by J. L. Beck
“It doesn’t matter anymore, Declan. None of this does. Sending that tape will change nothing. Hurting her doesn’t bring them back, it doesn’t make any of this right.”
Declan’s gaze drops to me, even he can’t hide his emotions right now. He looks conflicted, angry…though I’m not sure who he is angry at… me, his brothers, my father, the situation, maybe all of it?
“We’ll see about that. Send him the fucking tape,” Declan orders, and stomps out of the room. When Wes grabs the SD card from the camera, a sob escapes my lips. I don’t know why I expected things to be different. Why I thought they would care for me more.
“I’m going to take her upstairs and get her into a bath,” Trey tells Wes right before he walks out the door.
“Are you hurt?” Trey leans down, his voice meeting my ears, the sound so soft that for a moment I’m not even sure he spoke.
“I don’t know.” And truthfully, I don’t. I know I’m going to be sore, very sore, but I don’t think he tore me, or anything. If anything, it’s my heart that’s hurting, my mind for thinking that I could reach him.
“You have some blood on your thighs again,” He states, and I lift my eyes to his, see the guilt reflect down on me.
“I’m fine,” I lie, well partially. By the time we make it upstairs, I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. I haven’t eaten anything since lunch yesterday, my stomach rumbling then to remind me of that. I know I need to take a bath, that doing so will help ease the pain between my legs, but I just can’t manage it right now. I’m beyond exhausted. As soon as we reach Wes’s room and Trey sets me down on the bed, I close my eyes. I’m distinctly aware of the sound of running water, but within seconds I’m fading away, sinking into the darkness.
Chapter Ten
Trey
I stare at her sleeping form for far longer than necessary. I don’t want to wake her up, but I don’t want to leave her like this either. Getting a clean washcloth, I soak it in some warm soapy water. I clean the apex of her thighs as gently as I can without waking her up, wiping the blood, and the evidence of my brother's betrayal away. Then I wrap her up in a blanket and move her to the center of the bed.
I’m angry...angry at myself, at Declan, but most of all her piece of shit father.
I don’t understand the things I’m feeling, why I want to make sure she’s okay. Declan is right. She is the enemy, but she’s not the enemy by choice and hurting her makes us no better than her father. I’m conflicted, caught between right and wrong, between getting revenge and protecting her from all the bad in the world.
“You’re getting attached,” Wes says as he enters the room, his eyes going straight to Jessa’s sleeping form.
“I’m not attached. I just have a conscience, and all I can picture is Jessa being hurt like our sister…we’re no better…”
“Don’t. Do not compare her circumstances to what our sister went through. We’re nothing like her father, not even close. She’s given food, a bed to sleep on, she’s not dead yet. That’s a thousand times better than what our family ever got, let alone our sister.”
A blood vessel in Wes’s neck bulges and I know he’s angry, livid even. And I get what he’s saying, because he’s not lying, our sister, our family, they didn’t get a quick death, they were tortured, beaten, and raped, but that doesn’t mean I can shut off my humanity. I still feel like shit for what’s happening to her.
“Did he hurt her?” he asks, and even though I know he doesn’t want to admit it I know he feels shame over what happened. Declan has wanted her dead since we kidnapped her and while the dynamics of everything have changed, he’s still hung up on getting even, burying the knife into her father’s chest so to speak.
“I don’t think so, but I don’t know for certain. Watch her while I check on Richards’ surveillance.” I leave the room and go to my own and sit down at my desk. Exhaling I open the laptop and pull up Richards’ email and phone log. He texted his security and called the private investigator to let everybody know that he got another video, but he still makes no attempt to contact us. Which pisses me off further, because just as I said, the video wouldn’t change anything.
Declan hurt her for no reason, and now he’ll have to deal with the guilt that comes with that. I shake my head, trying to wrap my mind around all of this. Richards’ orders are still the same. Find us and eliminate everyone. Fuck. I slam the laptop shut hard enough to break the screen.
