Bad Girl Lessons (9 page)

Across town, Jackson sat in the luxuriously decorated office of Dr. Phillip Harper. He did his damnedest not to fidget or otherwise giveaway how scared shitless he was. He craned his neck when the door opened behind him. A pretty nurse stuck her head in and said, “I’m sorry you’re having to wait, Mr. Cope. Dr. Harper will be with you as soon as he can. Can I get you some coffee or tea in the meantime?”

“No, thank you. I’m just fine.” After another ten minutes had passed, he regretted telling her no. At least having a drink is his hands would give him something to do with them. Getting up, he crossed the small space to study the row of pictures hanging on the wall. Most of them were of Evie as a little girl. He smiled as he looked at them, seeing her tidy hair and even tidier clothes. Looking more closely, however, it was easy to see how unhappy she’d been. In most of the pictures, her smiles seemed forced and there was a tenseness to her body that could only have resulted from her mother’s endless criticism.

“I always thought my sweet Evie was the prettiest girl in the world. Still do, honestly.”

Jackson turned back to the man who had entered the room silently. He wore scrubs and those little tissue shoe covers beneath a white lab coat. “There’s no denying that Evie is beautiful. It’d be pointless to try.”

The older man’s posture was deceptively casual as he strolled to his desk and took up a seat behind it. “She’s a good girl, too... Leastways, she was. Some folks appear to be thinking differently about her now, since she’s been running around with you.”

“I imagine that’s quite true. But I find it’s better not to worry too much about what other’s think. Evie’s done that for way too long and all it ever got her was engaged to a shithead like Trevor.”

Phillip made a noise that might have been a laugh, but Jackson couldn’t be sure. “Well, be that as it may,” he said, “My little girl is everything to me and that son of a bitch, Trevor, might not have broken her heart, but he definitely bruised her pride. Now, she’s running all over hell and creation with you acting like the second coming of Bathsheba. The question, Jackson Randall Cope, is whether or not you intend to do right by her?”

“I’d marry her tomorrow if she’d have me... I would have married her a decade ago if your wife hadn’t threatened to have me shot for trespassing if I came on your property again.”

“Well, I’m not saying I approve of Margaret’s meddling, but you were a bit of a wild card back then. You were still in the NFL then and that kind of lifestyle would have chewed her up and spit her out.”

“Evie’s tougher than you give her credit for.”

“Probably so. But be warned, Jackson, you hurt her and I’ll have your balls stuffed and mounted in my study. Are we understood?”

“Perfectly, sir.”

“And please try to refrain from getting my daughter naked in public places. I dislike having to hear about it.”

Jackson had no appropriate response to that, so he simply nodded and headed for Evie’s apartment. He hoped he could convince her to go dancing with him again, or maybe just turn on some music and dance naked at home. That would get them in less trouble with her father.

When he arrived, Jackson knew instantly that something was wrong. Evie let him in, but her expression was guarded. “Is there something wrong?”

“No, nothing is wrong,” she said, as she moved back into the kitchen and continued putting away her cookware. “Just trying to get things organized a bit. How was your meeting?”

“What meeting?”

“The one that you tried to be so secretive about and failed miserably.”

If he told her, she’d be angry and embarrassed. “It was nothing important. Just business.”

She whirled on him then, “You don’t have a job. How can it be a business meeting if you are unemployed?”

“I have investments! I own property! And I’m retired,” he shouted back. “Retired from a very lucrative athletic career!”

“You know what. I don’t care who you were with or what you were doing! This...this thing between us, it’s just fun and games to you. I let myself believe for half a second that it might be more than that and it was stupid. Once again, I was stupid. So just forget it. Go home to your rented bachelor pad on the lake and invite over whatever two dollar whore you were with this afternoon and have her spend the night with you. I have actual grown up shit to do.”

Had he not been chomping at the bit for the last six months, questioning his own usefulness in life, it probably wouldn’t have bothered him. If he hadn’t been wound tight over her for more than half of his life, he might have been able to see the humor in the fact that she thought he was cheating on her when he’d been getting a lecture from her concerned father. But those things weren’t coming to mind. The only thing Jackson could see in that moment was red. Furious with himself and with her, he threw his hands up in the air. “What the hell ever. I’m out of here.”

