Knox, p.7
Knox, page 7
“I think he’s more than a little unhinged, but I think I can handle him. If he gets too bad, well, I guess I’ll have to quit. I won’t allow him to hurt me like he has tonight and get away with it.” She thought about what he’d said about her belonging to him. “I don’t know what he meant by that. I mean, we’ve never even had a personal conversation since I’ve been working there.”
“As we said, he’s unhinged. I’m going to do a more extensive background check on him when I get home. I can’t believe that I haven’t done it before now. I guess I just assumed that one had been done on him before he’d been hired. I’ll make sure I dig deep, too.” She played around with her dessert, no longer interested in it as she’d been before. “Have a bite or two, and I’ll take you home. I’m worried about you if you want to know the truth. Just be extra careful at school tomorrow. There is no telling what he’ll do when he has you all to himself.”
“I’ll be careful.” She would too. There wouldn’t be any more cornering her either. She was going to stand up for herself. And for as much as she needed the job, she wouldn’t hesitate to quit if it came to that. “You be careful too. He’s already shown that he isn’t above making a scene about this, so you make sure that you keep an eye out for him as well.”
“I will.” Knox ended up paying the check with the comment that he’d have to have another date with her because she would still owe him. As they walked out to his car, he held her hand tightly in his much larger one, and when they got to the car, he pulled her into his arms. The kiss was more than she could have hoped for, and when he lifted his head, he smiled at her. “I’ve been wanting to do that all evening. Since I picked you up.”
“You’re very sure of yourself, aren’t you?” He laughed and told her if only that were true. “I like you, Knox. And could easily fall in love with you if you keep being a gentleman like you are.”
“Good. Then my plan is working.” He held the door open for her until she was inside his car. Then he walked around to his side and got in. “How about we get together on Saturday? I have a meeting first thing in the morning, but after that I’m free all day. We could go to town and have a nice walk around again without David hanging around to pounce on us.”
“I’d like that very much.” He kissed the back of her hand, and she wanted to sing to the world that she’d met a nice man. It wasn’t often that a nice man would come around to date her, but with him, she really could fall in love with him and never look back. But as she’d told him, he was out of her league when it came to them going beyond seeing each other on occasion.
By the time they were pulling up in front of her place, she’d convinced herself that this was going to be a one-time thing. He was just being nice about asking her out again, and that this would be the end of things. However, when he walked her to her door and kissed her goodnight, she was nearly to the point where she wanted to beg him to see her again.
Sitting down at her makeshift desk, the table that had been delivered yesterday, she figured out her finances. She wasn’t going to have a lot extra with her checks coming in regularly now, but she could make it until her lease ran out. Writing out her resignation, she was finished with it at midnight. There was no way that she was going to be able to work for the school again with David around. Sending it to the board before she changed her mind, she went to bed with a heavy heart. She loved her job but wasn’t going to be subject to David any more than she had to.
Living in a small town like this one, it would be all over town what had happened at the Pot. By this time tomorrow night, everyone would know, and she’d have to live with it until she could move on. David had messed with the wrong girl if he thought that he could get by with treating her like he had.
She wanted to call Knox and tell him what she’d done, but it was late, and she didn’t want him to tell her how crazy she’d been in quitting. Not that she thought that he would, but she didn’t know him well enough to know what he’d say to her. The man was wealthy and still worked. How much would he make fun of her if she were to tell him that, without a steady income, she was going to be eating light over the next few months because she was nearly broke?
She didn’t sleep well. She would think about David and the way that he looked at her and be frightened all over again. He’d not hurt her in any way, but she thought that he might well have if they’d been alone. And that scared her more than anything. The lengths that he’d go to in order to make her his. Shivering at the thought, she was up well before the alarm went off and was ready to go an hour before she had to be at the school. She did wonder how long it would take before the board notified him of her resignation, but wasn’t going to worry about that now. She had a full day’s work ahead of her, and she was going to do her best to make it one of the best days she’d had.
~*~
Knox found three different incidents of things that had happened with David Sheen. He’d been fired from his last job for beating up a woman teacher for her being married. That was his excuse. When he’d been asked why he’d done it, he said that she wouldn’t leave her husband for him, and that was enough of an excuse for him. The woman recovered but didn’t teach anymore.
The other two were of the same thing but different schools. And he’d not beaten anyone up. David had been to nine different schools in the last eleven years, and he wondered what the reason was that he’d left the other six. As much as he dug into his life, the more he wondered if anyone else had been hurt by him. He sent a letter to the board to let them know that they had a serial troublemaker in their school. He wondered what they’d do about it.
Getting ready for work the next morning, he heard from two of the nine board members as well. He’d been told that one of the teachers had given their two weeks’ notice as well, and was asked if it had anything to do with David. He asked if it was Elaine, and he was proud of her for not going back to the school. It wouldn’t bode well for her, he had a feeling, and didn’t want her hurt.
