Stronger with You (With You Trilogy)

by R. J. Sable

  Another apology. I’d heard quite a few of those this year. More than I’d heard in the previous eighteen years. It was taking some getting used to.

  “Dad never did. I know he wanted to. I didn’t ask him why. We understood. After he died…” he cleared his throat a little and Jason gave me a reassuring squeeze. “It felt somehow wrong to change the way he’d done things. By the time we realised how messed up it was, you’d already figured something was up and hated your birthdays.”

  We remained silent for few minutes as I absorbed Ian’s words. I always just assumed I knew why we didn’t celebrate my birthday. It never occurred to me that they felt bad about it.

  “Thank you for the necklace,” I said, turning to Ian.

  He nodded and stood up from his chair, helping me to put the necklace on. I brushed my fingers over it gently and smiled. It felt somehow right to have this small piece of my Mum with me now, knowing that my Dad had wanted me to have it.

  “Let’s go sort your make-up out,” Alex smiled, taking me by the hand.

  I him take me towards the house, glancing back at my brothers who were all smiling back. They looked awkward, but they were smiling nonetheless.

  “Now!” I heard my Granddad declare. “Where’s my Elise. I want to check on my great granddaughter!”

  Chapter 40

  Monday, June 10th 2013

  The car travelled through the city centre. I had no idea where we were going. Jason held my hand in his whilst Ian drove. He was driving slowly again because Granddad was in the passenger seat.

  “You look beautiful,” Jason said, bringing my attention back to him.

  “Thanks,” I smiled. “The dress is wonderful.”

  “I let Alex pick,” he laughed. “He threw a bit of a temper tantrum when I said I wanted to.”

  I giggled because I could just picture Alex pouting. That boy was just too cute to say no to.

  “You like the underwear?” He whispered in my ear.

  “Very much,” I nodded. “You shouldn’t have though.”

  “Why not?” He grinned.

  “They must have cost a fortune,” I blushed.

  “Only the best for you, Jamie,” he smiled, kissing the side of my head. “Besides, I know they’ll be worth every penny.”

  “Chocolates would have been fine,” I blushed.

  “You’ll get those as well,” he laughed. “As many as you want.”

  “I like this one,” Granddad grunted to Ian. “A girl deserves chocolates.”

  “He’s alright I guess,” Ian frowned, his eyes on the road.

  I smiled at Ian’s version of a compliment and looked around excitedly as he turned off the road.

  “Close your eyes and trust me,” Jason said.

  I complied and felt him tying something soft around my eyes. Blindfolded for the second time that day.

  He guided me out of the car and I felt the wind drop and the heat change as we entered a building. I could hear several footsteps around me, familiar heavy footsteps, so I assumed my brothers were nearby.

  “Surprise!” A chorus of voices met me as Jason removed the blindfold.

  I looked around me in complete shock, trying to take in the sea of faces. All my aunties and uncles, cousins, and friends seemed to be there. All the guys from Leeds were there, including all my flatmates. It was amazing. I couldn’t imagine the amount of organisation it must have taken to get everyone there.

  I looked up at Jason and my brothers to see them beaming back at me. I hugged them all in a frenzy of excitement.

  “Happy Birthday, Jellybean,” Ian smiled. “Let’s go do the rounds.”

  I smiled for the first time ever upon hearing those words. Happy and birthday were not things that generally went together for me. That being said, I was having a hard time keeping the grin off my face.

  I wasn’t a fan of being centre of attention. I never had been. Jason knew that and was doing a fantastic job of making me feel at ease. I was ushered round the room for hugs and birthday wishes from my large family. Having lots of children was a bit of a family theme and, by the time I’d hugged all my cousins, I was starting to feel a little sore. Jason was brilliant though. He had a way of drawing the focus discretely away from me and sheltering me beside him.

  Whenever he felt me squirm with discomfort, he’d engage the relative in question in conversation, even though it often left him getting bombarded with questions about our relationship.

  “How you doing, sis?” Craig asked, rescuing me from an interrogation from my Aunt Megan about the age difference between Jason and myself. As soon as we’d eaten dinner, she’d pulled the two of us aside to talk.

  “A little overwhelmed,” I admitted.

  “Understandable,” Elise smiled kindly from behind him. “Know what’ll make it easier?” She grinned.

  “What?” I asked curiously.

  “Getting very, very drunk,” she grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the bar before I could protest.

  “They don’t really like me drinking,” I reminded her, wrinkling my nose at the idea.

  “So what?” She grinned. “Half the fun is winding your brothers up.”

  I just gaped at her. I usually tried to avoid winding them up at all costs.

  “I don’t want to make them mad after they’ve done all this,” I frowned, but she was too busy ordering me a glass of white wine and… did I hear that right? Nineteen shots of Sambuca. Yes, she definitely said nineteen.

  “What’s this?” Ian asked, appearing beside me in his usual ninja fashion.

  “It’s Jamie’s birthday,” Elise answered sweetly, a sparkle of mischief in her eye.

