The Mercenary Read online

  Jodie fought to suppress her anger and agony, struggling to stand up unaided. The strength Luke had used to slam her into the table frightened her, and though she knew he hadn’t exactly planned for it to happen, it wasn’t the point. Danny insisted on having a look. He pulled up the back of her blouse and hissed under his breath. It probably looks as bad as it feels.

  “It must really hurt Jodie,” he said softly. “Let me take you to the doctor.”

  “No,” she argued, stubborn nature encompassing her common sense.

  Eddie shook his head and went back to the kitchen. Danny stood unmoving.at Jodie’s side, his eyes never leaving her face. Judging by the expression, he expected her to ask him to leave but she didn’t, even though part of her wanted him to. Bursting with frustration and anger, Jodie didn’t feel like talking anymore. How long they stood there trying not to stare at each other remained unclear, but at some point Ainsley appeared and placed a cup of coffee in each of their hands. Jodie offered a grateful smile, fresh tears clouding her vision.

  “The girls have calmed down now,” she told Jodie. “Eddie and I want to go for a drive, there’s a lot to talk about.

  Will you be okay?”

  “I’ll be fine; you don’t have to rush back.”

  Danny tossed Eddie his keys and Eddie let out a low whistle. “You’re going let me drive your car bro?”

  “It’s at the back,” Danny shrugged, though Jodie had no doubt surrendering his keys to anyone was a big deal. “Just take it.”

  “Well I won’t say no,” grinned Eddie. “C’mon Ains.”

  While Danny had been distracted, Jodie took a long hard look at him. Wispy strands of caramel hair hung in his face, the rest almost entirely pulled loose from his ponytail. Mild bruising colored his jaw, but other than that he seemed unscathed. Even a little rumpled he looked incredible. Jodie needed to be angry with him, she needed to be assertive and demand answers, but didn’t know if she had it in her.

  Danny looked at the girls, sitting on the far side of the dining table watching them, “I guess our talk will have to wait.”

  “I guess so,” Jodie turned away, squeezing her eyes shut.

  “I really am sorry Jodie.”

  “Why? You didn’t start the fight,” came her bitter response as she thrust her face back in his direction.

  “I’ve made a real mess of things; I hope I haven’t ruined everything.”

  “I want to hear it all,” she said, growing weary. “But not today, right now I’m tired.”

  “I don’t want to leave you here alone.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “You’re hurt, and who knows when Luke will come back. You shouldn’t have to baby sit,” Danny loomed over her, his tone just under control. He appeared to be having diculty restraining himself, his hands hovering as though he were about to snatch her to his chest in a bid to protect her.

  “I’ll be fine,” Jodie repeated, almost robotic as she ignored his body language.

  Danny didn’t seem happy, but after a brief kiss he left. Jodie hobbled over to the table, slowly lowering herself into a chair. She forced herself to put on a smile to try and make the girls forget everything that had just happened. Cleaning up the mess would have to wait until someone else got back.

  Ainsley was the first to return, though it had still been several hours. She and Eddie were holding hands, which implied they’d worked something out. Both were surprised that Danny had left and Jodie admitted with reluctance that she’d told him to go. Eddie decided to take Danny’s car back to their place and said his goodbyes.

  “Are you okay?” Ainsley said after a while, “maybe you should lie down.”

  “I’m fine,” Jodie lied.

  “Have you at least taken something for the pain?”

  The thought hadn’t even occurred to Jodie and feeling sheepish, she shook her head. Ainsley clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. After she had forced Jodie to take some painkillers, Ains announced that she would take the girls for a walk, thinking they might like a Popsicle from the corner store down the street. Jodie hadn’t wanted to say yes, but knew she had to listen to the protests her body had begun to make.

  Jodie lay down on the couch, though she didn’t actually sleep. The house felt too quiet and she had too much to think about. Drawing her grandmother’s quilt around her, she tried again to get comfortable. Restless and uncomfortable, Jodie couldn’t find a satisfactory position. Rockets of pain shot up both sides, sleep evading her as her back caught fire.

