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  “You know....it’s okay.” Iris looked around at the other girls.

  “The thing about life is its short,” Jane said. “You want to spend as much time as you can with someone who cares about you. I never thought I’d find that special someone.”

  “I don’t know if I ever will,” Iris said. Her voice sounded small.

  “And, I get the feeling you’re questioning if Don is that special someone. I’ve been getting the feeling that you haven’t been happy with him for months—maybe even longer.” Kara shook her head. “I don’t know how to come out and say this nicely, so I’ll just say it. Most every time I see Don, he’s a jerk. He verbally abuses you and talks to you with no respect whatsoever. You don’t deserve that.”

  “Often men have a hard time verbalizing what they mean, but, there is a difference between short communication and being a butt,” Jess added.

  “Don was so sweet to me when we first got together, but now, I feel more like a nuisance than his girlfriend.” Tears formed along Iris’s lashes and then ran down her cheek. “But, taking the next step is hard.”

  Kara looped her arm around Iris’s shoulders. “We’re not here to make you cry. I just think that we have all been in the same boat at one time of the other. We might have guys now, but that hasn’t always been the case. I kissed a lot of frogs first. I know you don’t have a lot of girlfriends, so I’m glad you’re here. We’re here for moral support and I think that you need a little interventional push, possibly.”

  “What would happen if you moved out of the relationship?” Jane asked.

  “I wouldn’t have a place to live, for starters.” Iris held up a finger. “And with the rent prices in Seattle, there is no way I could afford a place on my own.”

  “I told you, you can stay here,” Kara offered.

  Iris shook her head. “You and Jack are still newlyweds. Three would be a crowd. I know I’m not happy, but I need to figure out a few things on my own. Change is hard.”

  “It doesn’t have to be,” Jess said.

  “I’ll think about what you’ve all said. It’s food for thought.” Iris set her glass on the table.

  Kara picked the headband up. “Consider yourself part of the Mobile Mistletoe group. When you have the headband, remember that we are all there for you and that you can call us anytime day or night.”

  “Thanks.” Iris took the headband and put it in her purse. “It means a lot.”

  Kara hoped she knew they all meant what they said.

  Chapter Three

  Iris pressed the key in the lock and swung open the front door to a dark apartment. This meant Don was either out or asleep. She hoped it was the first. She was tired and just wanted to take a hot shower, put on her pajamas, and snuggle down to sleep.

  She made it halfway across the living room when she heard a deep voice say, “Where have you been?”

  She jumped at Don’s voice and then walked over to turn on the side lamp. “Why are you sitting here in the dark? I thought you might be out.”

  “That’s what you wanted isn’t it, so you could sneak back home?”

  “I’m not sneaking anywhere. I was out with some girlfriends. I told you the other day where I was going tonight.”

  He glared at her. “You expect me to believe that?”

  “You can believe whatever you want, it’s the truth. I went over to my coworker Kara’s house and some of her friends came over.”

  “Were there guys there?” he asked. She didn’t like the direction this questioning was taking.

  “No. Only women. Kara’s husband left before I got there.” She raised her chin. “I don’t need to answer to you for every second of my days and evenings. You don’t own me.”

  Don slowly pulled himself to his feet. “I own everything you have. This apartment, for starters. Don’t think that you can come home at any time of the night and not expect to answer questions.”

  Iris shook her head. “I’m going to take a shower and then go to bed. We can talk another time when your head is clear.”

  “I’ll say when this conversation is over.” He moved quick and grabbed her arm above the elbow.

  She’d never seen Don this violent. Iris tried to stay calm as she leveled her gaze to his and said, “Get your hands off me.” She struggled to twist free and finally broke his hold. When she tried to take a step, he gave her a vicious shove. Already off balance and trying to get away, Iris’s head slammed against the wall. Stars swam before her eyes and the copper taste of blood filled her mouth.

  She touched a finger to her split lip and then rubbed the spot where her cheek hit the wall. Iris backed up. “Don’t ever touch me again.” She spun, ran for the door, and grabbed her purse.

  “Don’t leave. If you do, you’ll regret it,” he spat out.

  “The only thing I regret is not walking out this door sooner. Goodbye, Don.”

  Iris’s heart thundered in her chest as she ran down the hall of the apartment building toward the garage. She looked back once and nearly stumbled. She expected to see Don running after her, but thank God, he hadn’t.

  She knew that he had a violent, jealous streak, but she’d never seen him enraged like this. Iris knew she’d done nothing wrong. As usual, her girlfriends were right. She needed to get out of this relationship with Don and tonight was the night.

  Fumbling in her purse, she dug out the car keys, got in, gunned the car’s engine and squealed out into the street.

  The adrenaline wore off and now she could feel the pain in her cheek. Iris was looking in the mirror when she saw a black and white police car pull out of the side street with its light and siren on. She edged over expecting them to pass, but the car stopped behind her.

