Jesse (2 page)

“The nice fireman is going to see to me.
I can see medical personnel very near. I want you to meet me at the hospital. I’m
better than alright. I’m going to live.” She closed the phone and looked up at
the masked man in front of her. “There’s a woman in there. I think she’s just
inside the doors. You have to save her. She carried me out of the building when
I couldn’t move. Hurry.”

He nodded once and moved toward the
building, barking orders to several men to come with him. Before they were ten
feet from the burning building the girl came out, staggered out really, and
fell. Annamarie watched in horror as the men scooped her up in their arms and
ran for safety. The building was coming down in a ball of flames and, just as
the heat started to touch her, someone threw something over her and she was out
again.

Chapter 2

Joey woke with a start. There was a
stranger standing over her and she jerked back before she realized that she
shouldn’t do that. He chuckled slightly and she realized how many curse words
she’d spewed in a matter of seconds. He leaned back and looked down at her.

“I’m doctor Fletcher Eton. You’re at
County General. Do you remember what happened to bring you here?”

She watched his face. He didn’t seem to
be pissed, but he didn’t know she was uninsured yet.

“Miss?”

“Fire.” Her throat detonated in pain. There
was no other way to explain it. And with the pain came why it hurt.

“You have been bruised very badly at
your throat. It looks like someone tried to strangle you.” He leaned down again
and gently touched her. “I would ask you to tell me what happened, but you
should try not to talk for at least a few days.”

He finished examining her and she
thought about how she had been nearly strangled. That woman Sondra had grabbed
her from behind as soon as she’d entered the building. If she hadn’t been so
exhausted Joey might have been able to throw her off, but she’d worked all
night and carried a woman out of a burning building. By the time the doctor
left after telling her that she was going to be admitted Joey knew it was time
to leave. She was just sitting up and waiting for the waves of dizziness to
leave when a man walked in.

“Hello. How are you?”

She didn’t answer him, but did look up. He
was probably in the wrong room anyway. Men like him didn’t come to see how
women like her were. Unless, of course, he was serving her with something like
a summons or some other legal paper she couldn’t afford. She knew he was a
lawyer of some sort.

Tossing back the covers, she was glad to
see they hadn’t cut off her jeans. A girl was broke these days and having your
pants cut up didn’t help. She was holding onto the bed, having gotten out of
the bed slowly, when he sat in the only chair in the room. He was smiling at
her and she wanted to smack him in the nose. She moved to what she hoped was a
bathroom when he spoke again.

“I don’t think they want you to leave
just yet. I’m pretty sure the police want to speak to you. I know my family
wants to as well. You saved our mother today.”

He was probably related to the woman
who’d tried to kill her. He didn’t look like her, but she knew that didn’t
matter. She didn’t look a thing like her family either. She made her way to the
door and was relieved it was indeed the bathroom.

She looked in the mirror and was
surprised at the bruise around her neck. And even someone as novice as her
about such things you could tell it was made with hands; finger prints were
evident even to her. Turning her head slightly, she could even make out the way
her thumbs had dug into her windpipe. Turning her body around and opening the
hospital gown, she looked at her back. There was a nice-sized bruise back there
too, but not as bad. Joey had been able to deflect that one a little more.

Her arm had been wrapped up and blood
now seeped through the white gauze. There was some tape on her forehead and a
little on her chin. She had no clue when she’d gotten those bumps, but figured
it didn’t matter. Joey didn’t want to think about how much that was going to
cost her and she turned on the water. She was never going to get out of that
stupid building.

She washed her face best she could and
tried to figure out what had happened to her shirt and bra. There hadn’t been a
bag under the bed and there was nothing in here either. She was going to end up
stealing this thing to get home, she just knew it. Opening the door, she wasn’t
really surprised to see the man still there. But the police threw her a bit.

“Miss, we understand from your doctor
that you can’t speak much, but if you could tell us how you just happened to be
in the building when it caught fire we’ll let you heal a little longer before
we ask anything else.”

She stared at the cop then at the man in
the chair. He was looking at the cop too.

“You don’t care that she has enough
bruising around her neck to kill someone? You simply want to know how she was
there to get them.” It didn’t sound to her like a question, which was good
because handsome didn’t give the cop time to answer. “Not to mention the fact
that she did save two women from burning up in that same fire and she did it at
great risk to herself.”

“Don’t you think it’s a bit convenient
that she was there in the first place? I mean, maybe she was setting it up for
some scam and didn’t know that your mom was going to be in there. Or maybe she
did.” The cop looked over at her and smirked. “You could have been hoping for
some reward money 'cause you saved her.”

Joey took a step forward, but was
stopped when handsome stood up and shoved the guy against the wall. “Get out. Get
out right now or, so help me, I’ll call your captain right now and have him
pick you up in a body bag.”

She took a step back when the cop
started toward her, and then another when the man raised his fist. Before she
could wonder why he wanted to hit her, handsome intervened. Before she knew it,
she was in the room alone. When the door opened again, handsome entered and was
straightening his tie. Another man, equally as good-looking, was with him.

“You did not need to throw him down the
hall. Mom is going to be pissed enough as it is.” The second man looked at her
and smiled. “Hello. My brother here tells me that you’re leaving. I don’t think
you should either. You’ve been hurt and you need care.”

“No insurance,” she said as she leaned
against the bed. She was suddenly very exhausted and wanted nothing more than
to crawl into bed and sleep. Both men shared a look and then walked toward her.

