by J. L. Beck
Exhaling a ragged breath, I pull the trigger.
Chapter Sixteen
Declan
The gun goes off, and the man’s head in front of me explodes. Blood and brain matter fly in every direction, but I couldn’t care less about those things. My eyes hone in on Jessa, as I watch, her shaking hands drop the gun almost immediately after, as if the weapon is going to burn a hole in her hand. Her doll-like features are a mask of terror and shock. If I didn’t know before that she had never shot someone, I would now. The guilt, the shame, it’s all but painted onto her face.
The guy’s body sags to the ground, a moment after the gun does. Part of me is angry that she didn’t listen to me, while the other part of me is grateful that she didn’t. I was prepared to die, but before this moment I didn’t expect it to be over this blue-eyed, blonde-haired woman. Of course she had to fucking save me, driving the knife of betrayal deeper into my flesh. I didn’t want to be indebted to her. I didn’t want anything more to do with her than sex, but she has weaseled her way under my skin with her soft whimpers, pleading eyes, and those pink lips. Fuck, they were my undoing.
“We need to go. There are more coming,” I hiss through my teeth, the bullet in my stomach burning deep inside my flesh. Exhaling a groan, I push myself up off the ground, surprised once more when Jessa starts moving toward me. She grabs onto my arm and tries to help me up, but I shrug her off. I don’t want to owe her anything more than I do.
“I don’t need your help,” I lie, watching as the sting of rejection takes over her features.
“Stop being stubborn and let me help you. I want to get out of here alive as much as you do,” She growls, and I huff out a harsh breath, letting her help me to my feet. I bite my tongue, stopping myself from telling her we wouldn’t be in this damn situation if we didn’t have to bring her to the fucking hospital.
Our whole fucking world got turned on its heads the moment we spotted her in her father’s mansion. I still remember the shock, the horror in her doll-like features when she saw us, when she tried to run. My cock was hard the second I saw her. The pain in my side pulls me from the memory, and I realize then that Jessa has her arm wrapped around me.
What the fuck is she doing?
I’ve got close to two hundred pounds on her, and not to mention my height. Still, she keeps her tiny arm wrapped around me, helping me with every step as we head down the alleyway, taking the corner just as I had instructed. Each step irritates my wound and sweat beads my brow by the time we make it to the next store entrance. I can feel the warm blood trickling down my skin, soaking through my clothes. I grit my teeth, wanting to pull the fucking bullet out myself.
“We’re going to hide out in the backroom of this store until Wes and Trey can come and get us,” I tell her as we sneak into the back. Thankfully no one seems to notice us, otherwise this would be another clusterfuck on top of the clusterfuck cake. I sit down on a crate behind a shelf, trying my best to remain hidden.
Once situated in a position that isn’t going to grate on every nerve ending in my body, I pull out my phone to send Trey a text message. Jessa sits down beside me, pressing her body against mine. Her small hands find my wound and she applies a gentle pressure to it.
“Stop acting like you give a fuck. I wouldn’t be shot if it wasn’t for you.” I cringe at the tone of my voice. My breaths are ragged and I know I’m being an asshole, but the truth is, I’m almost certain she was second-guessing herself, trying to decide if she should follow my orders or go out on her own. That’s the only logical reasoning for her being in that alleyway when she should’ve been here, safe, hidden.
“You also wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for me,” she sneers, her blue eyes wild as she presses her hand to the wound a little harder. Fuck.
“You think you could be a little gentler?” I hiss through my teeth.
“Do you think you could stop acting like you hate me?”
“Maybe if you were dead.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, pain flickers over her features. I’m caught between wanting to hurt her and wanting to comfort her. Every day that she’s alive I grow angrier, and yet the thought of her dying, it makes me furious. I’ve never felt so fucking conflicted about something in my life. I swallow down the stupid feelings and focus on the pain. The pain I can handle. Her angelic face looking up at me, not so much. Thankfully she doesn’t say anything else.
A few minutes later my phone vibrates in my hand. I look at the screen and read Trey’s message. “They’re almost here, we’ve got to move.”
