Triple H gave Machelle Vince's private cell phone number as well as his own and Stephanie's. "I think this is overkill," he said, trying to inject a little levity in the grave situation, "But I'd rather you have too much than too little." Before Machelle could say anything, he looked at Roman and Dean, "Take care of her, okay? I'm counting on both of you."
"We will," both men agreed.
Their first order of business was to go to the hotel they had stayed in the previous night to collect their things and check out. Once done with that, all three of them realized they were hungry and went to get something to eat. At the restaurant Dean wondered out loud if perhaps they should stop at the grocery store. "I mean, we can't hold you prisoner," he mused, "But the less you go out, the safer you'll be if the house is well protected."
"Don't worry about that," Machelle said. "El Torrito may not be an attack dog, but he is a barker. Between him and the state-of-the-art security system Jamie insisted on, that house is as close to Fort Knox as you can get."
"Okay, that works then," Roman said. "So we'll pick up what we need at the grocery store."
"Will we take turns cooking?" Dean asked. His voice slightly hesitant as if he wasn't sure that was a good idea. "I can make the basics..." his voice trailed off.
"Don't worry," Machelle said, "I've got that covered. I find cooking very relaxing, so when I'm stressed, I love to cook."
"Great!" Roman said and then in unison both men finished with, "Because we love to eat!"
When they got to the house, the three of them entered together, checking the place out carefully to make sure it was safe. Machelle checked the security system for any signs of tampering and found it was clean. Roman and Dean checked all the rooms and places where someone might hide.
Satisfied they were the only ones there, Dean turned to Machelle. "While you and Roman unpack the car and bring in the groceries, I'm going to get the babysitter," he joked
"Ha! think you're funny, do you?" Machelle smacked his arm, then added, "you do know I will get you back for that, right
"Yup," Dean called over his shoulder as he headed out of the house and over to the neighbors to get the dog, "And I'll be ready and waiting!"
Roman worked on emptying the car while, Machelle began putting the food away. On one of his trips into the kitchen, he paused and looked at her. "Promise me you won't try and find this guy yourself," he said, his voice kind, but firm.
"I will not look for him, I promise." Machelle said, raising her hand as if making a pledge.
"Okay," Roman said, sounding relieved.
"But," Machelle continued, as if he hadn't spoken. "I'm not going to promise I won't look for something about him. Perhaps Jamie's lawyer or even Detective Orton can fill in some of these gaps. It could prove to be useful."
"Okay," Roman agreed, "I was just checking." He looked around as Machelle was putting vegetables into the crisper drawer. "Do you need any help putting away the groceries?"
"Machelle shook her head. "No, I'm fine." She smiled when she spoke. Sure, Dean and Roman's constant worry about everything she did could be a little trying, but she appreciated that they cared. When this started, she thought they might only be doing it out of respect for Jamie, but now she was sure they were doing it because they honestly cared about her as well.
"Okay then," Roman said, a warm grin spreading over his face. "Since the groceries are all in, I'll just go get our luggage then." With that he left the room.
It was less than seconds later when Machelle heard a thud, followed by Roman's voice, loudly asking, "What the HELL?"
Machelle hurried out of the kitchen. She could hear Dean laughing and soon joined in when she saw what was happening. Roman was on the floor, El Torrito standing on his chest, enthusiastically licking the side of Roman's face.
"Get off me, you overgrown mongrel," he said, pushing the dog from his chest. El Torrito, for his part, didn't look the least bit upset at being insulted, and instead began dancing around as if this were a great game. He looked up at Machelle and Dean, still laughing and frowned. "Glad to see you both think this is so funny," he groused, then looked at Dean, "Wait until he does it to you."
"Your just embarrassed because someone pinned you." Dean laughed.
Machelle just shook her head. Then she went back in the kitchen to finish putting the groceries away.
After Dean and Roman settled into their rooms, the three of them met in the kitchen, where Machelle was just finishing washing some apples for snacking.
"It's still early, how about we watch a movie?" Dean asked. When Roman and Machelle nodded in agreement, he went to the TV. Turning it on, he began scrolling through the guide trying to find something.
"See anything good?" Roman asked, after a bit.
"Well doesn't look promising." Dean grumbled.
"So what do you say we go through Jamie's extensive movie collection?" Roman suggested looking at Dean.
"Go for it," Machelle said, "You both can pick the movie and I'll make popcorn."
Roman and Dean nodded and headed to the media cabinet where over 400 movies were housed. After a heated, but friendly debate. They settled on a comedy. Roman put the movie in the player and the two men settled on either side of the sofa.
When Machelle came in from the kitchen, she carried a big bowl of freshly made popcorn and three bottles of water. She settled down between the two men, distributing the water while Dean started the movie.