  As she traced a finger around the intricate designs on Gran’s quilt, the nostalgia helped to relax her. The bright happy colors and beautiful appliqued motifs had provided comfort since her childhood and Jodie had inherited it when she’d moved into the house.

  All of a sudden, the back door banged shut. Assuming Ains and the girls had come back, Jodie forced herself into a sitting position. After a couple of crashing sounds near the entrance, Luke lurched into view. So drunk he couldn’t even walk straight, she knew there’d be no talking to him in this state. Jodie lay back and prayed that he would think she’d fallen asleep.

  The next thing she knew, all hell had broken loose. All kinds of random objects sailed through the air left, right and center, giving the impression that Luke was attacking the house itself. Fighting back tears of frustration, Jodie hobbled toward the kitchen.

  “Luke!” She cried, pausing to lean on the wall for support, “stop and think about what you’re doing.”

  “Leave me alone,” he slurred. “This is your fault, everything is your fault.”

  “Please, Luke,” she begged.

  Jodie had seen Luke in a rage before, but not destroying everything in sight like this. A good portion of the new dinner set Jodie had purchased lay in pieces on the floor, two dinner sets gone in a month, she thought in dismay. Jars of jam and other condiments lay strewn about, splattered from one end of the room to the other. The fridge door had opened back on itself, with Luke flinging anything he could get his hands on.

  “What the hell is the matter with you?” Jodie yelled.

  He acted as though she hadn’t spoken, abandoning the fridge and smashing the ceramic jars that housed the tea and coffee granules.

  “Luke! Those were a gift!”

  He responded by hurling the toaster. The first time he went to lift it, the power cord prevented it from leaving the kitchen counter, but Luke gave it an almighty tug, adding momentum when it sailed out of his hands. Jodie tried to duck, but her slow reflexes and sore back would not allow it. The appliance struck her left temple and she sank to the ground, unconscious before her head even connected with the polished wooden boards.

  DANNY SAT IN THE WOODS near the boundary, both forearms resting on his drawn up knees. He felt most frustrated with himself. The harder he tried to get close to Jodie, the bigger mess he seemed to make of everything. Danny did not want this incompetence to become a habit, but when it came to Jodie, what he wanted and what actually happened seemed to be polar opposites. It had become dicult to tell what the right answers were anymore.

  Am I just making things worse? He wanted to protect her, undeserving of the chaos surrounding them, so innocent of the bigger picture she could not see. Danny would have given anything to take her away from it all but she couldn’t hide from what was coming, neither could he. No, he had a job to do and Jodie had begun to make that very dicult. Trying to conceive a way of pulling back from what had developed between them, it seemed hopeless. She was his Eros and nothing would change that.

  He might have sat there feeling sorry for himself for half the day if Jodie hadn’t screamed. Danny jumped to his feet, running before he’d even had time to think about what might have happened inside the house, cursing over his decision to leave her there. Emerging from the trees, he saw Luke’s car parked at an odd angle in the driveway and a sickening dread hit the pit of his stomach. I never should have left her, this is all my fault.

  Danny burst into the house and then
stopped for a moment, stunned at the state of the place. Stepping over fallen furniture, broken items and spillages, he hurried to the kitchen toward the worst of the damage. When he saw Jodie lying on the floor covered in blood, he feared the worst. Still yelling, and causing destruction, Luke hadn’t even heard Danny come in. Nor did he appear to realize what he had done to his sister.

  Everything within Danny suggested he eliminate the threat before assessing the full situation. He should have made certain Luke no longer posed a danger to anyone, but couldn’t think straight. Making a beeline for Jodie, he dropped down to where she lay and checked for a pulse. Finding that she was still alive, he allowed himself the luxury of breathing again and fought to pull himself together once more.

