Calamity Jena (Invertary 4)

He strode towards her as the doors flew open. Men rushed in. Jena spotted Matt a second before his fist hit Joe's jaw.

And then all hell broke loose.

28

Matt stepped back from Invertary police station’s one and only jail cell. With all the trouble happening in town, he needed more space to lock people up. Right now, he was stuck with one tiny room. He slid the viewing window open and glared at Frank. He sat on the plastic-covered foam pad that lay on the concrete shelf used as a bed. His expensive suit was ripped. His lip was bleeding and his eye was swollen.

?

??You’re gonna regret this,” Frank spat. “I want a lawyer.”

“And I want to go six months without someone coming into my town to piss me off. Guess we’re both out of luck.” Matt snapped the tiny door shut.

Let’s see how accommodating Frank becomes once he’s spent a night in the cell. The white-tiled room, with its tiny window and metal toilet in the corner, had a way of softening a man up.

With a hard smile, Matt strode towards his office, where Grunt and Joe were currently handcuffed to chairs and being watched over by Lake and his men. Not only did Matt need more cells, he needed more personnel. He almost laughed at the memory of him calling his job boring.

Jena was currently sitting on a high stool at the front desk. She had a blanket over her shoulders and was nursing a mug of hot chocolate. Matt nodded to her minder, Pete, to tell him he could go. Matt needed a minute with his woman.

Once the door closed behind Pete, Matt went around the counter. He took the mug out of Jena’s hands, wedged himself between her knees and wrapped his arms around her. He loved the way she snuggled into him, rubbing her cheek on his chest, as though she was trying to get as close as humanly possible.

“I’ve called Abby to come sit with you. I’d let you go home, but I can’t stand you being out of my sight right now.”

She pushed back to look up at him. Matt felt his whole body tense at the sight of her bruised cheek. He gently stroked the mark. She should never have been hurt. This was his fault. He should have been with her.

“I’m fine, Matt. Really.”

“They abducted you.” He had to force the words out of his mouth.

The fear he’d felt when Jena had been taken still lingered, and it was enough to overwhelm him if he let it loose.

“Go easy on Grunt and Joe, will you? It wasn’t their fault. It was Frank. He made them do it. They were trying to protect me.”

Matt’s eye twitched. She was too damn nice. Everyone got the benefit of the doubt with his Jena.

“Those two idiots were the ones who took you.” He tried to keep his tone gentle. It was hard.

“They wanted me to talk to Frank. Sure, they could have gone about it differently, but they had no intention of letting me get harmed. Grunt was more worried about upsetting Claire than anything else. When Frank became rude and abusive, Grunt knocked hell out of him.” She grinned up at Matt. “You should have seen it. It was like something out of a superhero movie. With one punch, Frank flew through the air and hit the wall.”

Matt didn’t smile. Nothing about this was entertaining. “Grunt will not be seeing Claire again.” If Matt had his way, the only thing the two goons would see for a very long time was the inside of a prison.

The door swung open and Abby rushed in. “I left Katy with Caroline at the castle,” she said. “Are you okay?”

She rushed around the counter, pulled Jena from Matt’s hold and hugged her friend.

“As I keep telling this guy, I’m fine. Just a little bruise. In fact, I got to clear some stuff up with Frank. You would have been proud of me, Abby—I told him to go to hell then kicked his balls into next week.”

“Go, girlfriend!” Abby high-fived her while Matt clenched his teeth.

Why were they acting like this was a fun day out? Nothing about this was entertaining. Nothing.

“The doctor has checked her out,” he told Abby. “If you could sit with her while I talk to these idiots, that’d be great. I’m worried she’ll go into shock.”

Jena rolled her eyes. He ignored her. She obviously didn’t realise how serious the situation was.

“I’ll leave Pete on the door,” Matt said to Abby. “He’ll deal with anyone who turns up. No one else will get in here today. This could take a while. Are you okay with that?”

Abby nodded. “Katy loves it at the castle. She gets to pretend the baby is a doll, and she treats Josh like another kid she can play with. When I left they were building a fort in the grand room and demanding Caroline bake cookies.”