“I’m not leaving,” Janelle says, and I’m proud of the strength in her voice. I don’t need to look back at her, but I know her chin is high and her shoulders are thrown back.
“Like she said,” I reiterate for clarity, “she’s not leaving.”
For several seconds, we engage in a stare down. Sandra doesn’t look overly confident, and I take a second to glance at Clarke who is chewing on her lower lip with worry.
It’s Shep who grabs my attention as he steps toward us. “We’ll see about that.”
He attempts to move past me to get to Janelle, but I simply step in his path, blocking him. This guy isn’t big like Riggs, but he’s a good five or six inches taller than I am and outweighs me by a good fifty pounds. I’m not going to survive a fistfight with him, and I’m scared, but there is no way he’s getting his hands on Janelle.
Growling in frustration, Shep grabs my upper arm and slings me away. It happens so quickly, I’m not prepared for it, nor am I able to balance in my high heels, so I slam to the floor.
My head whips around and I push the hair out of my face to see Shep reaching for Janelle. He clamps onto her arm, and it infuriates me that he would dare touch her. With a dexterity I didn’t know I possessed, I lurch up from the ground, take two running steps in my Louboutins, and jump on his back, locking my left arm around his throat. He’s so stunned, he lets Janelle go.
“Janelle!” I order as I squeeze tighter. “Get in the office with Clarke.”
I’m thankful she doesn’t argue but runs around the checkout counter, and while I don’t keep an eye on her past that, I hear the office door slam. She’s safe for now.
“You fucking bitch,” Shep snarls. He reaches a hand over his shoulder, grabs the hair at the back of my head, and pulls so hard I have no choice but to release my hold around his neck. Once again, he slings me away from him and I go flying, but I’m drawn up short because he doesn’t let go of my hair.
I yelp from the pain as he uses my hair to sling me back around to face him. Shep cocks his hand back and launches it straight across my cheekbone with a resounding crack. He releases my hair at the same time, and I once again stumble to the ground, a dizziness overtaking me as my ears ring from the blow.
Shep starts for the office door, and I roll to my knees, intent on taking that fucker down somehow. But then those bells are ringing at the door—sounding like angels just got their wings—and cops burst into the store with guns drawn.
I’m spared a cursory glance before they look at Sandra who holds her hands up in surrender and then to Shep who is frozen in place a few feet from the office door. He looks like the obvious threat, and one of the police officers raises his gun. “Sir… stop and put your hands in the air right now.”
Another police officer helps me up from the floor and asks, “Are you the one who called 911?”
“My friend did. She and another girl are locked in the office for safety.”
I nod toward Sandra, then to Shep. “They came here to take the girl that is in the back, but they don’t have legal custody.”
Another police officer moves over to Sandra, takes her by the arm, and leads her away from me.
A third officer moves to Shep and because he could be a physical threat, he’s placed in handcuffs. This gives me safe access to the office, so I knock on the door to let Clarke and Janelle know it’s safe to come out.
Clarke, Janelle, and I explain the situation, including that Riggs has custody. His name is well known and the cops are impressed that they were called in to help an Arizona Vengeance player’s family. Once they have the gist of our story, they move to talk to Sandra and Shep.
Janelle, who has been very brave throughout all this, throws herself into my arms. She squeezes me so hard, I can barely breathe. “I’m so sorry. You protected me with your life. You’re so crazy, Veronica. I can’t believe you did that.”
I give her a squeeze back, my eyes pricking with tears. “I love you, kid.”
“Love you too,” she whispers.
When she pulls back, her eyes make contact with my face, and they narrow in anger. She reaches out a trembling hand and touches my cheekbone, which is sore. “He hit you?”
With gentle fingertips, I press on the bone, wincing. “It was an open-hand slap. Barely felt it.”
Janelle tries to smile at my attempt to minimize what happened but it fails. We both look over to her mother, furiously trying to talk her way out of something with one of the officers. Shep adamantly refuses to talk. The officer says Shep is going to be arrested and charged with assault, and after they talk to Riggs, possibly attempted kidnapping.
“We have to call your brother,” I say to Janelle.
She shakes her head. “He’s at the arena getting ready for a game tonight.”
“Sorry,” I say solemnly, “but he needs to be here.”
Janelle reluctantly nods, and I release her to grab my phone from the office. I am not looking forward to making this call.
♦
Luckily, the arena is no more than a ten-minute drive from the bookstore, and Riggs makes it in less time than that. He pushes open the door, storms in, and looks wildly around. His eyes land first on his mother and Shep standing in a corner with police officers, and then his gaze searches again until it stops on Janelle. She’s beside me, and he calmly walks our way. His eyes rove over her first before sliding to me. His expression hardens from what I am assuming is a mark on my face where he seems to be focused.
Riggs looks over his shoulder at Shep and then back to me. “He do that to you?”
I give him a bright smile. “I’m sure it looks worse than it feels.”
Riggs reaches out and pulls Janelle into a brief hug before pushing her back slightly so he can peer down at her. “Are you okay?”
Janelle nods and glances toward me. “Veronica saved me.”
Riggs looks back at me. I didn’t give him any details on the phone, other than his mother and Shep had shown up and were insistent Janelle leave with them, so we called the police.
I refuse to give the dirty details, so Riggs looks back to his sister with one eyebrow raised in silent demand that he be told everything.
Janelle proceeds to explain the sequence of events, dramatizing my involvement in her rescue when Shep came after her. Riggs’s expression becomes more and more thunderous as he learns exactly what his mother and Shep did.
When Janelle finishes, Riggs excuses himself and heads off to talk to the officer in charge. Eventually, he comes back to us and says, “They’re taking Shep down to the police station, and he’s going to be charged with assault on Veronica. They’re going to consider attempted kidnapping, but before they do that, they need official statements. Given that I’ve got a game right now, they’ve agreed to let me and Janelle come down to the station tomorrow morning. I’m going back to the arena, and I’ll take Janelle with me. She can stay in the owner’s box for the game.”
Clarke pipes up. “I’m going to the game. I’ll stay with her.”
Riggs nods and gives his attention to me. He doesn’t say a word but reaches out and takes my elbow, leading me away from Janelle and Clarke to the opposite side of the bookstore, away from everyone where we can have some privacy. “The police want you to go down to the station right now and give a statement so they can file the charges.”