Jenny (Babysitter's Club 5)

I headed into the shower to get cleaned up before the twins woke up and only then thought of the night before. How had Jenny ended up downstairs naked holding Lauren hostage? “Shit!” With all that had gone on last night, I’d forgotten all about that.

Now I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around me, heading for my computer in the office. I booted it up and looked around the office as I waited. Last night I’d given serious thought to leaving here and taking Jenny and the girls somewhere Lauren would never find us. It felt too much like being on the run, though, so I nixed the thought. But I’ll remember to ask Jenny if she wanted us to move.

As the recording came up, I sat back to watch and held my breath through the whole thing. “Where the hell did she learn to do that?” She first appeared on the screen as she made a mad dash from the master suite to the nursery.

The way she moved, so precisely, didn’t look like what you’d expect from someone who was running scared. Though the sound was on, there was nothing coming through the speakers. I saw her close and lock the door before putting her ear to it.

On the other screen, I saw Lauren creeping up the stairs before looking into the master bedroom and then moving down the hall to the nursery door. My guts knotted when she broke it down by ramming herself into it, but I was shocked speechless at what I saw next.

“Oh shit! Where did she learn that?” Jenny’s moves smacked of training. I’ve been doing it myself since the age of eighteen. It was something I got into more to let off steam and for something to focus my anger and frustration on, but there’s no doubt she’s had the same training.

I was proud, and just a little bit worried. Why the hell does she need that kind of training? What traumatic experience is she trying to get over? Though Krav Maga is one of the best defense training you can get anywhere, it’s also great for relieving stress of the mind.

The hand to hand combat takes so much concentration and coordination; it leaves room for nothing else to fill the mind. From what I just saw, Jenny’s damn near expert level, that’s not too far behind me, and I’ve been training for years, which meant she had to have started very young.

I watched it again, just to be certain. The cops wanted a copy of this for their case, but I’m thinking that’s a no. For one, Jenny was stark naked the whole time, and for another, there are some fucked up laws in place to protect people who break into your home.

Jenny had subdued Lauren within seconds, but she hadn’t relented when she dragged her from the room and down the stairs. I’m not about to let them find any excuse to mess with my girl. I burned a copy for my own personal stash and erased it from the feed. It won’t be the first time a surveillance system malfunctioned.

Jenny

If Derrick knew where I was, he’d skin me, but I was doing this for him and the girls. Plus, there were things I didn’t want him learning about, not now, not like this. Maybe someday I’ll tell him in my own time, but I know him. If he learns just how much wool she’d pulled over his eyes, it will gut him.

He’s always accusing me of being disinterested, but in fact, he’s the one who’d gone through life with a disinterest in everything since the accident that was in no way his fault. I’m not sure if things would’ve been different for us if that hadn’t happened, but I know it had changed him a lot from the once carefree boy I’d known and loved.

“I’m here to see Lauren Reid.”

“Who?” The desk sergeant looked through the book on his desk. “She might be under Masters.”

“Oh, yeah, she’s here, are you a relative?”

“Yes, I am. My father called earlier, Dan Somerset.”

“Oh yeah, sure, this way, Ms. Somerset.” I followed him down the long hallway that led to the cells in the back through a secured door. The place was like a tomb, there was only one other occupied cell, and the resident was fast asleep on a cot sleeping off a drunk it looked like.

Lauren saw me and made a run for the bars, but we kept going to the little room at the end of the hall. “I’ll bring her in here to you.”

I sat behind the little table and waited, turning the envelope in my hand over and over as I contemplated how this was going to go.

He brought her in five minutes later and chained her to the table leg across from me. I waited for the sergeant to clear the room before starting. “You, what do you want? what’re you doing here?”