Chapter 22
When he checked on her, Natalie had fallen into a deep slumber, probably thanks to a combination of the bourbon and exhaustion. Lucky her. Tino had given up on sleep an hour after he’d crawled into bed. It was tempting to lurk in the corner of his own room and watch over Natalie, but he headed back downstairs to flop on the couch. Late-night television had nothing to offer, and the book he was reading didn’t hold his attention for more than a page or two.
He went back to pacing the floor. Damn, he had to do something, had to talk to someone before he exploded. Right now, it was a toss-up between heaving the weights at the wall or calling his brother. Since the first thing would wake up Natalie, he reached for his cellphone. It rang half a dozen times before he heard a deep grumble coming from the other end of the line.
“Jack?”
“Right on the first guess, you damn idiot. Who the hell else would be answering my phone at this hour?”
There was another voice in the background. Well, crap, he’d also woken up Jack’s wife. “Tell Caitlyn I’m sorry for bothering her.”
“I will, but she knows you wouldn’t call for no reason. The only question is whether you need both of us or just me.”
“Just you.”
Tino could tell that Jack was up and moving around. “Can we handle whatever it is on the phone or do you need me to come over? Don’t tell me I need to come post bail, because that could’ve waited till morning.”
“Smart ass. Remember the day you tore the annex up throwing the weight set around? And how much work it took us to put it back together?”
“Yeah.”
Neither of them would forget that day. Jack’s foster son, Ricky, had almost been killed by his stepfather. Jack had held it together until the boy was safely in the hospital, but then he’d returned to the annex to explode in a destructive fury. Tino had come just as close to losing Natalie tonight.
“I’m on the verge of seeing if I can outdo your performance.”
His brother sighed. “I’ll bring the truck in case I don’t get there in time, and we need to spend the rest of the night patching drywall and painting.”
Knowing his brother was on his way did a lot to help Tino regain control. “Good thinking. We’ll need it anyway for an unscheduled job tomorrow. I’ll explain when you get here.”
“I should be there in half an hour, maybe a little longer if I stop at the all-night doughnut shop on the way. If you want, I can pick up a couple of venti hot chocolates to go with them.”
“I want.”
—
The forty minutes it took for Jack to finally arrive were some of the longest of Tino’s life. Pacing the width of the small living room reminded him too much of his time in the military watching the prisoners trapped in the confines of a tiny cell. Prowling outside in the yard was out of the question, because he might wake up his mother. The last thing he wanted was to have her join this party. His nerves were at the breaking point when he finally spotted Jack’s truck.
It was about time. At least his brother was smart enough to kill the headlights and the engine before coasting into the driveway, lessening the chance of drawing Marlene’s attention. Tino found it easier to breathe as his brother silently joined him in the annex.
Jack crossed the room to sit at the kitchen table. He plunked down two cups of hot chocolate and flipped the lid open on a box of doughnuts. After picking out a maple bar, he shoved the rest across the table toward Tino when he sat across from him.
Jack didn’t pussyfoot around. “So what has Natalie Kennigan done to get your knickers in a twist?”
Still trying to act more in control than he was, Tino leaned forward to study the doughnuts. Good, Jack had remembered to get the ones with chocolate sprinkles. He waited until he’d eaten the entire thing before saying, “She came pretty damn close to getting killed tonight.”
As an ex–Special Forces soldier, it took a lot to shock Jack. Tino took some pride in the fact that his bald statement had clearly done the job. Jack sat up straighter, his doughnut forgotten for the moment, as he asked rapid-fire questions. “What the fuck? How did that happen? Is she okay?”
Tino glanced at the ceiling, reminding himself she was sleeping, safe and sound, upstairs. “Keep your damn voice down. I brought her back here to spend the night. She’s okay for now, but that’s due mostly to stupid luck.”
He sipped his hot chocolate, but the rich taste did nothing to wash away the bitter taste of fear. “God, that is one stubborn woman. It’s not enough that she’s put her heart and soul into the work she does for her grandfather’s foundation. No, she’s got to teach classes herself and then go waltzing around in a deserted parking lot at night. I used to hang around after basketball practices to walk out with her, but that ended after we quit seeing each other.”
“Like that would’ve kept you from keeping an eye on her.” Jack shook his head and reached for another doughnut. “And I’m guessing she’s smart enough to suspect you were still pulling guard duty.”
“Probably, although she never complained about it. Maybe that’s a sign she was getting over being pissed at me.”
A man could hope, anyway. But back to the story. “The kids on our team had something going on at school tonight, so practice got canceled. I was on my way to keep watch anyway when I got caught in a traffic jam. Knowing I wouldn’t get there in time, I called Clarence, the janitor at the center, and asked him to walk out with her. I arrived just in time to see three teenagers attack the pair of them.”
The images of what came next played out in horrifying slow motion inside his head. “The ringleader went after Clarence with a piece of pipe. Stupid kid got more than he asked for, because Clarence did himself proud fighting back. The second punk waded in, making it two against one while the third guy went after Natalie. She whacked him on the side of his head with her briefcase, but I doubt she did much damage. She’s such a little bit of a thing and no match for someone nearly twice her size.”
