“So, is this a date or are you my bodyguard now?” Jessie didn’t know why she felt so prickly about the situation when so little had changed. Half an hour before, she wanted to stay out with Steve as long as possible. But once he came back to the car and told her Richards said not to let her out of his sight, it didn’t exactly feel like the same pleasant evening.
Steve didn’t seem nearly as unhappy about things as she felt. But then, he was here at his friend’s wedding reception enjoying the buzz of people around them. Jessie felt a little out of place because other than the bride and groom, she didn’t know anybody here except Steve.
“I guess we better call it a date, because I’m not allowed to moonlight doing private security work.” Steve’s smile was almost flirtatious. “Besides, I don’t think bodyguards usually pay much attention to comfort, just keeping somebody alive. So as your date, I’m ready to get us both into that buffet line and have something to eat. How about you?”
“Now that you mention it, I am fairly hungry. And that punch bowl we walked past when we came in looked tempting, too.”
“Then let’s go take care of all that and come back to meet our tablemates. I know it might be a little odd for you, since you don’t recognize most of these people. To tell the truth I don’t know a lot of them, either.”
“Okay, that surprises me. I figured you’d know everybody. I feel a little better knowing I’m not the only one.” Jessie got up and headed toward the buffet table, Steve following closely.
“I recognize people from church, but Rachel and Tom must have pretty big families, and folks they work with are here, too. But that’s all right. I’m happy with the people I do know.” Jessie felt his hand, warm and protective on her back. His words and his touch put her at ease.
“Back there during the ceremony you said you had questions for me. What were they?” Steve asked as they balanced plates and punch cups on their way back to the table.
Jessie wasn’t sure what to ask first. “Wow. It’s hard to know where to start. Was that a fairly typical wedding ceremony, or was it different because Tom’s a minister?”
Gardner’s brow furrowed for a minute before he answered. “I think it was pretty normal, judging from the ones I’ve seen. Why?”
Jessie felt herself blushing. “It all seemed so serious, and so intense. There wasn’t a lot of difference in the promises they made to each other but they had a different gravity because of how much they brought God into the relationship.”
“For a believer, that’s the way it’s got to be. Without God as the most important part of a marriage, there’s not much left to fall back on when things get rough. If we’re not trying to discern and follow God’s plan for our lives, then making marriage work would be a constant struggle.”
“Isn’t it anyway?” Jessie blurted out.
Steve gave her an intense look. “I don’t know if I’d call it a struggle exactly, from what I’ve seen. Maybe more of a challenge. Struggle sounds so negative. Of course I’m just speaking from outside the picture here, since I’ve never been married.”
“Me, neither.” They put their plates and cups on the table and sat down. “I have to admit that for people saying such serious things, Rachel and Tom looked incredibly happy.”
Steve smiled. “They did, didn’t they? And if you look around the room and find them you’ll see those grins are still on their faces. That’s because those promises they made bound them together and set them free at the same time.”
“All right, that’s heavier than I can understand right now. And your food’s going to get cold if you spend much time explaining it. Isn’t there any simple way to explain this?”
“I guess. Do you have a Bible at home?”
Jessie groaned inwardly. “Probably. I don’t know how much of it I’d understand if I read it, though.”
“Just start out easy. Read the first few chapters of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament. It’s enough to read those and see what God thinks of each one of us, and how much God values us. And right there in that first part of the story God says it isn’t good for man to be alone, that he needs company.”
The way Steve looked at her while he was telling her that made Jessie feel different from any other time in her life. She felt special and valued and she wondered if it was some spark of God coming through Steve’s dark eyes and the warmth of his hand on top of hers. Love just glowed through him and it nearly brought her to tears. Was she seeing Steve’s love of God, or another kind of love altogether? Her mouth felt dry and she needed some of that punch.
Before they could go any further in their discussion three more people planted themselves at the table, chatting and visiting and introducing themselves. Steve gave her a wink and a shrug that made her heart flutter a little.
Anticipating that time alone made the wedding reception seem hours longer than it was. Steve had been right about Rachel and Tom; wherever she saw them together or alone that evening they were smiling. The smiles seemed the broadest when they visited the different tables together, Tom’s white-shirted arm around the frothy lace on Rachel’s shoulders. For the first time in her adult life Jessie allowed herself to actually consider how nice it might be if she were in a similar position.
She probably needed her head examined, but now that she’d met Stephen and gotten to know him she could imagine being married. Before knowing him she hadn’t even given a lifetime commitment to someone an idle thought. Jessie had been alone and responsible for herself, and for Laura, for so long that the notion of having someone in her life to care about her and for her was totally foreign. Now, watching Tom and Rachel, she saw what a real loving relationship could look like and she liked what she saw.
