Jackie Draws A Straight: The Journey Series Book 5 (9 page)

"Hey, Dad. I found her. Yeah, she was at the doc's house. On our way home now." He listened for a moment, then said his goodbye and s
tarted the truck. They drove
for several minutes, the silence stretching between them making Jackie progressively more uncomfortable. Finally, she had to say something.

"Are we goin
'
to get my car?"

He didn't take his eyes off the highway. "Nope."

"But Ace…"

"We're goin' home where you will apologize to our father. I can't believe you were this inconsiderate, li'l girl."

Jackie did feel very guilty. She should have been home hours ago. Finding her car abandoned in Carlos' parking lot must have made Ace considerably worried. "I'm sorry."

"Save it for Dad. I'm well and truly pissed off at you."

She hated having her brother so angry. "I didn't mean to do it."

His eyes darted from the road to her and back again. "What did you do?"

"Nothin'!"

"Jackie," he said, his voice barely more civilized than a growl, "A woman don't take her panties off in a man's home for 'nothin''."

"I'm a full grown woman," she said, her own anger rising at his Chauvinism. "I can act any way I want to in a man's home."

"Not while you're livin' at
Journey's End
, you cannot."

"Damn it, Ace! I ain't done nothin'!"

"You end up pregnant, li'l girl, and you will be in a world o' hurt."

"You are impossible!"

They didn't talk again in the truck. When they got to the ranch and through the back door into the kitchen, Ace nodded toward the hall. "Dad's in his office. Best you go make your peace."

Guilt, trepidation and anger coursed through her. Jackie stuck her nose in the air and headed toward their father.

The door was partially open, light spilling out on the wood floored hallway. She tapped at the doorframe. "Daddy?"

"Get your butt in here, daughter."

She opened the door firmly, squaring her shoulders
as she stepped into the warm, masculine space
with
forest green walls and dark wainscoting. Her father sat at his big pine desk, his hands knotted together as he leaned forward in his chair. His laptop was closed as though he'd been sitting there thinking.

It pained her to think that she'd worried her father so much, but damn it, s
he hadn't done anything wrong and she was an adult. Even if she had done anything sexual with Pete, it was her business and had nothing to do with her family. She repeated it to herself like a mantra as she came in and stood before her father's desk.

"Sit."

Bristling, Jackie sat in the hide covered chair across from him. He looked tired, his face drawn, the wrinkles on his face pronounced. Leo was still a strong, handsome man, but tonight he looked pretty close to his nearly seventy years. Jackie felt like a total heel in the face of his disappointment in her.

"I just got off the phone with Pete Kaminsky."

"Phone?"

"
Yep. We had ourselves a little talk."

"Daddy…I… What about?"

"Sonora, in general and you specifically."

Her chest felt like a big rock was sitting on it. "Daddy, my relationship to Pete has nothin' to do with you."

"You are my daughter."

"I'm your
grown
daughter.
" Irritation crept into her voice though she was trying to remain calm. "Did you do this to Queenie, too, while I was away at school?"

"We got standards," he said, leaning back in his chair. The light dimmed on his face and she couldn't gauge his expression except by his voice. His tone was clipped. "You don't go to a man's house late at night after a night on the town. You know better."

"What I do ain't none of your business!"

"You live in my house, li'l girl, you live by my rules. That's the way it's always been. Your sister had to live by the same rules."

"This is the twenty-first century, Daddy! Those rules are archaic!"

"Watch your tone with me, Jackie. You had me worried sick. I don't know what you learned at that private college up there in Belton, but I hope you didn't throw all your morals out the window
as
you got your education."

She tried to be calm, but she was mad enough to cry.
"Why are we talkin' about my sex life?"

Leo drew in a long slow breath. It was a sound he made when he was trying to rein in his temper. "You
have
a sex life, li'l girl?"

Time to regroup. "Um, no…"

"I'm pleased as a child at the circus to hear that.
"

"He spanked me."

"What?" Although she couldn't see it, she heard the frown in her father's voice.

"Pete spanked me. That's all."

There was a long pause, but eventually Leo spoke up. "He didn't mention that on the phone. He said he'd found y
ou in the bar, that you'd had too much
to drink and he didn't want you drivin', so he took you back to his place where you played a few hands of cards."

"That's all true."

"Then where does this spankin' come in?"

"I cheated."

"At cards?"
She nodded, there was a
nother pause and then Leo laughed like he'd heard the funniest joke in the world.

"Daddy!"

He snorted and wiped his eyes. "If that don't beat it all. Your mama used to try th
at
with me
. I
walloped
her ass for it, too. Same as your doc."

