Page 40 of Steel & Jenna
“Jenna, wait!”
But she didn’t wait. Jenna hung up the phone, barely registering the metallic sound of the coin dropping into the collection receiver. Clutching the sock to her chest, Jenna ran back across the street. The motors of the cop cars were still running, clouds of exhaust smoke filled her path to the sidewalk. She rushed back up the slick stairs.
Then paused on the landing.
She looked down at her chest. She couldn’t go running in there with Jack’s money. It defeated the purpose of her running away with the money in the first place.
Jenna spun in a circle. There was nothing around her. Not even a trash can she might be able to store it in. The stack of cash was too thick for her to hide on her person. Jack hadn’t been able to do iteither. As soon as he took off his jacket earlier, she’d known there was something under his shirt.
Could the police search her person if her mom gave them permission? Because her mom would knowexactlywhat she was hiding under her sweater and she was vindictive enough to allow the police to search her daughter if it meant Jack losing his ‘drug’ money.
Going over to the banister, Jenna looked down. A thick layer of snow covered the hill the library sat on and the bushes that outlined the rising steps. But…her eyes narrowed. There was a small gap in the corner. If she looked directly down, she could see it. Moving to the left or the right, she lost sight of it. The snow covered bush blocked it.
Perhaps stupid and impulsive, Jenna lined the money up with the corner of the stairs and the landing. Then let the sock fall. Down, down, it went until it hit the ground with a muffled plop. Not a snowflake out of place, it slipped past the bush into that small gap.
Confident his money was safe, Jenna turned on her heel and ran up the final flight of stairs. The glass doors of the library were fogged with condensation from the cold outside versus the heat inside.
As soon as she went through the doors, she heard her mother’s loud cries. Not just words either, but tears too. The only other time Jenna had heard that sound was during her grandfather’s funeral. But the moment they were behind closed doors, her mom’s large crocodile tears had ceased like someone had turned off a water valve.
Policemen were everywhere. Jenna spotted Mrs. Faulkner and Becky straight back with two officers. Leading her to believe that they had been in the back storeroom. It would explain why Mrs. Faulkner had not heard the commotion.
Movement drew her attention to her left where she saw Jack—oh God, his face!—being led down the staircase in handcuffs.
“No!” Jenna shouted and ran forward.
One police officer tried to stop her, but Jenna pushed off his outstretched arm. She weaved her way up the steps until she came directly below Jack.
His left eye was swollen shut and a mirage of colors. But hisnose. She’d never seen a broken nose before, but she didn’t doubt his was. Itwas swollen and crooked with blood pouring out of his nostrils like a faucet. Blood also coated his lips in a way that made her think he was bleeding inside his mouth, too.
When he opened his mouth to speak, she saw his teeth were outlined in red. “Jenna, I didn’t?—”
“Stop.” She pooled her sleeve into her hand and carefully tried to wipe the blood off of his face.
A hand shot out and gripped her wrist. “Stop, what are you doing?” She looked to the police officer who was holding her wrist back from cleaning Jack’s face. “Who are you?”
“Jenna Scanlon,” she answered. “Jack’s my boyfriend.”
“Ma’am,” was called up the stairs by another officer. “Is this your daughter this boy assaulted?”
“Assaulted?” Jenna shrieked in shock as she heard her mother answer from the top landing. “Yes, that’s my Jenna. Baby, come here. Are you all right?”
What was her mom playing at? Jack hadn’t assaulted her!
Jenna turned to the police officer who still had a grip on her wrist. “He didn’t assault me! He would never!”
“That’s not what your mother is saying.” The expression on the man’s face said he clearly did not believe her. Moreover, he was looking at her with such pity that Jenna had to wonder if he thought she had Stockholm Syndrome for defending her attacker.
Jenna ripped her arm out of the man’s grip and pushed her sweater sleeves up to her arms. “Look at me! I wasn’t assaulted!” She showed the cop her forearms and then lifted her sweater to show him her belly, even though it wasn’t entirely appropriate. “Jack would never hurt me! I love him and he loves me!”
Jack’s good eye flew up to meet hers. They’d never said the words, but that didn’t mean they didn’t feel them. Jenna knew as well as Jack that they’d both felt so strongly for the other that it couldn’t be anythingbutlove.
“Jenna!” came her mother’s shrill voice, but Jenna ignored it. She stared imploringly at the officer who had his hand over Jack’s handcuffed ones behind his back.
“We received a report that this man kidnapped you and assaulted you this morning. Your mother says that she and her bodyguards came upon the assault in progress in one of the upstairs private rooms.”
“No!” Jenna denied. “No, never! We were justtalking. We weren’t doing anything…” Her cheeks heated as she recalled how intimately she’d been sitting on Jack’s lap.
“Maybe we should take her to the hospital to be certain,” one of the other officers on the stairs suggested.
