“Did you attack Ms. Lange because she insulted your new girlfriend?”
“I already told you that I didn’t attack her. Tina attacked Amanda, and I was trying to separate them.” Perhaps he should call a lawyer before he blurted statements. No one had read him his rights, so he assumed he wasn’t under arrest. At least not yet. But if he didn’t keep his temper in check, he was bound to find himself behind bars. “Why don’t you call Amanda and ask her what happened?” Jacob said, glad his voice sounded reasonable—not demanding, not pissed as hell. He recognized that the police responded better when he remained calm.
“She’ll just say whatever he tells her to say,” Tina said.
“Not if we question her before she speaks to him,” the officer said as he scooped up Jacob’s phone.
That shut Tina up. For the time being.
With Jacob’s direction, the officer dialed Amanda’s number. Jacob prayed she just told the truth and didn’t try to protect anyone.
“She says the child is with your mother,” the officer said to Tina. “Do we need to follow up on this claim?”
Tina sighed and shook her head. “No. I’m sure Julie’s fine.”
“She also says that you went crazy and attacked her when you found out she’s in a relationship with your ex-husband.”
“I didn’t attack her,” Tina said.
“Miss,” the officer said into Jacob’s phone, “would you mind returning to the scene? It would make this a lot easier.”
Jacob’s stomach dropped. He couldn’t protect Amanda if he was handcuffed. Would Tina try to harm her sister again while the police were present? What about after the police were gone and then when Jacob was on tour? How would he protect Amanda then? Maybe he should ask her to follow him out on the road so he could keep an eye on her. He didn’t think Tina was capable of killing her, but then he hadn’t thought she’d attack her when she’d found out that he and Amanda were involved.
A few minutes later, Amanda’s car pulled into his drive. Jacob was still in cuffs, but now seated on the bottom step of the walkway to his door. Looking disheveled and a little scared, Amanda stepped out of the car and her eyes met his. Her brow crinkled when she noticed why he had his hands behind his back. She turned a questioning gaze on the officers.
“Why is he in handcuffs?” Amanda asked. “Is he under arrest? I told you he didn’t do anything.”
“The stories we’re hearing aren’t correlating,” the officer said. “Maybe we need to take you all downtown for questioning.”
“Excuse me,” interrupted Mrs. Barbury, who lived across the street from Jacob. She was a sweet elderly lady who always brought Jacob a big plate of homemade cookies around Christmas time, but otherwise, didn’t interact with him much. “I was walking past with my dogs when it happened. I don’t mean to intrude, but I saw the whole thing up until I ran to the house to call nine one one.”
If that was true, then Jacob would be baking Mrs. Barbury cookies this Christmas.
“This one’s car was here for two nights in a row,” Mrs. Barbury said, jabbing a thumb in Amanda’s direction. Then she pointed at Tina. “This one shows up every couple of weeks with Mr. Silverton’s little girl.” Mrs. Barbury smiled. “She’s a real cutie pie.”
An officer took pity on Jacob and helped him to his feet to ease the crick in his neck developing from staring up at everyone.
“About half an hour ago,” Mrs. Barbury continued, “I was walking past with my dogs and saw these two going at it in the driveway.” She pointed from Amanda to Jacob.
“What do you mean by going at it?” the officer asked.
“Kissing. Well, more like trying to swallow each other’s faces.” She fanned her flushed throat. “I thought he was going to strip her naked right there in the driveway and have his way with her. Land sakes alive! And that’s when she showed up.” She jabbed a thumb in Tina’s direction.
“Her name is Tina,” Jacob said.
Tina narrowed her eyes at the woman and crossed her arms.
“Tina started yelling and chasing this one around the car. And when she finally got a hold on . . .” She looked to Amanda and raised her eyebrows.
Amanda supplied her name.
“When she finally got a hold on Amanda, I thought Tina was like to kill her. Mr. Silverton was tryin’ to break them up, and all the while that poor little girl was in the SUV screaming for her daddy.”
Usually Jacob hated nosy neighbors, but at that moment, he felt blessed to have them.
“So Mr. Silverton finally got the two women separated and he told this one”—she pointed at Amanda—“to get away to safety and take his daughter with her so that poor child didn’t have to watch her parents argue and such. That’s when I ran home to call the police.”
The officers nodded at each other as the story was repeated for the third time. Now the only one with a different tale was Tina, and as Mrs. Barbury was an impartial witness, Tina’s false account was completely discredited.
“Would you like to press charges?” an officer asked Amanda.
She blinked at him, her eyes wide with shock. “What?”
“Would you like to press assault charges against Tina Lange?”
Amanda glanced at Tina and licked her lips, her throat constricting as she swallowed.
“Are you actually considering having me arrested?” Tina asked, her eyes wide in disbelief.
Amanda turned her gaze to Jacob, and he shook his head. He didn’t want Tina to wind up in jail. He just wanted her to behave like an adult and come to terms with the fact that he was in love with her sister.
“It was a family squabble,” Amanda said. “You know what sisters are like.” She laughed as if they got into knock-down drag-out fights all the time. “How about we just let her off with a warning?”
“It’s your call.”
While Jacob was released from his cuffs, Amanda spoke to the other officer. Tina stared at the asphalt between her shoes, her expression and body language completely unreadable. Jacob could only guess what was going on in her mind, yet he was positive it was nothing good. He walked toward her, rubbing the ache from his wrists as he approached.
“I know finding out about Amanda and me was a shock.”
“How long have you been with her?” Tina asked. “Was this going on while we were married?”
“No,” he said. “Of course not. We’ve only been involved for a week.”
“So it won’t be too big of a deal to break it off with her.” Tina’s gaze lifted to his, and he saw a brief flash of malicious hatred in her eyes before she smiled.
“I’m not breaking it off with her just because you don’t like it.”
Tina licked her lips as she stared into his eyes as if searching for answers. Or maybe she was looking for his soul so she could suck it out of him.
“Okay,” she said. She turned away from him and toward the nearest cop. “Am I free to go?”
He told her she could leave, and Jacob watched her climb calmly into her SUV and drive away. He wasn’t sure why she was behaving so rationally all of sudden, but her model behavior frightened him far more than her uncontrollable rage.
Chapter Fourteen
Amanda leaned into Jacob’s side as the police pulled out of the driveway. Her knee and the palms of her hands were still throbbing, but her heart was surprisingly light. Their relationship had survived Tina. If it could overcome her disapproval, Amanda was sure they could get through anything.
She glanced up at Jacob and cringed at the ugly bruise on the side of his head. It was bleeding slightly. “How’s your head?” she asked, reaching up to touch it but thinking better of the idea and resting her fingertips against his jaw instead.
“It’ll be fine. It’s always been like a brick. What about your hands?” he asked. He captured her wrists in his and turned her hands over to gaze down at their abraded palms. “Let’s go get you cleaned up.”
He took great care in applying antibacterial ointment to her
hands and kissed her wrists tenderly. “Thank you for taking Julie away from that mess.”
“She’ll be worried about you,” Amanda said. “You should call her.”
He bit his lip and nodded slightly. “I should.”
“Are you hesitating?” she asked, lifting a cotton ball saturated in peroxide to the jagged gash on his temple.