The Good Sister (6 page)

Noah waved goodbye and pulled away. Will gently squeezed Jessie’s hand before grabbing Lindsey’s suitcase and hefting it into the house. He walked out, leaving them alone. Jessie pulled Lindsey’s hand and dragged her inside.

Lindsey paused in the entryway. It was big and airy, with beige, patterned tile that flowed into a large, square living room. It had a long, open kitchen in the back with a cozy nook for the dining table. The setup was one large, open common area. A big, stone fireplace took up the wall opposite the couch, and a large TV hung over it. The furnishings were comfortable and cushy with a pretty beige-and-black design that highlighted the black craftsman-style furniture Jessie selected as the main theme. It was a lovely house, warm and inviting, and so unlike anything she ever thought Jessie would choose. It was nothing like the overdone, stuffy, formal, yet beautiful house that she lived in.

“Jessie, it’s absolutely beautiful!”

Jessie smiled brightly and touched a hand over her stomach. “I never dreamed I’d own such a place. Wait until you see the land, and the views, and the animals. I’ll show you everything tomorrow. Now, come, let’s have some dinner. I’ll call the doctor, get you settled in, and then you have to tell me everything that is going on with you.”

Dinner was a
bean with vegetables stew and freshly baked bread that was easily extended to include her. She didn’t eat very much anymore. She would have sworn her stomach just shriveled. But in truth, she never tasted food. It was like ashes in her mouth. She ate to live, never to enjoy the wonderful tastes. But she kept that from her sister. Shuffling her food around, as if eating, she quickly got up to dump the contents in the disposal and conceal the awful sin that she didn’t eat. Then, the three of them talked happily and endlessly for hours. They pushed away from the table after coffee and relaxed in the living room. It was enchanting. Fun. Relaxed. It felt like years since she was relaxed.

Jessie called her doctor who said she was to come in the next day to be checked. They were worried she was at risk of developing preeclampsia. She already had gestational diabetes; although so far, she successfully managed it with diet and exercise.

“So how did you finally get away? And how long can you stay?”

Did Jessie sense more to her story? She always seemed to grasp that Lindsey had to get permission from Elliot. Yet, Lindsey never told Jessie about that.

“Elliot is overseeing the final construction phase of his newest resort in Honolulu. They’ve been having a ton of unexpected problems. He will be gone at least a month, maybe longer. So… that made it the perfect time for me to come. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner.”

“You do have your own life after all; it’s okay.”

“You've managed to visit me three times in the years since you guys moved back here, and I haven’t even come once.”

“Elliot is an important, busy man. It’s okay; don’t be so hard on yourself. Just… is everything okay? Are you doing well? You seem awfully skinny to me.”

“I’m great. I’m so excited for Elliot to start his campaign, but until then, I get to hang out with you! I hoped you wouldn’t mind.”

“Mind? Lindsey Johanson, I was about to hog-tie you and physically carry you here. Besides, I didn’t want to worry Will, but the doctor hinted that I have to start taking it easier. I wasn’t lying about that. So it was more than just my selfish desire to see you, or that I wanted you here. I hoped you wouldn’t mind if you had to help me out a bit.”

Lindsey nearly wilted in disbelief.
Mind helping out a bit?
She never did anything. She lived her entire life with not one goal or duty of importance. She didn’t even cook and clean her own house, so she wasn’t like the typical housewife. The only chores she did were the ones that Elliot didn’t trust the staff to do, like dusting his collectables. He was meticulous about his stuff, as he expected her to be.

She spent her days overseeing others doing the chores that should have kept her busy. She went to vacuous, insipid lunches at the country club, and socialized with the wives of politicians, defense workers, and CEOs who were as bored and useless as she. They were all, the entire lot of them (she included) as interesting as rocks. Quite simply, they did
nothing
. How could they have anything to interesting to say? Some of the women called her “friends” really were no more than part of the protocol designed to advance Elliot’s goals. Some had kids to care for. They had real things to do that culminated in real results. Lindsey had nothing to do, or affect, or influence that mattered in the least.

She once believed she could do great things in her youth with her life. For one, she fully intended to make a career in the Army. Of course, that was before she met Elliot. The first six months they dated, they were both in the Army. It never occurred to her that he might want her to quit. Or that he’d later demand she do absolutely nothing every single day of her life, unless it was to serve him. Or that he faithfully intended to beat her on a fairly regular basis.

She fought Elliot at first when they discussed her Army contract, which was coming up. She could have continued on active duty or switched to the Reserves, or Inactive Reserves. He convinced her, in just one night, and fairly thoroughly, just why she had to switch to inactive status. She obeyed him just so he’d keep his fists to himself. She wasn’t equipped to fight him. He was twice her size, both in muscle and weight. It was awful for the first two years. To go from always being busy, and needed, and knowing how to do things and get things done, to a life of absolutely nothing. She often paced the house to avoid going stark, raving, crazy from lack of anything to do.

