Jack steps up to us then, wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me back into him, away from Xander and his prying eyes.
“There you have it big bro. Now, get out.” He tips his head to the side and I gasp. Certainly, he won’t kick his brother out after Xander flew for hours just to come visit him.
Xander’s green eyes ping pong between Jack and I. Anger is radiating from him in waves. I want to ask him, no… beg him to stay because Jack won’t dare do something with another person staying in the house, but it’s like my lips are Superglued shut and my feet are planted firmly to the floor when Xander turns and heads out. I hear him grab his backpack and other luggage from their place still by the front door and then a door opens and closes. He’s gone.
“He has the hots for you.”
“Fuck you,” I roar spinning around and pounding my fists into Jack’s chest.
He grabs my wrists with such force that I whimper, afraid he’ll snap the bones. His face flames red as he grabs hold of a chunk of hair and pulls me alongside him. It hurts so much that I have to almost run to keep up with him or he’ll pull a chunk out of my head.
When we get to the master bedroom, he pushes me through the door and I barely have enough time to brace myself before I land hard on my hands and knees. He’s on me in the next second, flipping me on my back.
“You do not get to fight me, and you won’t ever run from me,” he snarls, his fingers tightening around my neck as I gasp for air. “But even if you did there’s nowhere on this earth you can run where I won’t find you.”
“Jack,” I wheeze trying desperately to draw air into my lungs. I can’t pass out. If I pass out, I lose any chance of getting out of here alive and I need to live if only to tell Nate that I love him. I am so sorry for leaving him, for making him think that I didn’t care about him.
Jack turns me around, pulling my arms behind my back and shoving me face first on the bed, wedging his knee between my legs as he binds my arms together with a shirt that was discarded on the floor last night.
“If you’re going to go around whoring yourself out to my brother and that other asshole, I think I’m gonna have to teach you who you belong to.”
He pulls on the shirt, drawing my arms even farther back until I scream in pain. I’m pretty sure he just dislocated one of my shoulders. The pain is unbearable, but I won’t give him the satisfaction of reacting any more to him than I already have. I pray that if death is coming for me that it comes quick.
The sound of his belt being drawn through the loops of his jeans and his zipper lowering are the last sounds I hear before the leather material is placed between my lips and secured around my head. I mentally check out and take a trip back in time to Nate and I lounging on an outdoor sofa at Dunes Beach Restaurant & Bar.
Nate.
I’d give anything to be with him right now instead of living this nightmare.
When Jack’s done, he crawls off me, leaving me laying on my stomach with my hands still bound, and cum running down my thighs.
“If you leave me I’ll kill you,” he says, and leaves me like this while he goes to shower.
Chapter 22
Turns out that the shoulder I thought Jack dislocated last night, is indeed actually dislocated. Or was. I’ve just thanked the doctor who immobilized my shoulder in a sling. I lean my head back against the raised hospital bed when Xander and Nate come barreling through the door.
My first thought is why the hell are they together? They’ve never met each other before. My second thought is that I don’t really give a shit because the pain meds the nurse gave me has me feeling all giggly and light. Then my dad pushes through behind them and my first question is answered.
“Annika, what happened?” Dad asks, rushing to my side. The one not in a sling.
I roll my head to face him, a goofy grin on my face. “Hi, Daddy.” Damn, these pain killers are sweet.
“What the hell did they give her?” Nate asks. At least I think it’s Nate.
“Really strong pain meds, apparently,” Xander chimes in.
My dad shakes his head and curses while I giggle. “They could’ve given her Tylenol #3s and she’d be just as loopy.” He looks to Xander. “You don’t remember what she was like when she was younger and had a cold?”
Xander’s eyes widen before his lips tip up into a wide grin. “Shit. Yeah, I forgot.”
“So, this is normal?” Nate asks, gesturing to me. I take hold of his hand before he has a chance to drop it back to side, and bring it in close to my cheek, rubbing it like I’m scenting him. Momentarily forgetting about the bruises on my cheeks from the belt.
“When did they say we could take her outta here?”
I’m so enthralled with Nate’s skin against mine that I lose track of who is talking.
“We can take her now. Just have to keep an eye on her while she’s on the meds, but the doc said they’ll start waning off in a few hours.”
That’s my dad… I think. Shit, I should start paying attention but then Nate’s other hand is in my hair and my eyes roll back. It feels so good to have his hands on me again. The more he massages his fingers across my scalp, the heavier my eyes become until sleep takes me.
Chapter 23
“So you’re staying with him out of some sick sense of obligation?” Nate asks, leaning against the brick wall of the house, arms crossed over his wide chest.
“Yes. No. I don’t know,” I huff feeling defeated. It’s been a few days since dislocating my shoulder and he and Xander, along with my dad, found me in the hospital room. I had forgotten that mom and dad are still listed as my emergency contacts. I hadn’t bothered to change it when Jack reappeared, and I’m relieved for it. I don’t know what would’ve happened if Jack had come to get me at the hospital.
“Nika,” Nate says, his voice softening. “You don’t owe him anything. Not anymore.”