To my annoyance she helps me up again, keeping her body close to mine as we make our way through the busy store without anyone paying us attention. We walk out the main entrance and a silver minivan stops right in front of us, damn near jumping the curb in the process. Trey opens the side door and I push Jessa inside before hopping in next to her, my side screaming at me with the movement.
“A minivan? Really? You couldn’t have stolen anything else?” I complain.
“I took the fastest and easiest thing available. It just so happened to be this killer minivan, so stop complaining about everything and concentrate on not bleeding out instead,” Wes yells at me from the driver’s seat.
We drive around until we’re absolutely certain no one is following us, then we head back home. I think about blindfolding Jessa but decide against it at the last second. It doesn’t matter, because we’re not letting her go.
No matter how I look at it, I don’t see it being any other way. She either dies or stays with us forever. We’ll keep her and she’ll be ours completely. Just thinking about it has my cock rock hard. She’ll be ours to do with as we please. To pleasure, to hurt.
I stare at her as she sits closest to the window, wondering if she’ll be able to handle watching us kill her father. Could this all work out the way my brothers and I want it to? Before taking her to the hospital, I didn’t think so, but watching her struggle for days, almost dying, I knew damn well that there was something deeper going on. Only then did I realize I couldn’t lose her, none of us could. It’s like I thought I could put a bullet right between her eyes and not feel anything, but seeing her in a bed barely clinging to this world. It changed me.
“How’s the side feel?” Trey asks. I can tell from the way he’s looking at me that he feels guilty.
Fucker should, this is his fault.
“Fine. The bullet didn’t hit anything major.” If it did, I would already be dead or at least unconscious. Instead I feel every bump in the road, and every turn Wes makes.
We pull into the parking garage a short while later. Wes helps me out of the van while Trey takes Jessa by the hand and ushers her to the elevator. I can see the resistance in each of her steps and when we get into the elevator, I can practically see the ulcer in her stomach forming from the stress.
I already know what’s going on inside that pretty little head of hers. She’s wondering if she’ll ever leave this place again. And the truth is, I don’t fucking know. Could we ever trust her enough to let her leave? Maybe go on a supply run with one of us? Right now, I can’t see it happening. It’s too much of a fucking risk, and again I’m reminded of my humanity. She sparks something in me, ignites a need I’ve long forgotten about. I want her in more than just my bed, but I want revenge too. Maybe killing her father will be enough for me? It will have to be, won’t it?
Wes and Trey won’t let me kill her, hurt her maybe, but kill her, no way. They’re too attached, their cocks too caught up in everything that she is.
“I’m going to pull this fucking bullet out, and one of you is going to sew me up. Then we need to devise a plan of attack. I want Richards dead.” I see Jessa’s big blue eyes widen as if she’s shocked to hear us talk about outright killing her father, as if that wasn’t going to be the end result all along.
“You’ll need to heal up first. How did you end up getting shot anyway?” Wes questions.
“Someone didn’t listen to my instructions,” I shoot
Jessa a look that tells her I know exactly what she was doing. Trey and Wes stare at me, as if they’re waiting for me to tell them what happened. and I know they want to know what went down. But I don’t have the patience to tell them right now, not with this bullet in my side.
“I’ll tell you the whole story later, but I need to get this bullet out first. It’s an even bigger pain in the ass then you guys.” They both chuckle as if I’ve just said a hilarious joke.
Wes helps me to my bedroom, and Trey runs off, going to get everything we need to patch up this wound. Jessa follows behind like a lost puppy and sits down on the floor next to my bed, her eyes never leaving me. It’s almost like she is worried about me and that only angers me further.
Why would she care if I lived or died? I suppose she could’ve let me die back there, but then she would’ve died too. I can’t forget the fear that ripped through me when I saw him lift that gun and point it at her. I’m not supposed to feel anything for her, she’s the enemy but I can’t lie and say my heart didn’t almost stop beating.
