Chapter Five
Jasmine stood at the window, looking out into the street. It had been hours since she had seen him through the window, hours since Andy had driven him off again with his cursing and screaming. Jasmine had phoned Eneko after she saw him drive off, and all he said was that he needed to clear his mind. A little while after that, he called her to tell her what happened with Jana. Now it was morning and the kids were up and upset that their father wasn’t home.
“Jasmine?”
She turned to find Maite looking up at her, big brown eyes wide. “What you looking for?”
“Nothing.” Jasmine ruffled the little girl’s hair. “Sorry, I just got lost in my thoughts. Are you done with breakfast?”
Maite nodded and wiped her nose. “I feel sick. I don’t want to go to school today.”
Jasmine sighed. It was best if the children had a day that was as normal as possible, wasn’t it? Maite was lying–probably, at least–and needed something to take her mind off the fact her dad wasn’t here. “Go get dressed, sweetie. You’ll feel better once you start moving around.”
Maite frowned, but moved off to obey. Jasmine took a moment to center herself and started to clean up the mess from breakfast.
She wanted to be here to greet Eneko when he came home. With this murder, though, her anxieties were kicking up to new levels. Jana was the leader of the protestors. Now she was dead, and it was a sure bet that people were going to blame Eneko. What if Andy had continued to follow him the previous night? What if he had him cornered somewhere? Nobody was answering at the clinic and Eneko’s phone went straight to voicemail…
She wanted to call someone, anyone, to get their help but who? All the police she had met had negative opinions of shifters. Growing up, there had been several times when something happened and she was blamed by the cops. Even after it was proven she was innocent, they treated her like a criminal. More than once she thought she was going to end up jailed for something that wasn’t even a crime.
The front door opened. Jasmine jumped and rushed into the hallway. Relief washed over her as Eneko shrugged off his jacket and hung it up. Heavy lines wrinkled his face, but he smiled briefly at her. Two sets of thumping steps ended with Luken and Maite both shouting out and rushing past her. Eneko dropped to one knee to embrace them as they jumped onto him.
“Da! You’re home.” Maite buried her face in her father’s shoulder. “I was worried.”
Eneko grimaced. He glanced up at Jasmine and she shrugged slightly, not knowing what else to do. Eneko hugged his children a little tighter before moving back. “I’m sorry I wasn’t home. There was work I had to take care of. Now hurry up and get dressed. Luken, you need to brush your teeth. I don’t want you late for school.”
Both children nodded obediently. They lingered a bit longer before turning and padding back down the hallway. Jasmine waited until she heard their doors close before she turned back to Eneko. Dark circles were smudged under his eyes and he ran a hand through his dark hair.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen now,” he told her, keeping his voice low. “I won’t be able to pay you.”
“Never mind about that. Are you okay?”
Eneko hesitated a moment before he rose his hands helplessly into the air. “I don’t know. This is… shocking. And awful. I don’t know how I feel and I don’t know what to do.”
Jasmine took a deep breath and nodded. In this sort of situation there was only one thing to do. Take care of the immediate situation. She could feel cold radiating from his body and grasped his hand, which was like ice. She shivered.
“Were you driving around out there in the snow without any heat on in your vehicle?”
“No. I drove out to the park and went for a walk.”
“Well, you need to warm up and get to bed. Go to the kitchen, I’ve got some coffee on and you can have a bowl of steel-cut oats. Walking about in the dead of night at this time of year. Bear or not, you’re not immune to the cold.”
Eneko nodded, then hesitated. “Sorry I didn’t call. My cellphone’s battery died. I’m just worried that—No, I don’t want to drag you into this mess.”
“Oh, I’m already involved. So just go eat, warm up, and I am going to get the children out the door for school. We’ll talk when I get back. Or after you sleep.” Jasmine peered at him worriedly for a moment before she turned and marched down the hall.
Now that their dad was home, she was able to insist that the children go to school without too much push back from them. Maite still dragged her feet, but a firm word from her father had her out the door. Jasmine made sure Luken got on the bus and took Maite to her school, all the while worry churning her stomach.
She returned to the house to find Eneko dressed in plaid pajama pants and a dark shirt. He lay on the couch wrapped in a blanket, but his eyes were open. Jasmine sat on the coffee table. She had to resist the urge to lay her hand on his head to check his temperature. He was a grown man and that would be exceedingly awkward.
“What did the police say?” she asked him quietly.
“The police?”
“You called and told me that they took you to the station. What did they say?”
Eneko shrugged and looked away. “That they would be in contact with me.”