They asked him why it was just coming to light, and he told them that he had assumed that they’d done a thorough background check on him when they hired him. They said that they didn’t know if one had been done or not, and that pissed him off. Why weren’t they doing these on everyone that they hired, but they didn’t have an answer. Well, he was going to take care of it now and told them that they needed to fire him before he hurt someone else. They agreed and asked him to do it.
“No. I’ve got a job, and that’s all there is to it. He’s working today with Elaine and will more than likely hurt her if she tries to get away from him. Or if he figures out that she’s going to be quitting. You haven’t told him yet, have you?” They hadn’t, thank goodness, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t find out sooner rather than later. “I understand that, but he’s going to hurt her if he gets the chance. You have to do something now before it’s too late, and you have a lawsuit on your hands about her. This time, he might not settle for just beating her up. He might well kill her then, where will you be?”
“We’ll go over and talk to him immediately. We’ll tell him what you told us and then fire him. We just don’t need this sort of thing going on at that level of school.” He didn’t think that needed this going on at any level, but he kept his mouth shut. They were going to fire him, and that was about the best news he’d heard all day.
Perhaps then they’d hire Elaine back, and she’d be able to stick around so that he could see her again. Laughing to himself, he was happy that he’d not told them that when he’d been thinking about it. That would have been something that they wouldn’t have found so funny as he did.
By noon, it was all over town about what had happened last night at the restaurant. There was even a video from someone who had recorded it. He watched it three times before sending it off to the board. The one thing that he’d not heard about was the firing of David. He hoped they didn’t change their mind. But since he wasn’t on the board like one of his brothers was, he’d get with Locke to see what he could find out.
He found it hard to focus on his work. He worried about Elaine and David through most of the morning. When he was called by the board, them telling him that they’d had to arrest David for not wanting to leave, he knew that it would be all over town again about that. He just wanted to hear from Elaine to make sure she was doing all right before he could concentrate on his work.
At lunch, he called her. When it went straight to voicemail, he was nervous that something had happened. Almost as soon as he closed the connection with her phone, it rang back. He knew the number was hers, but the voice wasn’t. It was Locke, and he sounded stressed.
“How much do you know about Elaine Westcock?” He asked him what had happened. “She’s on her way to the emergency room. They found her in the parking lot this morning, beaten to shit. They figured that she’d been out there since eight this morning.” It was nearly noon now, and he pulled his coat on and was headed to the door. “She’s been beaten up. I won’t know anything until I see her. You want to tell me how well you know her? I’ve seen the video of the two of you on a date last night.”
“I’m in love with her.” He’d not said that out loud before, but knew it was right. “I think I have been since I first met her.”
“Come into the emergency department, and I’ll take care that she gets the best of care.” He thanked his big brother. “All’s well. I’ll see her, then I’ll have to turn it over to another doctor. I can’t see someone that would be related to me, you understand.”
“I do, and I thank you. I’m on my way now.” He had to stop the car when he nearly pulled out into traffic at the end of his driveway. Taking in a deep breath, he was ready to go again when he felt calmer. Christ, all he needed to do was get himself in the emergency department while she lay there in pain. He was pulling in when the ambulance was pulling away.
He couldn’t see her right away because he wasn’t related to her. He wanted to scream at the people at the desk when they told him that. It wasn’t until he saw Locke that things started to go his way. He was back in the room with her as soon as Locke led him back.
“She’s been given pain medication. When she woke up, she was coherent and knew where she was. But since they gave her something for the pain that she’s in, she’s been sleeping off and on. I’m going to have her taken to get a C-scan while she’s out. It’ll be easier on her. You stay in this room and wait for her so that no one causes you any trouble.” He said that he would. “Knox, she’s been beaten to shit, and she told the police who had done it. I worry that she’s been out there for so long. I’m going to make sure she gets the best care we can give her.”
“Thanks.” He sat down in the chair and took her hand into his. It was black and blue, too, as was her face. There were a lot of cuts on her that he knew would need stitches. Her lip was swollen too, and he could see that her eye was on the way to swelling shut soon. His heart hurt for her, and he gently kissed the back of her hand. “Oh, Elaine, I’m so sorry that this has happened to you.”
When the transporter came to get her, he wanted to tell him that he was going too. But he remembered his warning from Locke and stayed put. All he could think about was that someone had beaten her up for no other reason than she’d said no to them. As soon as she was gone for about twenty minutes, the police showed up to talk to her. He told them where she was.
“You’re the man from last night.” He said that he was and that he’d had no idea that the man would go this far. “Neither did we when we spoke to him this morning at the school. He never mentioned that he’d encountered her in the parking lot. Another teacher had seen her, or there is no telling how much longer she would have been out there in the rain.”