“Yeah, you’re good at that. There’s never been a woman you couldn’t walk away from.”

For a split second, when he paused, Evie thought maybe she’d pushed him too far. But he simply cursed under his breath and kept walking. When he left, when the small apartment felt empty and she felt completely hollow inside, she sat down in the middle of her tiny kitchen, on the ugly beige linoleum, and cried.

Chapter Eight

The pounding on her apartment door woke Evie. Glancing at the clock on the bedside table, she grimaced. It was only six in the morning. She had spent the better part of the evening and long hours into the night unpacking and trying to make her apartment at least somewhat livable. She’d wanted to text Jackson an apology, but it seemed cowardly. She knew she’d picked the fight with him out of nothing more than panic. It scared her to need him so much. Thinking of Reed’s request that she be careful of Jackson’s feelings, guilt gnawed at her a bit for that but she brushed it aside.

Stumbling through the apartment, Evie struggled to get her robe on. When she reached the door, she hastily tied it before unlocking the door. Very few people knew where she was. Her dad and Jackson had the address. She had assumed, or more accurately hoped, that it would be Jackson on the other side of the door, but when she saw Trevor standing there, her heart sank. She should have asked before opening the door, she thought. He reeked of alcohol and he was wearing the same clothes he’d had on the day before. His hair was standing on end and several days worth of beard covered his jaw. Some men could rock that look, but Trevor was not one of them.

“You should go, Trevor. We have nothing to say to one another.”

He bared his teeth at her in a growl. “You went to the fucking cops? Are you crazy? My own fucking parents have turned their backs on me!”

Evie tried to close the door, but he shoved his foot in the door, preventing her from closing it. “Get out, Trevor. If you want to talk to someone, call my attorney.”

Evie’s worst fears were confirmed as the door to the apartment burst inward, sending her flying backwards. Her hip connected painfully with the edge of the coffee table and she barely missed putting her elbow through the glass top. She scurried back, ignoring the sharp pain in her leg, as she tried to get away from him. As Trevor advanced into the apartment, Evie felt actual fear of him. She’d never imagined that Trevor would be able to incite such an emotion in anyone.

“They served the warrant at my parent’s house! All I needed was a few days, Evie and everything would have been fine! I could have gotten all the money back and no one would have ever known the difference!” he shouted.

“You forged my signature! You laundered money through my savings account and you dumped me at the altar for my cousin!”

“Not really… I wanted to marry you! I still do! If you drop the charges, everything can be the way it was,” he pleaded.

“Nothing will ever be the way it was… I don’t want it to be.”

The minute the words escaped her, she knew she’d made a terrible mistake. He became enraged. When he grabbed her by her hair and slung her against the wall, Evie literally saw stars. Her head hit the drywall with a resounding thump, leaving a massive dent in it. Before she could even begin to collect her wits, he had his hands on her, tugging at the belt of her robe. When she felt the fabric being wrapped around her wrists, panic spurred her on. She kicked out at him. In her bare feet, it wasn’t the most effectual self defense but it at least slowed him down.

“Get off me!” she screamed.

He punched her then, the blow slamming into her cheek bone and radiating agony throughout her body. She jerked her hands, managing to loosen his grip enough to roll onto her back. Bringing her knees up, she kicked out wildly as she struggled to loosen the belt around her wrists.

“Fucking bitch!” he spat. “You’ve ruined everything.”

The distant wail of sirens split the early morning silence, and through the wall, she heard her neighbor’s voice. “I’ve called the police! I don’t know what’s going on in there, but the cops are on their way!”

Trevor’s face blanched and he backed away, making a hasty exit. Evie slumped on the floor, her body aching and in shock. As she lay there, she began to tremble and then to sob. She was still crying moments later when two police officers rushed in.

