To Protect & Serve (7 page)

A barely muffled gasp jumped from her throat as the potatoes leaped from her fork and landed squarely on the center of her cream skirt with the swirl of vines and pink flowers.

“Lisa,” Haley said with concern looking down the head table, “are you okay?”

“Umm, yeah,” Lisa said, wishing she could knock Mr. Hand into another wedding party.

“Here, let me help you.” Luke’s tone dropped as he reached for his napkin.

“I’ve got it!” Lisa slid backward as anger slashed through the words. “I’m fine. I’ll just be in the ladies’ room.”

“Lis, are you sure?” Haley asked her sister’s retreating back.

In the bathroom, Lisa turned the water on full blast, before dabbing and then scrubbing at the gravy. “Great.” With no small amount of work, the stain finally looked like it was at least part of the whole general color scheme of the skirt. The only problem was, the water spot didn’t. Trying not to think about the logistics of her undertaking, she wiped the side of the sink off, sat down carefully and hit the button on the hand dryer. Yeah, this was exactly where she wanted to spend her evening. If Luke so much as looked at her wrong, he was in for a rude awakening.

It took more time than she wanted, but her skirt finally dried about the time her hatred for all things male reached a boiling point. With a look in the mirror to straighten and perfect, she put her head high, and walked back out to rejoin the festivities. However, she had barely sat down when Luke laid a casual arm across the back of her chair and leaned over to her ear.

“It’s almost time for the toast. You want to go first, or should I?” he asked in a whisper that sent puffs of air skittering across her neck.

“Umm, you can go first,” she said, fighting to smile.

“Good.” His proximity hadn’t shifted. “I like to go first.”

Her smile faded as he stood, and she choked back a scream. In seconds the crowded hall was laughing at something he had said, and Lisa willed herself to just get through this. When he sat back down, Luke laid that same hand on her, only this time it missed her knee and landed several inches higher. “Your turn.”

Putting her head high, she pushed his hand away, pushed away from the table, and stood. She picked up her glass and turned to the happy couple, vowing that if Luke so much as brushed across her backside as she did, she would douse him with the sparkling liquid in her glass.

“Haley,” Lisa said, and her sister’s gaze made all the bad things slide from her mind, “I wish you luck, and I wish you love. I want you to know I’m here for you always.”

A chorus of “Ahh” sounded through the hall.

“And Cory, if you hurt her, I’ll kill you,” she said, and although there was a measure of levity in her voice, she knew there was just enough seriousness to get her point across. She raised her glass. “To Haley and Cory.”

“Haley and Cory!” Rang out around her.

For a full two hours Lisa had managed to stay out of Luke’s vicinity; however, when the third dance of the evening arrived, she knew she had run out of time to run.

“You know.” Luke pulled her closer even as she strained to push him away. “They say that there are two couples that make it home together on a wedding night—the bride and groom, and the two that stand up for them.”

“Oh, really?” Lisa could smell the alcohol on his breath as her brain threatened mutiny if she didn’t figure out a way to get away from him soon. “Too bad that’s not going to be happening tonight.”

“Why not?” His hand tightened around hers as his arm did the same. “I’m free. You’re free. We can be free together.”

“Because I think you’re a jerk,” Lisa said as Haley and Cory danced by all smiles.

“Don’t get any ideas, Lisa,” Haley teased.

“Don’t worry!” Lisa called after them, but they were gone.

“You smell so good.” Luke leaned into her until the only space that could be counted as hers was that underneath her ribcage. “What’s that perfume anyway?”

“Desire,” Lisa said, and then immediately wished she had thought to lie.

“Hmm, fitting. Don’t you think?”

She wrenched her arm between them for breathing room if nothing else. “I wouldn’t know.” The music picked that moment to end, and for a half second she thought the torture was over. Unfortunately Luke didn’t get the same message. Like a steel trap his arm wrapped around her, and barring pitching him to the floor and running, she didn’t see a good way to get away.

The next song started, and he never so much as asked her before she was again fighting against the press of his body. Not one part of her wanted to know how long he was planning to keep this up—or what ingenious designs he had for the remainder of the evening. Not one.

By midnight Lisa wasn’t sure if it was the hour or the non-sleep she had gotten the two nights before, but her eyes were in an all out battle just to stay open.

“Well, it’s that time.” Luke strode over to her and took her hand, which she promptly jerked away from him.

“What time?”

“Time to take the newlyweds to their car of course.”

“I thought I’d just stay here and…”

“We’re ready,” Cory said, his bride’s hand tucked in his.

“Great, we are too,” Luke said, and before Lisa had a chance to realize what was coming, he spun and caught her shoulders under his arm. “Let’s get.”

“Where’re you going?” Lisa asked in anger when Luke turned in the opposite direction from the hall after they had dropped their passengers off. Her eyelids felt like they might betray her and close permanently at any moment, but she knew the danger of allowing them that luxury. “The hall’s that way.”

“My place,” Luke said, trying to sound smooth. “Just sit back and relax. We’ll be there in a second.” As if he really thought this was leading somewhere, he reached over and his hand landed across Lisa’s knee.

“Umm, no.” She pushed his hand away. “We’re not. We’re going back to the hall.”

He looked at her in annoyance. “What is your problem?”

“Guys,” she said, irritation searing her tone. “Guys are my problem. Now take me back or you’re not going to have to wonder who’s got a problem.”

Luke’s face fell. “Jeez. Cory said you were bad, but he didn’t say you were an ice queen.”

Ice queen
. She folded her arms as she pressed herself against the opposite door. She rather liked that title.

