Bones Of Contention: The McKinnon Legends - The American Men Book 3 (19 page)

“For you, Love, I can be as naughty as you want me to be,” he teased back, winking conspicuously. Kissing her passionately again and groaning at his own self-inflected discomfort, she almost wished she had the strength to ask him to stay.

“And I just bet you say that to all the girls,” she said becoming uncomfortable. The thought of how quickly this relationship was becoming very important to her was front and center.

“Possibly,” he winked again and then got serious. “Please, be here when I get back in the morning. I don’t say that to any of the girls,” he said, kissing her one more time before heading for the door and down the steps.

“Josh?”

“Yeah?” He turned on the bottom step of the porch giving her his full and undivided attention.

“You asked me to stay the weekend, so I’ll stay. Killer and Saber will keep me company. Now, go. Be safe and promise you will come home to me.” She meant every word.

Josh quickly came back up the three steps. “Always.”

Josh knew it was the best confession of her feelings he was going to get. It would work for now.

He kissed her softly on the lips and once more on the forehead with a promise to see her again around midnight as he had the night before. As she watched his taillights disappear down the long drive to the highway, she prayed she would have the strength to tell him tomorrow.

It was already Sunday morning as Josh crawled in bed in the early morning hours. He needed to get a few hours of sleep before taking the afternoon patrol. Apologizing for not spending as much time with her as he wanted, Jamie assured him she was perfectly capable of entertaining herself. He was sure she could, but guaranteed her his form of entertainment was way more enjoyable. Of course, he had to prove his point.

He needed to sleep and Jamie was fine with the arrangement. It kept her from having to tell him just yet of her heritage. She needed time to explain and decided it was not a good idea to take that time by cutting into his sleep. She had seen how he was when he was running without sleep, and in her estimation, it wasn't pretty.

Later, after he gets home this evening, she told herself. At that point, she would sit him down and lay it all out hoping it would not scare him away.

In the meantime she would call Jesse.

Jesse agreed to go with her to the mall in Midland forty miles to the south. It had taken some convincing on Jamie’s part. However, after they maneuvered past an awkward start, the day had been very exciting. Jamie was having a good time shopping while enjoying the feminine company and dodging Christmas shoppers. Jesse appeared to be having a great time as well.

The young girl was a lot of fun to be around, and she had a quick sense of humor that Jamie felt was unique for a girl of fifteen. She could see much of her father in this budding young woman. Nevertheless, she was a person all her own. They went to the spa for a manicure, pedicure, and trial run on Jesse’s hair. Barbara, back on duty, was discreetly keeping a close watch careful not to intrude. Several hours later after playing in the clothes, the shoes, and accessories, they had settled on the perfect dress style.

Jamie could just see Josh’s reaction to said dress, too. She imagined she would have to have to peel him from the ceiling because, at first glance, he would not approve of the dress. He would hit the roof, she thought. Nevertheless, she felt sure she could settle him enough for him to see Jesse as the beautiful young woman she was quickly growing up to be. In Jamie’s opinion, Jesse deserved to have a beautiful dress befitting that budding maturity.

Unfortunately, Josh was still seeing her as a little girl of ten, which was not a good thing considering he could no more stop the marching of time any more than she could forestall past tonight. He just had to see that Jesse was no longer a little girl.

She looked grown up, but not too over the top. The small sequined jacket covered the bare shoulders of the strapless bodice that plunged just enough to be acceptably provocative for her age.

“Oh, Jesse, you look fabulous, Sweetie. What do you think? Is this the one?”

Jesse nodded excitedly, turning this way and that in front of the threefold mirror in the fitting room. She loved the way it fit.

“Ethan Johansson’s eyes are going to just pop,” Jesse confessed sensing the growing feminine power within her.

Jamie laughed at Jesse’s excitement in discovering what it felt like to be a girl. “I say ‘let ‘em pop’, but let’s keep that between us for now. I’m sure your dad really doesn’t need to hear that there is an Ethan Johansson out there, much less that he will have his eyes popping out. Deal?”

Jesse agreed understanding fully and feeling quite the conspirator.

