Kenton (24 page)

she really wanted to get the box that held the jewelry. Jasmine was willing to go up to

ten dollars a box to get them too. She looked around to see the competition.

There had been a man who had been looking at the same boxes when she’d first

arrived to this part of the yard, but he had wandered off about ten minutes ago. That

sometimes happened when there were two rings going. She hoped that he stayed away

until she got what she wanted, knowing that he’d be the one to drive the price up to

more than she was willing to go. When she knew there were two rings going to happen,

Grannie would come with her and bid on the items in the other tent or part of the yard

to help out. Today she wished Grannie could have come too.

Jasmine didn’t care for the stranger for some reason. It’s not that he’d done

anything to her or even spoken to her, but there was something about him that made

her feel dirty. He looked…sketchy, as her grannie would have said. Looking around as

the auctioneer started out the bidding at fifty dollars, she didn’t see him and was

relieved. When no one bid on the boxes even when he came down to ten bucks, the

auctioneer asked for a starting point.

She waited just long enough for no one to bid before she did anything. It was her

plan to get him as low as she could before he started moving up again. Jasmine looked

like she wasn’t sure and put up her two fingers to start the bidding. She knew that it

was going to be a war and wanted to show she was ready.

Four minutes later, she nearly leapt for joy when she got all three boxes for six

bucks. No one, it seemed, wanted them but her, and she was tickled pink about it.

Picking them up, turning down the help of the elderly man next to her, Jasmine made

her way to her truck. It was days like this she was happy to have learned a thing or two

from her grannie. And not just about bidding and antiques either. It was about life in

general.

“Trust no one. Give no one the time of day, and never make eye contact.” Sort of

scary, Jasmine knew, but it had saved her a lot of grief since she’d been flipping her

purchases she got at auctions. She’d just opened up the doors on her truck and had the

safe inside open when she heard the voice behind her. Jasmine tried to ignore him, but

he spoke again.

“Hello? Excuse me, I’d like to make you a deal on those boxes.” Jasmine didn’t

move to turn toward him but slipped the few pieces of gold and the pretty earrings

she’d fallen in love with in the safe under the floorboard of her truck. “I was going to

bid on them, but I seemed to have gotten tied up on the other side of the yard when

something…. Never mind. I’d like to offer you double what you paid for them.”

Double? Not nearly enough, and even if it was, she wasn’t going to take it. She

wanted them and had been there to get them. It was just his bad luck, she supposed.

“No thanks.” She turned to him then and was taken aback by his size. The man had

to be over seven feet tall. He was big too, muscled like he lifted up buildings in his

spare time. “I’m sorry that you missed out, but I won them fairly.”

He nodded and smiled, which was neither reassuring nor friendly to her. He told

her that was fine and asked her if she was from around here. Instead of answering him,

she shut her door and locked it and moved away from him and her truck. His voiced

carried over the crowded field when he made her another offer.

“I’ll give you a hundred bucks a box for them. That’s more than you can make

flipping that stuff, if that’s what you have planned. As I said, I was tied up and really

wanted to try and get them for someone else.” Too bad. It was a lot more than she was

going to get, but she never stopped moving. “Two hundred for each box. And I’ll even

help you get that dresser you bought in your truck.”

Jasmine stopped and turned to stare at him. Two hundred bucks a box? He wanted

something in those boxes. And for some reason she thought it was the beautiful

earrings. She had no idea of their worth. They could have been diamonds and sapphires

for all she knew, but she doubted that. Or nothing more than rocks someone found in

their driveway and polished up.

Jasmine turned to look at him. It also scared her that he’d been paying enough

attention to her to know that she’d gotten a dresser earlier today. But she also knew that

he was offering her too much money for her to turn it down. Not that she still wanted to

sell to him, but if she didn’t, Jasmine had a feeling that he’d take it from her and she’d

be out of her money, even as little as it might have cost her.

“I only want one thing out of them. Would you be willing to let me have it?” She

already had taken out what she wanted and was planning to donate most of the rest to

the local charity drive to use in the upcoming yard sale. “If that’s okay, I’ll take the six

hundred for them. I’d be stupid to turn that down.”

“Depends on what it is.” She nodded and made her way back to her truck. Her

heart was pounding now and she was actually afraid to open her door. She wasn’t that

far from other cars and people, but would they come and help her if this man decided

to hurt her? And what if he’d seen where she’d hidden the other things she’d bought?

Opening the door all the way, she handed out the three boxes she’s just put in and

reached in blindly and took out the first thing her fingers touched. The ugly costume

jewelry was one of the things that she was going to donate. “Yeah, you can have that. I

have no use for jewelry like that.”

He took out his wallet and she tried not to notice the gun that was tucked tightly

against his ribs. She was sure that he’d not meant for her to see it, but now that she had,

Jasmine couldn’t unsee it. He handed her six hundred dollars and asked her if she was

ready to put the dresser in the truck. It took her befuddled mind a moment to wonder

what the fuck he was talking about.

“Yes, that would be great.” It took them less than ten minutes to get the big heavy

dresser in her truck. As she was putting her dolly in with it, he wandered off and she

leaned against her truck, shaking. Whatever that man was, she wanted no part of him.

Looking around, she decided that whatever else she wanted wasn’t worth it and started

for her truck. But a small voice, low and sort of masculine, told her that she needed to

stay for a little while longer. That it was unsafe for her to leave when he did.

