I stepped into the hallway and moved my eyes around the room. My mom and Maddie were somewhere close. They had to be. I limped to the curtains around me, pulling them back in search of my mom and sister. I got yelled out a few times—some by patients and some by nurses—until finally I pulled back the right curtain and saw Maddie lying in a bed.
I rushed to her side, pain radiating down my side as I bent over her. Her eyes were closed and a light flush reddened her soft cheeks. There were no marks on her face, and except for her cracked lips and a small bruise on her arm, she looked perfectly fine.
A single IV was in her arm, but other than that, there were no tubes and wires. She was simply sleeping. After the night she had, that was expected. Leaning over her, I pressed a soft kiss on her forehead and swiped at the tear that lingered down my cheek. She was alive. My baby sister was alive.
“You can’t be in here, sir,” a nurse said at my side.
I didn’t even look her way. I kept my eyes pasted on Maddie. I needed to see her breathing. I needed to know she was alive.
“My mom,” I started. “Where’s my mom?”
“Excuse me?” the nurse asked.
I knew I wasn’t being clear, and I could only imagine what I looked like. My eyes were probably as crazy as I felt and I already knew my clothes looked like hell. There I was leaning over a sleeping angel with tears on my cheeks and blood on my clothes.
“We were in an accident,” I snapped. “Me and my family. This is my sister. I already know my dad is dead.” I winced when I said the words and I dropped my head and struggled to keep back the tears. “I’m asking you where my mom is. Did she—” The words choked me. “Is she alive?”
The sounds of someone choking in the front seat played over and over through my mind. I didn’t know if it was my mom or my dad struggling to live, but I knew those sounds would haunt me for the rest of my life.
I turned to face the nurse and saw the moment when realization filled her eyes.
“Sir, you shouldn’t be up. We need to get you back to your room.”
She moved toward me and softly grabbed me by the arm. I tugged away from her and the room spun at my quick movements.
“Tell me!” I roared.
Still, she didn’t answer my earlier question. Instead she attempted to reach for me.
“Sir, if you don’t return to your room I’ll have to call security to escort you there. There are tests that need to be done and you’re scheduled for a CT scan, as well. You really shouldn’t be up like this.”
Again, I pulled away from her. Tugging at my hair, I met her eye for eye. Her green eyes moved over my face and sadness set into her expression.
“Please,” I begged. “Please tell me where my mom is.”
The nurse looked behind her to check if anyone was in the room with us, and when she turned to face me again I saw my answer in her expression.
“No,” I whispered.
Tears rushed to my eyes and I choked on my breath. Nausea rolled through my stomach and dizziness moved in. I gripped my hand on the wall beside me to keep from falling, before I collapsed in the chair next to my sister’s bed.
“I’m so sorry,” the nurse muttered.
A loud cry escaped me, broken and full of despair. This was really happening. My world crumbled around me and I felt as if I was dying right along with my parents.
They were gone. Both of them. My mom and my dad. Dead. Not of this world. Passed on. However you wanted to say it. I’d never hear my mom’s laughter again. I’d never feel my dad pat my shoulder when I’d done something to make him proud of me. Never again.
Gravity ceased to exist, and I felt as though I was floating around aimlessly. Everything was out of control and I needed something—anything—to hold me to the earth. Maddie would need me more than ever now. I couldn’t afford to lose it. I had to stay for her. I had to keep myself going for my baby sister and there was only one person in the world who made me feel like I was alive.
Chelsey.
I needed her. I needed her to hold me—tell me everything was going to be okay. I needed to see her face—her sweet smile. I wanted to breathe her in. I wanted to know I still had her there to keep me strong. She and Maddie were all I had left.
I stood, dizziness sweeping in, and shook my head. I moved back to Maddie’s side and kissed her again. When she woke up, I’d be there, but first I needed to see Chelsey.