“I love the style on you, Jess, but….”

“But I look like a piece of fruit,” Jesse laughed again at her own joke.

Definitely. The color was wrong. Pale was no good, Jamie surmised, just as Jesse had done. This young woman needed something bold, something eye-catching that would make a statement of her entrance. Red, sapphire, emerald green, but never peach.

Jamie left her in the dressing room to exchange the color of gown. It had taken a little longer than she planned. The sales lady had to take the one off the mannequin to get the right size and color. It was a dazzling, eye-catching sapphire that was going to make her hair look like rich sable, her skin look like silk, and eyes sparkle like beautiful priceless jewels.

Jamie returned to the dressing room to find it empty and Jesse nowhere in sight. The woman at the counter could not have cared less that the young girl was missing, and Jamie went to security to have Jesse paged. She felt her heart constrict. Jesse was nowhere in the store. She somehow managed to slip past Jamie and Barbara, who was focused on Jamie’s protection and never dreamed the girl would make the slip.

Panic surged through Jamie. Josh is going to kill me, she thought. She made the call dreading the outcome.

“Hi, baby, what’s up? Miss me already?” Josh teased as he answered seeing her name on the caller ID.

“Josh, I’m sorry to call you and I’m sure it is just Jesse being a little thoughtless. Teenagers can be that way at times. I know she is here somewhere, but she won’t answer the store page. I didn’t know what else to do except call you. Maybe she will respond to you.”

“Where is Jesse, Jamie? Where is your guard?” Josh felt his throat tighten as he pulled over onto the side of the lonely stretch of highway he was currently patrolling.

“Barbara is right here. I don’t know where Jesse is at the moment. That is what I’m trying to tell you.”

“Don’t move. I’ll be there as fast as I can,” he barked.

Jamie heard the siren kick on in the background.

Josh made quick work of getting to the mall. Jamie and Barbara were standing out front waiting for him. Barbara discreetly stepped away as Josh came up on the sidewalk.

“Have you found her? What the hell happened?” Josh demanded the minute he was within earshot.

“We were having a great time.” Jamie was really worried seeing the look on Josh’s face. Until she saw him, she was only concerned. Now, she could sense his anxiety. “It is completely selfish for her to make us worry like this. I don’t understand why she would do this, Josh.”

“Why she would do what? You are the one who lost her.” Josh could feel his heart pounding in his throat. His blood pressure was skyrocketing. What if Del Torres’s men had returned to seek revenge?

“Josh, she is not a toddler. You don’t lose a teenager last seen half-naked inside a woman’s dressing room. No one dragged her off behind my back or lured her away with the promise of ice cream. She is just behaving recklessly and thoughtlessly.”

“I should have never trusted you with her. I really thought you were going to be different.”

Josh ran his hands nervously through his hair worried beyond belief. He had trusted her to look after his little girl. She failed him.

Jamie was crushed, his accusations stinging. “Okay, now, I get it. I see how it really is with you, Sheriff. I’m a freaking booty call, is that it? I’m good enough for a Saturday afternoon fuck and to pass the time, but not good enough to have a girl’s day out with your daughter accompanied by a bodyguard?”

“You weren’t just a weekend fling, Jamie, and that is why this is so bad for us,” Josh corrected her. She made him sound sordid and cheapened his feelings for her.

“Whatever,” Jamie began to try and pull her protective covers back over her wounded heart. She was not having much success.

About that time Josh’s phone rang. It was Jesse. Josh cut his eyes over at Jamie and then Barbara, pursing his lips and narrowing his eyes. He was livid. Unconsciously, Jamie took a step back and away from him. Barbara took two steps forward.

He told Jesse to come outside where he would take her home.

He was furious. Jamie felt the emotions rolling off this massive man. The high emotion just served to make him even larger as if the negative energy magnified his size. Barbara stepped closer fearing she would need to defend her charge against her employer. That would be like taking a knife to a gunfight in Barbara’s opinion. She had never seen Josh like this before, not in all the years she had known him. Not even when Jesse was kidnapped had he been this emotional.

This was bad, Barbara thought, really bad.