But Elliot quickly solved her problem. He demonstrated the consequences and dictated how she should behave. Any lesson Elliot bothered to teach her always left her very convinced that he was right. The pain of resisting him wasn’t worth it.

Elliot’s uncanny ability to keep it all such a secret was how he chose to discipline her. He had a gift for putting just the exact amount of pressure on her limbs to really hurt her, without breaking any bones. He usually left his marks on her back, torso and upper legs, which sported an array of scars from the myriad cuts he inflicted on her using anything from knives to forks to writing pens. He burned her. He cut her. He punched her. But rarely, however, did he bruise or cut anything in any area of her body that was visible to others. Elliot would not tolerate any curious questions from friends or neighbors. As long as there was no evidence, no suspicion was cast.

Thus, Lindsey literally became a hollow, air-headed
Stepford wife, who groomed herself and did everything Elliot demanded to play the part of his mate. It might as well have been two decades since she knew how to be anything other than what she was now. She could not even remember how to function as an officer in the United States Army. Imagining herself now, being fully competent and accomplishing the necessary tasks and goals, was beyond her. She doubted if she could open a Band-Aid correctly anymore.

“I want nothing more than to help you, Jessie. And to be here. I am, so happy to be with you.”

Jessie hugged her with a big, open grin. There were no more secrets for Jessie. Thankfully, there was also no more brutality.

“But, ah, I need to call Elliot and tell him I arrived safely. Do you mind if I use your phone?”

Jessie scoffed at her concerns and handed her the phone with affectionate ease. Lindsey had to get her phone charged. She was always required to check in with Elliot, or he her, several times a day, every day. If she had to use their phone, Will and Jessie would soon realize the strange frequency with which she talked to her husband.

Something was wrong with her.
Something was desperately wrong with Lindsey.

THE MAN s
tared at the picture that downloaded from the Virginia section of
The Washington Post
that was taken over the weekend. It featured Elliot and Lindsey Johanson’s arrival at the Georgetown University Charity dinner. She was too skinny. Freakishly thin, she appeared bony and scrawny. She lost twenty or more pounds just in the last year, weight she did not need to lose. Her eyes looked hollow and empty. But it was something more. It was the way she held her torso. She seemed stiff, and unnatural. Her shoulder appeared strange. Why? What was going on? And what was with that arrogant, cool, not-so-affectionate glare Elliot had pasted on his face?

He fisted his hands. Something wasn’t right. He didn’t know what or why, but something in his gut told him that Lindsey was far from being all right. 

Noah glanced up when the door chimed, and in came Jessie and Lindsey. He leaned into the counter to stare at the pair. They were startlingly attractive, and virtual contrasts in beauty. One was small, dark, curvy and sensuous; and the other tall, slender, regal with classically elegant features.

They were giggling and laughing in a  banter of conversation that bounced between them.

“I don’t suppose you’re here to work?” Noah kept his tone dry.

Jessie halted before waving her hand around to dismiss him. “Oh, Noah, I’ve worked every day this week.”

“Yeah, whenever you manage to fit it in with your busy social calendar.”

She ignored him and rounded her desk before flipping through her IN basket. She glanced at the computer while biting her lip in concentration. There was no one else in the clinic at the moment.

“So, what were you two doing today?” Noah directed his inquiry to Lindsey. She had been in town for a few days now and he’d seen her several times here and there with Jessie.

“We ran by the college to pick up some notes Jessie needed; and now we’re off to home.”

Noah smiled absently as he rifled around for the bill he set somewhere, intending to ask Jessie about it.

“So, Noah, how was your date last night?”

Jessie didn’t bother to look up from her work. Lindsey shuffled her feet behind him, obviously uncomfortable with her question. He rolled his eyes at Jessie’s back. She never seemed to notice that before. Her sister did not do well with casual.

“It was fine, Jessie.”

She paused and glared at him. “Fine? That’s how I feel after a trip to the dentist. Come off it, Noah, what was it like? Has she cracked a joke yet?”

“Again, do you think I actually want to discuss my personal life with you?”

She waved her hand around. “Who else are you going to discuss it with?”

“I don’t know, perhaps, my friends? Someone who isn’t married to a former soldier who could kill me in my sleep twenty different ways.”

Jessie snorted. “As if Will would ever bother with you. He likes you.”

“Well, I’m not always convinced he likes you asking about my
personal
life.”