"So what did you pick?" she asked, as Dean pressed the "Play" button on the DVD player.
"You'll see," Dean teased.
She smiled when she saw the sunrise on the screen, then the close up of the automatic sprinkler going on. She knew this movie. "Caddy shack!" she said. "This is one of my favourites!"
"Mine too," Dean admitted.
"It's everyone's favourite," Roman said.
"Everyone?" Machelle teased.
"Everyone that counts," Roman said, in a tone of voice that said he would not argue that point. "C'mon, it's a classic."
The three of them relaxed together, watching the movie, laughing enthusiastically at their favourite parts, all three of them agreeing that the gopher was pretty cheesy in the light of modern special effects, but that in itself was part of what made the movie special.
"If they fixed it with a more realistic CGI gopher, it would ruin the movie."
"Yeah, Roman agreed. "Like Turner colourizing all those old, classic, black and white films."
"I heard they're going to colourize the beginning of The Wizard of Oz," Machelle said, doing her best to keep the grin off of her face and to look deadly serious.
"Really?" Roman looked horrified as if someone had suggested they were going to add sunglasses to the Mona Lisa.
"Gotcha!". Machelle said. Unable to stop from breaking out into laughter.
After Caddy shack, they debated if they should watch another movie, but decided against it. The boys had to be up early the next day, and Machelle wanted to get up with them to see them off. So the three of them went to their respective rooms and settled in for the night.
The next day, Machelle watched, waving from the doorway as Roman and Dean got into the car Vince arranged to have them picked up. When the car rolled out of sight, she shut the door and went into the kitchen. Although she had offered to make them breakfast, neither Dean nor Roman were interested in anything more than coffee. She poured herself another cup, emptying the pot, and decided to make herself something to eat.
A few minutes later, she was settled on the couch with scrambled eggs, toast, and the last of the coffee. She watched one of those early morning wake up shows as she ate her breakfast.
She was on her way to take her plate to the kitchen when there was a knock on the door. El Torrito started barking.
"It's okay." She said as she patted him on the head walking towards the door.
"Who is it?" She asked through the closed door. El Torrito right by her side.
"Machelle, its Mr. Horton from next door. I came to get El Torrito for his walk." He called.
Remembering that Dean had said the older gentleman would be picking up the dog later that day for his morning walk. So Dean and Roman didn't have to worry about her leaving the house. She opened the door. "Oh, I almost forgot. He's all yours." She said laughing as the dog got excited.
"We should be back in an hour or so," Mr. Horton said, watching as El Torrito danced around excitedly, knowing what was coming.
"Thanks so much for all you're doing, Mr. Horton," Machelle said as she took the dog's leash from the hook on the wall where it hung. "I appreciate it so much."
"No problem Machelle. I did it for Jamie when he was busy or out of town. Besides he's a good dog." He said, giving the dog a pat on his side as he fastened the leash to his collar.
"Well then, you both have fun." she said to the older man and the dog.
"We will," Mr. Horton assured her as he and El Torrito started heading down the driveway, no doubt headed to the little park at the end of the street.
After closing and locking the door behind her, Machelle went back to the couch. The morning news show was over, so she scrolled through the guide, looking for something to watch. She stopped on Miss. Congeniality. It was one of her favourite Sandra Bullock movies, and she settled in to watch. As the familiar movie played, she found herself drifting off to sleep.
She was woken suddenly by a knock at the door. Thinking it was Mr. Horton back from walking the dog. She got up from the couch and went to answer. When she opened the door, she was surprised and horrified to see it was Jeremy, a dark look on his face. She tried to close the door, but wasn't fast enough, as he put his foot in the way. "Uh-uh," he said, as if she were but a naughty child as he forced his way in. "That's not very nice, Machelle."
Her mind went right into flight mode and she remembered that the security panel by the back door had a panic button. Turning she started to run then remembered the baseball bat she had put by the door for just a situation like this. She turned back and saw that what she had forgotten, Jeremy had found. He hefted the bat in his hands and smiled a cold, cruel smile. "Nice of you to provide me with a weapon, sweetheart," he said, each word sounding as if it was dipped in ice water. "Jamie always did say you were a gracious hostess to all your guests."
Machelle tripped on a carpet runner that was in the hall and fell to the ground. Jeremy was right behind her and swung the baseball bat, hitting Machelle on the shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain. Jeremy swung the bat again, as Machelle raised her hands to protect her head as the bat landed with a sickening crack onto her forearm. Figuring he had her where he wanted her, he tossed the bat to the side. "You have something I want," he said, in that same icy voice. Twisting his fingers into her hair, he pulled her up to her feet and threw her against the wall. Her head slammed into the drywall with a loud thud that seemed to echo through the entire house. "And you will give it to me."