“She said you told her to stay put in the games arcade while you and Barbara went to have a drink at the restaurant. Is that true?” he demanded angrily, almost to the point of violence.

“She said what?” Jamie’s eyes were wide in shock, her voice going up an octave. She was stunned and almost speechless at the blatant lie.

“Have you been drinking and driving around my kid?” he demanded an answer.

Jamie stared at him shaking her head. She could not believe she was hearing him even ask her such a question. The times they had been together she had never once touched alcohol. With her family history, she dared never touch the stuff having no idea of the reaction it might create inside her body. He had offered on more than one occasion, and she had declined each and every time. He knew she did not drink. He knew. He was just too high strung to remember.

“I’m not even going to answer that question, Josh, even though Barbara could back me up. You are not going to believe me anyway. It seems your little angel can do no wrong in your eyes, and it is inconceivable to you she could possibly be lying. I have no idea why she would do something as vicious as this, Josh. I guess she has more of her mother in her than you might care to think.” It was a remark meant to insult. It hit the mark perfectly.

“That's enough. No one talks about her like that, at least not while I’m around. So what do you have to say in your defense?” Josh was angry and hurt. He was churning inside at the thought of Jesse being tossed aside while Jamie went about her way.

“I have nothing to say.” Well, she did. Nevertheless, she held her peace. “You have automatically taken her side. You have acted as judge, jury, and executioner, so why should I even bother defending myself?”

“Think about it, Josh. Listen to her,” Barbara pleaded.

Josh’s eyes were daggers as he turned to Barbara. “Trying to cover your own inadequacies, Barbara?” Josh fired back. As soon as he could get Robert on the phone, Barbara was fired from this detail as far as he was concerned. “Robert should have known better to send a woman do a man’s job.”

“Now, you’re just being a mean jackass, Sheriff. You said yourself Barbara was the best,” Jamie came to Barbara’s defense.

Jamie and Barbara had been set up royally. It hurt her deeply to know that a child so lovely could be so deceitful and cruel. It hurt her even more to know Josh did not trust her. That said a lot about his confession from the night before and this morning of being in love with her. It was a crock of crap just to get her to fall into his arms and into his bed.

Damned if she didn’t too.

“Is it true? Did you leave her?” Josh squeezed her arms.

Barbara took another step forward.

Jamie batted at his grip. “Take your hand off me, Sheriff McKinnon, or I will file formal charges of battery against you.”

“Did you leave her?” he asked again after removing his hands. It never registered she had called him by his professional title.

“Yes, I left her. I left her in the dressing room to get a different color dress. I don’t understand why she is lying to you this way.”

“Josh, think before you overreact here,” Barbara tried one more time to penetrate the fog of Jesse’s deception and Josh’s irrational thought.

It made no sense to her either. Jamie and Jesse were actually having a good time, or at least she thought they were.

Jesse came outside through the double doors of the department store, putting on a pretty show for Josh. Big crocodile tears streamed down her face.

“It’s over between us, Jamie. I love you, but if you are going to be this irresponsible with the one thing I love above all else in this world, I just cannot let it go any further.” He turned to her bodyguard. “Barbara, take Jamie back to Lubbock. Davis is there already. Bring my truck back when you come.”

Hurt and humiliated, but holding her head high, she was not going to give this devious child the satisfaction of knowing she hurt her. She had hundreds of years of practice in masking her feelings in the Fairy Court where she never dared to let her enemy see a weakness.

Neither would she give Josh the satisfaction of the last word as she turned addressing her parting words to the one who really needed them.

“Be very careful, young lady, which path you choose to walk in life. For once on that path, changing is nearly impossible. It is advice your mother would have done well to heed.” It was all she said before turning and leaving them standing there.

Jamie had walked away many times in her very long life. She never looked back when she did. She was not about to change that habit now.

“What have I done,” Jesse asked herself looking in the mirror.

Hours later, Jesse was feeling badly about what she had done. Reality was dawning and with it the understanding of just how cruel her actions had been to all of them. This was not usually like her at all. She had done some things to the other women to make them leave, but usually it was things she said about herself.