Read Online Bending Over Backwards by Samantha Hunter - Free Book Online Page B

sorry.” Leo took his hands away. “A friend of mine runs the place.”
    “I didn’t hear anything about anyone getting hurt,” the older man said before walking away with a cautious look.
    Leo spotted a cop parked on the street and approached the car. “Can you tell me what happened here? When this happened? If anyone was hurt?”
    Or worse , his mind whispered the terrible possibility.
    “Who’s asking? You a reporter? Press will be—”
    “No, I’m a friend of the owner. Is she okay?” As he asked, a sharp pain knifed through his skull, bad enough to have him grabbing his head, gasping.
    Somewhere, he heard screams. And a gunshot. He ducked, reacting.
    “Hey, what’s wrong with you?” The cop steadied him, alarmed.
    Leo panicked, worried about Jasmine and completely freaked out by what had happened. He looked around. People on the street, along with the cop, looked back.
    He shook his head, the pain gone. But he’d remembered. For a moment, there was a flash and some sound. It was like he had been back there again. Back in his office. He fought for clarity.
    “I’m okay. I’m just very worried for my friend. Can you tell me anything?”
    The cop hesitated. “Are you sure you don’t need some help? You don’t look right.”
    “I have a migraine,” Leo lied. “From stress. Was anyone hurt? ”
    “I can’t give you any details, but no one was reported hurt. Why don’t you let me drive you to the local emergency—”
    Relief nearly made him sag, which probably concerned the officer even more. Leo straightened, able to breathe now that he knew Jasmine was okay.
    “I’m okay, I promise, thanks.” He cut the officer off and ran back to his car.
    No doubt he looked like a raving maniac, but seeing the shop destroyed had shaken him badly. The destruction had touched some bone-deep fear that had been hiding under the surface.
    He’d heard Jeannie, his coworker, screaming. She’d died. He remembered the sound of the gunshots. People yelling, crying. His own gasp of pain as something burned through his shoulder.
    Leo wasn’t sure he wanted to remember anything else. No job, no amount of money, was worth that.
    He knew he was driving way too fast, and he let up a little on the gas, not wanting to get pulled over. He also had no idea where he was going. He didn’t know where Jasmine lived, but he did have her phone number. It was on the business card that she’d given him when they’d met.
    Finding it in his wallet, he pulled over and called. It went to message.
    “Jasmine, it’s Leo. Are you there? Are you okay? I was just at the studio. Call me back.”
    He pulled out into traffic, waiting. When he reached his house, he called again. No answer.
    She’d walked to his house that evening, when she’d brought him cookies. Down the beach.
    He took off out the back, heading in that direction, knowing he was probably being a complete idiot. He had no idea where her house was along this stretch, but he needed to do…something.
    But he couldn’t find her, and she didn’t call back. He walked back to the beach house, and once there, he opened a beer and downed it. When that one was gone, he reached for another and went in to turn on the TV, needing noise, needing something to distract him. He was making his way through his third beer, staring at a baseball game but not watching when the phone rang.
    “Jasmine?”
    “Hi, Leo.” She sounded like a faint image of herself. “I got your message and wanted to let you know I’m okay. Sorry. I had a lot to do today. The police, insurance, canceling my classes…” Her voice broke off in a very non-Jasmine-like way, and she was silent.
    Crying?
    “Jasmine, where are you?”
    Silence again. Had she hung up?
    “On the beach, out behind your house,” she admitted quietly.
    Leo ran to the doors, slamming his knee in the process. Then he saw her, standing down by the water, a slight silhouette against the late-afternoon sun that hung over the