  Ian narrowed his eyes at her before looking at the ever-increasing number of shots on the bar and then back at me.

  “That’s a lot of alcohol, Jelly,” Ian frowned.

  “What about the challenges?” Elise intervened again before I had chance to say anything.

  Ian rolled his eyes, still looking at the shots like he was hoping he could evaporate them with the heat of his stare.

  “What’s going on?” Jason asked, appearing beside me and wrapping his arm around my waist.

  “Jelly’s shots,” Ian explained, nodding towards the bar.

  I watched Jason’s eyes widen as he took in the many, many shots now lined up in front of me.

  “I’ve never seen you that drunk,” he grinned. “This could be fun.”

  Needless to say, I managed to get suitably drunk. I danced with my Granddad, Jason, and even with Ian. I’d never been so relaxed around them all in the presence of alcohol. I suspected a large part of that was the fact that there was no looming threat of punishment.

  “You’re not going to tie me to anything are you?” I pointed my finger at Ian accusingly as he sat me down on the chair to rest my tired feet.

  “No,” he grinned. “We contemplated it but your boyfriend made a fuss.”

  I laughed and turned to Jason who was looking pleased with himself. I suspected he actually quite enjoyed arguing with my brothers. He wouldn’t be my Jason if he didn’t have a death wish.

  “Morning kidnappings aside, your birthday’s will be fun from now on,” Ian smiled, leaning forwards to kiss my forehead. “I promise.”

  Chapter 41

  Friday, June 21st 2013

  I hate shopping. I really hate it. Luckily for me, Alex loved it. He’d taken the afternoon off work so that he could traipse around the high street with me. The twins’ birthday was only a few weeks away and my new niece would be arriving soon. I wanted to make sure I had presents ready for them.

  Jason had disappeared to the University for the day once more. He didn’t really get a summer break, bless him. Adam had gone back to Leeds with a plan of action for Laura and a good luck hug from me. That left me and Alex free to shop together.

  “Coffee break!” He demanded, stopping outside a coffee shop.

  “Fine by me,” I sighed a breath of relief and eagerly picked up a soy latte, smil
ing to myself because soy lattes made me think of Jason and our first coffee together.

  “You’ve got that look on your face again, Jellybaby,” Alex rolled his eyes.

  “Sorry,” I blushed. “I was thinking about Jason.”

  “That much was obvious,” he giggled. “But I’ll let you off. I miss Rab too.”

  “You two are so cute together,” I smiled. “When’s he coming back?”

  “Not sure,” he pouted. “He’s at his Mum’s in Scotland.”

  I nodded in sympathy. Rab was good for Alex and it was so nice seeing him happy.

  “Things still good with your brothers?” Alex asked. It seemed like an innocent enough question but I knew better. Alex had always been there. He’d seen a few bruises on me and received a few himself. But he’d also been witness to the many times my brothers selflessly sacrificed themselves for me. He understood how complicated my relationship with them had been.

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “They’re all… different,” I smiled. “It’s nice.”

  It was nice. I’d thought the weekend I’d spent with Craig was sort of a one off, that the relaxed fun environment was like a gift to be cherished, but I’d been wrong. It was like that all the time now, mainly with Craig, but it was spreading. I was feeling a lot more relaxed around them and it was incredible.

  I wasn’t sure exactly what the reason was. It could have been because they promised they wouldn’t hurt me. It could have been because I was slowly learning to work through my guilt. Granddad had insisted he pay for me to see a private therapist to talk about the way I felt. Either way, I was getting on with them better than ever. I was still eternally grateful to them for being there for me as a child. I could never thank them enough for that.

  “I’m glad,” Alex smiled. “You know Jake apologised to me?” He grinned.

  “He did?” I laughed. “For everything? Like a blanket apology?”

  “God no,” he giggled. “I’d never expect that,” he shook his head. “He apologised for accusing me of gayking.”

  “Gayking?” I asked. I had no idea what that meant.

  “Faking the gay,” he grinned.

  “Oh,” I laughed. “Well, for Jake that’s huge, I guess.”

  He agreed and we enjoyed our coffee and cake together, reminiscing about hours spent in our form room making up nicknames for our teachers.

  “Come on,” he grinned, dragging me up from the comfy sofa. “There’s a sale at New Look.”

  “What are you, fifteen?” I teased, following him out the door with my takeaway cup clutched in my hand.

  “They’ve got some good stuff in,” he pouted.

  I rolled my eyes at him but squeezed his hand so he’d know I was joking. I didn’t mind following him on a hunt for clothing. I liked his enthusiasm and I’d rather be looking for clothes for him than me. We’d finished getting the things I needed and the shops wouldn’t close for another couple of hours. As long as I got my soy latte, I was happy.

  “I saw this jumper that Rab would look gorgeous in,” he continued.

  “I’m sure he’d look gorgeous in anything,” I smiled.

  “True,” Alex sighed happily. “He looks even better in nothing,” he grinned.

  “Alex!” I admonished, slapping him on the arm and trying desperately not to laugh.