“Oh, you mean your sex life?” she smiled cheekily as Lindsey gasped behind him. He glanced at her. Her mouth was open and her eyes rounded. She obviously wasn’t used to her sister’s brassiness anymore. “Will doesn’t mind.”

“Well, you’ll never know either way. So quit it.”

“Has Mrs. Biology Professor put out yet?”

He groaned in frustration, but caught the look of sheer joy on Jessie’s face at making him squirm.

“Oh my God, Jessie! You can’t ask things like that.”

Jessie burst out laughing, grabbing her middle. “Oh, I so can, just to see the look on both of your faces. And… has she?”

Noah glanced in Lindsey’s direction. Her mouth was set in a tight line and her cheeks were flushed. Holy crap, the girl was strung tight. Subject variety apparently didn’t matter.

“Jessie, I will never answer that.”

She strained her neck to peek around him. “Well, don’t look now, but here comes said professor carrying a tray of what looks like baked goods. Oh yeah, Dr. Clark must’ve put out.”

Noah swept the chart he was glancing over into his arms and turned away from his annoying-as-hell assistant. Sure enough, Hannah Turling was opening the front door and coming inside. She was a small, petite woman, with blond hair and a studious, but sweet face. She dressed in knee-length skirts with comfortable looking, low heels. She wasn’t stylish and hip like Jessie, or elegant, but rather, ridiculously made up for the time of day and the small town they were in, like Lindsey. Okay, he had to admit, Hannah could stand a little more style.

She was, however, extremely kind as she approached, carrying a platter covered in foil. He smiled and stepped forward, keeping his back to Jessie.

“Hannah, what a surprise.”

Hannah dropped her eyes to the floor as heat filled her cheeks. That seemed to be his effect on women of late. First Lindsey, and now her.

“I baked some gingersnaps for you. You mentioned they were your favorite. I have a lecture at two so I thought I’d drop them by on my way to the college.”

Jessie cleared her throat behind him. He knew why. Leveling a glance at her, he warned her with his eyes quite explicitly to keep quiet. Noah regularly received a ridiculous amount of pastries and other baked goods from the female population around town. Jessie claimed they were all trying to bake their way into his heart. He tried to explain it was a small town and he cared for many of their beloved pets. It made people especially grateful to him. She scoffed. Disbelieving. He took the still warm platter. There was an awkward moment as both sisters watched and Hannah kept her gaze pinned on his feet. “Thank you, that was very kind of you. And yes, they are still my favorite.”

“Are we having dinner tonight?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll meet you back here at seven.”

She glanced up and smiled shyly before taking her leave.

Jessie snickered. “Lord, Noah, she’s as scared of you as she would be of Sasquatch! How are you ever going to make a move on her if she doesn’t quit studying the floor?”

He groaned. “She’s a perfectly nice person, Jessie.”

Jessie sighed. “No one could say you’re shallow,” she retorted before grabbing a cookie, and taking a bite. “But these are fantastic. Keep up the good work and encourage her to bake more… for us.”

“Me, Jessie. She baked them for me.”

Lindsey’s head whipped back and forth between them. Her astonishment and awe of their good-natured ribbing was evident by her gaze. She didn’t know what to make of them. Her cell phone rang and she quickly glanced at it, frowning, before lifting it to her ear with an apologetic smile and saying, “Hi, Elliot.”

She wandered halfway down the hallway so that they couldn’t hear her. Jessie sighed loudly and muttered under his breath, “My God, the asswipe doesn’t leave her alone for a single moment. I’m not kidding you, he calls her like once an hour. Or she suddenly ‘has’ to call him. She almost goes into a panic sometimes. She even has an alarm set on her phone to remind her.

He took a cookie. “Don’t say anything about it. You heard Will.”

“I know.  I just wish she didn’t like such controlling assholes.”

“She does though. She seems a bit lost without him. Like she can’t figure out how to put her shoes on without his guidance and instructions.”

Jessie exhaled a snort. “Oh my God, you  noticed that? You’ve been around her like five minutes. I obsess about it and what it means. I didn’t realize it was so obvious, even to those who don’t know her.” Jessie abruptly sat down, peeking down the hallway to verify Lindsey couldn’t hear her. Noah leaned in closer, suddenly intrigued by what Jessie had to say about her beautiful, remote, and fragile sister.

“Oh, Noah, when my father was alive, her sole goal was to please him, and please him she did. I used to hate her for it. Is there even a trace left in her that she might actually remember something or know how to do something? Though she was never deployed, she had a respectable job and reputation around Fort Bragg. I thought she would stay in the Army as her career. I’m not kidding you. She was a totally kick-ass person. She was so proud of it. And then, after she discovered my father was an amoral monster, she just seemed to give up. It was like suddenly, everything she was or worked so hard for was crap. So she quit! She quit trying, and studying and being the perfect soldier, the perfect daughter, the perfect girl.

