And if they regenerated, she could pull them up again. Throw them away again.
Her life could be as beautiful as this Garden. She just had to....
A sound behind her had her freezing on the spot.
Carly’s ex-boyfriend had managed to break through the security at the Stand. And while security was tighter than ever before, with added guards on duty, more cameras, and more outside patrol as well, Steve was far more skilled at knowing how to break and enter than Trent would ever be.
Another twig snapped. Several feet behind her and off to her left. She didn’t turn around. Didn’t want him to know she was on to him.
She had to get to her phone. Push the TLS emergency speed dial.
Another movement. A little farther to her left.
No one knew where she was.
She didn’t even know how far she was from the actual Garden. She’d been pulling weeds. Mentally expostulating about life. Not paying attention to her surroundings.
Reaching into her bra, she opened her phone and felt for the number three on her dial pad. Pushed.
Security would be there soon.
Jenna pulled a weed. Carefully added it to the small pile she’d begun to form between two closely planted trees.
She’d broken her number one rule. Be aware of your surroundings. At all times.
How could she have been so foolish?
Or felt so safe?
This place had gotten to her. Given her a false sense of security. It was a lesson to her that even she could be wooed into letting her guard down.
A lesson that could cost her.
When she heard another twig snap, Jenna slowly stood. It would be far better that Steve get her now rather than giving him a chance to hurt anyone else. She’d leave quietly with him.
And figure out the rest from there. Security should be there in seconds to protect everyone else.
She just didn’t want anyone to get hurt. With very little fear, she turned.
And saw a body bending over by the base of a tree. And farther off in the distance, another body. And on the other side of her, even farther away, a third.
Residents. Her sisters. Helping her pull weeds.
And she’d thought no one knew where she was.
“WE ALL HEARD Darin the other day,” Renee, the weed picker who’d been closest to her, walked with Jenna as she left the Garden almost an hour later. Security had been and gone. “Julie saw what you were doing and called up to the main building to let anyone who was free know that you could use some help.”
She didn’t know Julie well. But had recognized her as the woman sitting alone on the bench in the Garden when she’d taken her walk earlier.
“I didn’t even know you guys were there.”
Renee shrugged. “Everyone knows the Garden’s a place for quiet contemplation. Some people contemplate while pulling weeds. As busy as you are, I figured you had something pretty important to work on to be out there pulling at dirt.”
It was as direct a question as Renee would probably ask.
Feeling the weight of responsibility for the example she set, just by existing among needy women who looked to each other for help and support, Jenna shrugged.
“I’m not used to the attention I’ve been getting here lately. I needed a...break.” She picked the words that she could speak.