Jessa’s useless to us now. He doesn’t care about her, not like we had anticipated. There’s no reason to keep her alive now, no reason to keep this charade going. If we want the flash drive, we’re going to have to go in guns blazing. I rub at my temple, a headache forming. Everything is fucked.
After a few minutes, I get up and find my brothers. We gather in the living room. Declan’s face is masked, but I’ve known him long enough to know he’s feeling something inside that cold exterior.
“It worked, didn’t it?” Declan asks, a stupid grin on his face.
“No asshole, it didn’t.” His face falls as soon as I speak, something close to anger flickering in his depths.
“Fuck,” Wes curses, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
“Yeah, so you hurt her for nothing.” I direct my anger over the situation at Declan.
“I didn’t fucking hurt her. I fucked her, there’s a difference. Plus, she wanted it, and she came, her tight little pussy squeezed painfully around my cock. If she was so hurt, then she wouldn’t have gotten any pleasure, so knock it the fuck off. You aren’t any better than me. We all want the same thing—”
“It didn’t look like she wanted it when we came in,” I cut him off. “We might want the same thing, but I think we have different ideas on how to get it.”
“You’re right,” Wes says in a weird tone. I glance over at him and his face looks like he just had an epiphany. “Maybe we just need a different way to get it.”
Declan and I look at him, waiting for him to elaborate.
“What if we change our tactics? If Jessa is telling us the truth, which I think she is, she has no idea the kind of person her father is. What if we show Jessa what her father is really like? We can show her the messages he sent his security.”
“And what good is that going to do,” Declan asks, once again showing his disapproval.
“Maybe she can help us get to him. Maybe she knows stuff we don’t. If we use her against him in a way other than hurting her, if we show her that we care about her, maybe that will give us the edge we need,” Wes adds, and I have to admit the idea is a good one. We’ve been hurting her since we brought her in, using her fears against her, and clearly, it’s backfired on us.
Declan shakes his head. “No fucking way. I’m not trusting her, absolutely not. Not one single fucking bit. She’s the enemy or have you both forgotten that?”
“Her father is the enemy. If she’s our enemy now, then it’s because of what we did to her.” I stare Declan down, making certain he hears my words.
Declan clenches his fists, his jaw tightening, “I don’t believe for one second that her father doesn’t care about her. Why keep her sheltered? Why have so many fucking guards? It makes zero sense, and although you are my brothers, I can’t agree with you on this.”
“He did care about her until he realized she would most likely be returned to him as damaged goods, or in pieces,” Wes starts, but I cut him off.
“Like he said, he has no time to fix something like that and it doesn’t matter how much he cares about her, he’ll always put himself first. That’s what people like him do. We should have seen this coming. He is a fucking psychopath. We can’t hurt him like he hurt us because he doesn’t love anyone, no one but himself.”
“This wasn’t the fucking plan.”
“She wasn’t ever supposed to be a part of this. We took her on a whim, in hopes that her father would give up the drive sooner.”
“I don’t trust her.” I can hear the anguish in Declan’s v
oice, and see the sadness in his eyes. He hates her father, probably more than Wes and I combined. Which is understandable, with Declan being the oldest, he always felt responsible for everything. He blames himself for not being able to protect our family, especially our little sister. But I can’t let him head down that dark road where he destroys innocent people. We’re better than her father, and if our sister was still alive, she would be ashamed of what we’ve done to Jessa.
“Well I’m sure she doesn’t trust you now either,” Wes growls at him.
“If we want to do this the easiest way, we win her over, we show her that we aren’t monsters, and instead, show her who the real monster is in all of this. Sever the love she has for her father and she’ll be ours.”
“I’m not going to be any part of this. You both are making a mistake,” Declan yells before stomping to the elevator, going who knows where. Watching him leave sucks, but it’s clear he needs space right now.
