She looked over at her friend, then back at her car, still struggling to believe that the ruined mess was the vehicle she’d worked so hard to buy. It was the only thing she owned, her pride and joy. Now all the windows were smashed, the seats were torn, the dashboard cracked, and even worse, it was covered in obscenities written in bright red paint.
Reality hit her like a freight train, stealing the air from her lungs and she stumbled back a few steps, horrified and a little frightened. “I can’t believe someone did this to me,” she said, holding back a sob. “I’m not a bad person, I’m really not…”
She felt her legs turning to jelly, felt the strength draining from her muscles, and started to sink to the ground, but a pair of strong arms were suddenly supporting her. “What the hell is going on?” Malcolm demanded, lifting her into his arms. “Who did this? Did you see them?”
Comfort instantly washed over her, but she was still too shocked to speak and just shook her head, concentrating on her breathing. “We just found it, I was going to call the cops,” Vanessa said, holding up her phone. “I bet it was Sanda, there’s no way this was random, and you haven’t been here long enough to piss anyone else off.”
Malcolm carried her over to a bench under the trees next to the parking lot, gently set her down, and then sat next to her. “Are you okay?” he asked. “That must have been quite a shock.”
“I think so,” she said, fighting back the tears. “My poor car. I loved that car, I saved up for years to buy it, and it’s the only thing I have that’s just mine.”
“I’m sorry, Rose,” he said, putting his arm around her. “I’m sure it can be fixed.”
“I know, but it will never be the same,” she said, then let out a long sigh. “I guess we’d better call the cops. I can’t believeSandra did this. I was willing to forgive the other stuff, but I want her put in jail for this.”
“I don’t blame you,” Malcolm said. “I think we’d better give Roger a call, too. He needs to know what happened.”
CHAPTER 12
***MALCOLM***
As soon as Vanessa was on the phone with the police, Malcolm dug out his phone, but he had to sit there with Rose tucked under his arm for a long time before he could even think about making the call. His mind was whirling with all the emotions crashing inside him, and the angry bursts of magic from the dragon buried deep within him weren’t helping, nor was the urge to defend Rose that climbed to almost unmanageable every time he looked at her car.
When he’d driven in to return his work truck and seen the car in the corner of the parking lot, his first thought was that he’d lost Rose before she’d even been his, and a stab of powerful grief had taken his breath away. Then he’d seen her standing with Vanessa, her entire body trembling, a look of horror on her face, and his emotions had swiveled as a hot rage slowly descended over him with the urge to make the person responsible pay and the need to protect Rose rising to the surface and telling him more than he wanted to know.
It was the sight of her ready to tumble to the ground that finally penetrated through it all, and he’d vaulted out of the truck just in time to sweep her off her feet. Now he could no longer deny the truth, he was falling in love with her. The one thinghe’d been so sure he could control had gotten away from him. Remembering Sam’s words, he told himself that it wasn’t the end of the world, he could just rearrange his plans. Then it hit him, she had no idea what he was.
Looking down at her, he imagined the conversation they’d have to have, saw in his mind the way it would go and what had been complicated before suddenly seemed impossible. Vanessa was off the phone and walking toward them when he realized that his phone was still in his hand so he quickly placed the call to Roger. Now wasn’t the time to think about his love life, the police would be there soon.
“They’re sending out a car,” Vanessa said, tucking her phone into her pocket. “Did you call Roger?”
“I’m doing that right now,” he said, holding up the phone. “Do you want to come sit with Rose while I make the call?”
When he was sure that Rose was fine, he stepped away, glad to take a few minutes to himself, the made the call. “Hello,” Roger answered on the second ring. “Make it fast, I need to keep this line open.”
“We’ve got a problem here at the office,” he said. “Someone vandalized Rose’s car, completely destroyed it. We’ve called the police, but we thought you might want to know. Roger, we think it was Sandra, we don’t have any proof…but well…if you saw this, you’d think so too.”
“I’m on my way, I’ll be there in five minutes,” Roger said, then the line went dead.
The police cruiser was just pulling into the parking lot when he got back to Rose. “Roger is on his way too,” he said. “He’ll be here in five minutes.”
Rose got shakily to her feet, “I can’t believe this is happening, even when we lived in my mom’s car we never had to call the police,” she said, then took a deep breath. “I feel terrible causing so much trouble.”
“You didn’t do this,” he said. “You’re the victim, the last thing you should be feeling is guilty.”
“He’s right,” Vanessa chimed in. “You didn’t do this, you’re the innocent one.”
The police had already begun their investigation when Roger drove up and jumped out of his truck, a look of horror spreading across his face when he saw Rose’s car. “Are you okay?” he asked, striding over to Rose, his eyes scanning her from head to toe. “You didn’t get hurt, did you?”
Rose shook her head. “It was like this when we came out,” she said, her voice still a bit shaky. “I’m sorry, Roger. I can’t help but think that Sandra did this.”
Roger looked over at the car, then back at Rose. “I’m afraid you might be right,” he said, then sighed. “I know what you’re going to ask me next, and the answer is I don’t know where Sandra is. I was trying to help her and it completely blew up in my face. She’s…well…maybe not quite living in reality I guess you could say, she’s got this crazy idea that she and I…well…that there was something between us. I don’t know where she got that idea, we’ve always just been friends, but things at her house are pretty bad. I think she might have just snapped.”
“That’s no excuse for this, Rose didn’t have anything to do with any of that,” Vanessa said. “She should be in jail.”
“She should be somewhere she can get help,” Roger said, shaking his head. “I just couldn’t get her there; maybe this will force her to go.”
“Okay folks, we need to get a statement from everyone,” one of the officers interrupted. “I understand you think you know who did this. Let’s start there.”