  When the policewoman came to her window, gun out, she said, “Get out of the car.” A second officer stood by the passenger side and lit up the car’s interior with a flashlight.

  Iris slowly exited the car.

  “Keep your hands where we can see them.” The second officer took her purse as the other retrieved the registration from the glove box. She holstered her weapon and then spun her toward the car. “Put your hands on your head.” The officer kicked her ankles apart and then patted her down. She snapped a pair of cuffs on Iris’s wrists.

  “I don’t understand,” Iris said. “What did I do?”

  “This vehicle’s been reported stolen.”

  “Stolen!” A million questions hit her brain all at once. “I didn’t steal this car, it’s my boyfriend’s.”

  The female officer turned her around to face them, shone a flashlight on her face, and frowned. “Where’d you get the swollen cheek and split lip?”

  “My boyfriend, Don…he shoved me. My head hit the wall. I grabbed the keys and ran.”

  “Where were you going?” the other officer asked.

  “I don’t know.” Iris shook her head. “I was scared. I… ran.”

  “The car’s reported stolen. We’re taking you in.”

  “But, I’m not the one who did anything!” Iris cried.

  “You may or may not have committed a felony.” She opened the back of the black and white. “Get in. We’ll figure it out when we get to the station.”

  It was after eleven o’clock when they got to the police station. Iris had never been inside Seattle’s main police station, she’d had no reason to. The overhead florescent tubes gave a ghostly cast to everyone and everything. She felt as though she was in the middle of a bad dream.

  “Sit,” the female officer said and cuffed her to the bench. In a few minutes she returned with another officer. The woman started, “Sarge, this is the woman I told you about. She claims she was running from her boyfriend.” The officer pointed to her face. “Said, he’d hit her and she was afraid.”

  “Book her, take extra photos of her f
ace and then take her statement about the battery. She can make her call afterwards,” the sergeant said.

  Iris thought of Kara whose husband Jack, was a cop. She didn’t know a lawyer, but Jack might so he’d be the one she called.

  The officer took her through booking. Iris still couldn’t believe what was happening. Why would Don, the man she thought loved her, do this to her? When they were finished, they returned to the booking area.

  “You can use that phone on the wall to make your call,” the officer stated.

  Iris’s fingers trembled as she dialed Kara’s number. The home phone rang and rang. Kara said she was going out to pick up Jack at his poker game, so she probably wasn’t home. Iris left her cell at the apartment when she ran out. She placed the phone back as panic gripped her. “Can I have my wallet?” she asked the officer standing beside her. “I don’t have the cell phone number memorized that I need.”

  The officer watched her for a long moment and then laughed. “I haven’t had a phone number memorized since 1995.” She returned from the far side of the room seconds later and handed her the wallet.

  Iris slid out the stack of business cards stuck in the front and looked for Kara’s number. The card Thane gave her the day before was on top. When he handed it to her, she’d stuck it in her wallet without reading it.

  Now, she read it.

  Thane Walker

  Attorney at Law

  Iris blinked. Thane? Her Thane from high school? The boy who she guessed had a criminal record by now, was a lawyer? If he was, this would be her best option.

  She flipped over the car to his personal number, lifted the receiver, and punched in the number.

  His deep voice answered. She could tell he’d been asleep. “Hello?”

  “Thane, its Iris.”

  “Iris?” There was a long pause and then what sounded like the shuffling of sheets, before he asked, “Why are you calling me from the police station?”

  How could he know this? But then she realized he must have caller ID. She tried to keep the waver out of her voice. “I’m in trouble. They told me to call a lawyer. I saw your card. I didn’t know…well, I didn’t know who else to call.”

  “What happened? Never mind. I’ll be there in thirty minutes. Tell the arresting officer that I’m on my way.”

  Chapter Four

  Ever since Thane saw Iris, he hoped she’d call. Never in a thousand years, did he expect her late night call from the police station. He broke a few speed laws himself getting to the downtown station, but he made it there in thirty minutes, just as he’d promised.

  He gave up waiting for the elevator and took the stairs three at a time. He drew his DA badge from his jacket pocket and looped it over his neck. When he reached the main floor, he flashed his badge to the watch commander, scanned the sea of people, and then spotted Iris sitting along a beige wall in the booking area. Thane strode quickly across the room and came to a stop in front of her.

  “Iris, what the hell happened?”

  When she looked up, relief washed over her features. “Thane. I...they said that I stole the car I was in. But, it was my boyfriends’. I always drive it. I didn’t steal it.”

  That’s when he saw her cheek. Something dark twisted inside him. “What happened to your face?”

  “That was why I was in his car. I left him.”

  “He hit you?” Thane tried to keep the anger from his voice, but a man who hit a woman...for that, had no forgiveness.

  “He didn’t hit me, he pushed me.”

  “There’s no difference.”