“He’ll come around, right?” I question, directed more toward myself than Wes.
“I’m making something to eat for when she wakes up. After everything that happened today, she needs a warm bath, and a good meal,” Wes announces, ignoring my question and heading into the kitchen, while I walk back to his room.
As I cross the threshold, I find she is still sleeping, and in the same position she was when I left her. Her blonde hair is in disarray, her pink lips swollen and her features so peaceful she looks like a damn angel. If there is one thing her father did right in life it was creating her, that’s about fucking it.
I can’t imagine how tired she is, how worn out her body is. I slide into bed next to her careful not to wake her up. I want to hold her in my arms, cuddle her into my side. It’s such a strange thing to want something I’ve never done with a woman before. Then again, I’ve never been with a virgin, not before today, so maybe that’s what got me hooked. Watching her sleep for a while, I listen to her even breathing, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest all while wondering if there is a chance our new plan could work. Does she even know anything that we could use against her father? And if she does, would she ever trust us enough to actually help us, especially now? We’ve hurt her. I know it without even having to ask her, but are the wounds deep? Too deep to be forgiven?
Can my brothers and I convince her to help us, after treating her the way we did?
Questions bombard me at every angle, and I have no answers, at least not right at this second. Time seems to tick by, and after a while, Wes comes walking back into the room.
“She’s still asleep?”
“Yes, and I don’t foresee her waking up anytime soon. I think we should let her sleep, and when she wakes up, we give her a bath, feed her, and show her the emails, maybe even the video of her father hurting our sister.”
He nods his head and asks, “Do you think Declan is right? Are we dumb to trust her? Maybe she has been acting this whole time and even if not, it’s still her father we’re going to try and turn her against. What happens if she doesn’t believe us or leads us into a trap?”
I shrug, keeping my eyes on the blonde angel beside me.
“I don’t think she would be able to outsmart us like that. I do think we need to earn her trust, show her proof, and let her decide on her own. If she doesn’t want to help us then…” I trail off, emotion lodging in my throat. If she doesn’t help us or refuses, then the only option will be death and the thought of killing her disgusts me. My insides knot and my stomach churns at the mere thought. I lift my gaze from Jessa and turn to Wes, seeing the same painful disgust appear in his eyes.
“Are you getting feelings for her?” he asks a second later.
“I don’t know. All I know is that I can’t hurt her like we planned to do. She doesn’t deserve this. I still want the revenge for our family, but I can’t hurt her again.”
“Me too, brother…” Wes announces, and I can see the adoration he has for her. At first, I thought he was being soft on her, but I see it now, probably because I feel it too.
“The only thing we need to do now is win Jessa over and convince Declan that we’ve made the right choice. Then we attack and hit the bastard right where it hurts.”
Silence settles over us, and then Wes asks me the one question I have no answer to.
“And what about after that? What do we do with her once we get the drive? Once we have our revenge?”
It takes me a good two minutes to answer. The silence stretching as I run different scenarios through my head, but keep coming to the same answer.
Finally I answer, “I don’t know. I just don’t fucking know.”
Chapter Eleven
Jessa
Warmth. It’s everywhere. My body feels weird, like when you fall asleep by the pool and forget to put sunscreen on. My skin hurts, in fact, my entire body hurts, and I groan loudly as I shift against the sheets. I blink my eyes open and find Trey staring at me, then the events of the past day come rushing back to the surface, plowing through my brain like a freight train.
“Morning.”
“Morning? How long was I asleep?” I ask, my voice croaky. A painful ache forms in my gut, reminding me that I haven’t eaten anything in a really long time.
“Awhile,” Trey mumbles, his eyes still on me. I glance past him, and out the window noticing that it’s still dark outside.
“How do you feel, Princess?” Wes’s voice meets my ears and I roll over, finding him on the other side of me. No wonder I was so warm. I was sandwiched between the two of them all night.
