Seasons (44 page)

Oh well, she quickly decided, they would swing by the address where Jason was and leave from there to go to lunch. Her desk
phone rang, and, thinking it was Jason returning her call, she hurriedly picked it up.

“Hey, girl, you ready? I’m almost there.” C.J.’s voice came over the line. Jaci, trying not to sound disappointed, said, “Sure,
I’ll head down and meet you in front of the building. But I need to make a little detour. Is that all right? Do you have time?”

“Sure, I have time. See you in a few.”

Jaci stuck the piece of paper with the scribbled address into her purse and walked to Bill’s office. “Hey, Bill, I’m sorry
to bother you, but I’m leaving for lunch. You have time to walk down with me?”

“Absolutely. And you’re not bothering me,” Bill answered, standing immediately to accompany her.

“Well, I must admit, I do feel like that. But I don’t have a choice right now. Hopefully, this thing with Linda and Wynola
will soon be over, but they’re still calling regularly, telling me what they’re going to do to me.”

She stepped outside just as C.J. arrived. They drove to the address, thankful it wasn’t too far out of the way. It turned
out to be a patio home in a nice neighborhood. She thought it was strange that a car with the department logo was already
parked in the driveway and was disappointed to see no sign of Jason.

Jaci sighed. “I wonder where Jason is?” She pulled the cell phone out of her purse and called Jason again. His voice mail
clicked on immediately. “Jason! I’m here at this house. Where the heck are you?” She ended the call and sighed again frustratedly.
“Doggone it! I hate this. He’s the one wanting to meet and he’s late. Well, the woman from his office said the door would
be open because there are people working in the house. But if I wasn’t so curious, I’d leave. Come on, let’s go on in.”

The two women entered the house after a tentative knock. Jaci gasped in surprise when Bob Johnson from her office met them
at the door. “Now what are you doing here, Bob?” A sliver of unease shot through Jaci. Something was off about this whole
thing, she realized. If Jason got here and found her here with Bob, he was sure to be upset. They’d had words about Bob more
than once.

Bob also looked surprised for a minute, then started smiling delightedly at the two women. “Well, I could ask you the same
thing, but I’m not complaining. Who is this vision of beauty with you?”

J
ason ignored the ringing telephones and numerous knocks on his office door. He couldn’t recall a time in his life when he
had been more angry and upset. Ever since he received that call this morning, he had been in an uncommunicative mode. The
man’s words kept reverberating through his mind.

“Just consider this a friendly heads-up, brother. I hate to see you getting played like you are. You can find your wife and
her lover at this address at eleven thirty today if you play it smart. She thinks her game is still cool, so I wouldn’t do
anything to tip her off. Her and this guy have been together, ripping people off for years. And they’re planning to take you
for everything you got, man. They’ve done it to his wife, who happens to be my sister, and no telling how many others. I just
don’t want to see them do it to somebody else. You don’t have to take my word for it, just show up there and I guarantee,
you’ll see more than enough to know I’m telling the truth. And I wouldn’t go over there unarmed, man. This dude is known for
packing a gun. You need to be careful.”

The address the man rattled off was burned into Jason’s brain. He was so angry all logical thought left him. He knew exactly
who the dude was. It had to be Bob Johnson. Jason wanted to punch him out every time he saw them together.

Had the man been telling the truth? Was he running some kind of scam? Jason knew a man in his position couldn’t be too careful.
But if it was the truth, how could Jaci do this to him? Just the idea of his wife with another man sent him into a red haze
of anger that blocked all rational, reasonable thought. The haze filtered into his mind and produced dangerous impulses. He
reached into his desk and pulled out a gun, pointing it toward imagined images on the wall across the room. He realized at
that moment that he was capable of murder. The thought chilled him to the bone but refused to leave his mind. When they talked
this morning, Jaci told him she had a lunch date with her cousin and would then be going into a meeting. “Just leave a message
if you call because my cell will be muted.”

“Yeah, right!” he said sarcastically. “That’s really convenient.”

Deep down he didn’t believe Jaci was capable of cheating on him. But he remembered the way she had danced with the guy and
recalled how he had walked unannounced into her office one day before they were married and found them sitting close together
in deep conversation. The guy simply smiled arrogantly and walked out when Jason had threatened him.