  She shrugged and wrung her hands. “When he shoved me, my head hit the wall. He accused me of being out, I assume, with another man. But, I was with girlfriends. He wouldn’t listen to me.”

  He turned her cheek to see the bruise and then ran his fingers under her auburn hair. There was a small goose egg on the side of her head. “Do you think you have a concussion?”

  “No.”

  He sat beside her and listened to what happened. The police station wasn’t a place Iris needed to spend another minute. In the year that he’d been a Deputy District Attorney, he’d seen the worst society had to offer.

  “The first thing we’re going to do is post bail for you and get you out of here.”

  He returned a while later. Iris stood and Thane took her elbow.

  “Don’t they need money?” she asked. “For the bail?”

  “Don’t worry about it, come on.” He walked her through the station and out the main double doors. Iris looked at a man a few feet away and stopped abruptly.

  “Don,” her voice faltered. “What are you doing here?”

  Thane felt her move a step closer to him.

  The thin man with slicked back blond hair and bushy mustache looked Thane up and down. “Who the hell is this?” he asked, as his eyes narrowed.

  “I’m her lawyer,” Thane said. Anger seethed through his veins.

  “I see…” Don let the words trail off. “Sorry about earlier, Iris.” He reached for her arm, but she pulled away.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you,” Iris stated.

  “You don’t want this on your record. It won’t look good with you as a preschool teacher. If you come home with me, I’ll tell them that it’s our car and they’ll drop the charges and all will be back to normal.”

  “As the woman said, she’s not going anywhere with you,” Thane said through a tight jaw. He fought to keep calm. He’d never been a violent man, but what he really wanted to do was punch the guy square in the face. “What you’re also saying is that Iris had your permission to drive the car?” he asked.

  “Of course. She’s my girlfriend.”

  “This is what we’re going to do.” Thane took a step closer to Don, while he pressed Iris behind him. The two men stood nearly toe to toe. “We’re going to walk back into the station and you’re going to tell the sergeant that you’re dropping the charges against her.”

  “Why would I do that? I’m not doing anything until Iris says she’s coming back.”

  “You don’t want to go down this road. You’re not listening to what I’m telling you that you’re going to do.” Thane leaned in, until he could feel Don’s breath on his face. “Because if you don’t drop the charges, then Iris will file domestic abuse charges. There are no other threats being thrown here, Don. Am I clear?”

  For a second, Don looked as though he was calculating his options. Then he nodded and followed Thane and Iris back into the station. Thane called the desk sergeant over and waited until Don explained that Iris did nothing wrong, and that she’d had his permission to drive his car, it hadn’t been stolen.

  “Thank you, Sergeant Miller.” Thane turned to Iris. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  Don turned to follow them when Miller said, “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Home,” Don said. “Now that this is all cleared up.”

  “Your statement has been taken that the grand theft auto charge was basically false, but that leaves the matter of domestic abuse.” Miller nodded to the officer next to the desk. “Book him.”

  “What?” Don’s eyes widened. He turned on Iris as she shrunk back against Thane. “You bitch! Her lawyer said if I made a statement, then she wouldn’t press charges.”

  “She’s not charging you, but the officers that stopped her for the GTA brought my attention to her bruises. We’re changing you,” the sergeant said. “We take these matters very seriously.”

  Don swore loudly as the officer cuffed and hauled him off to the booking area. A great sense of satisfaction washed over Thane. Some days there was justice.

  When they reached the garage, Iris shivered. He took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders. She stopped again. “If I posted bail, can Don do it, too?
”

  He nodded. “Yes.”

  “That means he’ll come back to the apartment.” Her gaze darted back to the main doors of the station house.

  “I can take you to a hotel, but I’d feel much better if you came home with me. Then I’ll know you’re safe until we get all this sorted out.”

  “Why would you do that?” Iris hadn’t cried all night, but a tear slipped down her cheek. “You don’t owe me anything.”

  “I know I don’t owe you anything, but even after all these years, you’re still one of my best friends.” Thane brushed the tear away with the tip of his finger. She broke into a sob and he pulled her against him. He knew she was close to falling apart and wanted to get her out of the station before it happened. “Come on. Don’t cry. Hush…” He rubbed her back and guided her to take a few more steps as he held her. “Everything will be okay, I promise.”

  “What are the chances that the day I need a lawyer, I find you again,” she said and rubbed her eyes.

  “You could have just looked me up online, you didn’t need to throw yourself in front of my bike.”

  She smiled and choked back another sob. “So it was chance?” she asked.

  “More like fate. I knew I’d see you again sometime in my life. You were too much a part of my past to disappear forever.” He pushed the key fob and unlocked the doors.

  “Where’s your bike?”

  “I own a car too. The bike’s for when I still want to be a bad boy.” He winked at her.

  Chapter Five

  Iris rubbed her hands together to try and bring warmth back into them. When Thane pulled the car up to a small rambler, he parked by the curb, turned off the ignition and then came around to open her door.