Closing her eyes, Jasmine knew she was more stressed than she’d thought over the

incident. But she did move to the bigger tent to see if the other items on her list were

still up for bidding. To her way of thinking, she had extra money to use now, and

decided to try a little harder for the pretty pie safe that she already had a buyer for.

It was nearly three hours later when she left. The pie safe was tied up with her

dresser, and she had several more boxes of stuff to add to her online store. She’d even

managed to get herself a headboard that would look nice in her room, as well as some

things for Gavin. As she was pulling out into traffic, she thought again of the man.

“I’m not sure what he wanted, but I have a feeling that he’s not going to find it

now.” The voice in her head, the one that had been talking to her off and on all day, told

her she was right. “Yeah, and what makes you so sure? I mean, you did know that that

woman was going to only go to seventy-five dollars, but what about the man? And why

are you even talking to me? Or even for that matter, why am I listening to you?”

He will mean you harm when he finds out what has happened. If he lives.
Jasmine knew

that was right for some reason, but didn’t ask how the voice in her head would know

that. And when he came looking for her, this man who overpaid her, she’d be ready for

him. Jasmine was not like other women. She wasn’t the least bit helpless.
No, you are not.

Deciding that she really did need to get out more, Jasmine ignored the voice telling

her that she needed to pack up and leave as soon as possible, that it was no longer safe

for them. It was their home—hers, Grannie’s, and her son’s—even if it was a shack that

was cold in the winter and hotter than hell in the summer. She worked and lived there,

and it was home.

It took her longer to get home than she’d hoped. Stopping to fill up the tank and her

own belly had delayed her. But she wasn’t going to stop at a hotel, as had been her plan

when she’d left home early this morning. She wanted to see her family, small as it was.

When she saw the welcoming light over the front porch, Jasmine felt as if all the stress

of the day melted away.

Pulling her truck into the big barn, she got in the back seat and pulled up the carpet

and opened the large safe. The modification had been done by her and Grannie a while

back, and she was glad for it. It was their safety net, a place that even without going to

auctions, held things that they could use in an emergency. There was several thousand

dollars in cash, her grannie’s records, as well as Gavin’s birth certificate, and a gun. The

gun had come in handy a couple of times in the last few years.

They had cut a hole in the floorboard, then put in a large steel box. After welding it

in, making sure that it was flat even with the lid closed, Jasmine put the carpet back,

then covered the entire thing with a floor mat. Unless you got up under the truck to

look, no one would ever know that she had the safe there. And that was the way that

she wanted it.

Even though she’d never been robbed at an auction, Jasmine and her grannie had

decided there was no point in tempting fate. They found that having just the extra

security kept them from feeling defenseless too. They didn’t really buy that many

things that required a safe, but when they did, it went right in there as soon as it was

bought.

“You get your things?” Smiling, Jasmine turned and nodded at her grannie. She

was standing in the doorway in her long gown and a ratty robe. “Gavin is in his room.

Don’t think he’s sleeping. Waitin’ up for you, I think. He’s done his homework too, so

you know. Never even had to ask him about it. Told me that he’d done it on the bus

again.”

“I’ll go and see him. The teacher said he was doing really well, so I’m not worried

that he’s not doing it.” She pulled out the earrings and other things and showed them to

Grannie. “I found these in a box and couldn’t resist them. Aren’t they lovely? And I got

them really cheap too. Then this man came along and bought the rest of the stuff for a

good price too.”

Jasmine had already decided to downplay the thing with the man. Not that she

thought Grannie would get mad at her, but she might tell her that she’d been a fool.

Because the more she thought about it, the more of an idiot she thought she’d been.

There were so many clues about her that he could have gotten if he wanted to find her.

Her license plate, for one thing.

“I guess if you like just plain things. Just some old costume stuff, but if you like

them that’s fine with me.” Grannie looked at the pie safe. “That for Mrs. Dunlap? She’s

gonna love it. Better shape than the pictures, I think.”

Jasmine looked at the earrings. She supposed one would call them a cuff for the ear.

But plain? Costume jewelry? She didn’t think so. They were gorgeous. She held one up

to the light and watched as the sparkle of the blue stone in the dragon’s mouth danced

around the big barn.

The tail of the dragon would hang from the front of her lobe. It was long and

detailed, and she thought that it was made of silver. The rest of him, his body would

wrap around her ear with his hands holding on to look as if he were perched there. His

head and the big blue stone in his mouth would hang over the top so that it looked as if

he was climbing up her ear and looking down at her. His wings were closed, but she

could almost see them in flight when he left her ear. They’d be as blue as the stone in

his mouth and brilliantly light against the sky. Jasmine smiled at her fanciful notions.

She wasn’t one to go on about things like this and thought it was funny that she’d done

it over a pair of earrings, of all things.

“You should wear them. They’re pretty, I guess, for a girl, so you should put them

in.” Jasmine was sitting on her son’s bed about ten minutes later, and he didn’t seem to

think the earrings were all that special either. “You bought them ‘cause you liked them.

Wear them, Mom. You know that you wanna.”

Gavin was her most prized possession. He was the only thing that she was glad for

from her marriage to David, his father. At eight, almost nine, he kept her sane. Most of

the time, Jasmine had to remember that he was just a little boy to refrain from telling

him her deepest secrets and fears. Some of those even scared her. He’d been through a

lot, her little man, and she hoped every day that she was doing the right things for him.