Sylvia nodded.
“When do we need to leave?”
“She’ll be released from the hospital in the morning.”
This might be the toughest protection detail of my life.
Chapter 3
Robert opened his closet door. His gaze shifted from his jeans to his uniform and back to the jeans again.
The uniform would be more intimidating if Patrick showed up, and it would instill more confidence in Jessie. And in him. He reached for the hanger, unsure why he needed the confidence of his uniform to face his former girlfriend.
When he opened the top dresser drawer to get his badge and gun belt, the little velvet box he’d kept there for five years slid forward. He picked it up. It sprang open with the slightest pressure to reveal an engagement ring, a solitaire surrounded by smaller diamonds. Memories of that night five years ago swept over him.
Warmth filled him as he recalled the hours spent with Jessie at his family’s cabin, canoeing and hiking. The surprise on her face when they’d returned from watching the sunset, to find a candlelit dinner laid out on his mother’s China was exactly the reaction he’d hoped for. Jake and Riley had followed his instructions down to the tiniest detail.
Everything was perfect, including a blazing fire, the roses everywhere, and the soft, lilting strains of romantic music. He could still smell the scent of the pine firewood mingled with the fragrant roses.
Stop it!
Snapping the box closed, he shoved it to the back of the drawer, then slammed the drawer closed. This wasn’t the first time the box had worked its way forward. Not the first time he regretted the way things had turned out.
I should have pawned it years ago.
He finished dressing and went to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal. Too restless to sit and eat, he leaned against the counter, holding a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats. His gaze roamed the great room, consisting of the kitchen, dining room, and family room.
Five years ago, when he built this house, he knew Jessie would love the openness of this layout. But she never got to see it.
His gaze rested on the portrait above the mantle. A gift from Jessie for his twenty-fifth birthday. He sat astride his horse, Goliath, who, although large, wasn’t really a giant in the horse world. But the Belgian had looked like a giant to Robert when he got him on his eighth birthday. It had nearly broken his heart to put the horse down two years ago after he went blind and kept injuring himself.
Robert had been overcome with emotion when Jessie gave the painting to him, because she’d done such an amazing job. It didn’t take a skilled artist to appreciate the detail she’d captured in not only Robert’s expression, but in Goliath’s as well.
He’d been torn about putting the portrait up after the house was finished because Jessie was gone. But any other piece of art wouldn’t have felt right.
Would he get to see more of Jessie’s amazing work if she came home?
* * *
Robert drovehis personal truck rather than his fleet vehicle. He didn’t want Jessie or Sylvia—whoever ended up in the back seat—to feel like a criminal. He flipped down the visor as he pulled up in front of Sylvia’s house. The brightness of the sun on this mid-July morning did not fit his mood.
A mood that only grew darker during the drive to Seattle as he listened to Sylvia talk about what Jessie had been through.
“I’ve suspected for some time Patrick was abusing her.” She wrung her hands as Robert rounded a long bend of I-90. “She always hurried to end our calls whenever he came home. It got so she wouldn’t answer if he was home. I wanted to go to New York to visit her, but she kept putting me off with silly excuses.” Sylvia angled the AC vents toward her face and adjusted the neck of her blouse for the third time since they’d started the drive.
Robert’s grip on the steering wheel tightened as he remembered Jessie telling him how abusive her father had been before he walked out on his family.
“Even after they moved to Seattle, he refused to let her come visit me.” Sylvia spoke again. “I dropped in a few times when I was sure he’d be at work and often saw bruises on her. She tried to deny he was hurting her. But I recognized too many signs.” Her voice grew husky. “I feel like this is all my fault. If I’d left Ted sooner, when the girls were younger, maybe Jessie wouldn’t have thought Patrick’s behavior was normal.”
“Sylvia, don’t do this to yourself. This is not your fault. You had no idea Jessie’s husband would end up being abusive.”
“No, but I should have known he was controlling when he refused to come to Washington to meet me before the wedding.”
Robert doubted he could say anything that would alleviate Sylvia’s guilt, so he kept quiet.
“Did you know he refused to let her get a job when they moved to Seattle?”
Robert shook his head. He couldn’t possibly answer right now and sound civil. Unfortunately, he’d seen this kind of thing too often. Men who distanced their wives and girlfriends from their family and friends to gain control over them. Those women became so dependent on their husbands they felt like they could never leave.