“I’ll dig the bullet out,” Trey volunteers. Of course he fucking does. I’ll bet he’s still angry with me for treating Jessa the way I have been, but it’s not my fault I feel conflicted. I’m the big brother, it’s my job to care for my brothers, my family, and I already let the enemy win once, letting Jessa in could destroy us and I’ll be damned if I fail anyone I love ever again, even more so for some girl.
“Of course you will.” I roll my eyes, and he gives me a sly grin, before getting to work. The pain that his fingers bring as he digs into the wound, around tissue and muscle to find the bullet lodged deep inside me is a welcoming one. When he finds it, he pulls it out, tossing it into a metal bedside pan, all while smirking like he just saved the world or some fucking shit.
“Saved your life,” Trey announces.
“Did not.” I exhale, the pain slowly easing from my side, now that the fucking thing is out. Trey moves out of the way and Wes cleans and disinfects everything thoroughly before sewing me up. Throughout the process, I notice my brothers eyeing Jessa accusingly.
They know it’s her fault we got caught, and that I got shot, but they don’t know the extent of it. I thought I would be relieved and happy to see them resenting her for it, instead I’m filled with confusion. I hate and want her at the same time. I want to see her suffer, I want my brothers to hate her, but I also want to comfort her. I want to pull her into my arms and take her clothes off. I want her to stay in my bed and do what I tell her to do…and worst of all I want her to want it.
I want her to be ours, and not just in the sense of us saying she belongs to us.
I want her to actually want to be here, instead of being a hostage.
I want to trust her. I want to ravage her. I-just-fucking-want-her.
Chapter Seventeen
Jessa
Guilt is eating me alive. I never should’ve stalled back in that alley. I never should’ve questioned myself. Stupid. So stupid. Every grunt of pain that slips from Declan’s mouth cuts through me like a dull knife. It’s my fault that he got hurt and looking at Wes and Trey’s faces, they know it too. I hate to admit it, but the taste of freedom was too great, and as it turned out I learned my lesson. I saw firsthand what the brothers had told me. My father really did want me dead, and second-guessing myself had almost got Declan killed.
“Now what the fuck happened?” Wes’s cold eyes cut to me, the look in them makes me shiver. I know I made a mistake, and need to fess up to it, but I’m terrified of what may happen when I do. I’ve finally got Wes and Trey to see me as a human, and less of a sex slave, less of the enemy.
What happens now?
“I…I…” My lips tremble as I speak.
“Tell them, Jessa. Tell them how you didn’t follow my direct orders and were planning to escape.” It’s Declan who speaks up this time.
“Is that true? Were you going to run away from us?” Trey asks, his eyes burning holes into me. I don’t want to admit it, but not admitting to it is just as bad. No matter which way this goes I know they’ll see me as guilty.
“I-I don’t know…I was scared and confused. I still am. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to think or who to trust, and all I did was stop to catch my breath. I know it was stupid and careless, but I swear…it wasn’t…I wasn’t setting him up to get shot.” Three pairs of eyes meet mine, and I know I’m losing my edge. All the trust I had earned from them, and it was for nothing. I feel tears sting my eyes. I want to cry, and I probably should, but I’m not nearly as weak as I was when they captured me and brought me here.
“I killed…I killed someone for him,” I say, hoping it will lessen the blow of what I’ve already done.
“She did. She killed the fucker right in front of me, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t her fault. All of it is her fault…” Declan snarls.
“I’m sorry,” I apologize shamefully, knowing they will punish me, and most likely put me back downstairs in the cell.
“It’s up to you, Declan. You’re the one that got hurt. What do you want to do with her?” Wes asks, and I swear I see him cringe as he does.
He wouldn’t…he wouldn’t let him kill me, would he?
“Don’t let him choose Wes. He’ll kill her,” Trey states before Declan can answer. Looks are exchanged between the three brothers, a war raging, a storm brewing.
“If her punishment is a fucking bullet to the head, what does it matter?”
“Declan…” Trey warns, his eyes cutting to me. He’s looking at me like I’ve been sacrificed to the devil or something, and I guess I have.
