she couldn’t stop him.
Luken and Maite needed their father. An innocent man couldn’t be jailed and they couldn’t lose their father.
“I didn’t mean to kill her,” Joseph continued. “I was just so angry. Rachel was healed by the time I realized what I had done. I took the woman to Dr. Alava’s clinic. I thought he might be able to save her… and I was too frightened to go to the police. There was no evidence that Rachel had been stabbed, not until now. Our son has a scar on his back. It was from Jana Adler attempting to kill him before he was even born.”
Tears trickled down Jasmine’s face. She wiped them away and took a deep breath. “Eneko is facing a lifetime in jail. His children need him.”
“My son needs his father,” Rachel whispered.
Joseph squeezed her hand. “He needs his mother. I love you, but I’m not going to let Dr. Alava go to jail for this. The community needs their doctor.”
Guilt was clearly written on Rachel’s face. Jasmine had no doubt that it was true that Jana had attacked her. That the scar on the baby’s back was from his tender skin being cut open while he was still in utero. But she was also convinced that it was her, not her husband, that had attacked Jana. Not that she was going to say that to the police. This was an awful enough situation, and if Joseph was willing to sacrifice his freedom for his wife, she wasn’t going to stop him.
This whole thing was shitty. It should never have happened. But the courts would be kinder to him, a non-shifter protecting his wife, than it would be to her, a shifter. They all knew it.
“I’m sorry,” Jasmine whispered.
“I was protecting my family.” Joseph stood. “And I’m ready to face justice.”