Chapter Nineteen
Jenna
The heat of summer gave way too much cooler temperatures throughout the following week. “It’s the change of seasons,” Derek had told me one evening when I’d complained of the abrupt change. “It happens usually over a matter of days. You’ll see the trees change too. When you see snow on the mountains, you know fall and winter are close.”
I stared up at the yellow-and-orange-tinged trees that lined the street. A few of them had fallen already to the cracked sidewalks. The sunlight still felt warm, but a noticeable crispness clung to the air when I stepped out of Derek’s house to let him get some sleep for the day.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
I started at the sound of Martha’s voice right behind me. Her cheeks were flushed a pretty pink, and she wore a light track suit and sneakers. Her dark hair was pushed back by a hairband.
“It is,” I said.
Martha adjusted the zipper of her jacket. “The colors will get more vibrant over the next month or so. Some Halloweens we walk around in a sweater. Other times we are bundled up in our costumes. You’ll see.”
She smiled, but I couldn’t find it in me to return the smile. I hadn’t even thought of staying long enough to be around for Halloween. I dimly remembered Owen telling Derek the other day that he wanted to be a ninja for Halloween.
“How are you holding up?” Martha asked. She smiled empathetically when I looked back at her. “I know it’s been a week since anyone has seen him around. That has to be eating at you.”
I swallowed the unpleasant feeling in the back of my throat. I didn’t want to think about it. No one, not even Derek, seemed to know where Leon had gone after being served those papers. The only sense of comfort I took was that people knew who to look for if I went missing. It was a cold and horrible sense of comfort, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Leon was lurking somewhere close despite Derek’s efforts to keep me protected.
“A little,” I admitted, sighing. “It’s the not knowing where he is that is really bothering me. If I knew he was in California, I’d be okay.”
“Do you think the restraining order coupled with the police car spooked him?”
“No.” I considered it for a moment. “Maybe it did. He isn’t the type who’d do good in prison, so he’ll keep his distance until I can get a permanent restraining order.”
“My ex was the same way,” Martha said. Her gazed focused on something down the street that I couldn’t see. “I tried everything I could think off to get away. I changed my number. I moved. I went to court several times. Nothing ever seemed to work. He always came back angrier than the previous times.”
“What finally made him go away?” I asked.
She looked back at me with a haunted gaze. “A car accident of all things. A drunk driver hit him one night when he was driving home from work. That’s what I read at least.” Martha smiled thinly. “His family was devastated by it. They never believed their son was capable of bruises and broken bones.”
“Leon’s family doesn’t either,” I said, and bitterness toward the situation tore through me. “I was always the liar. They stood in court to tell the judge I just wanted my things that Leon had bought, so I was making up the entire story. Even after I was in the hospital with a concussion and two broken ribs, they still defended him.”
“It makes them feel invincible when they have people, even their own family members, to believe them. That’s part of it.” Martha reached over to grasp my hand in her cold one. “Just keep trying to live your life as much as you can. That’s all you can really do is rebuild and keep going.”
“It’s easier said than done.” I sighed out and spotted the realtor coming down the street in her minivan. “I have to meet with the realtor, so if—”
“Realtor?”
I stopped at the sound of Martha’s sharp voice. She gave me a long, hard look that instantly reminded me of my mother’s whenever I did something she didn’t approve of.
“You can’t keep running away,” she said. Then she added knowingly, “Or are you running away for a different reason?”
I looked away to hide the turmoil of emotions in me.
“I know that you and Derek are”—Martha paused for a moment to search for the right word— “more than friends. There is something there that is real. I’ve seen it in the way Derek has looked after you even before you realized it.”
“It doesn’t matter though,” I said, tears stinging my eyes. “I have to go. Leon will keep coming by here now that he knows I’m here. I can’t risk putting Owen in the line of danger either.”
“That is Derek’s job to protect his son, and he will if he feels Owen is threatened.”
The realtor pulled up the driveway. She stepped out from behind the wheel to give me a cheerful wave.
“Just think about what you're doing,” Martha said sagely. “I know Derek has a hard exterior, but no one is blind to the fact that he feels something for you. I wouldn’t run away from that.”
She gave my hand one last squeeze before heading down the sidewalk. I wiped at the tears in my eyes out of aggravation, because Martha was right. I didn’t know what to think of Derek, or the terms of our relationship, and I hated the feeling of depending on him for protection, but I couldn’t pick my life up and run wherever the wind blew.
Owen would be devastated. My heart clenched just thinking of that sweet, blond-hair boy who loved to talk about his rock collections and shoot Nerf guns with Derek when he was done with homework.
I walked up the driveway to where the realtor was busy fumbling with a camera. She looked up at me through the thick curls of her hair.
“The house looks wonderful, Jenna,” she said excitedly. “The maintained yard, flowers, and you fixed things that needed to be fixed.”
“My neighbor fixed them,” I said, twisting my hands in front of me nervously. “Look, Pam, I know my mom sent you out here to put the house on the market, but I’m going to stay here.”
Pam stiffened visibly. “You are?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding. “I thought leaving would be the best thing, but one of my neighbors pointed out that I had to stay and rebuild my life. I realized that she’s right. I can’t keep running whenever things go wrong.”
“Your mother is going to be upset,” Pam said, lowering her camera to the ground. “She was very firm on this house being sold within a week.”
“I know, but she’ll get used to the idea.” I held out a hand for Pam to shake. “Thank you for everything you have done. I appreciate the help.”
Pam took ahold of my hand slowly and gave it a brief squeeze. She hesitated in the driveway, waiting for me to change my mind, but when I didn’t call her back, she climbed into her van. I caught a glimpse of her on the phone before the van disappeared down the street.
