The police station was out of the question and so was the hospital. He would choose one of them to wait at and grab me before I got to the front doors. It was too risky. Too risky for me and too risky for my brother with the shit storm Roger would bring down on him.
My brother was the only option no matter how badly I wished he wasn't. This would surely send him into a frenzy, but I had no other choices.
I took a step forward and stumbled. My foot was throbbing and my ankle was unstable. The adrenaline was starting to wear off and I could feel the pain from whatever happened when I had blacked out. My skirt was hanging at an odd angle and my shirt was torn at the shoulder. The inside of my thighs ached and I struggled to swallow past the lump in my throat, relieved that other parts of me felt nothing. He must have had second thoughts before he could get far enough, desperate to get me somewhere he could have more control. It wouldn't have been the first time.
The relief I felt still made me want to vomit. What if he got a second chance? I didn't think I could go through that again and come out alive.
Get to Jake.
I took another step and felt blood trickle down my chin from the cut in my lip. The pain in my ankle took my breath away, but it didn't stop me. It couldn't.
I wasn't going to wake up in a hospital again.
I wasn't going to let him have whatever strength I had left in me.
I hated the man and he wasn't going to defeat me.
A steely numbness raged through my veins and I took another step. "Hold onto it, Ari. Hold onto the hate or you'll die."
It took me twenty minutes to make it just a few blocks. There weren't many people out and about which was the only reason I made it so quickly. I couldn't let anyone see me with my eye swollen shut, my cheek most likely black and blue, blood on my chin and torn shirt, and barely able to walk.
Jake lived in an apartment similar to mine. The only entrance was at the top of a set of metal stairs. I climbed them, crawled them, looking over my shoulder every few seconds.
By the time I made it to the top, my heart sank, realizing he would have still been in the tattoo shop at ground level. No way I could make it back down without breaking my neck. I tucked my body against the railing, sitting on the hard metal of the landing.
"Hold on, Ari. Just hold on."
Chapter Two
"Knowing nothing is better than knowing it all…"
The Used 'On My Own'
Jack
Staring at Jake's door was the only thing keeping me awake, but I was starting to lose my focus and black spots swirled back and forth in front of my eyes. Then suddenly the world tipped and everything went dark. I don't even think I touched the door, but I was there. Jake would find me and everything would be okay.
It had to be.
Because I couldn't let him win.
It was peaceful for a few moments. Peaceful and quiet. Almost as if the last half hour or so hadn't even happened. Then the pain ripped through my skull and a buzzing filled my ears. No, not a buzzing. It was like paper ripping. A constant loop of that static tearing sound, like the fabric of my soul was ripping apart. I felt something on my cheek, but my eyelids were so heavy and it was as if I hadn't taken a breath in years. My chest ached, my side ached, my face ached.
Another tap on the cheek, another buzzing sound, only this time I realized the sound was someone speaking. A deep voice that was filled with anxiety.
"Hey. Can you hear me?"
I kept my body pulled together and struggled to open my eyes. The ache in my ankle was almost as bad as the ache in my skull, but I pushed it out of my mind. I needed to get up. I needed to wake up.
I forced air into my lungs and let it out on a painful groan. At least I was still alive.
I strained to lift my eyelids and found that only one eye would open anyway. The other was throbbing and I knew without seeing that it was swollen shut.
The black spots were gone and my vision was still slightly foggy, but the face looking down at me was clear as day and unmistakable. My heart thudded against my chest once… twice… then took off in a dead sprint.
Those aqua blue eyes surrounded by long black eyelashes that should be forbidden on a man. The lips that I had watched studiously every time he spoke. The strong jaw almost always shadowed with a scruff that I often wondered would feel heavenly against my skin. The chocolate brown tug worthy hair that always looked like a sexy mess.
Jack.
Of course he would be the one to see me like this. I had no idea how he was even there or why. All those years of pining after him, all those years of wishing he would just see me. And now? This is what he finally sees. A broken girl who lost herself years ago. A girl he didn't know anymore.
"Hey. You're safe. I'm going to help you, okay?"
I tried to tell him to leave. Tried to tell him that he couldn't help me, that he wouldn't help me even if I wanted him to. It wasn't him I needed anymore. It was my brother, but he didn't understand my jumbled words and instead, pushed an arm under my knees and his other arm behind my shoulders and lifted.
The pain was almost unbearable. Almost. I tried to tell myself it was because this beating wasn't as bad as the last one, but I knew better. Being near Jack always had distracted me from anything and everything. He was like a fried Oreo with whip cream on top. Delicious and so fucking tempting. Then he left us when my brother needed him most and the distraction was no longer a pleasantry, the Oreo became stale and cold and the whip cream wasn't the good name brand stuff anymore.
It was just a painful memory.
He held me carefully and turned toward the long set of stairs. I tensed and gulped in a breath. No way was I going to let him take me anywhere. Not without my brother knowing where I was.
"No."
"I need to take you to a hospital," he said firmly. His eyes roaming over my face. He didn't recognize me. If he did, there wouldn't be a question of where I needed to go. Then again, who would recognize me when I had blood dripping down my face, a swollen and black eye, and about twenty five or so pounds missing from my beat down body.