"No!" she cried through the haze of pain that threatened to overwhelm her. "The shares and the contracts are mine! Jamie left them to me!"
Displeased with her attempt at defiance, Jeremy wrapped his hand around her neck and began applying pressure at the pit of her throat, causing her to cough weakly. "You are going to give them to me," he said coldly. "I already killed once for these, do you think I won't again? I'm a desperate man, Machelle, and I have nothing to lose and everything to gain."
'You can out think him,' Machelle told herself, trying to ignore the pain in her throat. 'You're twice as good as him on your worst day, so think!' She started to say something, and realized she could barely talk with the pressure he was applying on her windpipe. Then it hit her that she could use this situation to her advantage. "Everything you need," she began, making her voice sound much worse that it was. "Everything you need," she repeated, then added as fast and low as possible, making it sound like pure gibberish. "Isinthesafeinthebackbedroombehindthepainting!"
"What?" He leaned forward to hear what she was saying. "Say that again!" he ordered.
Without hesitating, she punched Jeremy as hard as she could in the stomach, knocking the air out of him, which forced him to let her go. The second she felt his hands leave her throat, she stomped on his instep as hard as she could, while bringing up the heel of her hand and driving it into his nose with all the force she could muster. As Jeremy jerked back in pain, she brought up her knee and drove it into his groin as hard as she could. Unable to take any more, Jeremy's knees buckled and he fell to the floor.
Not waiting to see how much damage she'd done, Machelle sprinted to the back door and hit the panic button on the alarm panel. Keeping a close eye on Jeremy, least he rise and go after her, she flung open the back door, not even seeing the figure who was right behind the door until she ran smack into him, falling backwards onto the floor. In disbelief, she stared at the stranger.
"It's okay, Machelle," he said, his voice calm as he leaned over to help her to her feet."I'm here to help you. I'm Bill Torino."
As Bill was helping Machelle they heard a car come to a screeching halt in the driveway. A few seconds later in came Detective Orton. He scanned the room looking over at Machelle."Are you okay?" he asked.
Jeremy is over there!" Bill barked, pointing to where Jeremy lay on the floor, still stunned.
The words were barely out of Bill's mouth when two other uniformed police officers came in. Detective Orton wasted no time pointing to Jeremy. "Get that piece of crap cuffed and out of here!" he ordered. The officers hurried to do what was asked of them.
"Dat bitch boke by nothe!" Jeremy shouted, blood dripping down from his nose as the officers lead him away to the squad car.
Bill looked Machelle over to see how badly she was hurt. They heard Detective Orton talking to another officer. "Call this in, tell them we need an ambulance ASAP!" he ordered. Then turned his attention to Bill and Machelle. "She okay Bill?" he asked, with concern in his voice.
Bill looked at the detective " I think she has a broken arm and a separated or even broken shoulder." He said.
Detective Orton then turned to an officer. "Where in the hell is that ambulance?" he shouted.
Machelle barely conscious looked at the two. " H-how did you-" She stammered, " H-how did you know I was in trouble?" she asked.
"I was coming over to talk to you," Bill added. "As I was about to ring the bell, I heard you screaming inside. The front door was locked, so I went around the back. That was when you opened the door and we ran into each other." He smiled and added, "Literally."
"You did all that to him?" Detective Orton asked, unable to keep the admiration from his voice.
"Yeah," Machelle said, unable to keep the pride out of her voice.
Just as Detective Orton was stepping outside he heard someone shouting, asking what was going on and why the police were here. He saw Mr. Horton and El Torrito in the driveway being questioned by one of the officers. "It's okay, George," he called out. "He's the neighbour and that's Jamie's dog!"
Mr Horton went straight to the detective. " I-I just took El Torrito for a walk. What happened here? I just left her. She was fine!" He said, panic showing on his face and in his voice.
The Detective tried to comfort the distraught man." It's okay, she will be fine," he said, "she's going to go to the hospital to get checked out."
"Please tell her I will take care of El Torrito until she gets out," he told the Detective.
"Don't worry I will tell her, and keep you updated," he said putting his hand on the shoulder of the distraught man.
He then took out his phone again and scrolled through his contacts finding Hunter's number and pressing send. " Hunter," He started." It's Detective Orton. I'm just calling you to tell you. That there has been an incident with Machelle. She will be taken to sunrise general. She was attacked by Mr. Mains." He started but was interrupted by Hunter on the other end.
"WHAT? Is she okay?" he asked, starting to panic. "I'm on my way." he disconnected the call before Detective Orton could answer.
Can anyone guess what part of miss congeniality Machelle was watching when Jeremy came ?