Declan stares at me for a long time, every second of waiting for his answer feels like an eternity. I’m already running scenarios in my head of how I’m going to fight him if he tries to hurt me. No way am I going to let them kill me. I’ll fight, even if my chances are slim…I will fight.
“Leave. Get out of my room. She stays until I’m finished with her. If she is still alive afterwards, then I will come and let you know.
“Wes.” Trey’s tone takes on a panicked sound, but I don’t even move from my spot on the floor or look up at him to give him a reassuring smile. I can tell Wes wants to stop this, but he owes his brother the right. I don’t know what is going to take place, but I’m not going to let Declan end me. I’ll fight tooth and nail to become his equal.
“It’s his choice, Trey.”
“I know, but he’s going to kill her. He’s going to fucking kill her.” Trey’s muscled body vibrates with anger, his clenched fists hang at his sides and I know he wants to punch something or someone for that matter.
“Out. Get out,” Declan orders, and Wes grabs Trey by the arm pulling him toward the door. I lift my gaze for half a second, just long enough to get a good look at their faces before they walk out, and as soon as I do, I realize I shouldn’t have. Trey looks like he’s going to be sick, and Wes doesn’t look any better.
The door closes behind them and my whole body starts to shake. Deep down I’m terrified of what might happen, of his intentions.
“Strip.” Declan’s voice booms through the room. I look up at him in shock wondering if I just heard him right. “Strip!” he repeats impatiently, and I don’t want to push him further than I already have.
Gulping down my fear I push myself up off the floor and into a standing position. With trembling hands, I start to peel off the clothes Declan helped me put on this morning. Casting my eyes down I watch him carefully out of the corner of my eye. His eyes blaze with need as they rake over every inch of bare flesh, and somehow there is still hate within those depths. How can he want me and hate me all at the same time? He might want my body, but he still hates me and him wanting me won’t protect me from him killing me. I have to find a way to show him I’m sorry. I have to find a way to reach him.
“Turn around and bend over,” he orders. Hesitating for only a second, I do as he asks. Twisting around, I face away from him and bend over. I’m comple
tely and utterly exposed to him but more in a way of seeing deep inside me, beneath my skin, and into my soul.
“Reach back and spread those creamy white cheeks for me. Let me see that tight pussy.” His voice is low and raspy, dripping with lust. With shaking hands, I snake around my body and spread myself open for him, knowing that he is going to see the moisture already forming there. Even as nervous as I am, I still want him. I still crave his touch no matter how wrong or fucked up it might be.
The sound of bed sheets ruffling gives away his movements and every muscle in my body tenses. Twisting my neck, I look at him over my shoulder and see he is sitting up on the edge of the bed. He starts to undo his pants and pulls his rock hard cock out. He reaches for me and a moment later his hands are on me, fire and ice fill my veins at once as two thick digits probe my glistening entrance.
“Of course you’re already wet. Such a dirty fucking slut...a beautiful dirty fucking slut,” he murmurs as he pushes those two fingers inside of me. My pussy stretches at the intrusion, a sting of pain follows a second later.
“You might be scared, but even you can’t hide your body’s need for my cock. You can’t wait for me to fuck you, can you?”
Pulling out his fingers leaves me cold and goosebumps erupt over my flesh. His hand leaves my pussy and circles my waist, pulling me backward. The motion causes me to lose my balance and I fall back, right into his lap, my back flush against his chest.
The air stills inside my lungs, and I force myself to breathe. His other hand snakes around the front of my body, trailing over my belly, and up between my breasts. I feel as if I’m in a trance, watching as he touches me with a gentleness that is completely unlike him.
Then, as if he can sense that I’m sinking deeper into his touch, that same hand snaps up to my throat. I gasp as his large hand circles my delicate skin, barely leaving any room for me to breathe. His other hand rests on my stomach and I flinch when I feel something cold touch me. Casting my eyes down I swallow back a scream at the sight of the blade of a knife pressing into my soft flesh. I always thought when he killed me it would be fast, and with a gun, but never with a knife, where he would get the chance to watch me bleed out.