Jackie was chagrined, and her voice was snippy
as
she replied. "He's not 'my doc', Daddy."

"You are the spittin' image of your mama, Jackie-girl, and now I see you've got her tendency toward mischief as well. I thought you'd grow out of it, but you've only gotten more wily."

She liked the idea that she was like her mother, even though she only knew the woman through photos and stories. "
Yeah…well…What did you say to Pete?"

"
We clarified a few matters."

"Like?"

"Like you ain't gonna be goin' to his personal home again unescorted."

Groaning inwardly, she tried to defend modern behavior. "Daddy, I'm not some precious flower that needs to be protected."

"You are to me, daughter."

Anger shot through her. Much as she loved her daddy and wanted to be loved in return, she did not want to be treated like someone from the 1800s. Why, if he knew what all her friends at school got up to, he'd have made her come home from there lickety-split. "Daddy, girls don't follow those rules no more."

"My girls do. Your mama was
a virtuous woman, your sister
Q
ueenie was, too—although she married that jackass Harry Tatum the first time around, at least she wised up after."

She interrupted. "But, Daddy, Ace, Deuce and Trey, they all had girlfriends before they got married. How is that different?"

"It's like this, daughter. A key that fits many locks is a valuable key, but a lock that fits any key is a really crappy lock."

"Women are like locks?"

"Yep."

"That's dumb."

"Jackie Elaine Theresa Journey-"

She held her hand up. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be disrespectful."

He snorted. "You are spoiled, girl. Spoiled and willful. Damned if I ain't done it myself."

"You make me so mad, Daddy."
It irritated her further to feel so compelled to defend herself, but she did. He was her father. He cared about her. "I am a virtuous woman." Her statement was met with silence. "I am!"

He changed the subject abruptly. "Must be somethin' 'tween you and this new doctor for him to spank you."

"No."

"He was just mad at ya, huh?"

Jackie squirmed uncomfortably in the chair and as she did, her butt smarted, reminding her of Pete
's heavy hand on her behind
. It had been intimate there with him. She'd have liked more, but he seemed disinclined to want more too. "It wasn't like that."

Fortunately, Leo didn't pursue it. "I can't talk to you like your mama would, li'l girl. I got only a father's words to offer. But I will tell you this, a virtuous woman's more valuable in this world of
corruption
. You don't go giving up something you only got one of to some fool off the street. You got me?"

Suddenly, s
he
was
defeated.
The dream of a home with a husband and children seemed
years away. So many years. Witnessing the intimacy between Ace and his wife had stirred up those desires in her. Pete was so appealing and she felt so close to him. The spankings were like sex. Or, what she thought sex ought to feel like.

She mumbled out her answer to her father.
"Yes, sir."

"G
et
to bed. We'll get
your car tomorrow. I have errands in town anyway."

She rose and moved around the desk, bending to give her father a kiss on the cheek. Old-fashioned as he might be, he was her father and she loved him dearly. "G'night, Daddy."

"G'night, li'l girl."

* * *

Ace watched his sister walk by the kitchen archway and toward the stairs. He was glad to see that she wasn't in tears or stomping up the stairs in anger. Her shoulders slumped a bit and she was obviously tired. Apparently, their father had lit into her but good.

In a way, he felt bad for her.
He knew most girls were given a lot more leeway than the Journey women, but at the same time,
there was
value in that. He hadn't wanted to make a permanent partnership with a loose woman, and he didn't know any fellows who did. Most men wanted to know that their women would be faithful and true and didn't cat around. Certainly, that's the way the Journey men behaved and he had no friends who weren't similarly inclined. But that was hard on women.
His own wife had been with another man before he married her—but only one.

Ace figured Jackie would rise or fall on her own initiative. Much as he cared about her, he couldn't make her behave one way or another. He could only watch out for her as he had when she was a little girl. Sometimes a person had to skin their knees before they learned to ride a bike. He hoped that she hadn't skinned her knees up to the point of scarring while she was away at school.

A deep yawn assailed him and he rose to go up to his suite and his wife. He wanted to stake his claim on her once again. Ace was not a man to share the things that were most precious to him and the idea that he shared a place in her sex life with another man made him burn with jealousy. Gabby was his. Although he couldn't take away her behavior prior to meeting him, he could sure make sure she didn't think of that guy with any kind of wistfulness.

One of the stairs creaked as he climbed up and the door lock gave a little tick as he turned the handle. Gabby was sitting in bed, reading. Her brown curls were arrayed on her shoulders, glossy and thick. She wore the
pale blue camisole that was her favorite. He knew there were tiny little frilly shorts to match it. Gabby was a tasty morsel to his eyes. His woman.
His
.