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“Yes shit.” Wes said. “You should have seen how the cop treated her.”
“Not like you to let anyone bully a woman.” The large man interjected.
“Andy, if you could have seen her face. She looked so… I don’t know… beaten … sad. I think it was better that I didn’t get involved.”
“Yeah, well good choice bro, because we need to work with the cops and you don’t’ shit where you eat, you hear me?”
“Yeah.” Agreed Jace
“I know.” Wes said quietly. “It's just… if you could have seen how she looked.”
“Oh man. I know that look Wes.” Jace said laughing. “Just screw her now and get her out of your system.”
“Shut it Jace.” Wes growled.
Jace placed his hands in an ‘I surrender’ palms out gesture and continued t
o laugh. Andy chuckled along with Jace and Wes turned away from the two men he’d known for years, walked into his office at the end of the hall and shut the door behind him. The laughter continued even after he shut the door. Wes shook his head; fuck me, he thought to himself. Then he thought of Jo and smiled. Wes headed straight for his computer. Time to learn more about pretty little Jo Ross.
Chapter 3
Jo
Jo checked her rearview for the ump-teenth time and sure enough Officer Laramie remained right behind her. Jo made certain she used her blinkers, came to complete stops and did not go over the speed limit. She finally merged onto 287 and when Officer Laramie did not take the ramp Jo heaved a sigh of relief, shook out her tight shoulder muscles and drove down the highway enjoying the breeze that finally cooled the inside of her sweltering car.
Five minutes later she took the off ramp towards her home and within minutes Jo pulled into her space in front of her townhouse. She had bought the townhouse three years ago. Her parents had helped with the down payment but she had since paid them back. She loved her little home.
Her unit consisted of six townhouses, set up in two’s, so that they shared a wall and a front porch. Each townhouse had a balcony on the second floor in the front and a stone patio in the back that was surrounded with a high enough fence to ensure privacy. There were parking spots in front of each townhouse along with a few visitors’ spaces.
It was newly built and sat on a small, quiet street close enough to shops and restaurants that she could easily walk to them. She shared a wall and the walkway with Nick Pratt, a man a few years older than herself. He was good looking, athletic, and a tough corporate lawyer. When she’d first moved in he had hit on her relentlessly, but Jo wanted to keep things between them platonic. She had been all about her job, and although she was not a recluse, she did not want any distractions.
They had settled into a safe and easy-going friendship helping each other in little ways, for instance, she had helped him decorate his living room, and in return he had painted hers. Over time she had seen him with plenty of women and she couldn’t help teasing him, good-naturedly of course, if she saw him in the morning doing the walk of shame. He would always remind her he wouldn’t have to bring home women or do the walk of shame if she would just go out with him. Jo always laughed and brushed aside his comment, but she knew that if she allowed it, he would pursue a relationship with her, instead of settling for their usual meet up for drinks on Fridays after work.
Nick was pretty dynamic and she had thoughts, especially when they were a little tipsy after their Friday evening out, that maybe she should let ‘them’ happen. He was great looking and his body was honed to perfection. She’d seen his torso often enough. Like her, his daily work out consisted of running. When he finished he would pull off his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face. Jo always gawked. The man was seriously ripped. The first time it happened Nick threw his shirt at her saying, “Like what you see?”
Jo had thrown the shirt back at him laughing and pretending the shirt was disgusting. Fact was she did like what she saw.
Jo turned her cars engine off and out of habit reached for her purse before remembering that it wasn’t there. After carrying the three boxes and the leftovers inside, she put the leftovers in the fridge and went to change out of her work clothes.
Dressed in her running shorts and tank top Jo applied some ointment to her knees, found her old iPod, wishing she had updated the playlist, but happy to at least be able to run with music, and walked down her front steps. After completing a few stretches Jo took off jogging. There was a large lake about a half-mile from her home that she loved to run around. It was peaceful and the trail around the lake was two miles long, so when she ran that route her run was a total of three miles. If she ever wanted to do more she just looped around the lake again.
Running had always cleared Jo’s mind, she was a former college athlete and had received a partial athletic ride for field hockey. She had also garnered an Academic grant, so most of Jo’s education to Rutgers University had been paid for. What hadn’t been paid for she had covered with a Student Loan. Her parents had been more than willing to help, but Jo and her twin sister, Lou had decided they were going to put themselves through college, so they did.
Lou and Jo were identical twins. Lou was gifted academically and she had so many academic grants awarded to her that she hadn’t had to take out a student loan. Not only were they twin sisters, but they were best friends too. They had lived together right after college, until Lou married a sweetheart of a guy, Pete, that she had met in college. Now they lived in Pennsylvania.
Jo’s sneakers pounded the soft dirt trail around the lake and she physically began to relax from her rotten day. She recounted the events; bad thing number one; car air conditioner broke. Bad thing number two; purse got stolen. Good thing number one; she met a handsome man that helped her. Bad thing number three; she got tickets from lame brain Officer Laramie.
Jo figured her bad things were out of the way, that was three in all, and things came in three’s; now bring on the good stuff. Seeing that handsome Wes guy again would definitely fall under the good category. Next, Jo made a mental list of everything she needed to replace what she had lost in her purse. That was going to be a pain. Luckily, at her dad’s insistence, she had photocopied all of her cards and her license. She was going to have to get a new phone, and she’d have to tell her sister that the present she had just given to her for their birthday last week had been jacked. Lou would not be happy.
The cuts on Jo’s knees started to bother her so after completing the lake loop Jo headed home. When she got to her house Nick was standing on his front balcony. He was in a dress shirt and had obviously just come in from work.
“Hey Jo, you already ran?” Nick asked, as he looked her sweaty body up and down.
“Yup, just finished.” Jo flopped to the grass and stretched her legs out.
“Damn I wanted to go with you.”
“Oh sorry, I didn’t know.” Jo said apologetically as she bent her head towards her knees.