“He’s right, Annika. My brother isn’t the same person he used to be,” Xander chimes in.
I take a couple of steps back, my eyes bouncing between the two men. “What is this? Some kind of intervention? Look,” I say, folding my good arm protectively over the sling holding my other, and effectively closing myself off. “I’m not going to be one of those wives who turns their backs on their husband just because he came back different after a mission. I’m not doing that to Jack.”
Nate curses, turns, and begins to pace along the edge of the grass while Xander’s eyes narrow into slits. I gave Jack some bullshit excuse about my dad needing me to spend a couple of days at his house to help him out with a project. But I couldn’t put off coming home any longer. Today is my first day back. Xander and Nate insisted on escorting me home, but thankfully Jack’s still out. The mountain of empty bottles in the bedroom and along the kitchen counter doesn’t bode well for me though, and this conversation proves it.
“And what if he kills you one day?”
“Well, I’ll be dead so what does it matter?”
“Fucking Christ.” Nate grips his hair, his head tilting up towards the cloudless sky. “That’s the whole fucking point, Annika. You’ll be dead. He’s not just going to stop. One night he’s going to come home so fucking sloshed that he won’t know what he’s doing. What if he doesn’t stop? What if he literally beats you to death? What then?”
“Nate,” Xander hedges.
“No,” he says, his face flushing red as he stares me down and I try really hard not to cower under the weight of it. “She needs to hear this. It’s not a matter of if he’ll kill you, Annika. It’s a matter of when.”
“He won’t take it that far,” I say, my words barely above a whisper.
Now it’s Xander’s turn to curse. “You can’t possibly know that, Nika. When the memories get to be too much and he can’t distinguish between them and reality anymore, you’ll just be another person who’s in his way.”
That’s just it. Someone who’s in Jack’s way to get back home. Back to me. These guys don’t get that though. Still,
I have to believe that there’s hope for Jack to become the man he was before he was taken prisoner. I know he’s in there somewhere, I just have to keep fighting.
“I’m not leaving,” I say, raising my chin and staring both men down.
Nate freezes in his pacing, his entire body going still at my words. Xander’s face falls. I’m expecting them both to keep arguing with me over this, so I’m surprised when Nate just stands there blinking at me, until slowly he puts his hands on his hips and hangs his head.
“I can’t watch you do this, Annika. I’m sorry,” he says, giving me a pained look and then moving towards the door leading out to the driveway.
“Nate?” My voice hitches.
He doesn’t stop. Nate pulls open the door and the whooshing sound it makes when it swings closed behind him feels like the final period at the end of our story. My chin trembles and I manage to cover my mouth with my hand right as a sob escapes and I fall to my knees.
“You know I love you, Nika. You’ll always be my little sister,” Xander says, kneeling beside me and putting his arms around me to help me up. When I’m standing on my own, he drops his arms and takes a couple of steps back. “But Nate’s right. Seeing you like this. Knowing what Jack’s capable of…”
“X…” I start, pleading for him to stay.
He drops his chin to his chest and shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Annika.” And then he too is gone.
Chapter 24
“‘Ello.”
“Xander,” I croak. Wincing at the pain in my lower belly. I squeeze my eyes closed and try not to think too much about the warm liquid running down my legs as I lay curled in the fetal position in the middle of kitchen. Exactly where Jack left me.
“Annika?” His voice sounds hesitant and when I don’t answer right away, it changes to worry. “Christ, Annika. Where are you? What’s happened?”
The loud music I heard when he first answered the phone gets dimmed until there’s no background noise.
“Jack…”
I don’t say anything else. I don’t have to. Xander curses and I think I hear him say that he’s on his way but the darkness around my vision begins creeping in again and I can’t hold it back this time.
“Hurry,” I whisper into the phone before everything goes dark.
* * *
“Annika! Nika!”
The first thing I notice when I come to are big, strong hands cupping my face. The second thing I notice are Xander’s wide green eyes filled with worry and concern as he leans over me, checking me over.
I’m still laying on the white kitchen tile -well, used to be white kitchen tile- where Jack left me after beating me and then kicking my stomach and head repeatedly until I passed out. I curl my arms around my middle, already feeling the loss somehow. I hadn’t even made it past the first trimester. A sob escapes me, and I reach for Xander.
“I got you baby girl,” he coos, sliding one arm under my knees and the other under my arms to lift me and cradle me in his hold.
I wrap mine around his neck and allow my head to rest in the curve, breathing him in and allowing it to calm me.
“You’re going to be okay,” he says, gently placing me in the passenger seat of my car.
Xander shuts the door then jogs around to the driver’s side. The roar of the engine starting up a second later.
“You’re parents are meeting us at the hospital.”
I want to tell him that he shouldn’t have called them. That they don’t need to worry about this on top of their divorce, but I don’t have the energy. Whether from loss of blood or just not having the energy to defend Jack anymore. Not after this.
I rest my head back against the seat and close my eyes. Preferring to drift off while Xander drives to the hospital than think about my husband or the loss of our child.