The stress had been too much and eating wasn't a priority. Hence, the insistence from Jake that I come over for dinner in the first place.
"No. Please. Just take me to Jake."
I tried to look away from him, but I couldn't move my head in any direction without feeling like passing out all over again, so I didn't miss the furrow of confusion that crossed his face.
"You're hurt and Jake isn't-"
"Please, Jack. Please just take me to Jake."
His entire body stiffened and his arms squeezed me tighter sending jolts of pain across my body. A whimper escaped my mouth before his eyes flickered with recognition. I could practically hear the click of the bulb as he looked down at me.
His deep voice was rough, either from emotion or shock, most likely the latter.
"Ari?"
I couldn't hold my head up so I dropped it to his shoulder and shut my eyes with a groan. He still felt good. After all these years, he still felt like Jack. I could sense his intense gaze on me. I had always felt it. A warmth that slid over me inside and out whenever those colorful eyes locked onto me. This time I ignored it and focused on the pain.
In the next moment, we were inside the cozy apartment and I was lying on the couch feeling like my stomach would revolt. My head was still spinning and I couldn't concentrate enough to open my eyes to fight it.
I heard Jack next to me, heard his feet shuffle, his breathing speed up, and his hand run through his hair and over his face. I didn't need to see it to know what he was doing. I had memorized all his quirks and gestures long ago. It infuriated me to know they hadn't changed. I didn't want to remember those days I had done nothing but study him, the days that I could tell what he was thinking from the most simple gesture.
I finally did open my eyes and stared up at the ceiling, the throb in my body feeling more like a lightning bolt than anything else.
"What can I do?"
/> Just the quiet sound of his voice sent pain firing behind my eyes. The fury in that soft voice was evident, however, which wasn't a good sign for anyone.
I didn't need to answer his question. He knew what I needed, knew what had happened, I'm sure. Mortification almost took the place of the pain, but not quite. My issues were nobody's business, not even those closest to me. I didn't want anyone to see me like this. Not anymore. I thought this was finished.
I opened my eyes once more and took him in. God, he was a lot taller than I remembered him being and he was fuller, like a lot fuller. The muscles in his arms strained against his shirt and I didn't need x-ray vision to know that he probably had abs that could cut glass. No wonder he had carried me so easily. Jack Garrett had turned into a man.
That's when I saw him holding a cell phone to his ear.
"Please. No police. I don't think I can…"
"Shhh, I'm calling your brother. He's downstairs right now."
I heard the sound of my brother's voice from where I was lying down, a small and distant sound, but still there nonetheless.
Jack was quick to speak and even quicker to return to my side. "Get your ass up here. Now. It's Ari."
His phone was tossed to the coffee table and then he was there. Right there with me where I had needed him all along.
No.
I didn't need him.
I didn't.
"I need to check you over," he informed me and I almost laughed. The only person that was going to check me over was me, just as soon as I could stand to hold my head up for longer than two seconds.
"My body is fine. Just a little sore. It's my head that's the problem, as usual," I scrunched my nose and let out a long breath. My attempt to bring a little humor into the situation didn't work, as usual.
Jack's piercing eyes flickered over the side of my head where I could feel my hair sticking to my face. His fingers folded into his palms and the knuckles on his hands went white. He was struggling to keep his anger beneath the surface and I wanted to scream at him to walk away and leave before he became involved in something that would destroy him the same way it had destroyed me. He had left us for a better life and I wasn't selfish enough to want to take that better life away from him.
"What the fuck happened?"
Those blue green eyes of his bore into mine. I saw all of it in there. Anger, panic, regret. But this time there was something I hadn't seen before. It was more than just concern. Of course he would be concerned about me, I was his best friend's little sister and we had all grown up together. But this was different.
I must have hit my head harder than I thought.
I closed my aching eyes and prayed that Jake would get to me soon. I didn't need to think about Jack and the way he left us so long ago. The way he left Jake to fend for himself. The way I hated and loved him at the same time.
A crash sounded, making my head throb. Jake was here.
"Why the fuck aren't you at the hospital?" he shouted as he entered the front door.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. He knew damn well why I wasn't at the hospital. "He'll find me. You know as well as I do that place is a big red target."
"Not with us there, Arianna."
"Shut up and help me, Jake."
He huffed in frustration, but there was no argument he could possibly come up with that would change my mind. There was a reason the bastard, aka Roger, wasn't in jail, locked up for all the horrible things he had done to me, to himself and his family. Roger was a dipshit, but he was a smart dipshit. A manipulative, bitter, vindictive man that wanted nothing but control over everyone and everything around him. Everyone but himself that is. Roger had lost control of his body, his mind, everything that made him a man… it was gone. In its place was a monster. One that I hadn't been prepared to fight.
Jake knelt down in the spot that Jack had quickly deserted and started searching for injuries. He wasn't used to this, not with his sister. He had probably tended a lot of his friends' injuries over the years, but never mine. There was no need to search for anything anyway. I knew where I was injured and so did he.