“Then along came Elliot, and now you see her. When she said she was dropping active duty to switch to Inactive Reserves, I think I literally fell off the chair I was sitting in. I mean, Lindsey Bains pretty much giving up on the military? After all her training? Essentially
quitting
the Army? I didn’t understand it then, as I do not now. And no matter how hard I pressed for an explanation, she would never say
why
. Why did she change the only goals and expectations she always maintained for herself? No other reason, but Elliot. He is the only person whose orders I could ever believe she was following when she suddenly quit everything to sit and smile like a senseless robot at silly luncheons. Prior to Elliot’s influence, she was on track to be amazing; and instead, she became some rich asshole’s, vapid arm ornament. I just don’t know how she let
that
happen to her life. ”

“Maybe she wanted to be the complete opposite of what her father wanted her to be.”

Jessie bit her lower lip. “I never thought of it like that. Maybe. Look, Noah, I was thinking about something. And since we’re here… talking…”

“What?” He nearly groaned. What could Jessie want?

“So remember those test results? I was hoping things were going to go as they currently are, but the doctors are worried about the pregnancy, just a bit. They want me to take it easy. And you can imagine Will’s overreaction to such advice. He practically forbade me to walk into the bathroom. Anyway, he’d like me to quit working here for a while. I hate to. You know how I feel about working for you. But with school, the house, and everything else, maybe I am spreading myself too thin.”

His heart sunk. “Ah, Jess, how the hell can I run this place without you? You know what a mess I am without you.”

She nodded. “Your sense of organization rivals that of the absent-minded professor. But I was thinking, why couldn’t Lindsey do it? Couldn’t she take over my hours? His highness, the asswipe, said she gets to stay here for two months since he’s having problems with the stupid hotel he’s building. She could use the confidence boost, not to mention the outlet. Maybe it will remind her that she used to know how to do things that affected people’s lives, not just how to put her own shoes on.

“Jess, you’re not working up to anything here, are you? Like trying to possibly convince her she doesn’t need to return to her husband?”

Jessie ducked her head and kept her eyes down, but he saw the guilty blush climbing up her neck. “Noah, she just needs to remember she is still her own person. She needs to do something. She does nothing all day but cater to that obsessive, jealous, egomaniac. He has taken the Lindsey I used to know and turned her into a scared, mousey, empty woman, barely the shell of the sister I once had.”

“Are there really any complications with the pregnancy? I keep thinking Will seems entirely too calm if that actually were the case.”

She again glanced around. “Okay, maybe I haven’t exactly been ordered yet to take it easy, but I think I will be soon. Doesn’t that seem like a good idea for my third trimester? Please, consider it. She is highly capable, intelligent, and works a lot harder than I ever did. I would just love to see her find herself again. Even if it’s only for a few weeks. What if it serves to remind her of the incredible woman she really is?”

He tapped his pen against the tabletop. Jessie’s eyes were big and pleading. How did she manage to make her sister’s problems his? “How will you get her to agree to it?”

“I might have to rely a little bit on my acting skills. You know, how stressed I am at leaving you in the lurch, and how it would just ease my guilt-stricken heart if someone, anyone, I could trust, would take over for me, so I don’t have to feel so stressed and accountable over abandoning you.”

He stared at her. “You’re good.”

“I am. Now will you let me do this? I’ll train her and everything.”

His gut screamed at him not to. He liked the routine he had. He loved the ease with which Jessie and he worked together. They were the right combination of friends, and there was no difficulty or inappropriateness to prevent them from having a working relationship. He liked how she kept his office, his books, his supplies, his appointments, and his animals. He was used to Jessie and how she did things. He did not want a temporary replacement, or having to learn a new personality; especially one like Lindsey’s who appeared to not have an ounce of humor or kidding in her. Who was so serious and fragile,
despite being heartbreakingly beautiful.

But… Jessie was first and foremost his damn friend. “Okay, Jessie, if you make sure she does things exactly like you do them, and like how we do things here. And you must also promise to come back after you have the baby.”

She smiled cheekily. “I have to come back. I have a lot of animals to pay for, remember? Besides, you said your sister would be happy to watch the baby for a few days a week.”

His sister was a stay-at-home mother of three and absolutely delighted at the prospect of adding Jessie’s baby to her days, never mind the extra money.  She lived only a few miles from the vet clinic. “Yes, she is planning to watch your baby.”

They both heard Lindsey as her three-inch heels clicked on the vinyl floor. Jessie smiled at him and mouthed, thank you. He rolled his eyes, but smiled as he wasn’t really looking forward to being greeted each day by the glacial, timid air that seemed to hang around Lindsey.