Jason knew he needed to let somebody know what was going on. In a city like Houston, you didn’t run around like a lone ranger.
Too many bizarre things went on every day. He thought about calling his best friend Walt, but knew he was probably in court.
His dad was out of the question. Most everyone that he felt comfortable calling for help was out of pocket at this time of
day.

His brother came to mind. But he hated to involve Ron in this when he was trying so hard to win him to the Lord. However,
Ron was the only one who might possibly be available to go with him, so he picked up the phone and dialed Ron’s extension.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Ron answered the phone in a rushed tone. “I’m on my way out to a site, so talk fast.”

“Ron, I need you to go somewhere with me. Can you come up here now?” Jason spoke in a shaky voice.

“Naw, man! I just told you, I’m getting ready to leave. What’s up?”

“I can’t discuss it on the phone, but there’s a serious situation going on involving Jaci. I need your help.”

Ron’s heart kicked into overdrive. Right away, his mind went to Linda’s threats against Jaci. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

When Ron walked into his office, Jason was holding the gun in his hand, checking to see if it was loaded. “What’s going on,
man?” Ron asked, looking concerned. “What are you doing with that thing?”

“I might need it,” Jason answered. “I got a call this morning from some dude telling me that if I go to a certain address,
I’ll find my wife there with her lover. I’m getting ready to go over there, and I want you to go with me. I know the dude.
I’ve seen them together on more than one occasion. In fact, I’ve told him to stay away from my wife. Needless to say, I’m
ready to do some damage to both of them if what I was told is true.”

“What! J.P., did you call Jaci?” Ron asked, shaking his head in disbelief. “You know Jaci wouldn’t do something like this.
That woman loves you! Think, man! Somebody’s running a game on you.”

Jason pushed the gun into his belt. “When I talked to Jaci earlier this morning she conveniently told me she would be unavailable
to take any calls. Besides, I’m so angry, I don’t know if I want to talk to her.”

“I don’t believe you, J.P.! What has Jaci ever done to make you distrust her like this? You’re wrong brother. Your anger is
clouding your mind. You need to get a grip.”

“I hope you’re right. But if you had heard that guy telling me what a fool I’ve been behind this woman, you would understand
why my head is so messed up.” They left the office in a heated argument.

When they pulled up in front of the patio home and saw the car identified as one from Jaci’s department, J.P. cursed and Ron
felt sweat pop out on his forehead. There was another car parked in the driveway but it wasn’t Jaci’s.
Must be the guy’s personal car,
Jason thought.

They got out of the SUV and walked slowly toward the house. “Now, brother, I want you to keep your cool until you find out
what the deal is. Okay?” Ron talked softly and urgently to Jason.

But Jason was in his own zone. Refusing to think about what he would do if his wife was in that house with another man.

They walked across the small porch, pushed the door open without knocking, and walked into the house.

J
aci stood in the middle of the room with Bob, while C.J. walked around the room, checking out the decor.

When the door was roughly pushed open, and Jason and Ron walked in, she drew a breath of relief that quickly turned to dread.
Relief that Jason had finally arrived. Dread over his reaction to finding Bob there.

“It’s about time!” Jaci said nervously. “I was beginning to think you were going to stand me up. What’s the deal? Why did
you ask me to meet you here?”

Jason’s face was totally blank, but his eyes held a violent anger that Jaci hadn’t seen before. Her uneasiness increased as
Jason walked up to her and looked into her eyes a long time before speaking.

“What are you doing here? With him?”

C.J. walked toward the group standing in the middle of the room. “Hey, Jason. Hey, Ron. How are you? Ya’ll getting ready to
buy this house? It’s pretty nice. I’ve been looking around while we were waiting on you guys to . . .” Her voice trailed off
when she felt tension fill the room.

Jaci knew something was desperately wrong. She looked into her husband’s closed face, trying to decipher what she saw. “Is
your cell phone working? Why didn’t you call me back? And since when did we start communicating through your staff?”

Ron grabbed her arm. “What did you just say, Jaci? Who on J.P.’s staff called you?”

