Tessa's Treasures Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Looks like I struck a nerve.”
    “Maybe you did.” He shrugged. “And stop smiling like that. She’s single, I’m single. What’s the big deal?”
    Mason’s smile collapsed. He pinched the bridge of his nose with an index finger and thumb. “Tessa hasn’t been herself since she came back from California. She dresses like an old lady, never dates. At least as far as I know. Has this friend—guy’s been married a ton of times—so I think in her mind, he’s safe. Anyway, she’ll go out with him once in a while, but when a couple guys on the force took an interest in her she froze them out.”
    Lucas pushed away his half eaten plate, sensing his friend wasn’t giving him the full story on his sister. “I guess I’m luckier than most, cause we went to dinner last night.”
    Mason let out a low whistle. “You sure move fast. Maybe she doesn’t feel threatened by you cause you’re an old friend.”
    “What do you mean threatened? ” He leaned forward. “Tessa let slip last night that when she came home from California, she had a need to recover. What was that all about?”
    Mason stared at him for a minute, then said, “Her husband beat the shit out of her.”
    Lucas jerked back as if he’d been slapped. Blood pounded in his head. The instinct to do something, anything, kicked in. He made a move to get up.
    “Hold on there.” Mason grabbed his arm. “It was eight years ago, and he’s doing time for it.”
    Craving physical action, Lucas clenched his fists. Like breaking every bone in the bastard’s body . He took a deep breath, tapped his fingers on the table. “How the hell did you let something like that happen?”
    “You think I feel good about it?” Mason picked up his fork and played with the lettuce and tomato left on the plate. “I was busy with the job. Every time I asked if I could come for a visit, she always had a reason why it wasn’t a good time. They were redoing the house, Dean had just started his vacation, they were going away. The couple times they came here, she looked pale and nervous, but she said she worked a lot of hours.”
    Lucas opened and closed his fists. “Dammit, you’re a trained cop. You mean to tell me you couldn’t see your own sister was in danger?”
    “Look, buddy, there isn’t anything you can say to me that I haven’t said to myself a million times. If it hadn’t been for Jane, I think I’d have torn the miserable bastard apart before he even got to court.”
    “How did you find out? About the beating, I mean?” Dammit. The tension around his chest tightened.
    “One day he beat her particularly bad. A neighbor went to her house for something, found her a mess, and called me. I still don’t know why she didn’t call me herself.”
    “Son of a bitch, I can’t believe this. So what happened?”
    “The neighbor called an ambulance and I got on a plane. After I made sure she was under good care, I escorted her husband to the San Jose police station. At first they tried to brush it off, which gives me a good idea of how things had been going for a while. You know, the good old boy, we take care of our own thing?”
    Lucas nodded, tight-lipped. “Go on.”
    “I leaned hard on the District Attorney. He assigned a female ADA who was outraged at Tessa’s injuries.” He took a final suck on the straw and pushed the glass away. “That’s about it. When she was released from the hospital, she came back to Duncan and stayed with us until the divorce settlement. She got enough from the sale of their house in San Jose to buy a small place here. Dean was sentenced to ten years. The judge came down hard on him, said he wasn’t happy the jerk was a cop. Gave him a sermon about the honor of law enforcement officers. I was happy as hell, and honestly think if I hadn’t been Chief here, the department would’ve swept the whole thing under the rug.”
    Lucas took a deep breath. “I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this.”
    “One thing.”