Page 45 of Healing Hope

“Go in the house, Hope. Call your dad!”

Jess lurched away from his clutching hands. “Get the fuck away from here, asshole. And leave that little girl alone!”

“I just want to know where my money is,” the man said, climbing awkwardly to his feet. “Tara stole from me and I want it back. I know she sold the pills. I tracked her that far.”

Jess shook her head. “That little girl has no money. There was no cash in the car when she crashed.”

“It’s in the Arizona place. At the bus store,” Hope called from the porch. That was as far as she’d retreated. Jess backed away from the couple, watching, waiting for him to lunge again.

The woman, looking pretty bedraggled herself, or maybe strung-out, clutched at his elbow. “You can’t just grab a kid, Vik. We need to go.”

Viktor stumbled and fell again, then rolled over onto his hands and knees. He swayed there for a minute, the woman tugging and pulling at him to get up. Eventually, he made it to his feet, and they started down the yard to the sidewalk. Pulling her camera out, Jess began to video their progress.

Sirens wailed in the distance, and she prayed the cops got here before they had a chance to get away.

They did, barely. Jess didn’t know if Viktor was having a bad reaction to drugs or was just incredibly inebriated, but they took long enough to get moving that the cops caught them just down the road, trying to get into a car. The woman tried to run, but she was caught as well.

That was when Paul’s truck screeched around the opposite corner and into the drive. He hopped out of the truck, eyes hard with determination. “What’s going on?”

Hope ran down the yard and flung herself into her father’s arms. “They came back, but the cops have them now.”

She pointed, and Paul turned to look down the street. Viktor and the woman were both cuffed, and they were being patted down.

“You should have seen Ms. Jess,” Hope chattered. “Viktor had me, and Jess came at him like a football player. We landed on the ground and I got away.”

Paul looked at Jess. “Are you okay?” She nodded, though she could feel some bruises developing. Before she could say anything, he wrapped her in his arms. Jess sagged into him, the release of the adrenalin making her knees tremble.

“I wasn’t going to let him take her,” she said.

Paul pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I know, Jess. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner. I had already gotten on the interstate and I couldn’t turn around. For a minute, I thought this was a delayed alarm or something after Hope left the house. Then I looked at the camera and saw you fighting him.”

Paul squeezed her tighter, and Jess was okay with the pressure. It grounded her as the shock of the past few minutes receded.

The cops arrived and took their statements. Then Detective Elkhorn arrived.

“I heard the call come over the scanner. Everyone okay?”

They nodded, and told the story again of what happened.

“I contacted an official at Greyhound,” Elkhorn told them. “They’re tracing the locker number. We’ll get these two booked in and that should ease your mind. He’s going to be hit with a list of charges.”

Paul reached his hand out to shake and the detective did, looking at it oddly. Then he smiled at Jess. “Officially I’m supposed to tell you to leave the police work to the police, but you did good taking him down and delaying them until the cops got here.”

“Thank you,” Jess murmured.

Finally, they could go inside and relax. Paul called Jane to tell her he was staying home, and Jess called Dr. Water’s office to reschedule, since they’d missed Hope’s appointment. She also called Dawn’s parents, since they were supposed to meet later today. Jess felt terrible canceling, but too much had gone on today. She kind of just wanted to curl up and be quiet somewhere.

The four of them settled on the back patio. Hope was cuddling Sophie.

“She didn’t get hurt again, did she?” Jess asked her.

Hope shook her head. “Nope. She was quick and got away from his big, ugly feet.”

Jess snorted. “I’m pretty sure he had boots on.”

Hope just shook her head.

Paul joined them with bottles of water. He looked closely at his daughter. “Are you doing okay?”