I set my phone inside on the hallway table, because I knew my mother would be calling to demand an explanation. Closing the front door, I crossed over my yard to Derek’s front door to clean up the kitchen from the chaos of the morning. I washed a few cereal bowls before making my way up the stairs as quietly as possible check on Derek’s sleeping figure sprawled out on the unmade bed.
He slept on, oblivious to me standing alongside him. The morning light fluttered through the tree leaves outside, leaving patterns on Derek’s face. A sign of complete trust. My heart leapt at the thought. He didn’t even wake when I came in and out of the house. For an ex-Navy SEAL, that said a lot.
I pressed a kiss against his temple, savoring the feeling of his warm skin before leaving him to sleep on.
My phone was vibrating madly on the hallway table, as I’d expected it would be. I debated on letting it go to voice mail again, but I didn’t want to waste the rest of my afternoon on avoiding a confrontation with my mother.
“I know I sent the realtor away,” I said with futile hope that my mother would let me explain. “Just let me—”
“We agreed that it’d be a good idea if you found a new house,” she said, her voice tight with frustration. “I told the relator to bring a list of potential houses for you to look at, not email them. You can’t stay there, Jenna. You know that.”
“I want to stay here though,” I said, closing the front door when a chilly breeze fluttered through. “I can’t keep running away from everything. He’s only going to find me again. That’s who Leon is. It’s a game.”
“You want to stay because of Derek. I may be old, but I’m not blind. I can see what is going on between you two.”
“I don’t even know what is going on between us,” I said, exasperated. “And if there was anything, what’s wrong with that? He’s not a bad man.”
“The situation isn’t right, Jenna. He’s paying you to babysit his son, and yet the two of you are sleeping together.”
“He’s helping me,” I replied defensively. The buzzer in the laundry room went off. “Does that count for something?”
I started down the hallway in the direction of the laundry room.
“Yes, it does. I’m thankful he has been so helpful to you, but—”
Something yanked hard on the back of my head, pain erupting in my skull. My phone slipped from hand to thump against the hardwood floor.
A hard body pressed up against my backside, effectively pinning me to the wall. An icy wave of fear came down on me when I felt a nose nuzzle the back of my neck. That familiar smell of rich cologne filled my nose. My heart slammed itself repeatedly in the caverns of my chest.
No. No. No!
“Do you honestly think a piece of paper scares me?” Leon said into my ear, rubbing against me with a relieved groan. “God, I have missed you. You feel wonderful.”
Tears filled my eyes. I choked back a cry when his fingers slid around my body before he pulled back to grab ahold of my wrist. I couldn’t even struggle. Just seeing him standing there dressed like he had been dressed in my dream, a fancy shirt and nice jeans with his hair slicked back, rendered my legs useless.
I heard my mother’s voice still chattering through the phone, unaware that I had dropped it. Leon crouched down with one hand on my wrist before he hit the end button. He tossed the phone onto the hallway table carelessly.
“You’re pale,” he said, raking his eyes up and down me. “You need the sunshine again. You look ugly without tanned skin.”
The insult stung, as he’d intended it to. I tried to remove his fingers from my wrist, but he tightened them painfully.
“Leon,” I said thickly through tears, “please. Just leave me alone. I just want to—”
“I can’t leave you alone,” he said matter-of-factly. “You know that, Jenna. I’m yours, and you are mine. Remember? We made that vow a long time ago.”
My phone buzzed on the hallway table. I stared at it helplessly. Call the police, Mom. Tell them to come back. Derek still had a cop driving by every hour, but it had just passed by ten minutes ago. That told me Leon had been around for over a week, watching them and memorizing the patterns. He was just that damn smart. The one time he knew I would lower my guard a bit… I just could never fully escape. The realization felt sharp in my chest.
Just thinking of Derek sleeping upstairs alone brought on a wave of hysterics. I wanted to crawl back up there into the safety of his strong arms. I should’ve just lain there with him.
Leon reached out to touch my cheek. I flinched away from the touch, but he continued to trail his thumb across my cheekbone. His eyes flashed angrily when I tried to push his hand away.
“What’s wrong?” he hissed. He leaned forward to push me up against the wall again. “Don’t want me to touch you, hm? Just want that guy who lives next to you?”
I bit down on my lip to keep from crying.
Fingers circled my throat. My eyes widened in horror when I felt Leon’s fingertips slowly press down to cut off my air supply. He leaned in to press his lips against mine briefly. My stomach convulsed violently at the taste of him— cinnamon and rich.
“Too bad he’ll never see you again,” Leon said. “I’m sure he’ll find some other woman to occupy his time. You can be replaced easily, believe it or not. Have a good sleep, Jenna. When you wake up, we’ll be back in California. Everyone is really excited to see you again.” He smirked darkly at me. “You did abandon all your friends, you know.”
“I didn’t abandon them,” I gasped out, clawing at his fingers. “You forced me to run away. I didn’t want to leave. Please, don’t. Let me go, Leon. I’ll come with you if you let me go.”
“You’re a horrible liar,” Leon remarked, shaking his head at me in disgust. “You always were a horrible liar. Just relax and this will go a lot faster.”
His fingers tightened even more. My lungs burned for air. I tried to scream, but nothing came out. My fists thumped uselessly against his chest. A blackness crept along the back of mind before a warm sensation overcame me. I slipped into the darkness as a crash echoed in the hallway, right before my body hit the cold, hardwood floor.
I didn’t even feel Leon’s fingers lift from my neck. I was gone, gladly slipping into that unconscious blanket of nothingness.