He was too. “Jen’s a lot better, but she still has a hard time leaving the house. And I . . .” He took a deep breath. “I have a tendency to be pretty protective of her.”
“Again, I’m really sorry, Dylan.”
Her voice was filled with compassion but not pity. He appreciated that. It enabled him to be even more honest than he usually was. “Jennifer’s assault was really hard on the whole family, and that’s putting it mildly. We all circled around her and pretty much didn’t leave her side for a solid year. But her counselors encouraged us to give her space. She told us that we were only delaying her healing.”
“I’ve dealt with my fair share of rape victims, Lange. It’s all so bad—there’s no one way to overcome it. I’m sure you feel the same way.”
“Yeah.” Traci was right, but she was speaking as a cop, not a sibling.
“Jennifer sounds really strong.”
“I think so too, but if Jen was sitting right here, she would probably give you a hug for saying that. She wants to be strong. And she’s come a long way. I’m proud of her.”
“What happened to the perpetrators?”
He slowed as he took a left turn, reminding himself to keep both the vehicle and his emotions in control. “We got two of those bastards. They’ll be in prison for a while.” He didn’t need to tell her that they weren’t going to get any concessions given that they’d raped a cop’s sister.
“What about the third?”
“He was sixteen.”
“Sixteen?”
“The little brother of one of the others. Since he had only been there but didn’t actually assault her, the judge recommended he only go to juvenile detention for a year.”
“So he’s out.” Her voice was flat.
“Yeah.” He rolled his neck, hoping to alleviate some of the tension that had settled in his jaw and shoulders. “I didn’t agree, of course. My little sister was in the hospital for three days and pretty much a mess for weeks. Nightmares, wouldn’t eat. For months, my parents and I weren’t even sure she was going to be able to get over it.” He slowed and put his truck in a lower gear as he made the way down a hill toward Montgomery.
“Anyway, all that is why both she and I are the way we are.”
“And why she lives with you.”
He nodded. “When Mom and Dad decided to move full time to their condo in Florida, I asked Jennifer to move in with me.”
“That was really nice of you.”
“It wasn’t anything. I would’ve done anything. Anything to help her. But see, she is better, but she’s only just now leaving the house.”
“I bet she thought I was so rude at Paxton’s. I’m sure I was staring at her like I didn’t get it.”
“To be honest, I don’t know if she even realized. She’s usually trying so hard to get through her outings that she can’t do a whole lot besides survive.” After signaling for Traci to call in a plate they just saw on a car that looked abandoned on the side of the road, he continued. “Today was just the second time she’s ever gone someplace completely by herself and spoke to another person.”
“And she got stuck in a snowstorm. What rotten luck.”
“Yeah.” Now that he was retelling Jennifer’s story, he felt even worse about how impatient he’d sounded when he’d talked to her on the phone. She didn’t deserve that. “She drives just fine. So this ‘rescue’ we’re doing is on me. Obviously, I need to work on giving Jen more space, too.”
“I get it, though. You can’t lose her now.”
“Yep. Plus, the owner of the shop was offering to have her son drive Jennifer home. Like she would ever get in the car with a stranger, let alone let him see where she lived.”
“Right. Well, we’ll be there soon.”
As he pulled through another intersection, he braced himself for another round of questions or to listen to her tell him about how she would have handled things differently. But she didn’t do any of that. She remained silent.
Realizing that the tension in his jaw had lessened, he said, “You know what? A lot of people would be acting like I was ruining their whole schedule by taking care of my sis. But you are taking it in stride. I think I got pretty lucky with you.”
Sounding completely full of herself, she said, “Well, my name is Lucky.”
He groaned at her joke just as he pulled to a stop in front of the shop. “I’ll be right back.”
“Sure thing. I’ll call the sergeant and let him know that we’ll be back in town in forty.”
“Thanks.”
Approaching the shop’s front door, he opened it and looked around. To his surprise, he saw Jennifer sitting on a chair with another woman. They were sipping tea.
“Jen?”
She turned to him and opened her eyes wide. “Oh my gosh!” she called out as she jumped to her feet. “I didn’t even hear the door open.”
“No worries.”
“Sorry again that you had to come out.”
“You know I did this for me as much as you. I need to know you’re safe.”
She smiled at him, relief in her blue eyes. “Dylan, this is Camille, the owner of this bookstore. Camille, please meet my brother Dylan.”
Camille stood up. “So nice to meet you,” she said as she held out a hand right as the shop’s door opened again and a muscled guy who was easily over six feet came in.
He looked at Jennifer and smiled. “Hey, I got here in time.”
“Just in time to say hello before I left. This is my brother Dylan.”
“Hey. Jack Patterson.”
Not being shy about looking him over, Dylan shook his hand. “Dylan Lange.”
“Good to meet you.” Turning to Jennifer, Jack said, “I hope this doesn’t mean you won’t come back.”
Dylan was just about to step in and tell Jack he didn’t need to worry about his sister, when her face lit up.
“I did get five cookbooks, so I don’t think I’ll need to return for a while.”
“Not for cookbooks, but maybe there could be other reasons?”
Just as Dylan was about to send the guy a look to back off, Jennifer added, “I think there might be. Your mother makes a mean pot of tea and then there’s Harvard and the fact that I haven’t even started looking at the mysteries yet.”