“David has been fired from what I was told.” He said that he had been, and they had escorted him out of the building. “Elaine works there, so I did worry that he’d try something when she was there, but I never expected him to beat her up. This isn’t the first time that he’s done something like this. There was another teacher who he beat up badly as well. She had to stop teaching; she was so afraid after that.”
“I’m to understand that she’s given her notice too. That might have set him off a bit, too. If what he said about her belonging to him is true, then there is no telling how that would affect him when she told him.” He said that as far as he knew, David didn’t know that she’d given her notice. The board had said that they’d not do that. “Good for them. They might well have saved her life if he thought that she was no longer going to be in his sights.”
When Elaine came back, she was awake but in a great deal of pain. The officer who seemed to be in charge asked her if she could talk to them, and even though she said that she could, he was still worried. Holding her hand, he knew that when she squeezed his hand, she was hurting. He only hoped that they’d not ask too many questions so that she could get some pain medications again for her injuries. And she had a lot of them.
She was able to get what she needed after the police left. She dozed in and out for a while, telling him what had happened to her in the parking lot. How like last night, he’d come out of nowhere and had knocked her around with a bat. When she cried, he hurt for her and wanted to find David and beat him to death. It wouldn’t do anyone any good, but he knew he’d feel better about things if he could show him what it was like to beat on someone smaller than him.
When Locke came to talk to them, Elaine was awake and hurting again. After getting her enough to take the edge off, he told them what he’d been able to find so far. She had a concussion as well as a broken wrist. There were marks on her back that worried him, so he was going to run more tests. What concerned him the most was the wounds to her head. There were three of them that had been knocked into her, and Locke said that she’d have to be careful when moving around in the bed. He was sure there was more, but he didn’t ask. The little bit that he’d told them was enough to have him angry at David enough to go out and find him.
It was midnight when they decided to put her into a room. She’d been sick once, and Locke said that was normal for a head injury. The bruises on her body were getting darker the longer she lay there, and her eyes were both swollen shut. Her lips weren’t doing any better than her eyes, but at least she could speak around them. Holding her hand for as long as she’d let him, he stayed with her when they moved her to her own room.
He didn’t take his eyes off her all night. He did doze a bit off and on, but would wake every time she moved. Locke had gotten her another doctor because of the relationship that was going on between the two of them, but he checked in on her when he could, and he loved him for that. As soon as the morning came around, she was taken down for more tests. He hated not being with her, but he knew, too, that she was in good hands while she was here. He hoped so at least.
His brothers came by one at a time while she was gone. He wondered if Locke had set that up for him so he’d not be so overwhelmed. And he was too. His need to do something for her was making him crazy, and all he wanted to do was to make sure that she was going to be all right. It wasn’t until the afternoon that Zander came in that he knew anything about David.
“He’s been arrested without bail. He’ll have to wait for the judge to come back around before he’ll be given a bail amount, if he gets any at all.” He asked if he’d said anything about why he’d hurt her. “Only that she was his and that she didn’t want anything to do with him. His wife has left him, too. I know that I would have had I been in her shoes. I think from what I’ve heard, she’s gone to see her mother. Might be the best thing for her to distance herself from him as far as she can.”
“He lost his job at the school, too. I spoke to the board this morning. Or yesterday. I have no idea what day this is.” Zander told him. “So it’s been a whole day since he took his anger out on her. I wonder if he had any plans for me.”
“I didn’t hear if he had or not, but you still need to be careful. You don’t need to end up lying next to her during the time that she needs you.” He told Zander that he’d fallen in love with her. “Yeah, I figured as much. When it happens for us, it’s quick. I just hope that when I find someone to love, they’re as nice and good for me as the rest of you have been. I need a woman in my life to keep me on the straight and narrow.”
When Zander left, he stayed with Elaine. She was still getting pain medications that were making her in and out of things, but she would talk to him when she could. He told her that he’d fallen in love with her, and she cried. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, but his heart was hers no matter how she felt about him.
Chapter 6
Elaine had seventy-four stitches in her head, with all three wounds. And more than that, throughout her body. She’d been dragged across the parking lot a couple of times when he’d tried to get her to his car. Also, she had a cast on her wrist. The rest of her body felt like it had gone a few rounds with a fighter, and she knew that to be true. Since she couldn’t see out of her eyes, she had to wonder what she looked like right now. She’d bet that it wasn’t pretty.
“I have your lunch here, Elaine. It’s not much, just some broth, but the doctor said you were to eat as much of it as you could when you could.” She said that she’d try. “That’s my girl.”
She couldn’t understand that every time she woke up, Knox was here. Not that she’d ask him that. She loved that he was here for her when she woke up from a nightmare. He would soothe her to the point where she was feeling better, then talk to her about what was going on around the town. Never mentioning David or what had happened at the school lot. She loved him for that. Finally getting up the nerve, she asked him why he was spending so much time with her.