“Hey, Jessie. You still in there? I think they’re going to cut the cake if you want some.” She snapped back to the present with Steve’s voice and wondered what he must think of her sitting there with a goofy smile on her face.
Cake sounded good. “They won’t do that awful thing where they push cake into each other’s faces, will they? Because if they do, I’m out of here.”
Steve shook his head. “Don’t worry. I think Rachel would be out of here, too, if anybody tried that, and Tom has too much respect for her to consider it. I’m glad to hear you don’t like that nonsense either. I’ve always thought it was juvenile and distasteful, but I’m the minority opinion.”
“Well, we can be the minority opinion together,” Jessie told him, welcoming the chance to have his arm linked with hers as they got up and crossed the large room to watch along with the other guests as the bride and groom cut the cake.
When she tried to hide a yawn about forty-five minutes later, Steve started gathering up his suit coat and making goodbyes. “I promised I’d get Jessie home safe, sound and early,” he told the rest of the table. Her eyes felt heavy enough she wasn’t about to argue. It had been a nice evening but going home sounded good. Besides, she’d left Maude alone for quite a few hours and she wasn’t sure what would greet her on her return.
Steve helped her into her coat and they found his car in the crowded lot. Puffs of steam rose around them as they breathed in the cold air. “I know it’s supposed to be fall for another month, but nights are beginning to feel like winter is on the way,” Jessie said, wishing she’d remembered to stick gloves in her coat pockets.
Steve took her hand, sharing the warmth of his own. “I don’t have gloves, either, but this will help a bit.”
“I didn’t think I was that obvious,” Jessie told him, almost wishing it were farther to the car so she could keep holding his hand.
“You probably wouldn’t be to most people, but we’ve been hanging around each other a lot lately.”
“Too much?” Jessie asked, afraid of the answer once the words were out of her mouth.
Steve was silent for a few moments, making her even a little more nervous. He opened her car door and made sure she was in comfortably and went around to the driver’s side. “No, I wouldn’t say too much. It could be under better circumstances. With all that’s happened since we’ve known each other, do you think there’s a chance that you could be around me without thinking of all the bad things you’ve experienced in the last month?”
Steve’s expression looked the way Jessie thought she must look. Wary, hopeful and yet unsure of whether he wanted her to answer. She also understood why it had taken him a little while to answer her equally prickly question. While he waited he started the car, turned on the heater and drove out of the parking lot. When the radio got a little louder he clicked it off. “I think I’d like to keep seeing you, Steve. But we need to get through the next few days or weeks, whatever it takes to find Laura.”
“Okay.” Steve didn’t turn the radio back on or play a CD, but the unspoken words hung between them in the car. For the first time neither of them had jumped to say anything right away about how Laura might be found. In her research on urban legends Jessie knew that there was truth to the saying that the first forty-eight hours were key in a murder investigation or a kidnapping. She found herself hoping that in Laura’s case things would still work in their favor even though so much time had elapsed.
Steve’s good driving and the lateness of the hour must have lulled her to sleep. The next thing Jessie knew Steve was gently shaking her shoulder and calling her name. “Hey, we’re at your house. I think I better walk you in, don’t you?”
Jessie tried to clear the cobwebs from her tired brain and protest that she could get in all by herself but she lost the battle. “That might be nice,” she said. Steve came around to the passenger side of the car while she gathered her purse and found her keys.
She expected to hear barking the minute she turned the key in the lock. “I put Maude in the kitchen before we left so she didn’t have the run of the whole condo. I don’t want to put too much temptation in her way until I’m sure she’s as well behaved as she seems.”
The door opened, but there was still no sound from Maude. “That’s kind of odd. Every other time I’ve come in the front door she’s barked like crazy. Do you think she’s that sound asleep?”
“I doubt it. Let me come in with you and see what’s going on. Don’t go too far without me,” Steve warned.
The cool air had woken Jessie up and she thought he was being much too protective. Just then she heard whining and scratching. “I know what happened. She somehow got into the laundry room and shut the door on herself. Poor baby,” she said, hurrying to the kitchen to set her unhappy dog free.
“Jessie, I said wait,” Steve said, his voice more intense now. But she was to the kitchen and over the dog-gate before he could figure out the latch and follow her. Opening the laundry room door she started talking to Maude to calm her down but before she could get out more than a word something slammed her across the hallway into a wall and she let out a yelp. The air knocked out of her, she couldn’t make any more sound. In the midst of the commotion Steve, trying to vault the gate, got a foot caught in it and he and the gate came crashing to the floor.
Jessie found her voice at the same time whoever had pushed her against the wall took rough hold of her left arm and shoulder and started pulling her into the garage. For a moment she thought she felt cold metal along the side of her face and she cried out, pulling away as much as she could. In that moment Steve burst through the doorway from the condo and yelled, “Police. Let go of her and freeze.” Instead the masked figure pushed Jessie hard into her car, setting off the motion alarm and in the confusion that followed, sprinted out the door. Steve was there instantly picking her up off the concrete floor of the garage where she’d landed. “Are you okay?”