Without another word to the nurse, I fled from the room and out of the hospital. The night air was cool on my heated skin, and I stopped and took a deep pull of oxygen. My lungs screamed in pain, but I pushed through.
I was slowly losing it, and I needed the one person who kept me grounded. I needed Chelsey.
**********
SNEAKING UP THE TREE OUTSIDE Chelsey’s window was already hard as fuck, but doing it with what I was sure was a sprained wrist and a few broken ribs was absolute hell. I’d never been so happy when I stepped foot on the shingled roof outside her bedroom.
The inside of her room was dark, and I thought maybe she’d gotten tired of waiting for me and went to bed. I wasn’t sure of the time since I had no fucking clue where my phone was and I had no idea how long I’d been out, but it didn’t mattered. If she was asleep, I’d wake her up. I needed her.
Her window wasn’t open already as usual, but it was unlocked. I lifted it, gritting my teeth through the pain, and climbed through before collapsing on her bedroom floor. I leaned my head against the windowsill behind me and caught my breath.
My eyes moved around Chelsey’s space before landing on her bed. I expected her to be sleeping there. I expected to see her snuggled up in her bed with a sweet smile on her face, but she was nowhere to be found. Her room was completely empty.
The clock next to her bed lit up the small space on top of her night table and my eyes latched onto the time. It was a little after eleven, which meant Chelsey should’ve been in her room.
Worry moved through me.
Why wasn’t she there? Where could she be? Was she okay?
It was weird. Chelsey was always in her room waiting for me by this time at night.
I decided to wait for her. Maybe she was downstairs with her parents. Maybe she’d run to the restroom real quick. It was totally normal for a person to get out of bed in the middle of the night to take a piss. Or maybe she was in the shower getting ready for bed.
I waited in her room for thirty minutes before I realized she wasn’t coming. The thought that maybe she heard about the accident and went to the hospital moved through my mind, but that didn’t make any sense. We didn’t know the same people. Actually, no one from school knew anyone from my side of town. At least I didn’t know anyone who did.
Something came up—that was the only way Chelsey would miss our night together.
I pushed myself into a standing position and rested my arms on the window ledge to catch my breath again. If Chelsey had gone to the hospital for me, then I needed to be there. I needed to get back to Maddie anyway.
I pushed myself through her window, closing it softly behind me, and then I limped over the shingled room to the edge where I usually climbed the tree down, but I paused when I took in the sight below.
There was a car parked in the driveway, and Chelsey was climbing from the passenger’s side looking beautiful as always. I smiled down at her as I watched her shut the car door behind her, but my smile disappeared and pain exploded through my chest when the driver’s side opened and Josh the fucking jock climbed out.
I swallowed the bile that rose up my throat and controlled myself from jumping from the roof and beating the breath from his body. My eyes roamed over them as they walked side by side to the steps of the front porch, and then they disappeared beneath the roof and I could no longer see what they were doing.
A date. I lost my parents and almost died in a car accident, and my Chelsey was out on a fucking date. At least it looked like a date, but then again, if it looked like a duck and walked like a duc
k then it was fucking duck.
She was just below me on the porch saying goodnight to the fuck face, and there I was, standing on her roof and needing her more than my next breath.
What a fucking fool I was.
I thought she loved me the way I loved her. I thought she was my future. But all that was gone now. My parents were gone and so was my future. Apparently, I was losing everything I loved, and I fucking loved Chelsey so much it hurt worse than any injury from the accident.
The thought of Josh kissing her goodnight—touching any part of her—made me collapse on my ass. The shingles from the roof scraped across my ripped jeans as I sat there, gripping my hair and trying to silence the demons within.
I might not have died in the accident with my parents, but I was dead. Chelsey killed me in that moment. The Blaine Wesley that loved her so completely was gone.
When I got back to the hospital my grandmother was there crying next to Maddie’s bed. She’d obviously flown in from New York because of the accident. There was no telling how she’d found out about it.
