Page 38 of Steel & Jenna
Mrs. Scanlon took a disgusted step back as if she’d never seen anything so hideous in her life as an old, white sock. “What isthat?” She toed it with her shoe.
Jenna moved, rushing forward for the money, but Mrs. Scanlon must have recognized the distinctive shape of what was inside the sock. She quickly shoved it behind herself with her shoe just as Jenna was reaching for it.
“Mom, no!” she shouted.
One of the bodyguards behind Mrs. Scanlon bent to pick up Jack’s money. The sight of it in someone else’s hand unfroze Jack.
“Give that back!” he demanded. “That’s mine!”
Jenna was trying to reach around her mom for it as well, but the other bodyguard was suddenly there. He placed himself in front of Mrs. Scanlon as she and the bodyguard with Jack’s sock stepped fully from the room.
Jack moved Jenna aside, ensuring she was safely away. Then he rounded on the bodyguard in the doorway. The man had a good hundred pounds of muscle and several inches on Jack—but that wasn’t going to stop Jack.
A part of him registered Mrs. Scanlon’s voice out in the hallwayand saying things like “no doubt drug money” and “my poor daughter”, but he ignored it. Jack tackled the bodyguard, taking him down by sheer surprise and momentum. Jack might not be on the football team, but he paid attention. He needed to know that he could take down a grown man twice his size if needed.
Rather than wasting his time with the first bodyguard, who could easily overpower him once he regained his senses, Jack scrambled off the man. As the second bodyguard moved towards him, putting Mrs. Scanlon behind himself, Jack snatched the sock from his hand.
The man immediately grabbed for him. Jack spun out of his reach, but that only trapped him against the windowed wall of the room. Suddenly Jenna was there, skipping over the fallen bodyguard like a ballerina.
Jack tossed her the sock full of his money like they were playing a game of keep away—which they were. “Run!”
As Jack moved to block the bodyguard by trying, and failing, to tackle him as he had the first man, Jenna bolted. She ran past Jack, the bodyguard, and her mother to the library’s staircase. Her mom made no move to physically prevent her, only shouting at her to stop. Their commotion echoed loudly around the library’s quiet halls.
Jack did not see what Jenna did or where she went after she disappeared down the stairs.
The bodyguard plucked Jack off of him like he weighed no more than a bug. He pushed Jack backward. As Jack was trying to catch his balance, hands gripped his arms, pinning them behind his back. The other bodyguard must have regained his feet.
Jack tried to kick out with his legs, but he was no match against the two full grown men. Both were extremely muscular and both were pissed off.
The punch to the side of his face took him by surprise. His legs stopped kicking as he tried to catch his breath. Pain radiated from his left eye. Another hit. Metallic blood filled his mouth as he bit his tongue.
“Stop.”
With the ringing in his ears, he thought at first the voice wasJenna’s. The strong grip pinning his arms to his sides lifted him upright with such speed that Jack’s vision blurred. He refused to lean on his captor though. Hewouldstand on his own two feet.
Mrs. Scanlon put her hand on the arm of the bodyguard who had done the punching. Something about the move seemed familiar, almost intimate. The man took an obedient step back, but the look in his eyes when they fell on Mrs. Scanlon held a reverence that made Jack wonder if there was somethingmorebetween the two of them.
His eyes did not linger long on the bodyguard or Mrs. Scanlon. He quickly looked around for Jenna but could not find her. Relief made his knees weak. He did not want her anywherenearthese men.
In her heels, Mrs. Scanlon stood a couple of inches taller than Jack. Her posture and the way she held herself gave her the air that she was a formidable foe. Jack had never thought he’d everwantto raise a fist against a woman before this moment—and he hated her for that.
“I can’t punish you the way I want to.” She gestured around to the library. “Not here at least. But rest assured, if I see youanywherenear my daughter again in the future, I will make your existence utterly miserable. My husband is a powerful man and not an enemy you want to make. However, he’ll go after youlegally. Likes to throw his weight around with the big boys at his country clubs and political parties. I, on the other hand, am much more cutthroat. I see a problem,” her manicured fingers snapped closed in front of his face, “and I do not hesitate to extinguish it.”
For several seconds, Jack’s heavy breathing was the only sound in the library. He had no idea where Jenna, Mrs. Faulkner, or Becky were.
She bent slightly to put her nose right up to his. “Stay away from my daughter. I will not tell you twice.”
Rage boiled up inside him. He wouldnotstay away from Jenna just because her cruel mother demanded it. No one could keep him from seeing Jenna—except Jenna.
Jack gathered up the bloody saliva in his mouth and spat it right in her face. The bloody loogie landed on her right cheek, splatteringcrimson across her forehead, chin, neck, and the pristine white collar at her shoulder.
She cried out, stepping back and wiping at her face. The bodyguard behind Jack shook him so roughly that he thought he might get whiplash. The bodyguard in front of him struck out with his fist again, landing a solid hit to Jack’s nose. Blood gushed down the back of his throat as his vision blurred. Pain unlike anything Jack had ever felt before radiated out from the space between his eyes and down the length of his face. He coughed and spluttered, trying to fall forward but the man behind him kept him on his feet.
“You lowlife, drug dealing scum! Look what you did to me!”
Jack couldn’t look, because he still couldn’t get his eyes to work correctly. Even if his vision was clear, he wouldn’t have obeyed. This woman had no control over his life.
“Call the police!” Mrs. Scanlon shouted. “I’ve been assaulted!”