Jaci looked from Jason to Ron, confused. “I don’t know what her name was.” She tried to remember if the woman had even given
her name, or just said, “I’m calling from your husband’s office.”

Jaci’s eyes returned to Jason. “She said she was calling from your office and that you wanted me to meet you here. Baby, I
called you. Didn’t you get my messages?”

“No. I didn’t,” Jason answered coldly, his eyes now on Bob. “What’s your story? Why are you here?” His furious expression
caused waves of fear to run through Bob, who had faced enough angry husbands to know he needed to answer carefully.

“I got a call from Wynola Dickson this morning, asking me to come by here and do a structural inspection on this house. She’s
thinking about buying it and wanted to make sure everything is okay. She was supposed to meet me, but when I got here, there
was a note on the door telling me to go on in, that she was running late. I had just gotten here when Jaci and this lady walked
in a few minutes later.”

C.J. looked into the faces of the people gathered in the room and sensed danger. Something was terribly wrong. Jaci and Jason
were immobilized—Jason with anger and Jaci with confusion, while Bob’s face was filled with fear.

“Wait a minute, guys!” C.J. said. “Let’s get to the bottom of this before it goes any further.”

“You got that right,” Ron said. “I knew something didn’t sound right when J.P. asked me to come over here with him. Some dude
called him this morning and told him that Jaci and this dude would be here together and . . . well . . . a lot of other stuff.
He got all bent out of joint and came over here gunning for . . .” He pointed toward Bob.

Bob’s knees shook so bad, they almost gave way under him. Cold chills hit at the same time he felt perspiration rolling down
his arms.

C.J. looked around the group again. “Don’t ya’ll see? Somebody set all of you up. Each of you got a call to come to this house
at a certain time today. Now if things had gone as planned, Jaci and Bob would have been here alone when Jason got here, after
he’d been told they would be here doing the hanky-panky. Whoo! That’s some treacherous mess. I’m just glad I was here and
that Ron came along with Jason. Otherwise, something bad could’ve happened.” She looked at Jaci, who was still staring at
her husband. “Jace? You okay? I think we should get out of here now. Whoever did this could call the police and accuse us
of breaking in here.”

Just then, a tall, thin man with a cap on his head appeared at the door. “Ya’ll need to get outta here! Them women crazy!”
He took off at a run around the corner of the house.

Jaci stood as though in shock, while Jason, who’s mind had started clearing, looked at his wife with mixed emotions.

“Jaci! Come on, let’s go!” C.J. said, urging her toward the door. “Are you still up to lunch? If so, we need to hurry. Don’t
you have a meeting this afternoon? We’ll probably have to settle for some fast food at this point. But we need to get out
of here fast!”

Jaci moved slowly and answered as if she had to force the words. “No, Cij. I don’t think so. Just drop me back off at the
office.” At C.J.’s urgent pull, she broke out of her daze and walked around Jason toward the door, refusing to look at him
as she passed.

Jason caught her arm. “Baby, we need to talk. Let me drive you back. C.J. can drop Ron off.”

Jaci pulled away from him. “Not right now.” Her eyes were a turbulent gray. “I . . . uh . . . I need to come to grips with
the fact that my husband knows so little about me that he thought I would cheat on him.”

“Let’s go, Jace! Something’s not right here. We need to go now!” C.J. said again, pulling her through the door. C.J. knew
her cousin well enough to know she was very close to tears. But they didn’t have time to stand around right now.

“I’m out of here!” Bob said. He started toward the door, then turned around and spoke to Jason. “Look, man. I apologize if
it seems like I’ve been coming on to your wife. I guess I have, but I come on to all women. Jaci knows me and has ignored
me for years. If I ever had a chance with her, it disappeared when you came on the scene. You have a good woman here. I hope
you know that.”

Bob wished Wynola was somewhere close so he could kick her from one end of town to the other, and shivered when he thought
about what could have happened. That lady had some retribution coming. She had callously set a trap for all of them that held
the potential for somebody getting hurt. Most likely him! Yeah. She had something coming. He just had to figure out what it
would be. He and Wynola Dickson had a history that her husband probably didn’t know anything about. Until now.