* * *

It was nearly two hours later when Evie was lying on a gurney in the emergency room, after having been x-rayed, cat scanned and thoroughly questioned. Everything faded to background noise when Jackson walked in. His hair was mussed from having literally tumbled out of bed and Evie just wanted to crawl inside him. When he entered her cubicle, he didn’t say anything. He just looked at her for the longest time before settling his hip on the edge of her bed and putting his arms around her.

“Oh, god! I’m going to start crying again,” she said, as the tears gathered. She hated crying, helpless women. It made her mad at herself to suddenly be one.

“I think you’ve got a pretty good reason,” he said. “I hate to say it, love, but you look like hell.”

A watery chuckle escaped her, and she pressed closer to him. “Have I mentioned lately what an ass you are?”

She could feel him smiling against her cheek. “You might have brought it up once or twice... Last night.”

They sat there like that for the longest time. When Jackson spoke again, he’d grown very serious. “When Reed called me this morning and said that you’d been taken to the hospital following a home invasion… I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

Evie realized then that he didn’t have the whole story. “It was Trevor… I don’t know what’s happened to him, Jackson. Whatever it is, he’s like a totally different person.”

Jackson continued to hold Evie. He forced himself not to squeeze as tightly as he wanted to. His stomach felt hollow. The horrors of what might have happened had simply gutted him. He wanted to murder Trevor. Literally, he wanted to feel the life draining from the other man’s body. Rather than upset her more, he kept his mouth shut, but knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Trevor had better hope the cops found him first. “Did he say anything useful?”

“He just kept saying that he wanted everything to go back the way it was before and that if he’d had just a few more days no one would ever have known, that all the money would have gone back where it was supposed to.”

“So whatever it is that he’s in to, he was expecting a big payoff. Something that would have allowed him to pay off whoever he owes and cover any discrepancies in your account… The real question is, where was the money coming from and how did he get involved?”

“I think I can answer that.”

Evie pulled out of Jackson’s embrace as Reed walked in, but she refused to let go of his hand. “What is it?”

Reed took in her battered appearance and winced, “Jesus, you look like hell.”

If it wouldn’t have made her head ache worse, Evie would have rolled her eyes. “You guys are so good for my ego. I can’t thank you enough for your brutal honesty.”

With the good grace to blush, Reed apologized. “Come on, Evie… You know you’re gorgeous, but damn, he beat the hell out of you.”

“I am aware. I was there, after all,” she responded drolly. “Now cut to the chase and tell me what the idiot has done.”

“He bet big on last year’s Super Bowl. Stupidly big, as in six figures, and not just slightly into that range… He bet to the tune of a quarter million.”

The word that slipped from Jackson’s mouth was not one that he ever used in public. “Who the hell would even take that kind of action?”

“Organized crime…Not sure who. Could be the Vietnamese or it could be the Russians. It could also be good old Dixie Mafia. Either way, he’s screwed and he knows it. He made the bet and he lost big time. To cover part of his debt, he took out the loan, and the other part of it he’s been working off by laundering for them...and that’s where Lisa enters the picture. The guy handling the transactions was her one time boyfriend, Tony Davano.”

“Why not just use the casinos? Hell, that’s what they’re there for,” Jackson said.

Evie answered, “Because the money is probably being siphoned from the casino. The amount of money we’re talking about, in terms of Mafia money, is miniscule.”

“Bingo,” Reed said. “I think that whoever Trevor’s in bed with, figuratively, of course, is working outside the lines.”

“So, what’s next?” Evie asked as she gripped Jackson’s hand tighter.

“Well, the question right now for a lot of people, has nothing to do with the money. No one has seen Lisa since the day of the wedding. Trevor told his parents that he left her in Biloxi after having a change of heart, but her parents haven’t heard from her and neither have any of her friends.”

Even a day earlier, Evie wouldn’t have considered that Trevor might have harmed someone. Given the events of that morning, she was no longer certain. “You think she’s dead, don’t you?”

“Probably…whether it was Trevor or the badasses he’s tangled up with, that I can’t say yet.”

A loud voice from the hall caused Evie to groan. “Oh, no. Not this. Not now.”