“We’ve got your bill, miss. You saved our
mother, Annamarie, and it’s the least we can do.” Her rescuer picked her up and
put her on the bed. She was settling down when man number two put the sheet
over her. “Besides, Mom will be mad at us if we let you go before she has a
chance to thank you herself.”

The door flew open and a woman came in. She
had a small bundle in her arms and nearly tossed it at the man who had come in
with handsome. She was grabbing Joey into her arms before she could avoid her.

“She’s all right. She said she was all
right because of you.” A little sob and another painful hug before she pulled
away. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Letting her breathe would be a start, I
bet.”

The woman turned to handsome and glared
at him.

“I’m just saying the girl probably hurts
some and you hugging her like you’re doing could cause damage.”

“Jesse Michael Hunter, you’ll be nice to
me or I’ll tell your mother about that girl from my house last week. You know
the one.”

Joey looked at the three of them. Hunter.
All she could think about was that his name was Hunter. She must have made some
sort of noise because they all turned to her, and she looked at the one she’d
called Jesse.

“Jesse M. Hunter of Hunter Corporation?”
He grinned and nodded. She closed her eyes and felt him come near her. “Stay
away from me.” Her throat felt on fire now and she was dizzy. These people, at
least the one who had thrown the cop out, were the reason she was homeless. Throwing
off the covers again, she got out of the bed and went to the bathroom. She was
going to be sick and didn’t want them around when she was. She just got the
door shut when her belly took its first lurch. She was on the floor seconds
before she threw up the first time.

~~~

Jesse looked at his brother then at
Kasey before he looked to where the girl had gone. He was going to ask what the
hell happened when he heard her throwing up. The poor girl was going to hurt
her throat more if she did that much more. Royce asked him to step outside and
they left Kasey there in case the girl needed someone.

“What was that all about?”

Jesse didn’t know and told him that.

“Well, do you have a name? Maybe a
person to call if she has a family, husband?”

Jesse shook his head again. “I was going
to ask her when robo-cop showed up and started to get nasty with her. Then you come
in and now this. Do you think it’s some sort of delayed reaction to the fire?”

 Royce sighed and leaned against the
wall. “I have no idea. She looked sort of sick when she found out your name. Do
you think you did something to a friend of hers and now she’s pissed about it? Damn
it, Jesse, how many times do I have to tell you to—”

Both men stood when the door opened.
Jesse had been leaning against the nurses’ station and Royce, the wall. The
girl came out first, followed quickly by Kasey. And she didn’t look all that
happy either.

“I think you should come back in here. I
know that the Hunter building will pay for your stay if that’s what worries
you.” The girls fuck off made Jesse raise a brow, but Kasey wasn’t finished. “It
won’t do you any good to get that cut infected. You should at least let someone
give you a prescription or something for it.”

Jesse moved after the girl and touched
her shoulder to get her attention. He was flat on his back and staring at the
ceiling before he could take a breath. Turning slightly, he watched as the girl
moved down the hallway, her gown flapping in the wind. He looked up at Royce
when he felt him standing over him. He wasn’t thrilled to see him laughing.

“She may be hurting like hell, but she
sure didn’t have any problems throwing you to the floor.” He leaned over
laughing and Jesse decided that he would gladly kill his older brother if it
wasn’t for the fact that he liked Kasey so much. “And damn it, for as long as I
live, I’ll never get the look on your face when you went over her like that
from my mind.”

Jesse didn’t get up, but lay there as
everyone walked around him. He had to smile when he thought how he’d get back
at his brother. He simply steepled his fingers over his chest and delivered his
bomb. “You didn’t help stop her, so you get to tell Mom that you let her get
away.” Just as he’d thought, Royce started to curse. “Yeah, you gonna kiss her
with that mouth too?”

They were sitting in her room waiting
for their mom to wake when Daniel came in. He handed a file to Royce and kissed
Kasey on her cheek. As soon as he sat down, Jesse started on him.

“I want you to look up all you can on
someone. I don’t have her name or anything, but I think she might have a grudge
against me.” Kasey laughed and Royce handed him the folder. “She is a brunette
with shortish hair, tall, and slightly underweight.”

“Well, that should be a piece of cake,”
Daniel said sarcastically. “I can run a search on tall, skinny, dark-haired
girls that you’ve pissed off.”

“I didn’t say I pissed her off, I said
she might have a grudge against us, meaning the company, you moronic asshole.” He
flushed when he looked over at his sleeping mom. “And keep your voice down. You
want to wake her up?”

They were all terrified of their mother.
Not that she’d ever beaten them, though he was reasonably sure they each of
them had deserved it a few times over in their lives. No, she frightened him
because disappointing her was paramount to killing someone. And each of them
hated to upset her in any way. She could make them feel ten again in a second.

He opened the file and looked at the
aftermath of the fire. The building was gone and even though they’d only
thought about buying it Jesse could still feel the waste of it. The fire trucks
were still around when the photo he was holding had been taken and when he
started to flip it to the next one, he saw her. He stood up and handed it to
Daniel.

“That’s her. The girl that they’re
putting in the ambulance. Can you get that picture blown up?”

“Maybe. But I doubt it will be more than
a blurry shot.” He put the picture in his briefcase and leaned back in his
chair. “Why do you want to know? Or is this some kind of match up you’re hoping
to get?”

Royce started laughing and Jesse knew he
was going to tell how she’d gotten the better of him in the hall. He started to
defend himself before that happened when their mother woke finally.

After reassuring them that she was fine,
she asked about Sondra. “She needs to be found. I think she might have tried to
hurt that girl who saved me. I couldn’t believe it when she wouldn’t help carry
me out of the building.”