“They think you did it.” Jasmine’s hands clenched. “They think that you did it and now it’s—”
“Hey.” He put his hand over hers. “Listen, it’s okay. Objectively, it makes sense to me from their point of view. I’ve been having problems with her and then she… she died at my clinic. Don’t worry about me. The matriarch has good lawyers, it’s going to be fine.”
Was that doubt she saw in his eyes? Jasmine looked away, knowing that any misgivings about the police that she expressed right now could very well be construed as doubts of his innocence. Best that she let it go, and focus on what she could do to help him rather than rale against the unfairness of law enforcement. Her mind cast about before she remembered something else she needed to know.
“Are you going to keep working?”
He shook his head.
It shocked Jasmine more than she cared to admit. While it was true that she hadn’t known him for long, everything she did know about him spoke to a kind, generous heart. She had the feeling that sitting around doing nothing wasn’t going to help him.
“Why not? The people around here need your services. You can’t just throw away your practice, they depend on you and—”
“And I need to talk with the matriarch, but right now my clinic is a crime scene. I can’t go back to it until the police open it up again, and I don’t see them doing that any time soon. It doesn’t matter. They need to do their jobs and Jana… she deserves justice.”
Jasmine looked away. She pressed her lips tightly together, not caring to admit that Jana was the least of her worries. The woman had wanted to force him out of business, and Jasmine, for one, wasn’t feeling charitable towards her. Yes, it was awful that she was dead. But if her death meant that lots of people weren’t getting the medical care they needed, that was even more of a crime.
“So, that woman. She was the one that came screaming at you, right?”
Eneko grimaced and nodded.
“Who was she, really?”
“She used to work for me. She had a boyfriend that I had to chase off a few times because he kept basically stalking her. Once she found out I was a shifter, though, she quit. Apparently, she told her boyfriend I fired her for refusing to sleep with me.”
That bitch. Jasmine pressed her lips tightly together to stop herself from speaking ill of the dead any more than she had already done.
“You know what?” Eneko shook his head. “I don’t really want to talk about it. I don’t know if I’ll need you… well, if the police are going to come back around I’m going to need you to watch the children. I’m sorry. Things are going to get hectic and you’re not going to have steady hours. And about what I said before about not being able to pay you, that’s not true. I’ll pay you. I have savings that I can dip into.”
“Hey, that’s the least of my worries.”
She bit her lip, guilt starting to trickle in to her stomach. At first, she didn’t realize what she was feeling guilty about, but when her heart warmed, she understood.
He had seen someone he knew die, was now probably the police’s main suspect, and he was thinking about her. Her guilt was because having him worry about her, think about her, made her happy. And given the situation, her gaze shouldn’t be dropping to his lips. It was inappropriate and ill-timed and…
Her jaguar mewled, urging her to kiss him. She looked away and her jaguar leaned in harder, insistent. It had been such a long time since it had insisted on anything that it caught her off guard.
Before she even knew what she was doing, her mouth was brushing against his.
To her surprise, Eneko kissed her back. At first the two of them were rigid, as though not quite certain what to do. But then as Jasmine started to pull back, he wrapped his hands around her skull and drew her in closer. Her eyes fluttered closed and a sigh escaped her lips. His tongue teased open her mouth and one of his arms wrapped around her waist. He pulled her over to lay atop him. Her legs fell to either side of him and she could feel his body pressing against hers…
He tensed beneath her. His hands moved to her shoulders and he gently pushed her away. Jasmine’s face flushed with heat as she scrambled off him. Her skin felt tingly and she looked away, embarrassed by how readily she had allowed herself to be carried away. He had just been through something traumatizing. What was she thinking, taking advantage of him like that?
“I’m sorry,” he said gruffly. He looked away as he sat up. “I shouldn’t have done that. It was grossly inappropriate.”
“I wouldn’t say grossly,” Jasmine mumbled, looking down at the floor. “Unexpected but not gross.”
Eneko shook his head. “I didn’t mean to say that it was gross, I meant—”
“It’s okay.” Jasmine released a deep breath and smiled up at him. “What you meant is that given the situation it was inappropriate. With what you witnessed and everything else.”
Eneko chuckled slightly. “I was thinking more along the lines that you’re my employee. But yeah, that other stuff too. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, and you’re not the one that should be saying that. I am sorry. I’m the one that kissed you. I shouldn’t have. It’s a… a confusing situation. Um… I’m going to go now. If you need me for anything, just call, okay?”
Eneko nodded and Jasmine gathered her things quickly. Her hands trembled by the time she got into the car and was on her way. What was wrong with her? She couldn’t go around kissing people like that! Especially not in this situation, with their working relationship… No, that had to be the very last time.
Her jaguar snarled at her.
The last time, she told it again.
It paced in her chest, letting her know that it wasn’t going to be the last time, not if it had any say in the matter.