My brother looked me in the eyes, showing me exactly what was going through his mind. Hatred, revenge, sorrow, regret, helplessness. It was all there. One right after the other until it looped back around again and made me feel it right along with him.
I finally got a good look at him. There hadn't been time to truly reunite in the short length of time I had been in town. It had been all business and settling until now. Until tonight, when we were supposed to finally spend some quality family time together and catch up.
Jake's dark brown eyes squeezed shut and he raked his hands through his shaggy brown hair that was longer than he had ever had it before. The ends curled at the collar of his shirt and I could tell that he messed with it a lot during the day. It probably hung in his eyes while he worked and I wanted to sweep the thick locks aside and tell him it would all be alright.
My brother loved me. Of that I had no doubt. Not ever. And I had hurt him by staying away even if it was for his own good. Now, all I wanted to do was make it up to him, but that would have to wait a little longer.
His arms dropped and I caught a glimpse of his tattoos, some of which he already had since the last time I saw him, but it was obvious he had gotten plenty of new ones. He'd filled out quite a bit, too. He used to be scrawny just like Jack, but it looked like he had spent a lot of time working out. Getting stronger in more ways than one.
He was just as tall as I remembered, but I knew why I felt so much smaller. His whole demeanor was different. Guarded, but confident. My brother had been through a lot without me around and even though he could still be the light hearted guy everyone knew him to be, he was hard on the inside when it was necessary and right now, he was a rock and nothing could change his mind.
On automatic, I moved to hug him and wipe the terrifying emotions off of his face, but my head throbbed and kept me flat on the couch.
"Is it your head again?" he asked gently.
I nodded, squeezing my eyes shut tightly to block out the pain from the subtle movement.
"Dammit, Ari! You need a doctor. Not two men who don't know how to do anything but draw."
My one opened eye found Jack who should have been offended. I knew for a fact they both knew how to do more than draw and according to Jake, his best friend was still a closet nerd who knew more about running a business than Bill Gates knew about computers.
Instead of defending himself, however, Jack just stood there, his thick arms crossed over his chest and that look in his eyes that was still more than just concern. I was starting to think that Jake hadn't exactly told Jack everything.
"I just need some band-aids and an ice pack and someone to wake me up every hour or so for the rest of the night," I said, groaning and whimpering pathetically in between the words.
I wished I was stronger. I wished the determination in my body matched the determination in my mind.
"Fuck! It pisses me off that you have any idea how to take care of what has happened to you. You shouldn't know what to do, Ari."
Jake was going to lose it sooner rather than later.
"You know more things you shouldn't than I do, Jake. Forget what we can't control and let's focus on the now."
He didn't acknowledge that he even heard me which wasn't surprising. He always hated when I was right.
"Jack, is Amanda home tonight?" Jake asked quickly and turned to look at his friend while grabbing my hand before I could touch my face.
"Yeah, I think she is. I'll call her."
"Amanda?" I asked.
Jake squeezed my hand and smiled weakly. "His little sister. You remember Amanda. She's in med school. Wants to be the queen of the ER eventually."
"Sounds like her. She always had a knack for healing, didn't she?" I smiled back, sending a throbbing pain through my cheek.
He nodded and the silence that passed was broken by the sound of Jack's deep voice explaini
ng the situation to his sister. I didn't want to see my once best girlfriend, but if it meant avoiding doctors and nurses and a whole shit ton of questions, I would suffer through it.
"Ari?"
I looked back at Jake and saw the question in his eyes, the fear in the tightness around his mouth.
That hand went through his hair again and his lips tightened. "Did he…"
"No. Not this time. He was too drunk to pay attention for long. How do you think I got away?"
"Got away? Ari, you're one bump away from a coma and I wouldn't be surprised if your eye socket was fractured."
He lightly touched the skin around my swollen eye and I gasped at the sharp stabbing pain that followed, then again because the gasp made my ribs scream.
"Fuck! He kicked you again, didn't he?"
"I don't know. I blacked out for a bit and the next thing I knew, I was on the other side of the apartment and he was busy packing my shit."
"How the hell did he even find you?"
"He's resourceful and I didn't think he would come looking for me."
With a ragged sigh, he reached forward. "Let's take your shirt off and have a look."
"No!" I snapped frantically, panic causing the blood in my veins to flow faster which in turn caused more pain. I took slow breaths until it subsided, until my voice was calmer. "I'll wait for Amanda."
"Arianna."
"Jacob," I shot back, imitating his condescending tone.
He shook his head and stood to walk into the kitchen. I heard the telltale sound of ice being jostled around and couldn't wait for the relief I would feel in just a minute.
Jack walked back into the room and knelt down next to me.
"Amanda is on her way, but she said to check for signs of internal bleeding, a massive bruise and swelling or something like that. We need to take your clothes off and look because if there are any, you're going to the hospital."
I opened my mouth to protest, but Jake was already there. "Do it. I'm going to go to the store and get some supplies. Bandages and shit. I'll call Amanda and get a list."
"Jake!" I tried to shout loud enough to stop him. It didn't work, because he walked out the door, leaving me and Jack alone in the small apartment. Jack looked worried but it wasn't enough to deter him from doing what he had to do.
Ricochet Page 3