“She’s too young yet Jessica,” he said. Jessica’s head flew-up and there was a look of excitement in her eyes.
“How old does she need to be?” she asked.
“Older than this … another five or six weeks. You want to be the one to train her, do you?”
“Can I?” Jessica asked, wiggling in her seat, clearly eager.
“You’ve got 5 or 6 weeks to prove to me that you deserve it. I expect you to be the picture of good behavior until then. Do you think you can handle that?”
Jessica nodded her head.
“You’re not off to a very good start,” Riley grumbled.
“Yes … yes, I can handle that,” she said while trying to maintain eye contact with Riley.
“Ahuh,” Riley said and waved his fork at her, “eat your dinner.”
He was stunned. A positive interaction. He and Jessica had another positive interaction. They were few and far between, but they were happening.
Angus watched as Jessica pushed her food around with her fork. The past several weeks had been frustrating for him. She was being incredibly patient with whatever she had planned for her escape. Patient and deceptive. Somehow, in the past four weeks she had managed to be on her best behavior ever. Well behaved, and more than just a little weird. The other day he’d found a couple of his Sports Cars Illustrated in Jim’s room. When he’d asked Jim how they’d gotten there, he was surprised to find out that Jessica had been reading them. What the hell kind of interest could she possibly have in car magazines? Angus wished she’d hurry up and get on with whatever she’d planned… then he could go back to his old routines with her … and most importantly, he could fuck her again. Six weeks with no sex were killing him. Jessica slurped a noodle into her mouth, and Angus couldn’t look at her anymore. Even with sauce splattered all over her chin, she’d had a stirring effect on him. And he couldn’t do anything about it. The only way he could keep from beating the shit out of her on a regular basis was to stay away from her all together. Fuck, he needed a drink. He kicked back his chair as he moved to the kitchen. “Anyone else for a shot of whiskey?”
“Later,” Riley said. The others declined. Riley pushed his emptied plate away and was surprised to see Jessica lean toward Josh and whisper in his ear.
“Care to share Jessica?” he asked.
Jessica snapped to attention on her chair.
“Well?”
“May I be excused?” she asked.
Excused? Riley thought.
He and Angus exchanged a look. Jessica never got up from the table before them … but she had finished her meal, there was little reason that she couldn’t.
“Alright,” Riley said.
Angus lingered by the back wall. He leaned back against it and tossed the shot of whiskey to the back of his throat. Jessica didn’t so much as pause once Riley gave the okay.
“Where’s your ball Baby?” she asked as she led the pup away from the table, toward the sofa.
The men sat around the table and watched Jessica roll the ball for the pup. She had to wrestle it away from the dog, Baby didn’t have the notion of returning the ball yet. Jessica scooted around on the floor with Baby, and soon they were working their way around the sofa.
“Give me that, you silly dog!” Jessica said and after Baby gave it up, Jessica rolled it again. The ball bounced off the sofa leg and spun across the floor directly in front of the front door. The puppy scampered after it, slid across the floor, bumping into the butt of Scott’s rifle that leant against the wall. Baby bounced off, and ran back for the ball.
“Baby!” Jessica exclaimed scooting after her, right where she was forbidden to go. The men moved in unison. Riley, Scott, Josh and Jim, jumped from their chairs, Angus heaved himself from the wall. Jessica had turned her back to the guns, but the scraping of the barrel of Scott’s gun sliding along the wall caught her attention. She looked over her shoulder, saw the gun falling over, reached out and caught the barrel before it hit the floor.
“Jessica freeze!” Scott yelled.
“Ooops,” she muttered. She was about to get up, but when she saw the men coming at her, she froze. “it fell over …”
“Don’t move!” Angus thundered. The men had skidded to a halt a few feet from Jessica. “Put the gun down Jessica, just lay it down!”
Jessica complied. Tail wagging Baby wriggled over to Jessica. She scooped the puppy up just as Josh, who was nearest to Jessica, pulled her to her feet and back into the living room. Angus picked up the gun, and stood staring at it. The others looked from the gun, to Jessica, to one another. Jessica stood in Josh’s grip, kissing the puppy, enduring the ensuing shocked silence.
“Fucking hell,” Angus exclaimed the reality of what could have happened sinking in. “Who fucking left this here?” Angus thundered. Scott, ashen faced, raised his hand. “Take this motherfucking thing and put it where it’s supposed to be!” Angus ordered, stomping over to Scott and jamming it in Scott’s chest.
“Right … sorry,” Scott muttered.
“Josh,” Riley said coming around to Josh and Jessica, “I think it’s time you uphold your end of the bargain we made.”
“Huh?”