“Like crap.” And I do. Simply breathing hurts, and with every move I make my body aches more. I need a bath or shower, but first I need to eat.
“Hungry?” Trey asks, and I nod my head yes.
“We figured, so I made some food already. Just need to go heat it up for you,” Wes explains as he gets up from the bed and heads out of the room. In a flash, he’s back at the side of the bed with a glass in his hand.
“First, drink this, I’ll heat up the food and bring it to you.” He hands me the glass, and I peer inside to see what it is. Orange juice. I watch him leave the room again while Trey helps me sit up. There’s a slight ache between my thighs that I’m certain I’ll be feeling for a few days. I lean my back against the headboard and sip at the juice. Trey doesn’t say anything and I’m thankful. I not really in the mood or ready to talk about everything that happened yesterday.
A few minutes later Wes reappears with a plate of food in his hand. Trey puts a pillow on my lap and Wes sets the plate on top of it, handing me a fork. I look between the two of them completely perplexed. Their demeanor has changed completely from what it was two days ago, and I can’t help but wonder why.
They’ve gone from wanting to take from me to wanting to take care of me in one night and I feel that something isn’t right about their behavior. Are they really sorry about what Declan did to me? Or are they playing me? I can’t forget that I am their prisoner, no matter how close I feel to them physically. I can’t trust them, not ever.
“Eat some food and then you can take a bath,” Trey interrupts my train of thought. I look down at the steaming omelet with pieces of cheese and ham in it and my mouth starts watering. I spear a bite-size portion of it with my fork and bring it to my mouth. The savory flavor hits my taste buds and I almost moan.
The guys watch me eat in silence and I use that time to form some questions in my mind. When I can’t eat another bite, I hand the plate to Wes who puts it on the nightstand.
“I want to know what’s happening,” I declare. “Why am I really here and why are you not letting me go? My father surely must have contacted you by now.”
Wes and Trey exchange glances before Trey says, “Why don’t you take a bath and then we’ll talk.”
“I don’t want to go back downstairs,” I blurt out, feeling like I need to tell them, in case they plan on taking me back down there. I might not be able to trust them, but I don’t want to be kept in that cell. I’d r
ather be in the company of them, then be alone with nothing more than my thoughts.
“You won’t be going back downstairs anymore. Things have changed,” Wes answers, giving me a soft smile, something I’ve never seen before. The look on his face is foreign to me. Why is he smiling? Where is the cruelness that I’ve come to know? Confusion like I’ve never felt before builds inside me. I don’t understand what is happening.
“Bath, then we’ll talk,” Trey orders.
I agree, partially because I really want to take a bath and partially because I really don’t have a choice in the matter. They might be being kind to me now, but who is to say their attitudes won’t change. If I push, they may push back and though parts of me enjoyed what happened with Declan yesterday, I’m not ready to experience something like that again. It was too intense, physically and emotionally.
Wes disappears into the bathroom and I hear the water being turned on. A few minutes later he comes and gets me, helping me out of the bed and leading me into the bathroom. My legs are shaky, and my muscles ache with each step I take. Who knew sex could make you feel so exhausted.
The bathtub is already half filled when I step into the hot, bubble-filled water. I submerge my body slowly, enjoying how the warmth soothes my aching muscles as I sink lower into the suds. Wes and Trey watch me cautiously as if I might disappear into thin air or something. It’s strange the way they’re looking at me, the way they’re hovering like a mother hen and honestly it kind of worries me. I push the feelings away at least for now and force myself to enjoy the bath.
I soak in the hot water for a while before I ask for shampoo so I can wash my hair. Trey gets a small bottle and hands it to me. I tip my head back to wet my hair and almost slip under the water.
“You want me to help you? I can wash your hair,” Wes offers.
“Sure.” I don’t want to turn away his kindness. Even if he is being nice for some reason I’m not quite sure of yet. I’ll take whatever I can get at this point.