Jeff’s first real call came at rush hour on Monday evening. Getting his employment records in line was a far more daunting task than he had thought it would be when he went in that afternoon, and now he was stuck in wall-to-wall traffic. With the window rolled down, he laid his arm through the opening and drummed his fingers to the static-mixed music on the AM radio. It had been a good week—not really exciting, but in his line of work, that was a good thing. The farther he drove up Eastex, however, the slower traffic got. He could just see the zebra painted billboard in the distance, and he smiled at the thoughts it pulled up.

The wedding was over by now, and he wondered how work had gone for her this week. He thought again about Dustin’s idea of knocking on every door in her office building, and if it hadn’t been so totally not him, he might have considered it. The honking from around him brought him out of his daydream, and he looked around. Cars were everywhere, and although it was always slow going at this time of day, this was more like no going. In fact as he looked ahead, nothing seemed to be moving at all. That’s when he saw the people almost a mile ahead of him, standing on the right side of the road in one big knot of humanity.

There was only one thing that brought great crowds of people out of their cars on a rush-hour drive home—tragedy. His first thought was a wreck, his second that emergency vehicles were going to have a terrible time getting up on the freeway and to the injured at this time of day. It was a decision, and yet really there was no decision at all as he angled his car as far off the side of the road as he could get it, parked it, got out and sprinted past the now honking and beeping mess.

The closer he got, the more he knew it had to be bad for that many people to be standing there. When he reached the first straggler of the group, he asked, “What’s going on?”

“Somebody’s jumping,” came the reply, and Jeff’s feet shifted up a gear.

On the outskirts of the crowd, he pushed through. “Fire department, excuse me, fire department.” He felt the gazes of the people he passed, but he pressed on. This was no time to be shy about his place in the world. “Excuse me, excuse me.” When he finally broke through to the other side of the crowd, all the training he had amassed suddenly seemed horribly inconsequential. There, standing on the other side of the concrete railing, was a young man, perhaps a decade younger than he himself or maybe more. His arms were stretched out behind him, holding onto the concrete wall, but with one look Jeff could see the precariousness of that hold. With no time to review any manuals, he stepped past the crowd and approached the scene slowly. It was as though the world around him was in mayhem, and he was in the eye of the storm.

“Hey,” Jeff said as if he was walking up to Dustin to say good morning.

The young man, wild-eyed and wary, spun to look at him, and Jeff saw his hold slip. “Stay away. I’m going to jump. I swear I will.”

Jeff held up both hands to signal that he wasn’t coming any closer. “It’s cool, man. I’m staying right here.” He took a breath to calm the adrenaline rushing through him. “You know, jumping isn’t going to solve anything.”

The kid’s gaze turned back to the street below. “Yes it will.”

A fight was the last thing he wanted to start. “Okay, well, then what’s so bad that this is the answer?”

“Everything.”

“Everything, huh? Yeah, well,…
I’m sorry what was your name?”

The gaze was back with more anger this time. “My name?”

“Yeah, I mean if we’re going to have this little conversation, it might be nice if I at least knew your name.”

“Oh.” The gaze turned back to the wind. “It’s…
it’s Parker.”

“Okay, Parker. Well, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Jeff.” One slow inch at a time he moved closer. “Hey, man, can we talk about this? I mean, come on, you don’t want to do this.”

“Yes, I do. I’m sick of life.”

“Oh really? Tell me one thing that’s so bad it’s worth this.”

A pause as the horns continued to sound from every level around them.

“Why should I tell you? You don’t care. You’re just like all the rest of them.”

“The rest of who?” Jeff heard the wail of a siren blending in with the horns, and he knew help was on the way. However, they were still too far to get here in time if he didn’t keep talking. “Tell me who you’re talking about, Parker.”

“Everyone. Mom, Dad, the kids at school.”

“They don’t care about you?”

“No, they’ll all be glad when I’m gone. Then they can pick on somebody else.”

“Pick on somebody? Who? The kids at school?”

Slowly the edges of the light brown hair moved up and down over the dark black glasses frames.

“Oh, I see, so you’re going to give them the power to kill you, too?” Jeff asked pointedly, hating every gust of wind that brushed past them.

“What?” Parker turned to Jeff taken aback by the statement.

“Well, they push you around at school, right? What do they do? Make fun of you?” The gaze turned back to the street as the head nodded. “And trash your stuff?” The nodding continued. “And make it so nobody else even wants to be your friend?” Every word was hitting the mark. “And so you’re answer to that is to hand them the power to push you off the edge of a bridge. Good plan.”

The nodding stopped as Jeff looked up and saw the paramedics running up the shoulder from the other direction. Instinctively, he put his hands up to slow them down. In Parker’s state it would take only one surprise to send him plummeting to the asphalt four stories below. One heartbeat and Jeff made eye contact with the first paramedic that broke through the crowd. That one look stopped the young man cold. The paramedic, several inches shorter than Jeff and looking like a cocky jock with his hat turned backward, halted and then approached on soft feet. A silent conversation passed between them, and the paramedic nodded his understanding of the situation.

“You don’t understand,” Parker said from the edge, and both gazes snapped to him.

“Then help me,” Jeff said softly. “Help me understand.”

Before he even heard the words, he heard the tears. “I go there every day… and every day, it’s the same thing. They hate me so they push me down, and they call me a maggot and a faggot and they say the only thing I’m really good at is being a punching bag.”

Jeff looked across at his partner in this rescue, and the ache bled through his eyes as well.

“They pull my shorts down in P.E., and they throw my clothes out the window, and I never did anything to them. I swear I didn’t. I tell them to stop, but they just think it’s funny, and they make more fun of me. I told one of the teachers, but he said to suck it up and be a man. Well, I’m tired of being a man. I’m tired of hurting all the time. They can just find somebody else to pick on from now on.”