Page 87 of Pretty Broken Things

“How did you get there? What happened to you?” I press her.

“That bitch Poppy is how I got there. She came into the coffee shop I work in, or probably worked in now, and pulled a gun on me. I was able to get a message to my boss as she forced me out of the shop and into a car. As for what happened once I got there, I don’t owe you those details.” She looks away from me, and whatever events are playing in her mind keeps her locked inside herself.

“The rope burns?” I ask.

All she does is nod, and start rocking herself. When she reaches for her phone I know she’s done with me, and turning to him for comfort. Once the person she needed most was me.

ChapterThirty-Seven

Ford

The warehousemy Grandpa Gene bought and worked so hard to restore has been mine for almost a year. He passed away one night while staying over at Ruthie’s house. It’s been hard without him, but I’ve tried hard to carry on his legacy. I wonder what he’d think of me turning his gym into a women’s shelter and training gym. The goal is to teach them how to defend themselves while giving them a safe place to stay in the hope they won’t need to.

I have to say, when I continued the remodel my grandpa started after he died, I never imagined I’d be using it in a sting operation to capture someone like Jesse Wilson. I’m happy to use the place if it means my friends will be safe from men like Jesse. I think Grandpa Gene would approve, because he was the type of guy who would always go out of his way to help someone in need.

The only part about this plan that I’ve grown to hate is that Tessa is the one who has to set the bait. Sure, I’ll be there to watch over her, but she still has to talk to him, and I can see the toll it takes on her to do it. Sin is the one who is listening in to her conversations with him that are recorded from the app he designed and installed on her phone. Even he seems to be softening toward her, which won’t end well for Jesse if Sin has more reasons to hate him than he already does. Jesse was dead the moment he thought to go after Raven, now he might die a bit more slowly.

“Are you ready for this?” Shane asks.

I shake my head. I’m having a hard time carrying on a conversation thinking about all the things that can go wrong with our plan. “Did you double check the security system?” I say when I’m finally able to speak.

“Triple checked. We’ve thought everything through. Try and relax or you’ll tip him off before they can even get him cornered,” Shane chides me.

I try to do what he says. I busy myself with making sure the caterers, who are actually extra security Sin’s family arranged for us, are in place. The girls look like they’re actually having fun, and hopefully we’ve surrounded them with enough protection that they might continue to have a good time after the unpleasant part of the evening is over. That’s probably just wishful thinking on my part though.

Although, weirder things are already happening. Raven and Tessa seem to be becoming friends. They could just be remarkable actresses, but it wouldn’t be the first time Tessa has become friends with someone I’ve got a sexual history with, best friends even.

No matter how occupied I make myself, I can’t shake the feeling everything is about to turn to shit. Although, after tonight it’s very likely Tessa is going to leave forever. She’ll probably marry the perfect Bennet, have two point five perfect children, and live in a house with a white picket fence. I’m not sure exactly how someone has half a child, but if it’s part of the perfect American dream, I’m sure Bennet the great will figure out how to get it for her.

She’s made it clear she no longer wants anything from me. I’ve spent so long trying to shove her out of my life, I’m not sure how to feel now that I know it worked. When she’s not right in front of me the pain is easier to remember. It’s when she’s gone that I feel the sting of her leaving the first time. Convincing myself that I prefer her to be gone isn’t quite as easy when she’s standing in front of me smiling and laughing. Unlike the last few days when she put on a show for everyone to believe she’s all right, this time she genuinely looks like she’s having a good time.

Shane opens the doors at seven to a line of people going around the building. You’d think we were opening the hottest nightclub rather than a domestic violence center. Jesse arrives fashionably late, but with only two of his goons with him. Times have been hard for him, with getting stabbed in the shoulder by Raven then getting arrested by the FBI. But the guy must be made out of the same stuff as my father, because charges never seem to stick to him.

This is even with an FBI agent, Grant Holbrook, working the case. Without him Sin would probably be sitting in prison for all of the crimes Raven and Lucien’s father, Damien Blackthorne, forced him to commit. Personally, I’m not sure Holbrook is wholly on our side, which is why we’re taking the matter into our own hands.

Jesse predictably heads straight for the girls. The carrot of Raven out without Sin is too much for him to pass up. I can’t hear what he’s saying from here, but he’s wearing a shit eating grin which means it’s probably vile. Tessa subconsciously takes a step back, and she appears to be rubbing a spot on her wrist where Jen and I saw rope burns.

Sin, Lucien, and Ted of course aren’t gone, but up in the loft and the rafters with sniper rifles trained on Jesse if he should try anything. Shane and I are on the floor, and Raven has knives hidden all over her outfit. Even the decorative hair pins she’s wearing are another type of throwing knife. On paper we have the girls fully protected, but something doesn’t feel right. Jesse is an idiot, but even he wouldn’t risk coming here with only two guys as his back up. A sense of impending doom falls over me, and I pick up the pace as I wade through the throng of people to get to the girls.

Maybe we oversold the event, because instead of providing good cover, the crowd is making it harder for me to do my job. I only make it halfway to them when the lights go out. For a second there’s silence. The cut in power also turned off the music.

Inevitably someone screams, which sets off a stampede for the doors. The emergency lights come on with their weak orangish-yellow light that’s only strong enough to guide people to the doors. One of the exits is behind me, which makes it even harder for me to get to the girls because now I’m trying to move opposite a frantic crowd.

Jesse grabs Raven by the arm and tries to drag her away, but the fake caterers move to intercept him. Shane gets there first and knocks Jesse down with one punch. Maybe if Jesse hadn’t only seen the pseudo nice guy side of Shane he might have been prepared for him. They’re about equal height, and both former football players.

Shane grabs Raven while I help Tessa, Jen, and Amber toward the safe room I had installed on the first floor in case a violent husband ever came after one of our future residents. Jesse isn’t down for long, and tries to get in their way, but the fake catering staff gets close to converging on him. Before they make it an explosion rocks the building.

If people were frightened before, they’re frantic now. Shane is pushed back and forth as the crowd rushes to the door. People are knocked to the ground and trampled in the frenzy to escape. The fake caterers rush to the explosion, leaving Raven, Tessa, Jen, and Amber vulnerable.

I see Shane make it to them, and they move toward the safe room. I trust him implicitly, which means I have a chance to get some retribution of my own. Jesse has taken off, but I’m not going to underestimate him again. He left thing one and two behind though, and I take advantage. They might be giant, ham fisted walls of muscle, but they’re not particularly bright. The first one goes down with a punch to the temple, and I get the second in a chokehold before he’s registered what happened to his friend.

I manage to drag them to the back of the building where there’s security monitors and an indoor shooting range. Sin follows me back there and we pull up the cameras to make sure they made it into the safe room.

My stomach churns as I watch Tessa shove Raven into the room when she tries to leave and slip out on her own. Before the door closes, she reaches back in and grabs the hair pins from Raven’s hair. What the fuck is she thinking going after Jesse with fucking hair pins?

Sin doesn’t mess around, and for once my temper and patience matches his, so when he pulls a gun out of the back of his waistband and taps the first guy on the head with it, I don’t intervene. Proving they are monumentally stupid, they refuse to tell him where Jesse is.

There’s a gleam of madness in Sin’s eyes as he taps the second guy in the head with the barrel of the gun, and not gently either. “I’m really short on time and patience. I’m sure you’re asking yourself right now if I’m willing to pull this trigger. Let me assure you, I am, and I’m capable of walking away without consequences. Start. Talking.”

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