I refuse to think of it as a living being because somewhere deep inside, I feared this would happen. My throat burns when I try to swallow down another bout of tears. I’ve already cried too much where Jack is concerned. A thought niggles in my brain that it won’t be the last time I have to choke back tears because of him.
* * *
“Where’s Dad and Xander?” I ask my mom a little while later when I come to again.
I’m in a different room than last time, and am actually wearing those awful gowns they give patients instead of the t-shirt I was wearing when I came in with a dislocated shoulder.
“They went to get some food and coffee,” my mom says, sitting in the visitors’ chair beside the bed. “How are you feeling?”
I try to sit up but then instantly drop back down again, groaning in pain.
Mom gives me a small, sad smile and takes my hand in hers, careful not to jostle the IV.
“Baby,” she begins. A line forming across her forehead. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
About what? I want to ask since I’m not entirely sure of which thing she’s referring too. She quickly reads my confused expression correctly and continues.
“About the baby…. And about Jack. The hospital called me when you dislocated your shoulder but when I called your dad he said it was an accident. That you were playing field hockey when it happened.”
I drop my eyes from hers and turn my head to look out the window. The view is nothing speculator. Just a bunch of other buildings but further in the distance, I can see Table Mountain.
“It wasn’t a field hockey accident, was it?” Her voice is low, almost a whisper when she says it.
I shake my head and then wince when it causes a headache.
“Was it… did Jack do that too?”
I nod, slowly turning back to face my mom.
“Oh, honey.” Her voice catches on a sob and then she’s leaning over me in a hug.
“I’m so sorry, Mom.” My own tears start flowing as I hug her back.
“You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for, you hear? Nothing,” she states pulling back and wiping away the tears on my cheeks before wiping her own. She takes up her seat on the ugly blue chair again and lets out a slow breath glancing up at the ceiling to gather herself a bit more before dropping her eyes back to me. “Do you remember what the doctor said? You were still pretty out of it when you first woke up.”
I scrunch up my nose and try to think. “I think so. I have a concussion and a… broken rib?” And I’m no longer pregnant. I don’t say the last part out loud, but it still hangs in the air like a heavy cloud.
She takes my hand again and gives it a gentle squeeze. “We’ll help you get through this. They taped up your ribs. He said taking deep breaths is going to be painful for a while but he still wants you to do it a couple times a day.”
She pauses and then opens her mouth like she’s going to continue, but shuts it again. Looking unsure.
“What?”
“I want you to come stay with me while you’re recovering. Both your Dad and I agree that we’re not letting you go back to that house while Jack is still there.”
I don’t miss the way she braces herself for an argument, but she’s not going to get one.
“Okay,” I say.
Mom’s quiet for several seconds and I think I’ve finally shocked her into silence.
“Okay,” she repeats when she’s found her voice again.
* * *
Xander
I’m still vibrating when Dean and I leave Annika’s hospital room to go in search of food and coffee. But when we do find a little café a couple of blocks away, my stomach churns, not at the thought of food but at what my brother has done.
Even though I’m older, I always sort of looked up to Jackson. Everything seemed to come easy for him. Girls. Football. School. The Navy. I mean, yeah our parents practically disowned him when he enlisted but that never seemed to slow him down or discourage him. I knew that I still never measured up to him in their eyes after that.
I was the screw up. The bad boy. The son they had to bail out a couple of times because I couldn’t control my temper. I’d had it fairly
under control by the time I graduated high school. And by the time college rolled around, I wasn’t fighting anymore. At least not outside of the illegal rings I’d attend on the odd Friday when I needed a stress release.
It fucking gutted me that I couldn’t protect Annika from my own brother. Or that I couldn’t protect my brother from himself. I should’ve known that he sounded different on the rare times he called after he returned. I just thought that he was still learning to adjust to civilian life. I didn’t know his drinking had gotten this bad. Bad enough for him to beat his wife.
I have to stop abruptly on the sidewalk and bend over with my hands on my knees as I try valiantly to breathe in as much air as possible before I hurl.
She was pregnant.
Annika was pregnant with their kid, my niece or nephew, when Jack went after her. I don’t think I can ever forgive him for what he did to her.
“Hey, you okay?” Dean asks, coming to place a hand on my back.
I nod and suck in another lungful of air. When I’m confident that my earlier lunch isn’t going to make a repeat appearance, I straighten up to my full height.
When I take in Dean standing beside me with a concerned look on his face, I realize that I can’t just let Jack get away with this.
Annika is like a sister to me. Dean and Rebekah have always treated me as more of a son than my own parents had. They still do after not seeing me for years. Seeing Dean and Rebekah again felt like coming home. I was always welcome in their house… in their lives, no matter where they were.
That sick feeling in the pit of my stomach is back. What if they want nothing to do with me now?
I convince myself that what I’m about to do is as much about Annika laying in that hospital bed all cut up and bruised, than it is about me needing to feel like I’m an accepted part of a family.
“Xander, I know that look.”
“Dean, I have to. I can’t let him get away with this.”
He lets out a harsh breath, looking up and down the side walk we’re standing in the middle of.
Then There Was You (Twist of Fate) Page 17