Maddie was awake, and the minute I walked into the room she burst into tears and reached for me. I went to her and held her in my arms. She was young and probably had no idea what was going on. She kept calling out for mom and dad, which did nothing to soothe my broken heart.
**********
A WEEK LATER WE BURIED MY PARENTS. My grandma took care of everything, which was a good thing since I had no fucking idea where to begin with shit like that.
People came by the house afterward and brought food and their condolences. It was a small gathering, but a few of my boys from the neighborhood stopped by. I thought that was a nice of them.
The details about the accident were released and did nothing to lift my shitty mood.
A drunk driver.
That’s who killed my parents.
And I swear if the fucker wasn’t already dead, I would’ve strangled him with my bare hands and watched the life leave his body with pleasure. I swore the moment I found out that I’d never drink again. Never again.
Once the house was empty and it was just me, Maddie, and Grandma, reality really set it. There I was, in my home without half of my family. I sat on the porch in the heated, night air and watched lightening bugs light up and disappear around the bushes in the yard.
“I know it’s probably a terrible time to talk about this, but what are your plans?” Grandma asked as she took the seat next to me.
“I don’t know.”
I didn’t know. I had no fucking idea what to do next. I just knew I had to take care of Maddie. And that meant quitting school and going to work full-time. My mom wanted me to graduate more than anything and the thought of quitting sickened me, but I had to do what I had to do.
“You could come with us.”
Her words caught me off guard and I swung my eyes toward her.
“What do you mean? Who’s us?” I asked, confused.
She smiled sadly at me and reached out to pat my hand. “Maddie’s coming to live with me in New York, Blaine. It’s all in writing. It’s what your mom and dad wanted.”
I stared back at her with my mouth open. Surely she wasn’t seriously. She wasn’t taking my sister. Over my dead body would Maddie leave my sight.
“But—” I started.
“No buts, Blaine. You’re too young to take care of her. She’s still a baby.” She squeezed my hand. “You’re welcome to stay here and finish high school if you’d like. Hell, you’re practically a grown man. But you can come with us. Whatever you want.”
I wanted to argue with her, but she was right. I couldn’t take care of Maddie the right way. It would be hell to find a job that could cover all the bills in the house.
Plus, I wasn’t so sure staying around town was a great idea. There was no one holding me there anymore anyway.
“Where Maddie goes, I go,” I mumbled.
Grandma nodded. “Well, we’re leaving in the morning. Is there anyone you need to say goodbye to before we leave?” she asked, her soulful eyes taking in my sadness.
I’d lost almost every person I loved in one night. My mom. My dad. My Chelsey. They were all ripped from me in a matter of hours. Just thinking about it took my breath away.
Visions of my dad’s bloody face and dead eyes and the sounds of my mom gasping for her last breath haunted my nightmares. Shit, those memories haunted me during the day, too. Every time I closed my eyes, those images were burned in the back of my eyelids.
And then there was Chelsey. My Chelsey who I’d thought was the epitome of honesty and all things good in the world. I hadn’t even tried to contact her. All I could think about was her walking side by side with that fucker and smiling up at him as if he was the answer to all her parent’s wishes and prayers.
Fuck it. No, fuck her.
I was done. Broken and beaten. Lost to the world around me. And there was no coming back. I’d be lost forever.
“No,” I said. “There’s no one.”
And there wasn’t. There never would be again.
PART 2:
STRIPPED
24
BLAINE
“LADIES, WELCOME TO THE STAGE,” Eric, our MC, said into the mic. “The teaser! The Pleaser! Jack! Hammer!” He held the word hammer for four long beats.
Standing behind the silver curtain, I heard the crowd of ladies go wild. Like drunken men they whistled and called out for me. The beginning beats of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” started tearing through the speakers, and I knew it was time for me to hit the stage.