  We were still giggling as we rounded the corner to take a shortcut through a quieter street towards New Look. I’m pretty sure he was about to divulge details of just why Rab was so attractive without clothing but we were interrupted by a black van driving like a bat out of hell and almost running us over.

  “Jerk,” Alex scowled, glaring at the van that had screeched to a stop in front of us.

  I nodded my head in agreement. The idiot had come within centimetres of running my toes over. As we neared the van, both still glaring at it, the back doors popped open.

  Two men with balaclavas hopped out and my breath caught in my throat. What’s happening? Were we caught in the middle of some sort of robbery? I stopped dead in my tracks and grabbed onto Alex’ arm. I could see the look of terror on his face as we caught sight of the weapons in their hands and I’m sure it was reflected on mine.

  I instinctively took a few steps backwards, pulling Alex with me. They were looking straight at us and I knew we were too close. The closest one was only a foot away.

  “Run!” I squeaked, dropping my shopping bags and pulling Alex with me.

  I took a grand total of three steps before I felt somebody tackle me from behind. I threw my elbow back and felt it make contact with something hard behind me but they didn’t release me. I felt myself being quickly dragged back towards the van and I tried to scream out, tried to get help. A hand quickly encircled my mouth and silenced my cries.

  As the doors closed and I was taken into the darkness, the only though that ran though my mind was that I could see Alex’ figure disappearing at the end of the street and I knew he was safe. Alex was safe.

  But what about me? The doors were closed and the van was moving. I kicked out wildly with all my strength but there were two of them and they were moving quickly and efficiently. Before I knew what was happening my ankles and wrists were bound with cable ties. I screamed out again but I knew it was in vain.

  One of the men backhanded me and I fell quiet as he wrapped something around my head, between my teeth, gagging me. He pulled a rough hood of fabric over my head and everything was gone.

  I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t move. I lay on the cold hard floor of the van and tried to keep calm. Just keep calm. I was kidding myself. There was no calm in a situation like this. What do they want with me? Are they going to kill me? Why me? Rape. Murder. Torture. A million possibilities flashed through my mind, none of them pretty.

  I squealed against my gag as I felt a hand on me. It rolled me over so that I was lying uncomfortably on my bound hands. The tears running down my face were soaking the fabric, which scratched my sodden cheeks. I tried to plead with the men. Please don’t hurt me. Please let me go. But the words came out without coherent form with the foul tasting fabric between my teeth.

  The hand went into my pocket and pulled out my mobile and then it was gone. A large, heavy foot rolled me over and I was on my stomach once more. I felt a sick sense of relief that they weren’t touching me anymore but that didn’t stop my body from trembling with fear.

  I heard the men speaking but I couldn’t hear them through the sound of my own sobs. I tried to bite them back so that I could listen. I could hear the tell tale sounds of my mobile being taken apart and what I assumed was the battery being removed. My heart sank because I knew what that meant and why they were doing it. They didn’t want me to be found. More than that though, it meant they were organised. It meant they knew what they were doing. It meant that they’d taken me for a reason.

  I swallowed back a new wave of terrified sobbing and tried to think. There must be a way out of this. There must be something I can do.

  “We’ve got her,” a heavily accented voice said.

  The voice came out of nowhere. I wasn’t prepared for it. I could tell it was a man’s voice but nothing else. The accent, what was that accent? Arabic maybe? Or it could have been Russian? Hell, it could have been Welsh by this point. I was too panicked to concentrate. I heard the sound of a phone call ending and then silence again, just the sound of the engine as we picked up speed.

  I tried to keep track of the number of turns we made but it was no use. We’d turned left twice and then what felt like a roundabout, but I couldn’t tell how far round it we’d gone. We were going fast now. Really fast. We must have been on the motorway.

  The motorway meant we were getting further and further away from Derby. Further away from Jason and my brothers. Further away from safety. I wondered if they knew yet. We’d been driving for at least fifteen minutes, or at least I guessed so. It felt like it.

  Alex must have called the police by now. What would he have done then? Would he have called Ian
or Jason? What were they thinking? They must be so worried. I was worried. I was terrified. What if I never see any of them again?

  To be continued.

  I know, I know. A cliffhanger. I’m sorry. I really am. I had to make a tough call on this one. I personally either love or hate cliffhangers and I’m sure a few of you feel the same.

  I can promise that it won’t be a long wait for book 3 ‘Always with You’ which is the last book in the series.

  For those of you that really hate cliffhangers, you can find chapter 1 of ‘Always with You’ on my blog:

  http://rjsable.wordpress.com/awy/

  The password is ‘nelly’

  I want to take the time to thank you for reading ‘Stronger with You’. I truly love writing Jamie-Lea and Jason’s story and hope you have enjoyed reading it.

  Thank you to all the people who have supported me and encouraged me to continue on this journey, especially the bloggers and reviewers. Your words mean the world to me.

  I love to hear from readers so feel free to get in touch:

  http://www.facebook.com/RJSable

  http://www.twitter.com/rj_sable

  http://rjsable.wordpress.com

  authorrjsable@gmail.com

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32