She stopped at the nurses’ desk and put on her best smile. “Hi, James Leonard, please.”
The nurses stopped talking and looked at her with a shocked look on their faces. “Are you a relative?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“Down the hall,” one pointed, “Last room on the left.”
“Thanks.” Jada pushed away from the desk whistled and headed for the room knowing that the nurses were still looking at her in shock.
She didn’t bother with knocking on the door. Jada opened it, walked in, and kicked it closed, grinning at the way it seemed to echo in the room.
“Who’s there? Nurse!”
“Nope, not the nurse.” She strolled into the room, which was set up like a hospital room. A few feet away from the door, behind a half wall was a bed with an old man. “Hello, Grandfather.”
He had a tray of food sitting in front of him. Jada grabbed the croissant roll, sat down in the overstuffed chair at the foot of the bed, and crossed one leg over the other. She tore off a piece, put it in her mouth, and chewed with a smile.
They had a stare off, but which one was going to give in first, she couldn’t say at the moment. She kept eating the croissant, waiting.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he strained when he talked.
In his hand, he had an oxygen mask and it shook. “You were supposed to die in the fire.”
“Would that have made you happy?” She rubbed her hands together, brushing the crumbs off and then cleaned off her jeans. “I mean, isn’t that what everyone is supposed to do? Keep you happy?”
He took a few deep breaths, his cold eyes narrowing on her.
“Yes,” he breathed out.
Slowly she smiled and sat forward, fingers linked together over her knee. “Ah, that’s right. I know your dirty little secret. And so did Chris.”
He started coughing and she just sat there. Jada wasn’t going to get up and help him, not this time. This time she was going to let him sit there and suffer, just as she’d suffered.
“You know, you really got lucky. You just don’t know it.” She stood up, walking around the bed to the built in heater, leaning back.
“We discovered your dirty little deeds,” she said and waved her hands in the air in front of her. “It’s what he used to stop the beatings, isn’t it?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He huffed, taking more deep breaths.
“But what I want to know is did it bother you at all, her screams, or is that what you used to get off?”
“You listen here—”
Jada came over to the bed, yanked the mask away, and took hold of his face, making him look her in the eyes. “No you listen to me, you sick bastard. I know what you did to her. I know all the sick things you forced my mother to do, just like I have never forgotten the beatings you dished out to me because I locked you out!” She spoke low and right in his face. “You don’t scare me any longer. You’re not that monster under the bed any more. You took away her youth, and you beat mine out of me. But if you think you’re going to get away with it think again. I’m going to bring you down, you fuck!” She shoved his face away and stood back up. She jerked her jacket down and took a deep breath then put her smile back on her face.
“The board of your company already knows about your wrinkled ass.” She went back to the chair, sitting down. “I told them everything.” She smiled at him. “I even showed them the proof that my mother had and what Chris put together. You know, the DNA test showing who Chris’s father really is. Come morning you’ll be as broke as I am.”
He pointed a finger at her. The hate coming from his eyes would have been enough to have Jada backing down in the past. Not this time. He didn’t get a word out. The monitor next to his bed went off and he grabbed his chest. Jada stood up, turned, and walked out of the room.
She went right past the nurses who were quickly coming to their feet. “I think he’s having a heart attack,” she mentioned stopping in front of the elevator and pressing the down button. “Funny. Never thought the old bastard had a heart.”
* * * *
She walked down the sidewalk, head down, and pack slung over her shoulder making her way through the crowd of people. After spending any amount of time with her grandfather, Jada need a stiff drink. Nothing changed between them. She was the mistake, the sin, and he was the saint. Hah! Well the world was soon going to learn that was one hell of a lie.
Jada walked into the nearest bar. She pushed through the people, planted her ass on a barstool, and pulled out a twenty, slapping it on the counter.
“Shot of whiskey, beer kicker please.”
“Sure thing, honey,” the bartender said, taking her money, and putting a shot glass in front of her. He poured, left her change, and Jada downed it before the top of her beer was off.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you drink like that before.”
Jada closed her eyes, hung her head down, and took a deep breath before turning to the left of her stool. “Hi, Chase. How’re you doing?”
Chase smiled. It had been six months since she had last seen him, and he still had the rough look going on. His face still had the fourday beard look, hair still appearing like it was trying to grow out, and the clothes he was wearing could’ve looked better.
“Because you look like shit still,” she added, turning back in her seat, taking a drink of her beer.
“Yeah, but I bet I’m doing a hell of a lot better than you.” He sighed. She glanced at him, said nothing as he raised his finger up to the bartender, and ordered a beer. “Talked to Sasha the other day.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Kane isn’t doing too good. Went through a depression or something, and now I hear he’s going nuts over you. Drake’s about ready to let him loose on your ass I hear.”
She turned in her seat again, facing him. “And what makes you think he can find me?”
“I did.” Chase took a big drink of his beer before turning to face her. “What are you running from?” She opened her mouth and he raised his hand up. “I mean the truth this time. I think I’m entitled to know. I mean, Sasha figured out how to call me and drag me back into this shit. I swear I thought I was done doing the match making shit with Cole and Celine.”
