Page 95 of Steel & Jenna
Lilly pointed behind him out his driver’s door window. “Who do we know that drives a limo?”
Jack turned in his seat. Across the street from their house was a shiny, black limo.
CHAPTER 21
Jenna’s heart sank when she pulled into Mr. Zarin’s driveway. Jack was sitting on the front steps with his elbows on his knees and his head between his hands. When her headlights fell on him, he didn’t lift his head right away. The hunch of his shoulders still remained.
She knew she was later than she said, but she’d been pulled over for speeding in her haste to get up to Port Townsend. The officer had thankfully given her a warning instead of a ticket. Still, Jenna had been embarrassed about the whole affair and knew that Jack would scold her further for speeding. Not because of the risk of a ticket but because it meant she wasn’t driving safely.
But now… She didn’t know what to expect.
Jack sitting morosely on the front steps of his house was not the reception she’d been expecting the weekend before her wedding.
He continued to sit as she got out of her car. She didn’t open her trunk to get her suitcases or the back door to get her garment bag that held her wedding dress.
Jack waited for her to approach the stairs instead of coming down to greet her or coming to get her bags. Her heart sank even more when he didn’t reach for her once she was within arms’ reach.
“Your father stopped by this afternoon.”
Jenna felt a cold sweat cake her skin. “What did he want?” She hadn’t even known he was back in the country. He was still doing his world tour of shaking hands and kissing babies to make up for the scandal of his wife going to jail for manslaughter.
“One last ditch effort to get me to walk away from you.”
Jenna didn’t laugh—because Jack wasn’t laughing. He wasn’t standing there cockily as he told her about how he turned her father away again or what ridiculous thing her father thought he wanted over her… No, he was standing there as stiff as a board and had yet to touch her, to smile at her. “What did he offer this time?”
“He found out that I’d signed up with the Marines. I didn’t realize he had contacts in the military but I guess that makes sense. Your dad has a lot of reach.”
She did not like how emotionless his voice was. Hard. Unyielding. “What did he do? Did he somehow get you kicked out before you started?”
“No, he offered to get me into MCU, the Marine Corps University. Then I’d be an officer. Higher pay, higher rank, better benefits… I’d have a safer military career too, depending on what I majored in. Possibly even less or no deployments.”
Jack had talked about being a Marine but not wanting a long career. She knew the difference between being an officer and enlisted as having a college degree, but she didn’t know what sort of college degrees mattered to the military. More than that, what college degree mattered to Jack. That had been the point of both of them going to community college, because neither had their hearts set on a specific career path yet. At least, until he’d enlisted.
“He offered to pay for Lilly’s education. Get her into the same academy as you in Seattle or whatever private institute I wanted to send her to, really. He gave me a list. Her entire college education would be covered by him too.”
Jenna was barely able to hear Jack’s low voice over the heavy drumming of her heartbeat. Her father had found the one thing thatwould tempt Jack: his sister’s education and future. Had he…? Would he…?
Was this it? Was Jenna about to have her heart broken into a million pieces? After all they’d been through, all they’d fought for, was she going to lose him four days before her wedding?
“And then there’s this.”
Jack reached behind him on the stoop. His body had been blocking a large duffel bag or maybe she’d been concentrating so hard on him that she just hadn’t noticed. He tossed it down the steps. It landed heavily at her feet.
Part of the zipper was undone. Cash, a lot of it from how full the bag was, poked its way out of the zipper. Jenna had an immediate flashback to that day in the library years ago when Jack had shown her the holey sock he’d once kept his life savings in.
Jenna’s entire body started to sway. She didn’t want to know, but she had to know. What was his price? After all this, what had his amount been?
“How much?” She didn’t even recognize her own voice. Was she even still standing?
“Twenty-five thousand.” He stood up and started walking down the three steps.
So much and yet so little. To Jack, she could understand how twenty-five thousand dollars could mean so much. And yet, she knew how small an amount it had been to her father.
Jenna’s chin trembled. She wasn’t sad, per se. Maybe that would come later. The longer she stared at that duffle bag at her feet, the angrier she got. Twenty-five thousand dollars? That was what she was worth to Jack? Or not worth? She didn’t even know which way was grammatically correct and she didn’t care. The bastard! After all this, all his promises and vows, it had taken twenty-five thousand dollars to get him to walk away from her.
Jack stepped over the bag of cash like it was nothing to him. It might as well have been her heart he stepped over so casually.
She looked up at him—and froze. He wassmiling. Her heart started hammering for a different reason. But she had to know. She couldn’tget her hopes up, only to have them crushed so quickly. That really would break her.