“Nothing broken,” Jessie managed. “Don’t worry over me. He’s getting away.” Her attacker must have been in very good shape, because by the time Steve steadied her against the still-wailing car and went out to give chase, they could hear a car door slam and an engine start in rapid succession. Jessie ran to the doorway. “It sounds like it’s on the cul-de-sac behind us.” Wincing, she could feel a spot where her knee had scraped something metal and a small trickle of blood ran down her leg.
She switched on the light and went back to the kitchen as quickly as she could to find her car keys. Finally the alarm stopped its racket and Steve came back into the garage. “I didn’t even get a plate number,” he complained, sounding winded. “Are you sure you’re okay? Because I’m going to get you inside under bright lights and if I have any doubts we’re calling for an ambulance along with the sheriff’s department.”
“I think I’ll be all right.” Already she could feel different spots on her body that would be sore and bruised tomorrow, but nothing seemed to be broken and she hadn’t ever hit her head.
Steve eased her into one of the kitchen chairs. Once she sat down Jessie realized that now Maude was barking. She tried to get up to go and open the door to the powder room near the laundry but Steve put a hand on her shoulder. “Stay there and I’ll get her.” Once the door opened Maude sprang out barking, dashing between Jessie and Steve in a frantic arc. Steve used the kitchen phone to call the sheriff’s department, apparently getting hold of a dispatcher, giving them as much detail as he could. Once done with his call he got down on one knee on the kitchen floor and called Maude.
“No signs that anybody tried to hurt her,” he said. “You both got lucky on that score. He must have wanted to use her as bait to draw you into the house quickly.”
Jessie shivered. “I’m glad she’s okay. And I’m pretty sure that I will be, too, with a little first aid.” Lifting the hem of her dress she looked at her knee. There were a few small bits of debris ground into her skin, but not enough of a cut to need stitches. Now that the worst was over she felt shaky and exhausted.
Steve had come over to examine her knee. She winced when he touched it. “Sorry. I don’t want to hurt you but we should clean this out and put a bandage on it at least. Tell me where you keep the first aid supplies and I’ll go get them.”
Jessie didn’t feel like arguing so she directed him to the shelf in the linen closet upstairs where he could find the right things. While he did that she went into the powder room and removed her shredded panty hose. When Steve came back she insisted on using the disinfectant wipes by herself, unwilling to let him cause her pain. “Once I’m done you can help with the antibiotic cream and bandages. Maybe by then someone from your department will be here.”
Her prediction was right. While Steve pointed out things to the deputy with a camera Jessie got permission to go upstairs and change into soft velour sweats and take a couple of antiinflammatory tablets. He insisted the female deputy go with her to check the walk-in closet and bathroom, and stay close in case she felt faint.
Going downstairs again Jessie just knew it must be midnight at least. Giving her statement to the officers felt like an ordeal and she breathed a sigh of relief once they’d finished. By then she felt rooted to the couch, Maude curled up beside her, refusing to leave her side. Steve sat on the love seat, a line of concern tracing the middle of his brow. “Agent Richards didn’t think much of my protecting you tonight. In fact he’s ready to come over and take you to a safe house immediately.”
“I won’t go. I know I can’t stay here alone tonight, but I’m not going to an official safe house.” The idea made her shudder.
“That’s what I told him you’d say. And since he doesn’t have the power to force you to do anything, we made a compromise. As long as I take you somewhere you’ll be safe and no one’s likely to find you, he’s all right with that.”
“Good. And whatever you come up with, it better include plans for Maude because I’m not leaving her here, either.” Jessie knew she sounded like a petulant child but tonight she and the dog were a package deal.
“I figured on that, too. I’ve already made a phone call to the place I want to take you, and it’s okay with the owner if you bring your dog. Let’s go upstairs and I’ll help you pack what you need for a day or two, all right?”
Jessie nodded, having spent all her energy on resisting the safe house idea. This sounded like as good a compromise as she would get. “Stephen, as long as you and Maude both stick around tonight, I’m good. So where are we going?”
Steve gave a wry smile and ushered her up the stairs. “I’d really hoped to take you home to meet my mom sometime soon, just not this soon. I think you’ll like it there. The security’s good, she cooks better than Miss Ella and there’s plenty of room for all of us.”
He was kidding, right? Jessie assured herself that he was just talking about taking her home to distract her from whatever he really had planned. An hour later Jessie found out that Steve hadn’t been joking about any of it. In short order she and Maude were sleeping in a room still decorated with twenty-yearold rock band posters and several basketball trophies. She resolved to find out everything she could from Steve’s mom about the man, but it would have to wait until daylight.