“What’re you running from, or should I say who?” She cocked her head to the side with a smile. “Does Cole even know?”
Chase groaned, rubbed his face before pointing a finger at her.
“I’m not here to talk about me. So don’t change the subject.”
“You can’t save me, Chase.” She took another drink, grabbed her bag, and hopped from the stool. “So don’t try to.”
“I’m not trying to save you.” He shook his head, taking another drink. “I only want to understand better.”
Jada turned back around on the stool, facing the bar. She thought long and hard about her past; the secrets that her grandfather worked so damn hard to hide from the world. He was dying now, in a hospital, wallowing in his family sins with no one by his side to tell him he could die peaceful and without guilt. She lied to him about telling, mostly because she wanted him to suffer some before he died, like she had suffered. Maybe it was time for someone to let those secrets come out. Maybe that someone was her and by telling Chase that guilt over Chris would be lifted from her shoulders.
She should tell Kane, but she couldn’t face him. When she left, it was, as she said, to give him a chance at a normal life. He didn’t need her sins on his shoulders. He had enough baggage of his own, didn’t need hers as well.
After all this time, Jada felt like she really did need to talk to someone. To say aloud what was hidden behind those burnt down doors.
“You know every family has their own set of secrets right? I mean, look at what you hid from the world,” she chuckled.
“Yeah, we all have something to hide, that’s for sure,” Chase sighed.
She glanced at him. Something in Chase changed and she wasn
’t just thinking about his appearance over the past three years.
Something deeper inside him was different and she would bet it had to do with a girl.
“Well my family secrets go on the dark side.” She took another drink, a deep breath and turned once more in her seat, facing him.
“My grandfather raped my mother when she was around thirteen or fourteen. It was to teach her a lesson about the sins of the flesh after she was caught making out with some boy.”
Chase’s mouth dropped open. “Son-of-a-bitch,” he gasped softly.
“Yeah, well that sin cost them both. She got pregnant and he shipped her off to have the baby. My good old Uncle didn’t do shit to help her either. See, my grandfather would twist this Bible crap whenever it suited him, and my Uncle followed like a dog on a leash.
Since dear old James Leonard didn’t love much, and he thought his only son was a weakling, well he kept the baby and made my Uncle raise it as his son.”
“Chris,” Chase stated.
“Yeah, and for whatever twisted reason, my grandfather treated Chris like gold. I found out later on that it killed my mother to have to watch her son being raised by her brother and his wife, none of them would stand up to my grandfather for anything. But it seemed that wasn’t the only torture my grandfather hid. He beat my mother all the time, preached to her, and just treated her like shit.”
“But he isn’t you—”
Jada quickly shook her head. “Lord no! She got pregnant again when she was sixteen at the party I told you about. When that happened, she stood up to him for the first time in her life. She wasn’t going to give me up for anything, so he once more shipped her off.
The first time I met him was when she died. Later on I found out that the reason they were all together that night was she was demanding Chris back and going to file charges for kidnapping and rape if they didn’t agree.”
“And then they got in the car wreck.”
“And I was shipped off to my closest living relative, as was Chris. It was the first time I’d ever met him.” She took another deep drink, feeling like some of the weight of her past was being lifted after all. “We were teenagers before we found out that we were more than cousins.”
“Bet your grandfather didn’t like that,” Chase snorted. She watched him finish off his beer and order another. She ordered another shot.
Jada took the shot, hissing with the burn. She shook her head.
“No, he didn’t. It was the leverage Chris needed to get him to stop beating me.”
“What, he beat you too?” Chase sounded shocked.
She nodded. “For the sins of my mother. Never really understood why he didn’t try any shit with me either.”
“You know, I think you’re right. Kane shouldn’t know this shit.”
He downed half of his fresh beer. “He’d kill the bastard I think,” he said with a tight sounding voice.
“What can I say, Chase,” she finished her beer, slamming the bottle down. “I give a new meaning to the word dysfunctional.” She stood up, grabbing her bag.
“Where are you going now?” he turned in his seat, facing her.
“Well I’m not stupid, and pretty sure you let them know where I’m at. So it’s time to move.” She smiled.
“You can’t keep running from him, Jada.” He smiled back. “He’ll only find you.”
“But can he catch me?”
Chase laughed, “Oh I think he can.”
She slung her bag over her shoulder, and leaned against the bar close to him, between the stools. “You’re a good friend, Chase. The only one I’ve ever had.” Jada brought him down and kissed him on his whiskered cheek. “Don’t keep her waiting too long.” She whispered.
Jada walked away, not looking back. She never looked back. It was the last thing Chris had said to her. The one thing she’d never forgotten all these years later.
“How could he do this to her?” Jada cried, reading the letter her mother had left her. It was hidden away in a safety deposit box, which she had the key hidden in a locket her mother gave Chris to give to her for her sixteenth birthday, but instead he gave it to her for her thirteenth.