I danced and slowly tore away my clothes, giving the ladies exactly what they wanted. My body. Not me. Not my personality. They wanted to see my cock—thick and hard—ready to fuck. They wanted to imagine it was me they were going home with. Not their boring, sexually unfit husbands or boyfriends. And while all of them wouldn’t, a select few with fat pockets would get a taste of me.
Running my fingers over my sore abdominal muscles, I worked my hips like I was fucking each and every one of them. I looked down with my signature grin, allowing them to fill my G-string with money. Occasionally, a brave lady would grab my cock or finger my balls.
It was just another night at work—nothing out of the ordinary—same shit, different day.
Later, after dancing two sets, once as a doctor and once as a fireman, I ended up in the back. The back was where I made the bulk of my money, giving the women much more than a tease.
“Fuck yes. Oh, God. Fuck me harder, baby,” Rosie screamed.
The music from the front of the club drowned out her loud shrieks. The boom of the bass from the DJ banged against the wall I had my hand pressed against. The leather couch beneath my knee squeaked with my rhythm. Surrounded by black walls, a single light shined overhead and heated my back.
The back rooms, which were secluded suites where women could pay extra for a private dance, were simple, black rooms with either a couch or a single chair in the center. A lot of guys only gave private dances, but I wasn’t the only dancer who used the suites for more. A man had to do what he needed to do for extra cash.
I smacked her ass, and then dug my fingers into her jiggling hips, pulling her into my abusive thrusts. The sounds of my body slamming into hers and her overly-wet twat smacked throughout the room.
Rosie was one of my regulars. She was a married chick who usually came out every other weekend to get what she wasn’t getting at home. She was sweet and quiet, but that was all for show. Behind closed doors, Rosie liked it rough. A little pain went a long way with her. Needless to say, she enjoyed sex with me.
Did I enjoy it? Not so much.
“I’m a dirty girl,” she muffled into the black, leather couch. “A dirty slut.”
Women.
The things they said during sex was almost comical. God forbid anyone call them the things they wanted to be in bed. There would be hell to pay. Yet, those words got them off.
Still, I had a part to play.
“That feels good doesn’t it?” I growled into her ear, nipping at the lobe. “You like my fat cock in your pretty, pink pussy don’t you, you little slut.” Again, I smacked her ass and pulled her hair. She fucking loved it.
“Yeah. Oh, I like it so much. Like. It. So. Much,” she stumbled over her words.
She backed her ass into my thrusts, keeping up with my rhythm.
She wasn’t an ugly woman, but she was at least twenty years older than me. Her freckled skin had been tanned too many times, and it was wrinkled and stretched in many places. Her hair was dry and over-dyed. I knew for a fact she wasn’t a natural redhead, but still, I shut it all out and did what I had to do.
I closed my eyes and envisioned the one face I always pictured when I was fucking for money. I imagined her long, brown hair and big, brown, doe eyes. I pictured her soft, smiling lips, and her sweet cheeks that were always blushed. I lost myself in my thoughts of her as I ground my hips into Rosie, hard and fast.
It wasn’t Rosie I was with in that moment. It was the girl who hurt me like no other who was begging me for more. It was the only woman who ever held my heart who was mewing softly as I lost myself deep inside of her. And it was the love that almost killed me who was beneath me wanting me in a way no one else ever had. I could get into it if I imagined it was her.
Always her.
Then her face disappeared, leaving me gasping at the pain left in my chest—pain that still hurt like a fresh wound—as if losing her was only a day ago instead of a year ago. A fucking year. That’s how long it’d been since I saw her face. And still, it hurt so bad I could hardly breathe when I thought of her.
Shaking my head, I pushed Rosie hard, lifting her leg to crawl deeper inside her. I wanted to disappear into her. I wanted leave it all behind. I needed to get rid of the memories of the person who rocked me so hard I was forever scarred.
Rosie’s pussy clenched around me before she threw her head back and came, soaking the condom and screaming out her release. Her orgasm let me know it was time to fake it and get the fuck back on stage.
Jack Hammer Page 16