  As Danny turned, meaning to concentrate on what he should have paid heed to when he’d first walked in; Luke came at him with a large marble rolling pin. Danny threw up an arm to block the strike, and narrowly avoided a similar fate to Jodie. He maneuvered himself to the left, drawing Luke away from where his Eros lay in a pool of blood. They had a small scuffle on the kitchen floor, before the effects of Luke’s drinking caught up with him at last. Danny watched in astonishment as he passed out from sheer drunkard-ness.

  After he’d called emergency services, Danny found

  Laura’s number in Jodie’s cell phone and sent her a text.

  Satisfied that help was on its way, he went back to Jodie and dropped down beside her. Having no idea how bad the injuries were, he knew better than to move her. Examining the nasty injury, he saw that she’d lost a lot of blood. Danny went over to the sink shoved a tea towel under the cold tap. Squeezing out the excess water, he took it to her and pressed it to the wound. She moaned, trying to shy away from his touch and it angered him that Luke had done this to her.

  By the time Jodie came to, she’d writhed around so much that Danny had been forced to sit on the cold wooden floor with her in his arms. Her head rested in his lap, the towel pressed to the side of her face. With tender care, he stroked her hair to soothe her. It could have been what stopped Jodie from freaking out when she remembered what had happened.

  Driven by instinct, she tried to get to her feet

  “Luke,” Jodie whispered, crying out as the pain washed over her.

  “Relax, he’s over there sleeping.” Danny murmured.

  “You’re safe.”

  When she turned her head a little, Jodie saw Luke sprawled out on the floor nearby. She began to cry and once she started, she couldn’t stop. The tears kept coming and the more she tried to get it together, the more Jodie fell apart. Danny said nothing. He held her as she wept and continued to stroke her hair. He made soft comforting shhh-ing sounds, but allowed her the indulgence of her despair. When the hysteria subsided, he kissed Jodie on the forehead.

  “I am so sorry, this happened because of me. Every time I’m around you something bad happens.”

  “Not your fault.” Jodie’s weak protest did no good. He was adamant; and would not be swayed.

  Laura and Ainsley arrived one after the other, both taken aback at the disaster zone Luke had created. Ainsley had the good sense to keep the girls outside while Laura came into the room with her medical bag and knelt down on the floor beside Jodie.

  “You’re getting blood on your pants.” Jodie whispered, watching Laura’s light grey trousers soak up the precious fluid. “That is the least of your concerns.” She said wryly. “Now, lie still.”

  Though Laura stayed level-headed and calm, Danny hadn’t missed the concern etched in her features. Her jaw clenched just a little too tight and the pinch lines at the top of her nose implied that it was all an act. Speaking in hushed tones, she confirmed with Danny that he’d called the ambulance.

  Jodie would need more than just a few simple stitches.

  The pain had started to get to Jodie, her vision hazed over and she started to fade. Danny could see this and he panicked. No, don’t give up now, just hang on!

  “Stay awake, Jodie!” He told her. “You have a head injury; you can’t let yourself go to sleep.”

  “Just for a little bit,” she promised.

  “No, please honey, stay awake. We’re going to take you to the hospital, keep talking. Tell me about your vacation.”

  “My vacation?” Jodie couldn’t think straight and couldn’t seem to remember what Danny referred to. Her eyelids fluttered and her head started to slant backward.

  “The trip you’ve always wanted to take, once you get over your fear of being stranded in another country,” he coaxed fighting to swallow the lump in his throat. Stay with me, please stay with me.

  “Oh, that. Have to. Start somewhere. English speaking,” she said, struggling to put sentences together. “Want go to Europe. Pretty scenery. Bit of snow, sexy accents.”

  “Sounds good to me,” he said, his chest burning with anxiety. “It’s very beautiful over there, you’d love it.”

  “You’ve been?”

  “I’m from there,” he gave a weak smile.

  Jodie had to concentrate so hard to focus, controlling her movements had become too much for her. “From where?” Though she struggled, he’d caught her interest. For now, she held on.

  “My mother is Swiss and my father is Russian.”

  “Your accent... wrong.” Jodie began to lose the battle; her speech and ability to stay awake rapidly decreased with each passing minute.