“The dog Josh …” Riley said. He felt a strange sense of anger building in him. Surprisingly he wasn’t angry at Jessica, but at Josh.
“Oh, oh right. Jessica, Baby is big enough to go back to the kennel now …”
“The kennel?” Jessica asked, her face crumpled and she was on the verge of tears.
“She can fend for herself now Jessica, “ Riley said, “and before you go getting all worked up about this, just keep in mind that Baby, and Scott,” Riley threw Scott a dirty look, “have got you into a lot of trouble. Say goodbye to the dog!”
“But she’s still a baby!” Jessica began.
“Jess, you’ll see her tomorrow,” Jim interrupted impatiently. He couldn’t believe she was debating this. Even by his standards she had done wrong … sort of. It didn’t seem as though it had been intentional, but who knew … Jessica stared at Jim.
“Oh …” she exclaimed bringing her hand to her mouth. She looked at the door, the gun rack, Angus repetitively making a fist with his right hand, and smacking it into his left, Scott sitting on the sofa, his hands grasping his head and pulling his hair. The realization hit her … she’d been somewhere that could earn her a beating.
“I … it wasn’t on purpose, I wasn’t thinking … bye bye Baby!” Josh had picked-up the dog and headed for the door.
“You weren’t thinking?” Riley growled.
Jessica stepped back, right into Jim’s arms.
“Then start thinking now. Come here!” Riley was prepared to repeat himself, reach and grab her, but silently and without looking up, Jessica stepped forward. “Take her downstairs, Jim.”
“That’s it?” Angus asked when Jim returned from escorting Jessica to the basement. He paced around the room.
“We all saw what happened, Angus.” Riley said and moved toward Scott, who still sat cradling his head. “Any thoughts on the matter?” he asked him. Scott looked up.
“Christ Scott, are you alright?” Riley asked. His face was so grey, he looked like a corpse. Scott fell back against the sofa. His heart hadn’t slowed down yet, and the terror that had gripped him in those few seconds that Jessica had her hands on the rifle, had not dissipated.
“It was loaded,” Scott replied.
“I know,” Riley replied, and dropped onto the sofa next to Scott. The men were silent.
“Do you think getting to the gun had been her intention?” Jim finally asked.
Angus paused in mid-stride. So now it was all about intention.
“That requires too much guess work,” Angus grumbled. It meant that he’d actually have to think about her. Consider her feelings, her thoughts, her wants. That led to a dangerous place.
“She had her back to the guns,” Josh replied.
Riley nodded. That was the big thing that stuck in his mind … and although Angus wouldn’t admit it, Riley knew that that was the main reason Angus hadn’t ignored the protocol they’d implemented and thrashed Jessica. In his mind’s eye, Riley could see Jessica playing with Baby, she hadn’t paid any attention to the guns, or for that matter the front door. It wasn’t until the gun had fallen that Jessica, reflexively, had reached for the it.
“There were too many of us around,” Angus said, “she wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
“That’s never stopped her in the past,” Scott replied.
“So, what do you suggest? We just ignore this whole thing?” Angus demanded.
“We haven’t ignored anything,” Riley said. “The dog is out of the house now … she has no excuses left …”
“She’ll find another one Riley,” Angus grumbled.
“And when she does, we’ll deal with it.”
“That’d be something new … “Angus muttered.
“So you think she went for the gun intentionally?” Jim asked Angus.
“I think that it doesn’t matter what her intentions were. She was somewhere that she shouldn’t have been, end of story.”
“Okay, try something new,” Jim said, “pretend … “
“I’m not pretending nothing, “ Angus interrupted.
“Just listen, will you!” Jim said, “If you knew for a fact, a fact, that she had had no intentions of running away, it was all an accident, what would you do?”
“It’d never happen,” Angus said. He moved toward the kitchen, “I don’t need to go down lunatic lane with you because I will never know for a fact that she wasn’t trying to get away, and she’ll never do anything ‘by mistake’. I need another drink …”
“Scott, Josh, Riley, how bout you? What would you do?” Jim asked. He’d been too close to betraying her, too prepared to believe the worst. He had to have another way to look at this and if he didn’t take the others with him, the past month would all be lost. Especially Angus. This was a golden opportunity. Deep down inside, there was no way that Angus could really believe that Jessica had tried to go for the gun. Her eyes had been on the dog the whole time, her back to the guns, she hadn’t paid any mind to it at all.
“If I knew for a fact that she hadn’t planned on trying to blow my brains out … again?” Scott asked with a shudder.
“Yup,”
“I’d take it as a good sign,” Josh interrupted. “I mean, even if it hadn’t been planned, the second she had her hands on the gun, she would have used it. She has before.”
Leave a Reply