“How could my father keep it hidden?” Chris added.
“He hurt her so much.” Jada couldn’t stop the tears from falling down her face. Crying was a weakness, one her grandfather tried like hell to beat out of her.
Chris grabbed her face, making Jada look him in the eye, the tears falling fast. “But he is never going to hurt you again. I promise you.”
“You can’t stop him.”
“Yes I can,” he pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly as she cried. “He’ll never hurt you. Never put one finger on you again as long as I live, and we’ll never look back.” He pulled her back, staring her in the face, wiping her tears away. “Understand me? From this day on, we are brother and sister, not cousins. No matter what he says or does. You are my sister. We never go back to the past and what we were. We only go forward.” Jada nodded and Chris pulled her back into his arms. “Never look back, Jada. No matter what happens.”
The place she was staying was a rent a room for a night. Jada didn’t have a lot with her, since she was staying on the move. It was mostly out of habit. She stayed on the go because one didn’t get hurt that way. If you stayed in one place too long, you always got attached, then it would be taken away.
Her room had two rooms in it or three if you counted the tiny bathroom. You walked into a small front room that was closed off by a curtain to hide the kitchen. In the back was the bedroom and bath.
Already had a sofa, table and chair, and bed, so Jada didn’t need to worry or bother with any of that. All she had to keep track of was her cameras and her few clothes.
She unlocked the door, kicked it closed, tossed the keys to the table, and stopped in her tracks. Something wasn’t right. Her first clue, the new scrapbook she owned was open and Kane’s face was looking back at her.
It was the photo she took of him in the cabin, where he wasn’t smiling. She caught him off guard then, and he in turn kissed her.
Jada stilled, her back to her bedroom. Closing her eyes, she sighed. She felt him, didn’t need to see him, and just knew he was there. For six months, she’d dreamed of him holding her at night. She even woke up a few times and thought about going back, but stopped.
They both needed time to heal away from each other, or so she thought. She knew that she needed to stand on her own once more.
She needed to face her past alone for the last time and bury it where it belonged.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, keeping her back to her room.
“Waiting for you.”
Opening her eyes, Jada swung around. Kane was standing in her bedroom doorway. Arms crossed over his massive chest, and his loose hair that was covering his shoulders, was lighter. He looked bigger, or she was just in a very tiny room, because he definitely took up most of the space.
“You know, I’m definitely going to kill Chase.” She put one hand on her hip, the other up to her forehead. “I knew he was going to tell you where I was at.”
“He didn’t tell me you were here,” Kane sighed. “Just what town I could find you in. He figured I needed to get off my ass and do the rest of the hunt.”
“Hunt?” she frowned. “Look, cave boy.”
Kane growled and rushed over to her. He backed her right up to the one counter she had in the kitchen, picked her up, and sat her down, standing between her legs. He pinned her in, fisting her hair in his hand, pulling it until her head was back far enough to look up at him.
“Six months, Jada. Six fucking months I’ve been dying inside for you. Do you have any idea what it’s done to me?”
“Given you one hell of a hard-on that won’t go away?”
He growled again, pushed away from her, and paced the room.
Jada didn’t move. She didn’t dare. In the short amount of time she’d lived with all of them she had learned somet
hing after all. Don’t push too much. It never ends pretty. Her first time was proof of that, but then there were parts of that memory which was enjoyable. As much as she hated to admit it, she did like the feel of his hands and mouth on her then.
“For the first time in my life, Jada, I go to sleep and I don’t wake up panting from a damn nightmare.” He stopped pacing and looked at her. His blue eyes were darker, his body tense. “I dream about you.”
“Yeah, sexual frustrations can do that.” He growled again and she jumped down from the counter. “What do you want from me?” she yelled. “Okay, I left, but deep down you know it was for the better.”
“Says who?”
“We both needed to heal and there was no way in hell that was going to happen staying together.” She cut through the air at her waist with her hand. “Period. All you would have tried to do is fuck me instead of healing.”
“Bullshit!” he snapped.
“Bullshit?” She crossed her arms over her chest, leaning to one side. “Let me tell you what is bullshit.”
She didn’t get to finish. He rushed up on her again, picked her up, placed her back on the counter none too gently, fisted his hand into her hair and kissed her hard and deep. “You still have a mouth on you,” he breathed out against her lips.
She couldn’t control her breathing. Jada stared at his mouth, her lips tingling from the kiss, her body quickly waking up with memories.
“And I love that about you,” he went on.
She shook her head. “I hate you,” she whispered.
His mouth curved slightly. He licked her bottom lip, sucking it.
“No, you don’t. You love me. You said so yourself.”
“Argh!” She pushed at his chest and he took a step back. Jada hopped down again from the counter, putting space between them. “I did not.”
“Still going to lie to yourself?” She glanced over her shoulder and he shrugged. “Fine, but don’t try to lie to me. Not anymore.”
“Go home, Kane,” she snapped. “I can’t give you what you want.
I’ve told you that before.”
The New Breed Page 21