  “I worked very hard to lose it.” Danny informed her, his voice devoid of the surety it had held such a short time ago.

  Sirens wailed in the distance and Danny uttered a silent prayer of thanks. Laura hurried outside to meet them and Danny brought his attention back to Jodie, squeezing her hand. It had gone limp, and he received no response.

  “Jodie?” Danny’s voice raised an octave. “Fuck... Jodie!”

  He stroked her cheek and tried to wake her, but she had lost her grip on consciousness. All he could do was hold her while they waited for the paramedics to bring the gurney into the house and hope like hell they got to the hospital before it was too late.

  Chapter 9

  Things had become much worse before they got any better. According to Laura, there had been a chance Jodie may have had brain damage or worse. She hadn’t managed to stay awake on the way to the hospital, and they’d decided to keep her sleeping a while to help with the healing until the swelling inside her skull had receded. Jodie didn’t know much about all that kind of thing, but Laura said that often happened with head injuries. Many things changed while Jodie stayed in the induced coma, even though it hadn’t lasted very long.

  First and foremost, Laura called John and Penny Fletcher who got on the next available flight home. They’d sat at Jodie’s bedside as much as possible between keeping an eye on Luke and taking care of Grace and Rose. Unfortunately, they were gone when Jodie awoke and were sure to be disappointed. They had been living at Jodie’s place, getting it cleaned up. Now that it had been completed, they’d moved the girls to their place. Jodie had been through enough and should never have taken on so much responsibility in the first place.

  Luke got arrested, but the case would never make it to court unless Jodie filed assault charges against him. As irate as she felt over what he’d done, Jodie would never do that. Jodie’s father registered Luke with the AA and John would attend with him. Partly so that he didn’t have to go through it alone, also to make sure he actually got there.

  Zach decided that as long as Jodie had no objections, he would still live with her. He’d already moved his things in and didn’t have anywhere else to go. Jodie didn’t mind at all. A hell of a nice guy who volunteered to do housework; she would have been a fool to turn him away.

  Danny never left Jodie’s side. Though her parents were often there at the same time, Danny had been the one to ensure her comforts were met. He tucked her in and fetched the extra blanket at night; he stroked her hair and held her hand. The Fletchers tried to get him to go home and get some sleep, but he’d refused. Once they�
�d assured him their primary concern was his well-being, he settled in for the long haul. Jodie had been quite surprised when Laura had told her all of this later.

  Jodie had sprained her back and cracked two ribs, sustaining a minor laceration where she hit the side table and bruised flesh around the injury. She also sustained a serious concussion and nine stitches in her head from where the toaster struck. With her forehead and temple blue-black, and the left eye still swollen closed, Jodie knew she must have looked frightful.

  Her first concern had been to find out how serious the injuries were. She had been aware of Danny in the room, but until after the doctor left, she hadn’t realized they’d been holding hands the whole time. Jodie glanced over at him. When he met her gaze, his eyes sparkled a rich azure blue. They were an even deeper color than usual under the hospital’s bright fluorescent lighting and Jodie became mesmerized in their endless depths in seconds. He said nothing, his full lips expressionless as he waited for her to speak first.

  “You’re here,” she said.

  “I am,” he agreed with a tired smile.

  “This is the hospital,” Jodie said, wondering who had taken control of her mouth and how she could get it back.

  “How are you feeling?” Danny asked. His palm warm against hers as his thumb caressed the back of her hand.

  “What?” She’d been so busy staring at him that she hadn’t been listening.

  “I think you need coffee,” he teased.

  “You have coffee?” She couldn’t hide her eagerness. “I love coffee.”

  “So I’ve noticed. I’ll go get you some.”

  Danny kissed Jodie’s forehead and strode over to the door. As she watched him leave, she decided if those jeans were the only pair of pants that he owned, that would be just fine and dandy. The way the denim rode the curve of his ass as he walked was enough to make her salivate. As injured as she may have been, Jodie couldn’t bring herself to look anywhere else. Appalled at her lack of self- control, she closed her eyes as the door swung shut.